A Hungarian friend suggested I try the ruin pubs during this trip. Based on what I’d seen of the stag-dos, and having done no research into this whatsoever, I thought a ruin pub would be somewhere where tourists go to get ruined, financially or otherwise.
I decided I didn’t like the idea of that, so didn’t pursue.
However, it turns out that a ruin pub is a bar in an old building left in a ramshackle condition, and that our Airbnb – for all its faults – is right round the corner from the first one in Budapest – the Szimpla Kert. So that’s where we started our day, with a wander round the ruin pub and then a gentle stroll almost next-door to the Karaván outdoor food market and beer garden, where there were all sorts of yummy things to be tried. We had coffee, but in the end didn’t eat there – the pigeons had obviously been watching Hitchcock – so we went to the Hummus Bar just down the road for yummy falafel pitta.
Afterwards, for we are lazy tourists, we decided to make the most of our travel cards – given the hassle we had getting them sorted – and so rode the bus 5 to its terminus and back again. We did this not because there’s anything particularly interesting on the route, but because our host had told us that’s how we’d get to the castle. He was right, but I was looking out of the wrong side of the bus as we went past it so started to think he’d been lying to us all along.
Eventually we made our way back and found ourselves enjoying the “castle bus” (16) which allowed us to hop on and off at will.
There are few(er) cars in the castle district, which is nice. There’s lots of pretty things to look at but getting to see them can be challenging because fewer cars means more room for people. It’s a shame, really, but we managed to make the most of it, and the views across the Danube are spectacular, so hurrah for that. There are some pretty squares and churchs, some interesting statues – and loads of tourist-tat shops. But not too many SUVs, which made a change.
Once the light started to go, we made our way back to tram 2 and rode it to the parliament building. I was slightly disappointed that the light had gone but we arrived just as the building was illuminated, and it was glorious. We then made our way back along the Danube – we failed to do this in Bratislava – and then to the Apostolok – a touristy restaurant armed with a waitress who clearly wasn’t nice enough to work at the railway station – for mushroom soup, Hungarian wine, and authentic out-of-tune violin.
On our way back to the Airbnb we found ourselves where we started on Friday, a nice friendly bar called Beer Brothers – which turns out to be our favourite place – probably the only place where we didn’t feel as if we were there only to have our cash extracted. We stayed there until they had to close – there was cider – and then trundled to bed.
