Budapest – travellingzombie.com

Unplanned Nights Out

It’s really nice to get glammed up and head off for a night on the town. Half of the fun is in the getting ready and the other half is reliving the memories the next day. Planned nights out can end up a little stale sometimes however, and it’s always those nights that just ‘seem to happen’ which make the best memories.

With that in mind, here are a round up our top 3 spontaneous nights out on our travels:

BBQ Party In Yosemite, California

A few baked potatoes and sausages made up most of our camping meals. One of the nights in Yosemite saw a family camp next to us – wow did they put us to shame!! They had floodlights, RVs, tables, chairs and so much food!! Being from the UK, we are naturally a reserved bunch but one of the guys bounded over and invited us to join them for dinner. I’m so glad we accepted, as the night was full of amazing food (including meat cooked in a hole in the ground!) excellent company and more than a few beers. We got to learn about them and their travels and even picked up a few camping tips along the way. It was lovely to be invited into someone else’s party and we had the best night of our trip.

Ruin Pubs in Budapest

Szimpla Kert was an amazing night out, but it took us a while to find it! You can read about it here.

Street Singing in Croatia

We were returning back from the little shops and wine bars in Split when we stumbled across an open air gig. One of the bars (Luxor) opens out on to a courtyard where lots of people (locals and tourists alike) sat watching the two performers, one singer and one guitarist.

They were playing a whole range of songs and the atmosphere was great. We sat down on the stone steps, under a blanket of stars and listened to the music play. We got speaking to a lady who was travelling with her university course and exchanged some conversation about places to visit, things to see and her observations on the city. We also might have shared a few chips! It was an easy and relaxed way to share experiences with others (even for an introvert like me!) and was one of the best evenings of our trip.

All of these spontaneous nights out had one thing in common; speaking to other travellers. Without chatting to other people, our experiences would have been far less interesting. We’d never have known where the best ruin pubs were, or learned about other people’s camping tips. Make a point of speaking to fellow travellers and locals, you’re far more likely to learn about a cool place to go.

From the Banks of the Danube River

An alternative view of Budapest

Whilst in Budapest, one of the main things that we wanted to do was to spend some time on the Danube. As Europe’s second longest river, we wanted to take some time to explore properly.

We had travelled to Budapest with a group of us, but had split up for the night to allow some time for the other two people in our travelling party to have a romantic meal out. Therefore, we found ourselves hopping on board a night boat to take a stunning trip down the Danube before meeting back up with our group for a trip to the ruin pubs.

The day before we had strolled down the riverbank in the Pest side of the City to take a look at the ‘Shoes on the Danube Bank’ memorial. Sixty pairs of shoes, made from iron are lined up on the river side to commemorate the massive loss of life of 3,500 people (mostly Jewish people) who were shot in 1945. After being told to remove their shoes and being shot, their bodies fell into the river, being swept away by the current. It’s a terrible reminder of the worst of humanity and seeing sixty pairs of shoes lined up along the river gives a sense of the scale of the atrocity.

The nighttime boat ride was a very different view as we passed the Hungarian Parliament buildings. Brightly shining against the dark night, it was an imposing building, full of grandeur and twinkling lights.

Chain bridge was magnificent to see in the dark and the sounds of the water rushing past us added to the experience. Illuminated gargoyles standing out in the darkness created a gothic edge to the views.

It was a beautiful way to see a different view of the city and travelling by river always feels much more exciting and exotic than by road.

Have you visited Budapest? What were your favourite experiences?

The Ruin Pubs of Budapest

The oldest ruin pub in Budapest – Szimpla Kert

We were sat on plastic, flip down seats, made out of an old theatre chair, screwed into a heavily graffitied wall. We’d made our way through the open-roofed maze of rooms and the sound of the music had faded a little, although the base could still be felt through the floor. We had headed down to Szimpla Kert, the original ruin pub in Budapest and it was certainly living up to it’s hype!

Ruin pubs make use of the run down, derelict spaces in Budapest, creating unique settings full of mis-matched furniture and creatively placed oddities. There is quite an interesting history to the ruin pubs, you can read more here: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hungary/articles/a-brief-history-of-budapests-ruin-bars/

Originally we had found what we thought to be Szimpla Kert and weren’t as impressed. After being told “Don’t turn left out of your hotel, not safe” by the taxi driver, we were understandably a little cautious! Therefore, when we went hunting, we’d found somewhere that proclaimed itself as ‘the original ruin pub’ and thought that we had reached our destination. We were somewhat unimpressed and couldn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. It quickly became clear that the small, narrow pub we were in was not the one we had set out to find and, after getting lost a couple of times, we found Szimpla Kert. Entering into the bar and taking a seat, we started to understand why it had come with such high recommendations.

Across the way from where we were sitting, there was an old car seat being used as theatre seating, in front of a projector screen showing films against a graffiti-ladened wall. Looking upwards, the court-yard between the two external walls was joined together by netting, flags and awnings, creating a market place type feel, enhanced by the rhythmic, yet unrecognisable, baseline supplied by a DJ who was strategically placed behind a wall of metal fencing and potted plants.

The vibe was that of a relaxed house party, groups of people sat chatting, people dancing, some playing with a prop or two (in this case a couple of bike wheels mounted on the walls) and others making use of the wall space to add their own graffiti to the blank spaces between other visitor’s scribbles. The eclectic mix of art and furniture matched the range of nationalities gathered in the bar, each bringing a little of their own culture to the shared experience. Each taking a little piece of the culture of the ruin pubs home in their heart.

http://en.szimpla.hu/