Budapest is such a lovely destination for a long weekend. Though increasing in popularity, supposedly now numbering approximately 20 million visitors a year, from my visit this weekend I still feel it is a largely untapped tourism destination and I kinda hope it remains that way for my future visits. The locals are incredibly friendly, and not all that hard on the eye – heh heh, the architecture is lovely to behold, the green spaces are absolutely charming and let’s not forget the numerous thermal spas dotted around the city for rest, relaxation and reviving.

Weather	Perfect gelati-eating weather, probably a touch too warm for those running half-marathons …
Tips	Bring comfortable shoes to walk in. Though most sights are within a reasonable walking distance its probably still more than you’re used to walking on a daily basis. Its also handy to grab a travel card for when your feet do get weary to hop on the very convenient and quick metro. I love how the metro tells you exactly how long there is to the next train to the 15 seconds!
	For a refreshing and delicious, non-alcoholic, drink always ask for lemonade (not 7-up or sprite, but the fresh variety.) Lemonades from different venues will differ, but each will be scrumptious in its own right.

The Experience

We were in Budapest this weekend so that Pat could run a half-marathon. He really couldn’t have picked a nicer first half-marathon! His route took him past many of the highlights of Budapest which started in the City Park (home to the Széchenyi Bath, Budapest’s largest thermal bath) and took him:
– down Andrássy Avenue (Named a World Heritage site in 2002 it is lined by beautiful mansions and townhouses)
– past the Opera House
– down to the water across the Chain bridge
– pass the Royal Palace
– across Liberty Bridge,
– past Central Market Hall, up again past the river up to Margaret Island and Paraliament
– before running through Heroes’ square again to the finish line at City Park.

The only down-side was that it was stinking hot. Reaching a maximum of 31 degrees its no wonder the water stands were “over-subscribed” which Pat reporting that it was a total massacre as everyone went for some liquid hydration. Perhaps that was why everyone was given a sponge as part of their race pack!

Don’t think it was a walk in a park for us spectators either – it was surprisingly difficult to get ahead of Pat at a few key stages of the race, and that was even with the help of the metro! Guess I should have worn my running shoes instead of my flip flops. Heh heh. Congrats to Pat who just missed the 2:00 hour mark by a couple of minutes … gives him a goal for his next race I guess!

With the race over by mid-afternoon of our first day we had just about a day and half left to explore the city.

The Highlights

Our first port of call after Pat finished his race was to grab something to eat. We hadn’t really researched any places for dining but stumbled upon Spoon Café Lounge, located just in front of the Buda Castle, on a boat! It actually worked quite well as a venue as we had the benefits of being out in the fresh open air and the river breeze. And even though technically you should have a pasta party before a big race, we proceeded to have a pasta party after as well. Spoon Café Lounge is pretty cool – their toilets, the female toilets at least, are worth a visit with vistas out on to the water! I was expecting the restaurant to be a bit of a tourist trap but I was very surprised about the quality of the food we got. Following a Hungarian tradition I started with a cold soup – an iced apricot cream soup with blackcurrants and ricotta mousse to be precise. I found this to be much more to my liking than other cold soups I’ve tried like gazpacho! It was indeed a refreshing way to start the meal. For my main I couldn’t go past the fettucini with creamy porcini mushrooms served with sautéed slices of beef tenderloin. This was incredibly rich but oh so delicious. Pat’s meal of ghoulash followed by prawns sautéed with garlic bacon served with spagettini and parmesan were reportedly pretty awesome too.

After Spoon, poor Pat, we ended taking this rather long walk that took us over the Chain Bridge to explore the Royal Palace and Castle Hill. His legs must have been dying. Yes, things are walking distance but it probably wasn’t a good thing for poor Pat’s legs to be traipsing around for nearly two and a half hours. In my defense it was a lovely afternoon for sight-seeing and we had some beautiful vistas from the top of the Castle Hill. At least we took the funicular up to the top which saved at least 20 minutes of walking 😉 And we did stop for some afternoon tea to sample some Budapest baking (as pretty as it looked it wasn’t all it cracked up to be …)

The day after the race we decided to visit the Széchenyi Bath. We were hoping to get massages too but unfortunately they were all booked out for the day. Still, the baths were pretty fun to explore. The pricing can be a bit confusing, despite being in English, but basically just pay for entry which will give you access to all areas. You can hire towels but the towels are more like sheets so I would recommend bringing your own. Flip flops aren’t particularly necessary as you’ll take them off to get in the pools anyway. There is a variety of indoor and outdoor pools (15 in total) – all at a varying temperatures. The outdoor pools have some interesting water features including a ring-fenced smaller part within one of them where you get in and it basically carries you around in a small circle (very entertaining) plus there are massage water founts (you stand under them to get a massage) and bubbling baths. Indoor and outdoor pools range in temps up to a maximum of about 38 degrees and inside you have steam rooms and saunas.

The indoor section also has a pool which is extremely cold. Moving between that one and the hot one next to it will give you a very tingly sensation. Not only are the pools warmed but they are also therapeautic so good for joints and arthritis. Drinking from the water well supposedly helps with internal issues also. To top it all off it is a beautiful venue. Plan to spend about 1.5 hours there. Although the baths are conveniently right next to the metro the park is a lovely site itself so worth a walk through, in particularly over the lovely pond which has some interesting art in the water. You can also hire a row boat for fun.

Starving after a relaxing morning at the baths, heh heh, Budapest surprised me again with its food. Mix is probably better know for being a nightclub but it also has a restaurant arm which during the week day offers an awesome, and very cheap, “business lunch” – ridiculously less than £5.00 for three courses plus mineral water! Actually, our drinks were nearly more expensive but we both had an iced coffee and lemonade each. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the quality of the food with the kitchen supposedly being led by Nicolas Delgado, who was responsible for earning Hungary’s first Michelin star at restaurant Costes. My paprika chicken, though mild in flavour, was incredibly well cooked and tender but it was Pat’s ribs which were the real winner. Juicy, falling off the bone and perfectly flavoured. I could have had lunch all over again just to have the ribs!

Energised after lunch we took a walk to the Central Market Hall or Great Market Hall. The largest indoor market in Budapest it offers all sorts of treats from fish and pickles, to meat, pastries, candies and spicies. It also offers a good place to pick up souvenirs and grab a bite to eat. There is a very popular, probably thanks to various guidebooks, Langos stand. This is a Hungarian specialty which consists of a deep fried flat bread topped with various toppings which could be sweet (fruits, chocolate syrup, raisins etc.) or savoury. Shame we’d just had lunch!

To properly walk off lunch we decided to head over to Margaret Island, stopping at quite a few ice cream/gelati joints to cool down. By the way I finally got to indulge in the infamous rice flavoured ice cream – which I had been going on about all weekend. I was happy that we finally spotted it as Pat was starting to think I’d made it up!

Margaret Island is only a couple of kilometers long and half a kilometer wide and its quite a popular green space. We spotted some of those pedalo bikes we’d had some much fun with in Rome. To be honest I was surprised that Pat was up for it as I thought his legs would be stiff from running the day before! We weren’t let down as it proved to be equally fun and it was a good way to see the highlights of the island pretty quickly.

Last Words

Although we’d seen a fair few things around Budapest I feel like we only scratched the surface of all the sights. For example, I’d like to come back and visit Parliament. It looked very grand from the outside and I imagine the interior is equally stunning. To visit a few more of the baths on my next visit would also be pretty cool. I was so happy by the friendliness of all the locals we came across. With the exception perhaps of one lady in the baths (she was still helpful but very slow!) everyone was super helpful and friendly. I heart Budapest!

One of the best ways to indulge in a totally relaxing weekend is to hop over to a friend’s house in another country and spend the whole weekend eating, sleeping, playing cards late into the night (or learning anyway!), relaxing in the garden, and acting like a kid again. The latter was achieved thanks to Nate and Caro’s very active son Gaspar, who is reaching that age where he wants to be part of everything and play everything, and their not-quite-crawling-yet-but-trying-hard-to baby Cesar. It is honestly astonishing how smart Gaspar is just a few months past his 2nd birthday he already knows how to switch on the TV (though this skill is yet to extend to realising that he should only put one DVD into the player at once ..) and, even more astoundingly, he already knows how to search for his favourite videos on youtube on the iphone! On the flip-side it means that you have to be on your toes in terms of keeping his attention! Cesar is pretty easy to handle at this stage – basically hold him and he’s happy! He is actually a very endearing baby and at the moment is very low-fuss 😉

I have to publish these photos of Gaspar though. Cracked me up and shows he has that modeling instinct in him!

The reason I was in Chateauroux with Nate and Caro was that basically they were introducing Cesar to extended family and friends. It was quite a party and the cooking and preparation was quite extensive. Aurelie, Caro’s sister, is quite the baker and it seemed like Caro and Aurelie were cooking and preparing non-stop for a couple of days!

In the mean time I was lucky to just sit back and take it all in, especially the delicious food that included:

Gourmet pizzas. Leave it to the French to put foie gras on their pizzas available for delivery! Even better, for me, is that the particular pizza place we ordered from had a number of crème fraiche (as opposed to tomato sauce) based pizzas which are right up my alley.

Fresh rotisserie rack of ribs, paella and pate from the local market. The ribs were Nate’s choice and were incredibly good. Tasty, tender, juicy and just oozing from the drippings of the roast chicken. So good. The pate was massive – the terracotta tray?bowl? not sure what to call it – was easily the 40cm in length. Caro said that she didn’t even have to pay for it until she returned the container to the market!

Tarte flambée – so yum.

And this is a treat that shouldn’t be overlooked. An incredible pastry … not sure why I thought it also needed ice-cream. It was pretty delish on its own. Caro’s family were very lucky that at this stage I was over-stuffed from the ribs and paella!

The weather was incredibly nice in Chateauroux whilst I was there. So nice that Caro even set up my laptop so I could sit in her garden and work on this blog! Heh heh. The good weather continued to the day of the lunch where more food and whole lot of alcohol was consumed.

There was literally a whole box of champagne that was consumed right at the end of the day. And, as happens when people have imbibed, the natural next step is to try and fit a latex glove over one’s head! LOL.

There was sooo much food that surprisingly one of the crumbles wasn’t even touched at the end of the day. I soon took care of that problem … and I’m not ashamed to admit that on my last day in Chateauroux I had some of the rest of the crumble with salted caramel ice cream for breakfast! A perfect end to my visit!