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Stoi Boy
Fresh ideas |
    
Am off to a wedding in the Czech Republic soon, but am going for 12 days so thought i would also head to Budapest for a few days. Anyone recommend the best places to stay, visit and drink in? Cheers.
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Total Posts: 7 | Joined Jan. 2003 | Posted on: 4:33 pm on June 25, 2003 | IP
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Mitre
Opinionated Wind Bag |
I sayed in Hungary for a year so I know Budapest very well. Its a great city.
Place I stayed in when I had friends over was the Hotel Fiesta. Very central. Website: http://www.hotelfiesta.hu/english/home.asp
For scran try the Cafes around Liszt Ferenc Ter. Personal fave is the Fortuca Bistro at number 10 and serves Mediterranean fare. You can get a half decent curry at the Bombay Palace on Andrassy Ut. Also recommend the Iguana (Mexican) at 16 Zoltan Utca and the Trattoria Toscana (overlooking the Danube) at Belgrad Rakpart. Expect to pay £15ish for a 2 courser and 4 beers.
Best bars are: Becketts & Captain Cooks in Bajcsy-Zsilinsky Ut, Portside on Dohany Ut, Old Mans Music Pub on Akacfa Ut & Marilyns (strip-bar) just off Kalvin Ter. Even next to the Hotel Fiesta on Kiraly Ut you can get a pint of local beer (Dreher & Soproni are the best) for around 50p in the local Hungarian bars. The folk are well friendly.
All the places are in Central Pest. This is the heart of the city. On the Buda side you have the Castle (which is nice and very touristy).
If you need anymore info nearer the time, geeza shout.
Have a good time. Its my favourite city in the world. If you are travelling with girlfriend/wife be careful as the women are jaw droppingly gorgeous.
(Edited by Mitre at 6:00 pm on June 25, 2003)
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Total Posts: 246 | Joined Feb. 2003 | Posted on: 5:55 pm on June 25, 2003 | IP
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Stoi Boy
Fresh ideas |
Thanks for that Mitre - a great help. I was supposed to be going with the missus, but we spilt up a few weeks back. And not neccessarily a bad thing by the sounds of it. Bring it on!
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Total Posts: 7 | Joined Jan. 2003 | Posted on: 9:18 am on June 26, 2003 | IP
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Slogan Call
Fresh ideas |
There is a Scottish pub called Sir William (I think on Raday Utca) in downtown Pest.
Nice bar, great city!
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Battle Dawn 1314
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Total Posts: 20 | Joined May 2002 | Posted on: 4:52 pm on June 27, 2003 | IP
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Paul NATA
GET A LIFE!!! |
I was in Budapest at Easter, and this is an exact copy of what I emailed my pal who was there 2 weeks later:
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I'd recommend getting the 11am bus from Deak Ter (opp Le Meridien hotel) to the Statue Park (just under £7 for the bus and entrance) full of old communist statues. There you can buy a "Simple Red Band World Tour 1917-1971" tshirt with Lenin, Stalin and Marx on. You get around 40 mins
at the park, but that's plenty as its just a group of statues in a park (but they do make for some good photos).
The obvious choices such as the Parliament building, the Palace and the Fishermans Bastion are worth a visit, and if you want to see a mummified saints hand, head for St Stephen's Basilica.
The one MUST-DO thing I'd recommend is the House of Hungarian Wines, opposite the Hilton hotel in the Palace Old Town bit - you pay a tenner each (3500 ft) and get a small tasting glass for keeps. For this you get two hours wandering around a wine cellar with around 50-60 open bottles of wine that you just help yourself to with your glass. Expensive-ish, but you can work hard and make it count! The Hilton over the road has an amazing wine cellar built into the hillside (i.e in a cave) - head in the front door, turn left past the bar and keep following the signs, even when they lead downstairs into the rock. Wine there is relatively expensive (£2-ish a glass) but it's worth a visit just for the one!
Be cautious in the touristy pubs on the main street (vaci utca) as they can scam tourists. There is a (posh) Scottish pub in a going-out street (Raday Utca) called Sir William (as in Wallace) - we left a Scotland France '98 scarf when we were there - its not worth hanging around in there. Another going out area is around Oktagon. If you go to West Station (Nugati Pu) and walk down Jokai St towards Oktagon, you'll pass the Crazy Cafe on the right (with all the beer signs outside) - worth popping in if you're there (just for the waitresses!). Jokai St heads up to Oktagon and the trendy street cafe-ish Liszt F ter.
If you get tired of the touristy city centre, and fancy a slice of real local life, you could head for the pubs near Kispest Honved's ground (Ferenc Puskas' old team, before he went to Real Madrid) - we saw them play when we were there. Get the blue metro (M3) to Hatar Ut, walk out the metro to the right and get a number 42 tram (it can come either side of the track as it's a terminus) - stay on it 6 stops to Tulipan Utca (look for a bunch of grapes and a borozo sign on the right 150m before the stop). The Borozo (at Ady Endre Utca 115) is a real traditional local - i.e. a room with a shelf to lean on and a handful of stools. The wine is served out of soup canteens on the counter into half-pint glasses and cost us 15p-30p a go (I think we were undercharged as we left a NATA pennant - look out for the yellow one on the wall). Wine bars in Hungary are not really full of women, but Helen was fine in there (after she politely refused a red wine spritzer!). Right next to the tram stop is another decent bar, and 150 yards on from the stop is a railway line (right next to the ground's turnstiles) - immediately right here is another good bar called Arena (although I did have to speak German to be understood!). To complete this, there's another bar inside the
ground (in the bottom of the Kispest Hotel building), although this might only be open for games. Well worth a trip if you want some local colour (even if there's no game on). If there is a game on there, Shannon should get in free - it'll cost you £3!
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Total Posts: 675 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 2:37 am on June 28, 2003 | IP
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giblet
GET A LIFE!!! |
What we would give for a game over there!
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"A huge Scotsman has been stood completely still, holding a football and a constant supply of two bottles of beer, staring into the square for , according to witnesses, two hours."
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Total Posts: 874 | Joined Feb. 2002 | Posted on: 7:40 am on June 28, 2003 | IP
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Paul NATA
GET A LIFE!!! |
Giblet - have to disagree a wee bit having been there - I thought it was a wee bit disappointing. It's completely different type of place from Prague. It's also very much a wine-drinking place.
Personally, I'd love to go back to Sarajevo to see how its changed since 1999 (but that would be the basis of another thread).
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Total Posts: 675 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 4:42 pm on June 28, 2003 | IP
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Mitre
Opinionated Wind Bag |
I think the problem with Budapest is that its almost twice the size of Prague. The main city centre is spread out a lot more and you really need to take a taxi to different busy areas. Walking about (a la pub crawl) is very difficult due to the distances you need to travel.
Disagree about Budapest being a 'wine drinking place.' Although there are a few wine bars around and Hungarian wine being pretty famous, most of the places I went to were 'boozers' and the locals are all aleheads.
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Total Posts: 246 | Joined Feb. 2003 | Posted on: 5:25 pm on June 28, 2003 | IP
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Paul NATA
GET A LIFE!!! |
I suppose what I should have said is that "wine bars" aren't really what we're used to back home - more drinking dens full of old men.
I wasn't a big fan of the beer - not a patch on Czech beer.
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Total Posts: 675 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 6:40 pm on June 28, 2003 | IP
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joecraigfanclub
GET A LIFE!!! |
If you had to speak German to make yourself understood its a sad day for mankind
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Total Posts: 669 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 8:08 am on June 29, 2003 | IP
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Wee Dave
Something to say |
went to budapest last year as part of our interrail travels round eastern europe
have to say that we were a wee bit dissapointed, though we were not too sure where we were going etc...
however if u go be sure to check out if the e-club has any events on. when we went there was a foam party: the only place i have ever been out in where a) there were more burdz than blokes, and b) every single girl there was absolutely stunning (and i mean stunning)
have fun
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Total Posts: 75 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 9:05 pm on July 13, 2003 | IP
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ScottishMagpie
GET A LIFE!!! |
Old Man's Music Pub is worth a visit.
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Total Posts: 598 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 10:36 am on July 18, 2003 | IP
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weekevie
GET A LIFE!!! |
I am seriously considering Budapest in the moment but can anyone give me advice on how to get from airport to hotel is their a bus and any cheap airlines that fly out there? cheers
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Total Posts: 704 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 6:36 pm on July 25, 2003 | IP
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Mitre
Opinionated Wind Bag |
KLM is probably your cheapest option. http://www.klm.com/uk_en/index.jsp Should get it for £170 return from Glasgow via Schipol.
Germanwings is another possiblity. http://www33.germanwings.com/index.en.shtml Edinburgh via Cologne/Bonn. Don't know the cost of this option.
From airport you can get a taxi (£12-£17) to central Pest. There is also a bus from the airport into town which costs about £3. The cheapest way to get into the city centre is the bus (93 i think) to Kobanya Kispest (the metro terminus) and get the metro in. It costs about £1 all in.
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Total Posts: 246 | Joined Feb. 2003 | Posted on: 8:44 pm on July 25, 2003 | IP
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Big Neil Fi Falkirk
Talks too much |
 
Quote: from Wee Dave on 9:05 pm on July 13, 2003
b) every single girl there was absolutely stunning (and i mean stunning)
Tell me about, I have just been there on my International Rail adventures (well still on tour, currently in Poznan heading to Vilnius), most birds out there are stunning.
When I get back home I will write a bit of my adventures. But lets say so far I have a few stories involving me getting somewhere with females for a change
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AKA the one and only SEXPEST
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Total Posts: 122 | Joined Nov. 2002 | Posted on: 12:36 am on Aug. 4, 2003 | IP
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Tartan Army Message Board
Budapest - digs and pubs?
