Latest / Places of DK / Budapest, Hungary

Transcript

Budapest, Hungary · Places of DK

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, I was recently in a new country of Hungary, which I had it's not a new country.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get better at this.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a new country.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a new country to me.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I was in Budapest.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Budapest.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're gonna like it.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I forgot to mention the title of the podcast.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is Places of Decay.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do better.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Budapest.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not familiar with Hungary, it is in Central Europe.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It borders on Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: The city of Budapest, it's right on the Danube.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The mighty, mighty Danube.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of adjectives I'm gonna throw out.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the northern central part of the country, not far at all from Slovakia.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then actually on this trip, when I went in late July of 2026, when I left Budapest, I did a little side trip, went to Bratislava for a few hours in Slovakia on my way to Prague.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that another time.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, and to give you a little bit of color on the actual geography as we start talking about Budapest, um they used to be two separate cities on other side, each side of the Danube.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So on the west side you had Buddha and on the eastern side, Pesht.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: They came together in 1873.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to go too far into the history here, but when you go there, you will see the Buddha side.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hilly, that's where the Buddha castle is.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you go to the Pesht side, much flat, much flatter.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's where a lot, that's where Parliament is.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's where a lot of the businesses are.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Both sides are are are fantastic.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I did spend some time on the Buddha side.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it is much fancier, as the English might say, posh.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I ended up spending most of my time on pesht in the pesh side.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that I'm going to talk about is gonna mainly revolve around around pesht.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you are probably already being like, it's pest.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, it's peshed.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: What you'll find when um, and I didn't really understand that until I went there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So most of the words that have an S, there's a Z right after it, I think actually all of them, and it's shht.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when you see Budapest, that's why.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not just trying to act like I'm uh better than all of you.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I I sort of lied.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk a little bit about history, but just only because I think it's important, uh, especially in fairly modern modern history.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Hungary did not do a good job on who they decided to side with during World War One, and certainly not World War II.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh after World War One, they had the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they lost a ton of territory.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hungary was a huge country.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Croatia was part of Hungary at one point, and they just got completely carved up during a treaty uh something that I don't recall.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can look it up if you're interested.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then World War II.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, they uh they definitely got on the wrong side.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna even say the guy's name, but um, it brought German occupation, Holocaust, obviously, Jewish population suffered greatly.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: We will talk a little about bit about that um further into the podcast.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so first of all, for those of you thinking about traveling to Budapest, I just want to give you an idea of the sort of the best way to get into the city.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I went from Atlanta, had a layover in Paris, then uh then flew into Budapest.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: When you when you get to the Budapest uh airport, it's it's quite small, and you can walk out and frankly, if you're staying in the city center, which is where I would suggest, and you can look at a map.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I stayed in there, there's various districts.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I stayed in district seven.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you look at a map, you can figure it out, but you can see where the city center is.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And my uh my Airbnb host told me just take the bus.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can get there is a a type of Uber there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you you can take different modes of transportation, but there's this bus, it's the 100E.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I thought this was gonna be very difficult to figure out, but when you walk out of the terminal, very clear signs in both Hungarian and English pointing you to the 100E.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it was about seven, I think it was after.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, Hungarian Hungary is in the EU, but they're still using their loc their own currency, the Fonnet.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's how you pronounce it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're not using the euro.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think you can maybe pay Euros certain places, but for the most point, you need to use the uh the Fonnet.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it was$2,200,$2,200 Hungarian Fonnet, which we uh equated to a little under$7 for one way into the city for about it was about a 25-30 minute bus ride, super clean bus, a lot of tourists.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: We all just put our bag in there, sat down, and then there's uh I believe there was three stops on the way, and I took it all the way into central budapes.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's called the Dek Oh boy, uh Forenter, final anyways, it's the final station.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You could look it up.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's D-E-A-K forenter.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not yeah, Hungarians are very it's it's not easy, man.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's difficult.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, like just figure out your location.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you can be closer to the river.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't right near the river, but it was a very easy walk.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I I could get to the the Danube in about 15-minute walk.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just wanted to say in this one particular area, it was the old Jewish quarter, which became the Jewish ghetto during World War II.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of history, much of it sad.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but um there's very interesting things to see around there.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, what what I'm gonna do first is explain what I did during my full three days there, uh, and then maybe some points of interest, and maybe what I did that I enjoyed a lot, and what I probably would have changed a little bit about.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so got into my Airbnb rental around 1:30.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were kind of nice, kind of enough to uh let me in early.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh got settled, took a shower, and then walked around the neighborhood.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it was District 7, so it's the uh the old Jewish quarter.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a very interesting thing that's around there.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, about 12, 13 years ago, there were just a bunch of abandoned buildings, and some people went in, decided to turn them into bars.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're called ruined bars, R-U-I-N.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: You walk in there, there's just like smashed up pianos, there's graffiti everywhere, there's just wild architecture, art, uh, just weird things on the walls, and then you can just go and uh get a beer, and you can get a little bit of food as well.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was live music while I was there as well.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so Simplic Zimplikertz, no, Schimplikerts.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh, it's a tough language.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably the most well-known, and that was the one that I was closest to.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: You walk in there, it's wild.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a maze.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can go just up and down, and there's like uh you go up these stairs, and it's it's it's almost like a greenhouse.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is in July.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then you go down and you're in these sort of a labyrinth, and like literally, there was a broken piano that I sat at and and drank a beer.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is um it's very popular throughout the day.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I did not go at night.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think at night it's either that one or the other one, it becomes more of a nightclub.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And at my age, if I show up at a nightclub with a bunch of 20-year-olds, creep.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I I hung out there more during the day.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my first day.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was extremely tired, went to bed early, woke up the next day to go on a bike tour.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I love bike tours.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: When you go to Europe, if you're able to do it, I would highly suggest either doing a walking tour or a biking tour.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I like the bikes because you can just see more of the city in a shorter amount of time.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Showed up to my appointment, uh, it was at 10 o'clock, was when I was supposed to leave.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I got there around 9.45 and was informed I was the only person on the bike tour.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a reason for that.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Unbeknownst to me when I booked this trip, F1 was going to be in Budapest that weekend.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so the city was hopping.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: But by the time the race was starting, the city was not hopping.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I was the only person on this bike tour, which actually ended up being great.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So my my tour guide, I got him on get your guide.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was fantastic.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: He took me around.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We went um went over the bridges into into Buddha.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we we we uh biked all the way up into Buddha Castle.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's one area where you're not allowed to take a bike, totally makes sense.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's pedestrians.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I got off the bike, he gave me like five minutes to walk around a little bit, came back down Buddha, went down over the Danube, over another bridge down to Margaret Island.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a there's a very large island called Margaret Island between Buddha and Pest.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this was a Sunday, ton of people out there just exercising, having picnics.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's some old ruins of a monastery.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason that's called Margaret Island.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can look that up if you if you'd like.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, it was beautiful.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then I actually went down closer to the Danube.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sadly, while I was there, the Danube is at historic low levels.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they all blame it on climate change, which I agree with.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's um, you know, they've all said that winters are not as cold as they were.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even when I spoke to like a 35-year-old, and he said it used to snow when he was a kid all the time, it doesn't snow anymore.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, kind of sad that it was down that low.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it uh I hope it rebounds.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, he took me all around the PEC side.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was funny, we actually did a on the bike during the uh the end of it, went right by my uh my um apartment when he was gonna go show me the uh one one of the largest um um temples in in Europe.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a great way to see the city, really enjoyed it, highly recommend.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now that evening, and I and I do try and steer away from super touristy things, but there's something about being on a boat and just getting a different viewpoint of buildings.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing about Budapest, at nighttime, it's a completely different city.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: The way they light up their buildings, specifically the parliament building, parliament building, their parliament building, it's the third largest uh parliament in the world.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let you guess what the other two are.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I got one of them.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I did not know the other one when my bike tour told me, but from the boat, when the sun goes down, and if you can get a view of parliament just lit up, it's it's astonishing.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's truly beautiful.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that that evening.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I was still super jet-legged, crashed pretty early, woke up the next morning, uh, walked across the chain bridge uh early, just I wanted to go out there when there wasn't anybody.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Bridge.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and then the uh the next morning I did book, and you need to book this in advance.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go inside Parliament, so booked um booked a tour.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's only 50 minutes.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like go in there, go see it.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a beautiful building, it's hilarious.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the thing, the the relics that are still there, like cigar holders all over the place.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's really interesting.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: You could see the crown jewels, very interesting story about it where they they had to smuggle them out of the country during World War II.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: They were afraid the Nazis were going to claim them, uh, actually brought them to the U.S.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it was in Fort Knox in Kentucky.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the late 70s, um Jimmy Carter's administration, they helped bring them back to uh Budapest.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh it's a really interesting, interesting story.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I I walked around most of the day.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk about some of the restaurants and things in a in a little bit.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I did do a um a food walking tour later that evening.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was interesting.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Probably would have skipped it.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um we'll talk a little bit more about the food.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I could have just you know done that on my own.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then Tuesday, the sorry, the my next day, that was my last full day, and I was going to make sure I was going to go to one of their baths, and I was going to go to their most famous large bath, the Sheshaney, oh, Shisane Shish Shisaney bath.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty close, I think.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Budapest is known for its uh various thermal baths.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's quite a few.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of them are indoor.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go to this one.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you look up thermal baths, Budapest, this is probably gonna be the one that pops up.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: They have three large outdoor pools, uh, and then many indoor pools, all of varying temperatures.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: The one that I was sitting next to for the three hours that that I was there, it was um about three, I think it was 37, 36 degrees Celsius, so 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You go in there and it is lovely.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and people go there for medicinal purposes.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot a lot of the the locals treat this as sort of a uh a medical getaway.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and like I said, the the pools are of very various temperatures.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: The middle pool is more for swimming laps.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have to wear a head cap and and do laps.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was on vacation, I was not gonna do laps, and I but I did feel that pool much colder.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the the two on each side, much warmer.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The one I was in um was fantastic, and then you can go inside, like I said, to other pools, some of them have higher salt content.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's actually some saunas.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think most are clothed, but then there was a big gender nude one if you're into that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there was also a a salt chamber.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what they called it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I went in there and I was in essentially in inhaling salt uh with a bunch of other random people.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it was nice, it was great.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's super um it's just a unique experience when you go there, just because I felt it was a little confusing before I got there, but once I got there, it was completely smooth.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: You do have um do you have an option to either just get a locker or got a cabin.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I got a cabin.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was not that much more expensive.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: So when you go in, they give you it almost looks like a like a little wristwatch, and that is to help you get in and out of your cabin.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: They tell you, they tell you the number of of your space, you go there, put all your stuff in, you get changed as you walk out, you lock it with your what's your little uh magnetic watchy thing, locks it, you're good to go.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to be carrying stuff around.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I will say, and I did read this beforehand, so I'm glad I did.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: You want to bring your own flip-flops, you want to bring your own towel, obviously your own swimsuit.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you can rent them, but from what I heard, it's kind of a little oddly expensive, and and unlike the towels they give you are not great.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I would just suggest if you're gonna do this, bring your own stuff.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is a cafe.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this was a Tuesday.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can attest that they sell beer early.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can get sandwiches, but again, I was there probably from I think I got there at 8:30 and I left a little before lunchtime.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's it's great.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: The other part about getting there, if you're staying in the city central, the the the metro, and this is the only time I took took their metro, but you take it from the decrens that I can't pronounce that area that I said when I took when I brought the bus in.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: The metro is amazing.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is actually Europe's this this only this stretch is Europe's oldest subway slash metro.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: They built it in the 1800s, it was not electrified, so at that point in time it was horse and carriage going to and from, but underground.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what's amazing is they they've left in the in the stations, it still looks like it would have from the 1800s, and then the metro comes, it's this cool yellow little metro subway, they have leather straps holding.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's clean, it's efficient, highly recommended.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you don't go up to the Shasini Baths, up to the city park, which I walked around a little bit.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: If I go back, I'm gonna go hang out in the city park a little bit more because that part looked super cool.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you don't want to go do that, just go on the M1, go back and forth, check it out.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Super cool, very interesting.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, uh, a couple of places I went to.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I did not go into Buddha Castle.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it I would I want to go back.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I would like to go in there.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's apparently some labyrinths uh underneath that I would I would love to see.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um I did go to Saint Uh Stephen's Basilica, beautiful church.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can walk up the top, you can also take an elevator, but I was like, no, I'm walking it because man, when I'm in Europe, I will walk up a church and I will walk up a bell tower.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I got up there, I was like, man, man, I'm out of shape.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's beautiful view um from from the the top of the basilica and then and then coming down.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I I had mentioned I was staying in the um the Jewish quarter, Jewish ghetto during World War II, and outside of the the rental that I was staying in, you you would walk in, it was a larger building, so I had to go through a couple of um a couple of different doors to get to it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But outside uh on the sidewalk there were two gold squares with people's names and when they died, and and and I we saw I I've seen this in Amsterdam as well.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a plaque, it's a remembrance of the two people in this case that lived in this complex who died during the Holocaust, so it's a remembrance of them.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So clearly, obviously, this part of the world was just ripped to shreds during World War II.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um there is a memorial outside of Parliament right on the Danube, which is probably one of the quietest and moving memorials that I've ever seen about the Holocaust.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's um it's called the Shoes on the Danube.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So during World War II, about uh I think they said twenty-three thousand people were lined up at various times on the Danube, told to take their shoes off, shot, and they were fell into the water.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can look this up, I'm gonna put it on my my website, but there are these iron shoes.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought first I thought they were bronze or they're iron, um, that are just lined up for meters down down Right right on the right on the Danube and it's extremely moving.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would highly suggest if you want to go see this, get there early one morning.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I did it before I uh during the bike tour, we went by it and there were just hordes of people everywhere.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um I went early in the morning before I went on my parliament tour, and there were just a few people out there.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: There were people laying flowers down, people putting stones in the shoes.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um very moving.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh highly suggest spending some time and uh and and experiencing that memorial.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So lastly, I'm gonna talk about the food.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's heard about a Hungarian goulash, and it not gonna lie, it's pretty great, especially when you go to some of these places, it just had the large root vegetables in there uh with the the beef, like just this savory broth.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I was there in July.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was warm, it wasn't super hot, but not a time you'd really think about eating a soup or a stew or a goulash, but man, it was great.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the other part um uh of Hungarian cuisine is paprika.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: So chicken paprikash, very it's pretty much everywhere if you go to a Hungarian restaurant.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's you know, chicken thighs and in a paprika sauce, and then they they serve it with some um some potato noodles, I'm forgetting the name of it.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like Spenzel in uh Germany.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's great, it's wonderful.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's actually not as heavy as as you would you would think it would be.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of um duck, some dumplings, um that kind of go through that whole region up through like Slovakia and uh and Czechia.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the the the food was great.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: But again, if you if you're when you're in Budapest, it's it's a big city and they have different cuisine.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I I went to my final night there, went to a place called Maslov, had a salad, uh, had some Middle Eastern food.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, did see plenty of Thai places.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you if you I'm always highly suggest having the local cuisine, but after a couple of days, you're like, yeah, I kind of need to switch this up a bit.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can get something else.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as far as beer, obviously a big beer culture.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was very surprised in Budapest.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of craft beer.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there's uh there were quite a few uh breweries and and just brew houses that have craft beer from other parts of of Europe.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did go to one brewery called Gravity Brewing, and I had a sour which and and the sour they had just tapped it.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was like it was what was it?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was basil, apricot, and mint, maybe.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was fantastic, it was great.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, drink the local beers, drink the the the craft beers, but hungry, their wine, particularly uh white wine, it's fantastic, very well known for it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: You there's other tours you can take that take you out to wine country, you can do wine tastings.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if I go back, I certainly want to want to go that route and check out the wines a little bit more.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and I almost forgot about polinka.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: So polinka is a fruit brandy, highly popular in in Hungary.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I did have one the first time it was Apple, did not like it.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Second night, uh did have an apricot one, delicious.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's essentially moonshine, it's like 37 to 55% APV.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: People brew this in their homes.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's very popular in Hungary in general.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's dangerous, so enjoy it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe be careful.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And one last thing that I forgot to mention is the central market.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is uh pretty close to the Danube, wasn't very far from where I stayed.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: But when you walk in, they have poultry, they have meats, they have spices, they have produce.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you see a lot of the locals going in the morning and buying food for the week or for the day.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you go to the top, there uh the second level there are little little kiosks with gifts and tchotchkis and and things to take home for tourists, but then also some like finer linens and and and little um they don't have finer linens.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: What am I talking about?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Finer linens.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I saw some linens.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they also do have uh little little prepared food places, markets, kiosks up there, so you can get some nice traditional Hungarian food.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So uh highly suggest checking it out.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and that is Budapest.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you found this beneficial just as far as understanding the city.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you decide to go there, uh the different parts of Buddha and Pesht, obviously, all one city, some places to potentially stay, how to navigate the airport, getting into the city.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of why I wanted to start all this.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I do want to hear from everybody, uh, good or bad.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is my first one.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be doing more of these episodes.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I will be bringing some guests in as well.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: So hope you enjoyed it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you get to enjoy Budapest, and I'll talk to you next time.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, uh, seriously, if you like this, go to placesofdk.com, uh, give us a review, look us up on Instagram, Facebook if I decide to do that, and I will talk to you all soon.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, thank you.