Budapest was one of the highlights of my travels last year. I loved the Habsburg era architecture, walking around the large squares and parks, and of course the local food. Wandering around Buda, you can’t miss the incredible Parliament building across the Danube as it pops up at almost every turn. Five days wasn’t nearly enough time to experience the city and I unfortunately didn’t have time to do any day trips to nearby towns.

I had heard from a few people that Szentendre, just north of Budapest, was worth a visit so even though I couldn’t manage a day trip, I decided to stop off for a couple of hours while on my way to Prague by car. I didn’t know anything about the town, just that it is one of the most popular day trips from the capital.

I find the best way to visit a city I know nothing about is to head straight to the main square. In the case of Szentendre that meant a short walk along cobblestone streets to the small centre square with its Orthodox church and Memorial Cross.

From there you can choose any of the side streets to explore. Szentendre is a town of artists and the streets are full of little galleries selling local artworks and there are a number of museums too. Unfortunately the galleries are outnumbered by the tacky tourist shops which cater to the bus loads of tourists which arrive each day. It was winter when we went but the place was still crowded with tourists, mostly from Serbia and Japan, as far as I could tell.

I don’t think there is much to do aside from wandering the streets, checking out the art galleries, and relaxing in cafes which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I think our time would have been better spent back in Budapest.

I was surprised to see a number of Serb restaurants around the town but later discovered that Szentendre was the centre of the Serb community in Hungary a couple of centuries ago so it makes sense that there is still a big Serb influence in the town. I thought it would be nice to eat at what looked to be a popular Serb restaurant at the end of the main tourist drag but F, being Albanian, refused to eat there. In the end we stopped for morning tea at Cafe Christine, right on the Danube, where I had the best hot chocolate I’ve had in years. It gets great reviews on Tripadvisor and we would have stayed for lunch but it was fully booked.

Then it was off to Brno which is another pretty walking city and the perfect place to rest up before continuing our long drive to Prague. If you plan to visit Szentendre for the day, instead of just passing through, you could get a local train direct from Budapest and then take a boat along the Danube back to the city which would take you past the beautiful Hungarian Parliament.

Szentendre Hungary is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.

Photos of Budapest is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.

I not one for visiting churches or other places of worship. For the most part take the attitude that if you’ve seen one church you’ve seen them all. But seeing as I was walking by the St Stephen’s Basilica I figured I may as well have a quick look inside.

I’m so glad I did. This must be one of the most beautiful churches around. The interior is all marble and the ceiling and works of art are all incredible. I can’t imagine how much the church must have had to steal and manipulate to be able to afford to build that.

Stunning St Stephen’s Basilica is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.

As I’ve already said, I love chicken paprika, a typical Hungarian dish which can be found on pretty much every menu in Budapest. There are plenty of other tempting dishes, spicy goulash being one of them but without the beef for me.

On the sweeter side of things, you have many, many cakes to choose from. I tried a number of them (for research purposes) but didn’t find anything which I really loved. I will keep looking though.

The most fascinating items are the pastries with unpronounceable names which you see the locals indulging in every morning with their coffee. I tried a couple and can’t really say I liked them but they might be more of an acquired taste. A lot of the pastries have poppy seed fillings or walnuts and other strange (for me) ingredients. Interesting. More research is needed here

Hungarian Food is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.

Hungarian cuisine consists mainly of beef and pork dishes so at most meals I chose either a vegetarian soup or chicken paprika, which I love!

Chicken paprika is usually the leg and thigh part of the chicken (at least in my limited experience), which I don’t really like, but on my last day there I found it with the chicken breast and it was perfect. I love the paprika sauce with cream which is delicious with the potato dumplings it always comes with. In fact, I would probably prefer the chicken paprika without the chicken and just have the sauce and dumplings!

I’m going to find the recipe for this dish when I get home. It shouldn’t be too hard to make but who knows if it will taste the same as how they make it in Hungary, probably not.

Chicken Paprika in Budapest is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.

I first planned to travel to Budapest in 1999. I was doing a quick European tour with some friends from my French class (I was living in Paris) which included Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague Vienna, and Budapest. At the time, Australians still needed tourist visits for a number of European countries including Czech Republic and Hungary. Having left my travel plans to the last minute, I only had time to get the Czech visa. So I wasn’t able to visit Budapest and it was 10 years before I finally made the journey.

My first impression of Budapest was what a beautiful city it is. Impressive Habsburg era buildings everywhere, beautiful squares, clean streets, and the gorgeous Hungarian Parliament.

I was staying in Pest, at the foot of the Chain Bridge. Everything was in walking distance and you can see most of the sites within a couple of days. We spent 5 days there, which meant we could see everything at a leisurely pace.

One of the reasons for my trip was to see if I wouldn’t mind living in either Budapest, Vienna or Prague. At first I thought I would love to live in Budapest but as the days went on, I decided against it. Sometimes I felt like when the locals look at you they see nothing but dollar signs and they would do anything to get money out of you. Not that I was ever ripped off, not at all, they just seemed desperate for money. Not that we don’t all do things for money, it might just be that others are more subtle about their desperation! I don’t know, I didn’t feel totally comfortable, that’s all. Maybe that would change if I spent more time there.

On to the good things! Budapest is cheap! That’s a nice change from Paris. Eating out has little impact on your wallet which is great because the food is amazing. I don’t think I had a bad meal. Breakfast usually consisted of some unusual Hungarian pastry, lunch was almost always chicken paprika with dumplings, and then afternoon coffee and cake Bliss!

There is a great indoor market at the end of Vati Utca, the main shopping street. We bought our supplies from there which included fresh fruit, sweet and hot paprika, and what I thought was cheese but turned out to be margarine. I tried a few of the different breads but most of them are very heavy bread which I like to call peasant bread. I think I’ll stick to baguettes.

The castle district in Buda is the most touristy part of Budapest. It’s a great place to wander around for a few hours or more and has fantastic views of Pest and especially of the parliament.

Pest is more business like and is a great place to admire the local architecture, visit the incredible St Stephen’s Basilica, Opera House, and Hungarian Parliament, or go shopping on Vati Utca. I loved this part of town.

I had really wanted to go to one of the thermal baths but didn’t get around to it. I’ll definitely have to do that next trip. I’d also like to go back and see the statue park which has all the communist era statues. That would be interesting for sure.

Overall, I loved Budapest. I don’t think I want to live there but am definitely looking forward to going back soon.

Budapest | Hungary is a post from Europe travel blog Destination Europe.