Budapest is an incredible place. Last I was here in 1995 (yikes) things went badly, so as soon as possible my then partner and I got on a plane to Istanbul. I’m glad to have the chance to see and do what I missed then.
It reminds me a little of an exotic looking New York City. It’s bustling, noisy, gritty and has little gems of all sorts of things all over the place. The architecture is amazing and quite distinct compared to other places I visited on this trip. And a lot of the buildings are slightly crumbling, but that just adds to the charm.
I lucked out with the location of my airbnb. I’m in Jozsefvaros (district XIII) which is where the cool kids hang out. Between this and district XII next door, most of what I’ve wanted to see and do is right here.
I’m just going to dump some bulleted lists and images galleries to describe my 3 days.
Monday
- Shoes on the Danube. A series of shoe sculptures on the wall above the river memorializing the Jews who were forced to remove their shoes before being shot and falling dead into the river. It’s a pretty devastating thing to see.
- Buda: Budapest is actually two cities. Buda on the west side of the river and Pest on the east. Most of what you want to be doing is in Pest, but there are some beautiful sites in Buda too.
- Karavan: food truck cluster for lunch. I had more Langos, as they are called here.
- The sweet: salted pistachio ice cream. Extremely good.
- Central market: largest indoor market in town. Ground floor has food. Upstairs is all souvenirs. There is a nicer small market right by where I am staying.
- Gettó Gulyás: restaurant where I had lamb goulash and cinnamon cottage cheese balls for dessert
Tuesday
- Anyám szerint: had a Hungarian omelette
- Aran bakery: black sesame cruffin
- Great Synagogue: largest synagogue in Europe and second largest in the world. Great tour and the basement has a good exhibit on the history of the Jewish community here. Again, tough to take.
- Did a little shopping.
- Margaret island: a park in the middle of the Danube. There is singing fountain which is choreographed to music. Classic rock music unfortunately. It’s a little cheesy. But the island is a nice place to ride a bike for a bit.
- Chinatown Night Market Terasz: in the summer Chinatown has a food stall area. It’s outside of downtown but not too far. The food was great.
Wednesday
- (Back to) Aran bakery. It is exceptional. I’m bringing a few pastries home for Karen (and me)
- Rákóczi Market Hall: the smaller, nice indoor market. Bought some plane snacks.
- Langosom: has more langos and also cinnamon pancake dessert. To be honest, the Slovakian langos were better than Budapest. The dough was chewier.
- Római-part: the only place to swim in the river in the city. Had to ride a little far to reach it. Worth it though. It has been extremely hot here. Almost 100.
- Café Csiga: had sztrapacska, which is a fancy Slovakian mac and cheese like dish. Potato dumpling noodles, sheep cheese and in this case case pork. Really good.
And today I packed up all my gear and my bike. I had a little scare on Monday when I went to a bike store and asked if they had any empty bike boxes. The clerk laughed at me and said I was about the 50th person to stop by for that reason in the last few days, and no they didn’t have any. Fortunately, the next shop I stopped at had one brand new bike in a box slated to be assembled that afternoon, so said if I came back later the box was mine. Whew!
Buildings and statues
Memorials
Food
Random thoughts
My favorite riding was probably parts of the Main and Saale rivers. This is interesting because these are smaller, regional routes that aren’t part of Eurovelo, and presumably aren’t very well known outside of Germany. I liked them because they were easy to follow, there was a lot of variation in scenery and terrain every day, and they were fairly quiet but not too quiet.
Cities I liked most were Vienna and Budapest. I’d come back for either of these places for sure.
The age of the other cycle tourists is very surprising to me, and not just the e-bike groups on the Rhine. I saw so, SO many people over 60 (even over 70) on fully loaded bikes it’s unbelievable. I am young in the crowd, and I like that feeling 🙂
Also, the number of cycle tourists generally was surprising. On some days here, I saw more cycle tourists in an hour than either entire week I spent riding the PCH, and that’s one of the most popular places to ride in North America.
It’s a chicken and egg thing, I suppose, but the cycling infrastructure I experienced was mostly incredible. Not perfect, but very good. It’s going to be hard riding anywhere else now that I’ve been exposed to how it can be when done well.
The part I enjoyed the most was riding with Philipp. Making a new friend is a special thing. More special than a castle, a city, even fried bread and cheese 🧀 🥖. So interesting, these random and chance happenings that make up so much of our lives. I’m so glad to have been at the right place at the right time for this encounter. It was so much fun.
The end
I’m excited to go home in a few short hours. Not so much about having to get up at 4, though.
Still, endings are tough. In this case, I put so much energy into thinking, planning, stressing and finally doing this trip… and then it’s just done. Over. Finished. As it played out, it went really slowly. But now it feels like it happened so fast. Isn’t that always the way.
So of course as I procrastinated sleep last night I started looking into places to ride next time. Didn’t make it far and nothing in particular is jumping out and saying ride me, me, me, but that will come.
Thanks for coming along with me. Maintaining this blog and having some folks reading it keeps me real and makes me consider and think about things I may otherwise miss or ignore. So I really do appreciate you being there. And the company means a lot.
Some numbers
- Days in Europe: 30
- Days in transit: 24
- Distance: 3200 kilometers / 2000 miles
- Temperature range: 11 to 35
- Number of flats: must have been 10
- Number of days with significant rain: 10 or so
- Nights in a tent: 27
- Ice cream cones: I didn’t count, but not enough. Never enough.
Chaddo, you’re amazing. Thanks for taking me along on your ride. I loved reading your blogs daily (what will I do now that it’s over), loved your description on what you were seeing, your pictures were amazing plus you were not afraid to express how you’re feeling – your grumpy days, your making a new friend (hopefully you’ll plan a trip with Philipp, maybe he’ll come to Canada for a bike ride)…I could go on and on. It was an amazing trip for you. I need to know – what is the dish with all the peppers and how did you eat it without your mouth being on fire? Let us know you’ve arrived home. Sleep well tonight, safe travels tomorrow. Love ya, Ma
It was chili chicken from the Chinese market. Literally 1/3 popcorn chicken. 1/3 peanuts and 1/3 dried chili. It was really good and yes pretty spicy.
Wow, what a ride, what a trip and what amazing experiences and food you have had. I am soooooo excited for you Chad and cannot wait to hear more about it. Thanks for sharing as much as you did and giving us an adventure along the way too. I smiled at your Tuesday activity including ‘a bit of shopping’ and countless ice cream. Will be excited to hear what calls you to ride next. Until then, wishing you safe travels home and great joy when you get there to the ones waiting for your return.
Thanks for letting me travel vicariously through you Chad. Congratulations on your great cycling adventure. I look forward to seeing where you’ll travel to next. Safe flight home and enjoy those pastries with Karen!
What an adventure. What an accomplishment. I enjoyed taking along and look forward to our next trip together. Love, Pop
Being a part of this for the last month has been such an enjoyable and important part of my days. I have enjoyed every word and picture. I will miss it. And, I’m excited to see you over FaceTime soon. Love you
Congratulations Chad on finishing your tour!
I read this last post of yours yesterday afternoon as I was on my last day of my tour which had me cycle through the Inn valley from the Swiss-Austrian border to Innsbruck, where I grew up. Maybe because the tour was coming to an end or maybe because of the weirdly familiar (and slightly boring) surroundings or maybe because of the strong headwinds, I was not in the best of mood and seriously considered just taking the train for the last 70 kilometres. But then I sat down for a break and started reading your post and that brought back the wonderful memories of our few days together. I also thought about our conversion about podcasts and that made me try listening to one for the first time while on the bike and suddenly my mood changed completely, I had so much fun, the headwind was gone, and I was flying along the Inn to my parents’ house. You helped me to finish my tour.
Already before that I had thought about the highlights of my time on the bike and what I would tell people if they would ask me and our time riding together was at the very top of the list. It was really special and a lot of fun indeed. Enjoy your post ride time and your return back home!
All the best from Innsbruck,
Philipp
❤️. Congrats to you too Philipp and welcome home. I sent you an email. Let’s keep in touch.
Thanks for getting me set up so I could read your posts, Chad. They were interesting and enjoyable to read. I look forward to your next trip. All the best to you!
Thanks for coming along David