Budapest was another unexpected trip; however, this was one of the cities that my husband travels at least twice a year and this was the perfect time. Since this was a working trip for him, I had enough time to explore the city and the hotel. Although unexpected because I had very short notice to decide, Budapest was an amazing city to explore and produced the best panoramic photographs, as it is one of the most beautiful cities in Central Europe.
As before, the first thing is to research all about the country and the city that I am visiting including weather, currency, visa requirements and tourist attractions.
Budapest is the capital city of Republic of Hungary. The city of Budapest was created 17th November 1873 when the cities of Buda and Pest joined together, the cities were separated by the famous Danube river. Budapest was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which dissolved in 1918 following World War I.
Hungary has been part of the European Union since 1st May 2004 and belongs to the Schengen area so a visa is required for some non-European, but check before travelling if it applies to you. Although Hungary is part of the European Union, they do not share the currency. The currency for Hungary is the forint but the Euro is accepted in some places. Therefore, it is recommended to change at the airport just after landing, as who has the time to search for it while on the taxi on the way to your hotel.
As part of my research, I check out all the most seen places of the city and make a list of things to see. I made three types of list, one for the interiors with opening hours, another one for the exteriors, and the last one about local handicraft markets. Usually during my husband’s business trip, I have more time than him so I cover all the spots on the lists and then I pick the best places for both of us to do together.
After my research, the first thing to do is packed. Since this will be my first trip focusing on photographing the best landscapes, I needed to consider my equipment and how best to map the best views of the city including my best walking boots and all-weather jacket for scouting the city. My adventure started on Wednesday 27th July 2016.
On Day 1, I took the flight after office and it took around four hours as it had a short stop in Brussels. When I arrived to the airport the customs queue was so big that it took me more than an hour to exit. My husband was waiting for me that long and he was starting to get worry, as he arrived the previous Sunday for an entire week of work at Budapest. After my long day, I had a nice dinner and needed to rest for the next day.
On Day 2, I woke up to a wet Budapest, therefore, I decided to spend the entire day walking and scouting by foot the perfect photographic locations. I wanted to explore the area around the hotel, check the transportation links and got myself couple of maps. This is my standard procedure when arriving to a place. However, since my husband was working, it was time to explore this myself. I gather my street photography equipment and I was ready for scouting.
We stayed in the Kempinski Hotel, which is on the Pest side near the Ersebet Garden. Budapest has one of the best transportation links, therefore, I decided that the best way to cover the city was by foot and public transportation, since this is the best way to get the best photos of the place.
The first stop in the tour was to familiarise myself with the ticketing system for the public transportation and the nearest metro station, which in this case was Deak Ferenc ter. Then I walked towards the shopping centre area where the Hard Rock Café is and then towards the bank of the river to start my walk. Between the bank of the river and the promenade are the tram lines. Within the promenade there are multiple metal sculptures, for the perfect selfie. This side of the bank is the perfect spot to see the entire Buda Castle.
My walk took me across the Chain Bridge (Szechenyi Lanchid) and to the Buda side. The Chain Bridge is a suspension bridge made of iron and stone and has amazing masonry and the details is perfect. The bridge led me to Buda Castle Funicular station down the hill. After my walk, the rain kept going so I took refuge in a coffee shop and waited until the rain reduced to made my way to the hotel. There, I waited for my husband to have dinner and planned the next day.
On Day 3, I woke up to a sunny and perfect picture Budapest and after an afternoon of planning, scouting for photographs and familiarising myself with the transportation links, I was ready for exploring the city on my own as it was my husband’s last day at work.
After breakfast, my first stop was the get my travelcard. Budapest has a 24-hour travelcard for all transportation within a zone, fortunately all the touristy part is just one zone. I decided that the best way to enjoy the views of the city was to take the tram rather than the metro.
The plan for this day was to cover all the major tourist attractions by tram and explored with my husband the most important ones the following day. Therefore, the day was packed with four routes to cover.
I took Tram 2 next to the promenade near the hotel towards Kozvagohide, which runs south all the way to the Great Market next to the Freedom Bridge, where I stopped to take pictures. Then I took Tram 1 towards Becsi Ut, which runs all around the east side of Pest up to the north of Pest and stop at Mexikoi Ut. After arriving to Mexikoi Ut, I saw that I was off my destination and then I took the metro to Hosok tere (Heroes Square) for a photographic session. The square has two beautiful buildings containing two lovely museums and the millennium monument.
After an amazing photographic session, I took the bus towards the Castle. I took bus 105 towards the castle and change near the hotel to bus 16, which is the only bus that goes up the hill and nearest to the castle gates. The bus route goes through the most glamorous part of the city where it has amazing buildings in a wide variety of styles, it is the most photograph area as it also includes the biggest shopping street in the Budapest.
The Buda Castle, as its name depicts it is on the Buda side, is the main building of the Castle District. The building castle is mostly Baroque style; however, the castle district also contains medieval, baroque and neoclassical buildings which house a variety of establishments including houses, churches and public buildings.
After visiting the Buda Castle, my next stop was the Citadella at Gellerthegy, where the best views of the city are. The only way to reach the Citadella is by bus and for this I took bus 16 from the castle to downhill, then I took tram 56A towards Moricz Zsigmond korter and then bus 27 toward the Citadella. The bus does not take you next to the Citadella, this requires a bit of a hiking, however, the views on every spot of the hike were amazing but the one on the Citadella was breath taken as you have a 180° view of the bank of the Danube river.
After enjoying my hiking to the Citadella, the last leg of my trip took me through the National Museum at Kalvin ter, Great Synagogue at Astoria and ending with St Stephen’s Basilica at Deak Ferenc. For this I took the bus down to Moricz Zsigmond korter and then tram 49 towards the great market, however, the Petofi Bridge was closed for maintenance so instead of crossing by tram I had to cross by metro towards Kalvin ter which was my first stop. After this, I continued my trip by tram as planned.
After a long day of travelling, my last stop was at my hotel and then I went to my room to rest and waited for my husband for dinner. While waiting, I reviewed the photographs and my plans for the next day which I planned to visit all the places again but now with the best companion ever. And after two days of scouting, I knew all the best photographic spots.
On Day 4, we woke up to a sunny day in Budapest so we decided to have breakfast at the Great Market Hall. After buying our travelcard, we took tram 47 towards Fovam ter. We search the market for something to eat, but there were limited places with cooked food. Therefore, we decided to go out and find a nice restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, rather brunch, we went handicraft shopping in the market and we found amazing things so we went crazy buying.
After brunch and shopping, we were ready to start our tour of Budapest. The first stop was Buda Castle district, to reach there we took tram 2 and dropped next to the chain bridge and then took bus 16 towards the castle. The best part of travelling with my husband, although visiting the same things I did before, we always manage to see different things as he wants to explore every single little place.
The bus stop is in the middle of the castle district, in one side you have the castle and in the other you have different houses and there is also the Matthias church. The Matyas Templom (Matthias church) is Roman Catholic church built in 1015 and has a Romanesque style. The contrast between the white of the building and the colour roof tiles, make of this church an amazing building. The church is surrounded by a court yard which hosts the St Stephen statue and the end of the building from the bottom of the hill looks like a castle and it is called the Halaszbastya (Fisherman’s bastion).
After taking as many photographs as possible covering every angle of the place, we decided that it was time to go to the Buda Castle. The Buda Castle currently hosts a lot of government building, which are out of limits, however it also hosts as many as four museums. The museums are Budapest History Museum (art and architecture), Hunyadi udvar, Oroszlanos udvar, and Budavari Palota (Hungarian art collection). However, we were more interested in the views than the collections and we decided to continue our trip of Budapest.
After the amazing visit to the castle, we decide to cover the bank of the river but now from the side of the castle. We took bus 16 and dropped at Clark Adam ter to take amazing photos with the best view of the chain bridges. After taking some amazing photographs, we decided to continue our tour of the bank and we took tram 41 towards Batthyany ter to take photographs of Orszaghaz (Parliament Building). The colours of the sunset made the building looked pink, it was an amazing view and the photographs were great.
After this we decided that I had just enough light to photograph one more building and we decided that this would be St Stephen’s Basilica. We took back tram 41 and then bust 105 towards the Basilica. We arrived just in time to take some details photos of the external building before sitting down and to see how the colour of the sky changed from pink to purple to black. This was our last stopped in our Budapest tour and was an amazing ending to an amazing trip.
On Day 5, we woke up to a quiet Budapest and after packing, we were ready to check-out and leave to UK. We waited in the hotel lounge until it was time to take the taxi towards the airport and leave for home. The flight went without incident and we were back in London in the evening. After a couple of hours in the taxi, we arrived home.
We had an amazing trip, I was able to visit another capital city of Europe and the people and the environment were amazing I will highly recommend. Budapest is a small city proud of its history and able to combine tradition with modern architecture.
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