Budapest is the largest city in Hungary and serves as its capital. It is one of those cities which you could get excellent pictures just by holding up your phone and snap pictures without looking. Its natural beauty makes it impossible to take bad pictures. (Below: pictures of the Parliament from afar and up close).

Budapest is an easy city to navigate, the metro system brings you everywhere. The city itself is also compact/well designed as most interesting places are within walking distance. The streets are packed with restaurants, clubs, cafes, and shops. Budapest is a vibrant city to say the least. What impresses me the most is the balance between the old and the new. A lot of the buildings are old (some of them retrofitted), but that doesn’t stop modernly designed cafes, bars, and shops from being adjacent to these old buildings, or even occupying them.

One of my highlights of the trip is meeting up with my friend, Timea, she pampered me and brought me to lunch at Most followed by a few hours of soaking in the Szechenyi Themal Bath. We wrapped it up with desserts at Gerbeaud. Selfie time-

Since you can’t see the thermal pool behind our heads, here is another picture to give you the full view of the outdoors pools of Budapest’s biggest thermal bathhouse with 18 pools. Budapest is famous for its thermal bath houses, some of them feature outdoor pools (Szechenyi),  others rooftop pool (Rudas) or art decorated bathhouse (Gellert).

I also love the castle area in the Buda side where the art museum, national museum, the library, and the castle are located. I will spare you from more pictures of buildings, but here is a statue:

Near the church in the castle area, I stumbled across Drakula’s labyrinth. It was 90F during the day and I thought the dungeon caves would be a good break from the heat. Bad idea. The labyrinth which Count Drakula was kept after King Mathias captured him from Transylvanian was creepy, dark, and sparse with visitors. Whoever designed the displays went all out by enhancing the underground tunnel with occasional wax figures dressed in opera costumes and decided to play opera music in the background. Right after I took the following picture, I ran into Dracula’s box.

As one of the visitors put it, the underground cave cooled our outsides, but our insides were boiling with stress from fear. The 30 mins underground felt like eternity.

Anyways, back to the warm and sunny day most suitable for a beer. Ruin pubs is a thing in Budapest where bars are inside rustic/industrial looking buildings. It’s definitely worth a visit!

Other sites I visited: Jewish museum, the opera house, chain bridge, the Basilica,  Magaret Island.

Recommendations: I used airbnb and found an $18/night nice apartment in a central location. Everything in Budapest is at least 50% off American price. A typical lunch is about $3-5. You can get a 7 day bus and train pass for ~$15. Beers are $2-4.

Places to eat and drink: Most, Godzu Udvar (Cool food quarters), Gerbeaud, Trofea Grill, Szimpla Kert (ruin pub), Liebling, Vaci ut