For an architecture lover like me, Budapest is a real gem, full of amazing 1900s buildings, so walking around was really the best way for me to enjoy my days there. And the sunny weather was an invitation to do so!
Since I enjoyed so much walking on the Buda side, I didn’t want to make the Pest people jealous, and enjoyed Pest quite a lot too… Actually, this is the real city center with all the stores, hotels, restaurants, etc. It looks pretty much like Vienna, which makes sense since Budapest was one of the centers of the Austro-hungarian empire, and was super rich at the end of the 19th century.
The Pest side is very impressive and chic, with lots of huge and fancy official buildings. It was really hard for me not to take pictures of each single building (which I ended up doing anyway!).
In the shopping streets, some of these buildings are used as stores now… so even going to H&M feels like being at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris!
Walking on the main boulevard circling the older city, there are many grand hotels with elegant cafés, like for example Hotel New York, or some 1900 malls – the most beautiful one being the Paris “mall”. Even the names show the ambition the city had!
The main avenue, called Andrassy, is a very nice street, with the opera and big department stores close to the center, and beautiful villas further away (now embassies).
A peculiarity of this avenue is that one of the first metro lines in Europe from the end of the 19th century is running underneath it. Taking this metro is like a trip back in time since it still looks straight out of the past.
This avenue leads to Heroes square, with different museums and a national monument in its center.
It is followed by a nice and big park. One of its highlights is the Castle Vajdahunyad (I had to copy/paste that one!), which was built for a universal exhibition and is extremely kitschy-romantic. Each side of the castle was designed in another style, with a mix of middle age, baroque and more. It’s so tasteless that one must love it!
The zoo, which I haven’t visited, is in the same area. It looks fantastic with a lot of exotic 1900s architecture. Finally, the most famous baths of Budapest, the Szechenyi baths, are also close.
Another great Pest area to have a walk is the former Jewish neighbourhood. The highlight is the beautiful synagogue, one of the biggest in Europe, which I visited during my last trip. But the neighbourhood itself has a great vibe. It is the nightlife area of Budapest with many bars and clubs. It is famous for ruin bars, which are basically bars in old ruined buildings. I didn’t visit one of them this time, but they are nice, especially for people not living in Berlin who have never experienced something like that before! The most famous one is called Szimpla Kert.
Talking about jewish life in Budapest, I’d love to mention a very moving monument (and also very popular… it was one of the most touristy places!). To remember the murder of jewish people during nazi occupation time, an artist installed bronze shoes on the shore of the Danube, symbolizing the Jews who were shot at this spot.
Free like a bear 