Last Sunday I went for a day out in Budapest.
Yes, you read right, Sunday I went to Hungary :)
So much for the trip out of you say.
With trip out during the day, one usually imagines to take a ride in a room for a couple of hours by car or train from home, certainly not to go to a state that does not border either with Italy!
I had already experienced this as beautiful as challenging experience in my trip to Brussels, and seeing that it was actually feasible to visit a city in one day, I decided to try it with Budapest.
I then looked for a cheap flight, and once you find (50 euro round trip with Wizzair, starting at 8 am and return at 20 pm, duration 1 hour and a half), I left without even hand luggage: )
Obviously, with a day trip to Budapest we can only see the main things and not everything that the city has to offer.
So if you love to spend hours in museums or do all the tours ... forget to visit Budapest on a day: p
Then, so that a day trip is successful, we need to study a bit 'before you start, preparing well for the journey home.
I this time (laziness), I left quite unprepared, so I did not do a perfect lap, but I was still happy with the things I've seen.
But no more talk (cit.).
Landing at Budapest airport, getting into town is very easy.
There are basically three possibilities: taxi, shuttle, public transport.
I opted for public transport, taking the bus 200E to the last stop of the blue metro line (M3 Kőbánya-Kispest), and with that I arrived in the center (in total the airport is 40 minutes, but 60 minutes calculated in case of traffic or various hitches).
One thing I recommend you do to those who went to Budapest for a day, is the day ticket for public transport, valid for 24 hours; definitely very useful to change often means a budget.
By the way ... remember that in Budapest there is not the euro, but there is the Hungarian forint (HUF)!
As I said a few lines above, having studied little town before we left, I turned in a somewhat 'random.
By subway I went down to the height of the Liberty Bridge with the intention of seeing the Market Central Market Hall, but being Sunday I found it closed ... closed as were also most of the city's shops.
After crossing the bridge, I saw the beautiful church in the rock.
Outside the church, however, there was a beggar who did not make us get in because the entrance to tourists is not granted in the case of chip ... what bad luck :)
From there, the intention was to go up and roam the hills of Buda, going to see the citadel and the castle, but not being sure of the fact that once you climb could continue, we decided to go back and go to ' another side of the Danube, on the Pest side.
Before doing so, however, we drove up to the Statue of Liberty in Budapest, from where we saw a beautiful panorama of the city.
Descended from the hills, we took a bus and we moved on to the Pest side, and we finished them to see the rest of the attractions, turning a bit 'walk and a bit' with the media.
Among the things seen (from outside) I can cite: the parliament, the Buda Castle, the shoes on the banks of the Danube, the Great Synagogue, St. Stephen's Basilica, Andrassy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the WestEnd shopping center.
In Budapest Overall it was a nice surprise.
The capital is a city full of historic buildings and beautiful things to see, although I found it a bit 'too much to pay.
Accustomed to cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, full of wonderful completely free attractions, having to pay to enter a church or a synagogue seemed right a stretch ... and in fact I did not enter: p
But there are a couple of things in Budapest that have particularly impressed me, indeed 3:
1) The incredible number of homeless in the city
2) The fact that in spite of Budapest is a very touristy town, many shops were closed on Sunday
3) The special feature of some metropolitan, with trains from cropped wagons and miniature stations.
Inter alia, in the Budapest underground, in order to enter there are no turnstiles, so anyone can go without wanting to stamp the ticket ... but no, because at each stop there is a person who controls who enters without stamp. So if you do not stamp the ticket you still have to show your ID card, or a daily ticket, the shift controller.
I conclude with the link to the video playlist events in Budapest:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCBrso9WwkFboOG3c2gEgRI3Z2ZeTODR6
You obviously can not miss the link to photo of Budapest: