One of the reasons I picked the Budapest Half Marathon to run was to visit a city I was yet to actually visit. Budapest was a bit of a closer flight from Berlin and, if I ended up in London, also would have been quite an easy exercise to get there with several carriers including budget airlines like EasyJet going there more frequently.

Budapest is a beautiful city, of course, made up of the two very different sides, Buda and Pest that formed to turn into a single city sitting along the Danube River. We saw quite a lot of what there was to see, although pretty much just lazily walked around the entire city partly because the Sunday meant I wasn’t particularly energetic after the half marathon, and also because the weather was really hot.

One of the interesting things I found out about the city was how old many of the buildings and furnishings there were. Apparently, for example, the metro system was just as old as the London Underground and it kind of showed (in a good way) including the old signage to the leather straps one holds on to instead of the modern day plastic ones.

People are very patriotic about their city and you’ll often see national colours and flags in various places. I had to laugh at this particular one, with a mascot dog flying the Hungarian flag that we saw shortly after the half marathon finished.

We stayed on the Pest side of the river, where there is much more to do as a tourist, both in terms of places to walk around and just places to eat. Buda seemed to be a bit more where people lived although the stretch along the river offers much to the visitor such as their small furnicular that leads up to spectacular views over the Danube.

From the amazing vantage points you could really appreciate how many bridges Budapest had that criss-crossed the Danube back and forth.

One of the good things to do as well is to visit the Great Market Hall that offers an insight into what sort of things people eat (lots of meat!) and admittedly several touristy places where you can pick yourself up a souvenir or two. Popular things to buy include paprika, paprika paste, goulash spices, saffron and truffle oil or truffles.

Another great thing worth doing if you have a bit of time is to get to Margaret Island and enjoy the scenery or lie about in a park like many of the Hungarians would if you have the time.

Hire one of the great bikes and have fun navigating in a very old cycle for two. They are very similar to the ones you can rent in Rome for instance.