Looking For Gold In Budapest

Update: This article is about our time in Budapest back in 2010. In the meantime, Budapest has changed a lot and so did we. Budapest got all cleaned up and we no longer travel on a shoestring. Oh, and we started booking our accommodation in advance, though I didn't get any wiser regarding the shoes.

We made it to the Keleti Train Station just about in time for the April sun to warm up the air. Pretty small train station for a capital. Pretty grey too (though later we discovered that it had a very beautiful decorated room in the right wing, where the International ticket office is).

Lots of locals offering us accommodation. But we have rules, you see, and we never go home with strangers. So we headed for the Tourist Office and ask for a hostel or anything on a shoestring budget.

We almost never book accommodation in advance as we like to have flexibility and keep our minds open in case we find out about some other cool nearby places we would like to visit. From experience we know that there´s always a good chance to find something cheaper once you get to your destination and you avoid the cancellation policies just in case.

Well, this always applied though Europe up till now. The girl from the Tourist Office pointed us a couple of budget hotels close to the train station but that was it. No phone calls, no reservation, though on the door said in big letters "accommodation".

So we headed towards the city center admiring the beautiful imperial buildings hidden under thick layers of black dust and pollution and jumping from one hotel to another asking for prices. They were all  more expensive than expected.

After about one hour and on an already hot Budapest sun we made it to the center and the buildings got all cleaned up. And there it was, the cheapest hostel in Budapest! (Zrinyi utca 4/ floor 3, Budapest) Located only 200 metres from the famous Chain Bridge, 7 minutes from the Parliament building and on the same street with St. Stephen's Basilica.

Basic but clean. What else could have our tired feet and lost hopes wanted? We stayed there and we had a room with Moon view and that was great! (it did have a roof, don't get the wrong idea, is just that it was last floor and it had a window just on top of the beds)

But then we were hungry and I wanted to try the famous Hungarian Goulash. There were plenty of restaurants around the hotel, all having disturbingly high prices as they were in HUF and I declared my eternal love for the EURO right there and then.

We exchanged some money as the rate was far better than the one near the rail station and stuffed our pockets with thousands of worthless Hungarian forints. We had a hard time doing all that math on an empty stomach and by the time we figured it out we also figured it out that the restaurants were all empty though is wasn't even 3p.m.

That's how we took notice that in Budapest people use to have lunch at 12a.m. I had my Goulash though and some extremely sweet Hungarian pancakes and I was ready to go. Wait! It wasn't all that smooth as it seems. I made the mistake of wearing new shoes, silly, silly me, like I didn't know better, so we had to go shopping, not that it was in the plan.

So I bought some comfy shoes, and only then I was ready to rock and roll for good and join one of the Budapest tours.