Day 1: BARCELONA-BUDAPEST
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Is it really half past 4 in the morning? Can not be! The alarm never rings at this time, unless we go on vacation. And so it is, today we take a flight to spend a few days in Budapest. We will finally know this city that we have in mind for years and we have not yet had the luck to know. We only have a few hours left to go from the airport to the center of Budapest.
Shortly before 6 in the morning we take the car and get on our way to the Barcelona airport, on the way we get to the mobile a notification that the flight is delayed 1 hour, but we do not pay much attention, hoping that in Best of all, this application that we have installed on our mobile phone a few days ago is not very reliable…
At 7 o'clock we left the car in our usual parking lot and as soon as we enter Terminal 2 we see that the mobile application has not been wrong, our flight is delayed until 11 in the morning.
We have to wait, killing time between breakfast, reading and the occasional walk through a Terminal, which has remained a bit "empty" since it was converted into the low cost headquarters of the Barcelona airport.
Shortly before 11 in the morning we embark to Budapest, we place ourselves in our seats, watching the races that people are given to reach the first to the boarding line, the races to get on the plane ... well, this is Ryanair ... and we take off. We spend the 3 hours flying reading and why not say it, throwing the odd little head that fixes our body a little after the early morning we have given ourselves.
A few days ago we contacted the taxi agency in Volantaxi from Budapest that for a price of 3200 Hungarian florins will transfer us from the airport to the center of Budapest Where we will stay So we avoid at this time having to take the bus and then the subway to get to our hotel.
Upon leaving the terminal of Budapest airport We call a number that has been provided in the email to let us know that we have arrived. The pick-up stop is close, we cross the crosswalk, just at the exit and on the left is the stop (“Taxi Rendelt”) where you have to Wait for the taxi to arrive with the name of the company with which you have hired it.
It does not take more than 5 minutes, we ride and just telling the direction where we are going, we see that the driver does not understand us, does not speak English. We show you the written address, next to the name of the hotel and although you are not very convinced, it starts.
For a couple of times on the road (we imagine to ask where the hotel is) and another to put gas (?)
This reminds us of the taxis in Jordan or Indonesia that were stopping without giving many explanations where they were needing 🙂
And so, wishing to get off to pick up the city on foot, we passed several times through the same streets looking for our accommodation, until at the end it leaves us on a street, indicating to us that the hotel is just opposite.
Despite not seeing it, we do not want to have a hard time and seeing that we are in the street, although not in the correct number, we are ready to pay the 13 euros to the change that had been agreed by email.
In it we were told that you could pay with euros and here came the problem ...
The driver does not accept the coins nor does he have a change in Hungarian forints of 20 euros. And what do we do? Well, while he gets upset, we do more and he starts to get nervous and Roger, to avoid setbacks, is going to change money to an agency we have right in front of him. Although the change is not quite good, we do it to pay the man and go quickly to the hotel.
But nothing, this could not end like this. We give him 2000 florins and by signs, he tells us that he has no change either. The thing begins to tire me, luck of Roger who controls himself better than me in these situations and returns to the exchange house to change in currencies to give him the right amount.
When we give it to him, he says goodbye to us, shouting at us something in Hungarian, which we prefer not to know ... What a triumphal entry we just made!
With this in mind, we believe that the best option is to book the direct transfer to the hotel from here and thus avoid having any problems.
Currently and after many trips to the back we recommend, if you do not want to pay commissions when taking money from ATMs abroad and always have the current change, use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money in the ATMs They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
And now it's time to look for our Maverick Hostel, which is where we will stay these days. After a couple of laps we located it right in front of where our taxi driver had left us.
It begins to sparkle, so we accelerate the passage and as soon as we enter we find a building that surprises us, already first by the interior architecture.
It is a mixture of elegance with comfort, we like it.
We check-in and the receptionists show us the facilities and the room, while explaining all the things they can offer us, from games to liven up the evenings, to computers with Skype installed.
In the Hostel there are from shared rooms to double rooms with private bathroom. We have chosen one of the latter, to have more privacy and the price difference is minimal.
We have a space shared with three other rooms that is a kitchen and a kind of living room where you can watch TV, read ... etc.
The site is great. With all kinds of amenities, clean ... and with free wifi!
What else can we ask for? It is clear that nothing. We are in one of the most central streets of Budapest and above at a spectacular price.
We are not too long in the room because it is after 3 in the afternoon and we have not yet eaten, so we left, on an empty stomach, in search of a restaurant that we have read many recommendations, the Fâtal.
We have it less than 5 minutes walk from our accommodation, in one of the most central streets of the city, Váci Utca street.
Upon entering we see that there are still people eating, despite the time it is and it comforts us not to be the only ones to “be late” (later we would describe that they were not eating, they were having dinner !!) Here, at dusk as soon as the Meal schedules.
The menu sounds pretty good and we ordered some sausages with a side dish plus a kind of kebab of several meats and potatoes. This plus a coke, a water and 2 coffees for about 32 euros to change.
Eating at the Fâtal in Budapest. Trip to Budapest. Hungary
We have to say in honor of the truth, that we have not liked anything. Maybe we did not have the day, but we believe it is a tourist restaurant, where they have chosen quantity rather than quality before. The meat of the kebab was more than dry and the only advantage of the two dishes has been the french fries.
We are clear that we will not recommend it to future travelers.
We leave at 5 pm in the restaurant and see that it is still raining and it is night completely. This makes us wonder what to do the remaining hours until we return to the hostel.
After looking at the planning for a while, we decided to go to the Central Market of Budapest, it is not far from where we are and we arrived in just over 10 minutes walk, but upon arrival we discovered that it is closed.
Mmm ... what do we do? Then take the subway, make a transfer (320 florins each ticket) and expect to find the House of Terror open.
We hope to be able to take advantage of these remaining hours and since it is raining we cannot go for a walk on the banks of the Danube.
We hurry to arrive, without looking too much at the subway stations (something that we have aimed to do) but we find that they have already closed too. It is clear that today is not going to be our day.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Budapest
- How to get from Budapest airport to downtown
- The 5 best tours and excursions in Budapest
- 50 things to see and do in Budapest
- Where to stay in Budapest: best neighborhoods and hotels
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Budapest
- 10 essential places to visit in Budapest
So seen the seen we decided to go for a walk under our umbrella through some streets that show us quite empty despite being 6 in the afternoon.
We return to the hotel along Andrássy street, passing through the Budapest Opera, where we will return on Saturday to see the premiere of the Onegin ballet.
When we look at the clock again, it is after 8 pm and we decide that it is time to return to our accommodation . Today has been a long day and we have slept little, we need to rest a little.
And the best part is that we have looked at the weather and tomorrow and the past it seems that it will not rain in Budapest!!
This starts to cheer up ...
Day 2BUDAPEST
