We ended our time in Vienna with another cold 3 degree morning, but it was again beautiful and sunny start to the morning with blue skies. The weather in Vienna had been pretty good, and we’d enjoyed some great Winter days for exploring the city over the past 3 days. It had been much better than our visit in January 9 years earlier. We weren’t going to be so lucky with the weather in Budapest!

We farewelled Lorraine, after several weeks away, and our magical white Christmas she was homeward bound. Anto and Soren helped her and her bags (also full of our excess bits and pieces and many gluhwein mugs) to the bus station, enroute to the airport. It was then time for the remaining 7 of us to say goodbye to our giant Vienna apartment and and head in the opposite direction. We’d opted to take the bus to mitigate the walking uphill with bags and it was a super easy transfer. That was where our luck ended.

Crazy crowded trains….

We were headed to the HBF, where our train to Budapest was already running late. This was not an auspicious start for the long trip. We hung out inside in the warm and made sure we purchased plenty of snacks and lunch from the HBF supermarkets.

Once on the platform there were a giant pile of people and bags lining up to get on the train, and it only got worse. It was one of the most chaotic train trips ever, and we’ve done quite a few! Even on the platform, we were in the right spot but heaps of people weren’t and there were bags and people going everywhere….. and no one was moving due to the log-jam. Whistles were frantically being blown and there was a wall of people to get through. We’d managed to get Astrid on the train ahead of us, and in the end we piled into a different carriage and took forever to get to her through all the people. We thought she’d be panicking we weren’t on (which she was).

We had to kick people out of our seats, repeatedly, as we actually had reserved seats and there were twice as many people as seats by the end. Many people were were not moving out of reserved seats and there quite a few cranky passengers. Bags were all through the aisles and people were sleeping and sitting on floors and bags for the entire trip.

We were in second class for this leg, but Max and Di up in first class didn’t even get seats so were not having a good time either. Every stop it got worse. Astrid was in the bay behind the luggage racks behind the rest of us, and there were about 8 people between her and us. Most of them were sleeping semi-drunk in the aisles. It was a very long 2.5 hours, and especially with the Vienna sunshine giving way to fog and grey (with some snow) pretty quickly.

Luckily we passed the time eating our train station snacks and a bit of unfettered device time for the kids. No one was game to leave their seat to go anywhere as it was unlikely you’d get it back!

Welcome to Budapest….

The train had continued to lose time throughout the trip, but we made it to Budapest late but by 3pm. This was the first time for our family in Hungary, and a new country to add to our list! Di had been to Budapest before but the collective ability of our group to speak any Hungarian was exactly zero.

Once off the train we were reunited with Max and Di and we were all extremely glad to be off that train. Exiting the train station it was cold, foggy and minus 1. That was pretty much the weather we got for our entire stay in Budapest.

Despite Budapest not being all that far from Vienna, the architecture couldn’t be more different.

Our apartment for our Budapest stay was in the Jewish quarter, right in the old town. This did mean it was a pretty quick transfer to get there, with a short train and not too much walking. When you first arrive somewhere it’s always feels like you are wandering the cobbled streets dragging your bags for a great distance, rather than a mere few hundred metres, that are a breeze to walk down sans bags.

It turned out our connected apartments were nice and big, and they must have heard we’d had a crappy train trip so left us some Hungarian champagne to cheer us up. After a quick bit of unpacking we thought we’d lift our collective spirits and head off and find some Christmas markets. It might have been the 30th of December but there were still markets running here in Budapest!

Markets and lights….

It was well and truly dark by 4pm in Budapest at this time of year, so it was out into the dark and cold. The streets around our apartment were filled with interesting street art and plenty of lights and Christmas decorations.

It didn’t take long to spy a giant Ferris wheel and a market, not far from our apartment. The food smells were delicious but the prices left a bit to be desired for the food. Budapest was a lot cheaper than some of the other cities we’d visited on this trip but the food prices at the Christmas markets seemed to be an exception. We all thought we’d pass on the market food today and try and find a restaurant with some local food.

A Michelin dinner to remember…..

It was now just after 5pm but felt much later after our rather long day of travel. We happened past a Michelin starred restaurant with very reasonable prices. The kids had been banging on about wanting to go to a Michelin starred restaurant as we’d seen many in cities we’d visited on this trip. Given their table manners and the Euro to AUD conversion we weren’t sure this was a good idea! Today though we were very tempted, and when we went to inquire they said they had a table as long as we were out in 2 hours. Sold!

The restaurant had modern Hungarian food and was very good, so we enjoyed a lovely posh dinner in our finest filthy train clothes! We hadn’t planned on going anywhere posh so were definitely not dressed for the occasion….

The food was delicious and we even indulged in some dessert and local Hungarian wine. We had a lovely waitress and we had a great chat about Budapest and learnt a lot. The waitress did agree the market prices for food are terrible and she was disgusted they don’t even cook it all fresh, like they do there.

Light shows and palinka….

After our very impressive meal we head to the famous Vorosmarty Square where there was another market. The food was definitely less appealing now we had full bellies.

We also had a wander down Vaci Street, the fashion capital of Budapest. We were definitely not dressed for high end shopping, but the lights and decorations were rather impressive.

Budapest city area is very walkable and in a short stroll we were at the St Stephen’s Basilica market for some souvenir shopping. After many markets in many countries, you do see a lot of the same souvenirs, but some of the Hungarian offerings were quite different and the Basilica had a great light show going on. The kids found a few special souvenirs, and Max a few more things to add to his Santa collection. We also tried plenty of the local honey and were introduced to our first taste of palinka.

Palinka is Hungarian fruit wine and we had heard it was a local delicacy. We thought we’d give it a taste. Anto got upgraded to the strong stuff (the stuff I had was plenty strong) as long as he did shots with the guy handing them out. We don’t even think they were selling it, just giving it to people to keep warm …… or for their amusement seeing your face as you chug it down as it’s pretty wild! We did feel a lot warmer after the Palinka so maybe there is something to it. It was now minus 2 but after chugging some of that stuff you kind of didn’t care any more…..

All enjoying this market we caught the light show at the Basilica.

It was 8.30pm and getting rather cold so it was back to the apartment. Our first few hours out exploring Budapest, and an excellent meal, had certainly made up for the rather average trip from Vienna to Budapest. We were all looking forward to spending the last day of 2024 exploring more of Budapest.

Up next….

A New Years Eve to remember in Budapest. We checked out Christmas markets, food markets and plenty of impressive bridges. We had some very cold walks along the Danube by day and then a New Year’s Eve cruise along there by night. We then rang in the New Year with a crazy and mildly terrifying fireworks experience.