First trip of the year - Budapest, Hungary
Cast your minds back to October 2017, Halloween night when me and my gals were so drunk we ended up booking a trip to Budapest. Well, we actually went! Another country, another city. Cuppla cans of gin and grapefruit and baby sized bottles of wine and we were on our way.
We landed about half 9. Jumped in a taxi to our hostel. We arrived outside and the lane leading to the hostel was in a pitch darkness. A bit freaked out, i honestly thought it had shut down. Thankfully, found a wee buzzer and the girl let us in.. to a close in complete darkness, completely unaware that the hostel was on the 3rd floor. So we lumped our cases and ourselves up all these stairs until we found the entrance - pretty much in the dark. Once we got into our room, it was a quick freshen up and then oot on the randan.
We drank and drank and drank and made the locals aware that the scottish had arrived. There is a place in Budapest called the "ruined bars" and that is where we pretty much spent most of our time. Can i just say THERE WERE CLASS! We did a wee pub crawl on our first night and of course ended up in a karoke bar called the Blue Bird Cafe which as it happens ended up being our favourite place. To make matters even more interesting i discovered that 10,000 of my Hungarian Florint was out of date and that absolutely nowhere within in a 10 mile radius would accept it or exchange it. Fabby dabby dosey. However my lovely gals came to my rescue and got the rounds in. Thanks gals, love ye's <3! It was up eh road and in bed for 6am. Bit a techno, bit a bump n grind, bit of fungi pizza and it was probably the best first night in a new city i think i have ever had (except the out of date money bit).
Saturday was a day of exploring the beautiful city of Budapest. The plan was to do the bus tour and hop on and off the stops we really wanted to see but first breakfast- that sort of out turned into brunch. We were all craving eggs so took to Google and found a wee place called A La Maison tucked away in a wee side street just off the main square. I ordered the Hungarian French Toast with ham and cheese and a strawberry mimosa to try take the edge off the hungover. I inhaled this meal but i have to say Hungarian french toast aint that different from the french toast here.
We stopped for some refreshments after exploring the sights of Budapest. This beer was honestly so tasty. I am not really a beer drinker but i just couldn't come to Budapest and not try the beer! Again we opted for some family favourite cheese pizza and had a wee heart to heart. There were tears but it was a really beautiful moment between pals. We had bought a 2 day bus tour ticket to pretty much get us to the parliament and the baths. We waited about 25 minutes for a bus so decided to walk to the parliament and we ended up jumping in a taxi to the baths! Money well spent on that bus ticket!
Széchenyi Thermal Baths was honestly the highlight of the trip, that and singing Shania Twain - Man I feel like a Woman at the karaoke. It was absolutely freezing outside the water so the pics above were a real struggle! Wearing a polka dot swimsuit from the little honey pot TKmaxx, I went for a dip in the whirlpool where i accidentally drowned Gillian. Now between us, we couldn't work out if the baths were real or not but hey ho lets just assume they are. We went at night which wasn't planned but i think we all appreciated going at that time and it made a wee bit more relaxing after walking about the city. Massages etc are on offer in the baths too. It is a must see if not do when visiting Budapest.
After a relaxing time at the spa it was time to Saturday night boogie Hungarian style. Without a doubt one of the best nights out i have ever had. A beautiful bond was formed that night between us gals, a very strong connection...all thanks to Porn Star Cocktails and the Blue Bird Karaoke bar. The local people will forever remember how incredible our rendition of Shania Twain's hit Man, I feel like a Woman. Shania, you would have been proud hen!
Sunday was a struggle. One of the main things we all wanted to do was go to New York Palace Cafe so Gill booked a table for us and thank god she did, it was queued near enough out the door. It was the most beautiful room/building i think i have ever seen. It literally is like eating and drinking in a palace! We were all hinging but of course back oan it we went, the gals ordered a New York cocktail and i ordered a Pina Colada that i literally had 2 sips out of and a good auld burger. The plan was really to go for brunch but unaware to us, breakfast was only til 11am so lunch it was! The burger was amazing, exactly what i needed to pick me up and set me up for a final day of exploring.
Later that day, we were determined to conqueror the bus tour and see everything that Budapest had to offer... we used 2 stops. We got off that the Mattias Church, the Church of Our Lady and the Fisherman's Bastion which overlooked the most incredible views of the all Budapest as shown above. The time was about 2ish and we were all still pretty hungover so we stopped at a wee cafe and dined on local Hungarian cuisine which i really wanted to go while i was there. Me and Colette shared a grilled sausage and got a cuppla beers to help the edge. If I haven't already mentioned in this post, the beer was unreal! The wee munch was delightful. Pre-sesh, we took a night time Boat tour along the river Danube to see beautiful Budapest all lit up.
On our last night we took part in a pub crawl with people from other hostels. I cannot recommend doing this enough. It was honestly a great night. We met some fierce feminists from England and of course we sang The Flower of Scotland loud and proud for them to hear. Mon eh Scots! The best part of the pub crawl was deffos getting to see more of the Budapest nightlife, the pubs and clubs are huge and are outdoor, so funky and chilled out.
Monday morning- we had a 11am flight and every single of us had less than 10 hours sleep the whole weekend. I wish we took a pic of what we looked going to that airport because it was an actual scene.
To wrap it all up...BEST CITY BREAK EVER! The curse of Marbella 2014 is broken. Us gals had a brilliant weekend together and all came back speaking and very much still pals! Hurrah! Top tip to anyone going or thinking of going to Budapest, it's really not that cheap so make sure you take a little more with you, i think on average we spent about £300-£350 in basically 3 nights but other than that it really is a place worth visiting. Another country ticked off the bucket list, onto the next please.
Topshop 
