I visited Budapest in June 2004; one week after the country joined the European Union. What I found was a very dynamic country, emerging slowly from the darkness of the communist era. You could almost feel the enthusiasm in the streets for being, again, part of the “western” civilization. It will be interesting to visit the country in a couple of years and discover if this enthusiasm has realized their best expectations or by the contrary has been turned into one more disappointment. However, I am optimistic, their challenges are huge, but Hungarian people have a bright future in front, and I desire them the best.

Your first contact with the country will be probably Budapest International Airport. The first thing you will notice is the airport is badly communicated with the city. There is no train or metro connection and the only possibility is coming along a busy road, which is frequently collapsed by traffic. For a country that expects to base an important share of its economy on tourism, it is surprising authorities didn’t foresee a better connection; i.e. there is no highway, at least not of the sort we are used to.  Actually there are three options to come into the city. I recommend you the minibus service: a minivan shared by several passengers that takes you right to the door of your hotel. It is comfortable, it is fast and it is reasonably priced. I wish other cities would copy this service. Taxis are more expensive and not so reliable (I hate to negotiate the fare with taxi drivers) and the bus connection is extremely inconvenient (it takes you only to the first metro station, where you will need to take one or two additional connections). People say the airport is 30 minutes from the city center; don’t believe them. Foresee at least 45 to 60 minutes or you will risk missing your plane. I almost forgot, there is one more interesting option I was not able to try: coming by boat. It will take you five hours by Hydrofoil from Vienna right to the center of the city. It is not so fast as the plane, but definitely it must be more charming and comfortable. May be next time.

It is almost impossible to avoid comparing Budapest with the other two “imperial” cities. If Vienna has the palaces and the museums and Budapest has the view of the chain bridge and the castle hill; Prague has both. Vienna and Budapest are mostly baroque cities. Prague is divided between its baroque soul around castle hill and the medieval atmosphere of the old city. However, you don’t need to choose. Any of the three cities is well worth a visit and my recommendation is to visit them all. But still my favorite is Prague. In my opinion two full days are sufficient to have a decent view of Budapest. One extra day will be required if you also want to enjoy some of the charming museums spread around the city.

It does not matter which way you choose in Budapest, you will always end up in the same place: the river. The Danube is the heart of the city. Close to the river is where you will find most attractions and it is also the starting point for any journey into the city. The reference point is the Castle Hill and the Chain Bridge. Most hotels for tourists are placed along the river: at the base of castle hill or at the opposite bank of the river. Most expensive ones are on the Pest side, directly facing the castle and if you want to have a good view, you will need to pay extra. The view from the Buda side is not so nice, however, since you will face the modern city, or if you are lucky the houses of Parliament, which are also placed on the Pest side.

The castle hill is a nice place to stay if you do not plan to come down to the city often. There are a couple of reasonably priced hotels up the hill, but public transport is not very good. There are two bus lines. One goes in the wrong direction and the other one is too infrequent to be of any use. There is also the cagerail; a beautifully restored cable car. This is a nice tourist attraction, but amazingly expensive as a means of transportation: 2,5 Euro for a less than one minute ride. The castle area is closed to private cars; a very sensible decision. You also have taxis (you know I am allergic to taxis) and of course you may walk. Coming down the hill is a nice walk that will take you less than ten minutes. Coming up is not so nice, however, especially at night. On the other hand, there are other rewards for tourists hosted in the castle area: if you don’t mind getting up early, before the hordes of tourists arrive, you will enjoy the old city for yourself; and again in the evening the place transforms into a lonely scenario you can visit undisturbed. Another incentive could be the possibility of enjoying a room with a direct view to the Matthias church. Please ask the very helpful receptionist at hotel Burg.

The restored Castle District is a cultural, arts and tourist center that gathers the most important attractions in Budapest: the Royal Palace, Matthias Church, the old city streets, some of the major museums and of course the best views you can get from the city, the river and the Chain Bridge. I will not bore you with the well-known history of the old cities of Buda and Pest. If you are interested you will find the details in any of the available Internet guides. I am more interested in practical information for the casual traveler. I would recommend you to start the visit to the Castle District with a short walk early in the morning along the lonely streets starting from Matthias Church. This is a district that reminds me, although in a smaller and less wealthy scale, of the castle district in Prague. There are several well-preserved baroque houses aligned along or parallel to Tancsics street. None of them is especially remarkable, but the atmosphere is charming and relaxing. Most houses have been restored recently, but some of them are still in a poor state. The houses also host some of the most interesting museums in the city. There is also the labyrinth; an underground structure of caves and passages open for the tourists. Also in this area is the Hilton Hotel. A massive hotel partially housed in an art deco building next door to Matthias Church. If you read official tourism guides, they will highlight the hotel as an attraction that integrates a medieval cloister and tower.  My opinion is far different. For me, this is an example of how you can destroy an excellent landscape. The problem is aside from the art deco part, the hotel includes an aggressive, awful, office type, crystal building, that can be seen from miles away and radically spoils the view of Mathias church and the north part of the castle area.

Next stop in the visit is Matthias Church and Szentharomsag square. There is little left from the old church. Almost everything is restored with not much respect for its historical evolution. What you can see from the outside is a beautiful gothic style church in the aspect it should have shown in the medieval times. The church is not very big, but it is gorgeous and the place where it is located is ample enough to allow some nice photographs. Especially remarkable are: the tower climbing up to the sky and the painted ceramic roofs. All these, together with some attractive statues in its surroundings, make a charming composition. The inside is beautifully painted and if you are lucky you can enjoy some medieval chorus signing. Beware that at certain time of the day you will be required to pay to enter the church. Opposite the Church stands the former Town Hall in neo-gothic style.

Next door to Mathias Church is the Fishermen Bastion. To be sincere, I cannot understand why the Bastion is so famous. In my opinion it is too artificial, too out of context. I must recognize you can get from the Bastion one of the most breathtaking views of the city. Having a coffee at the Bastion’s terrace is also a very pleasant experience, but other than that, it is nothing remarkable, and of course, it is not worth to pay just for climbing a few steps up to the Bastion’s towers.

In the area surrounding Szentharomsag square there are several tourist shops. However, in my opinion, Budapest is still far from the pressing tourist resorts you can find in other places. In fact the number of tourists I found was far less pressing than I was expecting. Probably June is still low season, but the fact that the number of shops in the tourist area is not very high and you can hardly find this type of shops anywhere else in the city, makes me think tourist business is still not well developed.

Next we head towards the Royal Palace. The most attractive feature of the palace is its location towering over the river. The Palace itself is massive but not much attractive. It is constructed in the Vienna style and is surrounded by gardens that are open to the public until very late at night. The Palace houses some of the most important museums in the city such as the National Gallery. Since I don’t like paintings very much, I opted instead for the Historical museum. I was expecting to see here the remains of medieval times and reconstructions of the city at that time. I was wrong. What I found was a modern, soviet style museum arranged in several floors. The museum has a little of everything and not much of anything. A great effort is done to show the roman and medieval origins of the city, but it is not too much convincing since very little is left. It is frequent to see displayed like a treasure statues or broken parts of medieval buildings you commonly see complete and in place all around Europe. The roman remains are even more scarce. What was interesting was the labyrinth in the basement showing the remains of the medieval castle.

The palace gardens are not very big, but I do recommend you a visit; especially at night. From one side of the Palace Gardens you can get, probably the best possible view of the Chain Bridge, the river and the Parliament. The central courtyard of the palace is also worth a visit. There is an impressive monumental fountain at the back of the Palace and several interesting sculptures scattered around. It also deserves a photograph the monumental fence that gives entrance to the gardens, which is headed by a monstrous eagle holding a sword. If you descend down some of the pathways surrounding the Palace, you will visit less frequented scenarios where you can have additional views of the Palace and can find some medieval remains.

We now depart from the castle district and descend along any of the pathways towards the river. A ten minutes walk will take you to the Chain Bridge. The castle hill is surrounded in its upper part by a park, while in the lower court, closer to the river, it is occupied by a dark district composed of buildings with some architectural value, but which obviously have seen better times and clearly demand restoration. At the base of the hill, directly facing the Chain Bridge there is a historic tunnel with a monumental facade crossing the heart of the mountain. The tunnel is well integrated with the surroundings and at one side you can find the cable car.

Crossing the Chain Bridge on foot is a pleasure, if you manage to ignore the heavy traffic around. Beware of cyclist, they seem to pay little attention to pedestrians. The bridge is magnificent, impressive. I needed to cross it a dozen times, but every time I found a new detail I was not aware of before. The bridge is constructed of iron and supported by two massive stone towers. Both of them are identical and show beautifully sculpted cots of arms and lion figures. You can also find huge, charming lamps from the epoch. You must gaze at father Danube. It is dirty, but still powerful and dominant. From the center of the bridge you will get the best view of Magdalene Island.

When you arrive at the Pest side of the bridge you may turn either right or left. Try both. At the base of the bridge you will find the most beautiful views of Budapest. It is my favorite. You will enjoy a full view of the Chain Bridge in the first plane and a picturesque sight of the castle hill and the palace at the back. The vision during the day is breathtaking, but it is even more beautiful during the night. The Bridge is beautifully illuminated with tinny bulbs all along its chains and the Royal Palace up the hill shines and acquires a new aspect thanks to the plays of its intelligent illumination.

On the Pest side of the river stands another well-known sight of Budapest: the Parliament building. The building is massive, elaborated and deserves a visit. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to attend one of those guided visits and needed to content myself with a short walk around the building. The best view is from the Buda side of the riverbank, opposite the Parliament. Here is where most photographs are taken. You can also get a good view from the Fishermen Bastion. However at that time a great part of the building was covered for restoration.

Finally, another interesting attraction I would recommend you is to expend the afternoon in one of the numerous spa baths centers around Budapest, where you can recover from the tiring walks of the morning. There are different ambients to choose from, but be aware some of them are mostly gay visited. My first option was Rudas Baths; dating back to the age of the Turks domination. However, when I arrived at its entrance, it was not very inviting, and considering it was my first experience in a spa, I decided to choose a safer option. So I headed along to the Gellert Baths; not so historical, but definitely much more famous. The Gellert baths are located opposite the Liberty bridge (the second most attractive bridge in the city) and can be reached in about 30 minutes on foot from the Royal Palace.  On the way you can visit an impressive waterfall and monument at the base of the Gellert Hill.

The Gellert baths are part of a huge complex composed, among others, of a hotel, spa and outdoor swimming pool. The Hotel building is huge and massive. Everything is very organized inside and you can visit the famous indoor pool for a small fee. I decided instead to use the pool. It is an experience. Not cheap, but an experience. Upon entering the building you get overwhelmed by the luxury of the scenario and the special atmosphere from past ages. In spite of the colonnades, the domed ceilings and the marble in the walls, it is clear the baths have known better times. The scenario seems frozen in the twenties and everything looks old fashioned and a bit out of date. There are all sorts of services related to the baths, but the main part of the building is the indoor swimming pool. It is a mid size, cold-water pool surrounded by elaborated columns that supports a mobile glass roof. There are four artistic lions pouring water into the pool and air bubbles rising from the floor. At one side of the pool there is a smaller, mild water semicircular pool with banks on the walls. Again, two stone lions pour water over the head of the bathers. This part seems more popular and sometimes becomes so crowded there is no space to sit. Customers are typically either aged persons that expend hours inside the hot water or tourists. The main pool is shared by men and women, but there are also two additional unisex pools inner in the complex for hotter and even hotter water. The decoration in this part of the building is even more fashionable and here you will also find the saunas and massage cabinets. The scene is very picturesque and deserve a visit, but take my advice, do not buy a massage, they simply cheat the tourists.

There are other places noted in the city, but I don’t think I missed anything important. As in most former communist countries, the inner city is a mixture of the old and the new. You can still find former soviet symbols side by side with representatives from the radical consumers world. The modern city is gray and obscure and except for the tourist areas, buildings are hidden under a thick patina of dirt. Transport in the city is very good. Buses and the metro are very old and not very comfortable, but they are cheap, fast, the network is very dense and reaches almost every place. However, it is unlikely you will need it since most attractions are within walking distance. I like specially the trams. They are the oldest I have seen in operation and are in an excellent state of preservation.

In general, Hungarian people are very polite and helpful. However, the country seems to be in this phase of development when tourists are still considered aliens from the outer world: stupid enough to be cheated. Food is pretty good and very cheap if you take the effort to look for the right place. The same cannot be said about hotels: even if quality is reasonable in most of the cases, prices are average or even a little bit too expensive. Avoid places special for tourists; prices may double or triple and the service is worse. Hungarian food is not only composed of goulash; Hungarians own interesting culinary traditions and they are very proud of the quality of their wines. Visiting one of the numerous cafes is a good idea. Cafes in Budapest are supposed to be far less expensive that Vienna’s (that is true) and equally interesting. Well, I still feel cafes in Vienna are more sumptuous, but Budapest’s are also very nice. Tradition tells you to take a coffee and a cake. Cakes are excellent in Budapest; probably a remain from the Turks.

On the way to the airport you can notice the situation outside the city is far different. On the outskirts, little seems to have changed since the soviet age: impersonal massive constructions dominate, monstrous abandoned factories abound and rooted buildings are the rule. Hungarian people is making great efforts to forget all these, but it is still a formidable task until they will be able to achieve true European standards. In fact, forgetting seems to be a rule in the history of Hungary: forgetting the Turks domination, forgetting the soviet domination… Nevertheless, I feel Hungary was never a true communist country; at least not in its heart.