Night train to Budapest
July 07, 2024
A childhood train hobbyist, I enjoyed visiting various mountain villages and cities by rail during my first two months in Switzerland last year. It was especially fun to plan out journeys with multiple "via" stops and to read and understand all the routes and schedules. Impressed by the Swiss rail system, I wondered where else in Europe I could travel to by train from my home base in Zürich. Coincidentally, this article on European dining cars was published, and it linked to another article about European night trains being on the rise again. Taking a night train seemed like a novel experience for my semester abroad, so I began to search for potential routes, growing very familiar with the Man in Seat 61 website in the process.
I decided on Budapest and planned out a two-day, three-night trip from Saturday night to Tuesday morning. I took the EuroNight train from Zürich to Budapest on Saturday night, spent Sunday and Monday (May 1, a holiday) in Budapest, and took the return train on Monday night, arriving in Zürich on Tuesday just in time for my morning class. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I had a chance to explore both touristy and residential areas in the city.
I wrote down everywhere I went, took some photos, and tried to crosscheck everything against Google timeline, so this should be a high-fidelity recreation of my trip. Note that all photos have been scaled down to make the page load faster. Delete "resized/" from the image link to view the full image.
The trip (first half)
I reached Zürich HB on Saturday night and boarded the train. Here are some pictures of my four-bed couchette car and the outside of the train (taken from Budapest).
The train ride was uneventful, and we reached Budapest's Keleti train station Sunday mid-morning.
I found a highly-rated vegan restaurant called Napfényes Étterem nearby and headed there for an early lunch to start my day. There, I enjoyed a tasty bowl of goulash.
Next, I walked across the Erzsébet bridge to Buda, the west side of the city.
From there, I walked north through Buda and saw the Buda Castle, the Halazsbastya (Fisherman's Bastion), and the Matthias Church. Near the Halazsybastya, I stopped for a pastry at a cafe called Budavari Rétesvár. I continued to walk north around the city, eventually ending up at a cupcake shop named Cupcake Tortamuhely. I sat for a while on the patio, eating a cupcake, watching the street, and enjoying the weather. Afterwards, I doubled back towards the Halazsbastya to a popular confectionary named Ruszwurm Cukrászda, where I ate a tasty cream pastry.
I then walked along the river and took a picture of the Hungarian Parliament Building on the other side.
As the evening hours started to approach, I looked online for significant but lesser-known spots nearby and found the Gül Baba Tomb and Rosegarden, a tomb and rose garden dedicated to the eponymous Gül Baba, an Ottoman poet from the sixteenth century. I walked around for a few peaceful minutes before it closed at 18:00.
Looking for interesting and unique activities to fill the evening, I discovered a nearby pinball museum called the Flipper Museum. This was completely unexpected and I decided I needed to check it out. Coincidentally, there was a vegan restaurant named Tökmag Vegan Street Food just a couple streets away, so I crossed over the Margit bridge and made my way to the restaurant. At Tökmag, I enjoyed a veggie burger (I believe it was housemade).
I then went to the Flipper Museum for a few hours. It was nominally a museum but really just a pinball arcade with all sorts of historic and current machines. Nevertheless, it was fun to stay there for a few hours and play on the different machines.
I paid the cashier when I first arrived, and he asked "Are you from Texas?" as he saw my burnt-orange Texas t-shirt, to which I nodded. Then he said something like "yes! guns, rebels, yeah!" Quite an interesting interaction (though that's what I get for wearing the Texas tee abroad).
After satisfying my pinball quota, I started walking back towards my hostel on the south side of Pest. Expecting the view from the riverside to be excellent at night, I cut past the Hungarian Parliament Building.
Then I walked south along the east side of the Danube, experimenting with my camera's exposure settings as I took some pictures.
On the way back to the hostel, I stopped at Kürtőskalác Astoria, a kürtőskalác stall in the Astoria train station. Kürtőskalács, or chimney cakes, are a classic Hungarian dessert that originated in Transylvania as a savory cake. It was transformed by the Hungarians into a sweetened dessert and caught on, spreading to several neighboring states as well. One website suggested that the most authentic kürtőskalács were found at train stations, so I figured (correctly) that I couldn't go wrong with Kürtőskalác Astoria.
With my kürtőskalác in one hand and Google Maps in the other, I kept walking south until I reached the Meininger Hostel. Once there, I checked in, went to my room, and soon went to bed.
The trip (part two)
On Monday morning, I woke up, got ready, and went downstairs to eat breakfast in the hostel lobby. The breakfast spread was quite formidable.
Near the hostel was Corvinus Egyetem (Corvinus University), so I couldn't help but stop by and take some pictures.
Since most of Sunday focused on Buda, I figured I would explore spend Monday exploring Pest. I saw that the Hungarian National Museum was nearby. Unfortunately, they were closed on Mondays so I just walked around and took some pictures from the outside.
At that point, I was near the university quarter of the city. Since I had already stopped by Corvinus, I decided to walk around and look at some of the other local universities. Notably, I came across the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, which is affiliated with the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program to which I had considered applying if my Zürich exchange had fallen through.
Just north of the university quarter was the old Jewish quarter of the city. I walked around and looked at the historic Dohány Street Synagogue from the outside. On the back side of the synagogue, I saw the Tree of Life memorial, a Holocaust memorial commemorating the Hungarian Jews murdered in World War II.
After World War II, the Jewish quarter was populated with so-called "ruin bars" and gentrified into a heavily touristy neighborhood, with a variety of culinary options in the vicinity. However, I settled on Gettó Gulyás, a Hungarian restaurant which had some interesting vegetarian options.
After my late lunch, I continued heading north and stopped at the Opera House, which had recently finished being renovated. I didn't enter the hall itself, but I explored some of the rooms inside the venue.
From the Opera House, I walked to St Stephen's Basilica, another historically and architecturally significant spot in the city. Next, I walked towards the river and then turned north towards the Hungarian Parliament Building. Past the Parliament, I found more kürtőskalács at Pékség és Kávézó. These were equally tasty and I was glad to have stopped there.
Reaching the north end of my desired zone of exploration, I started walking southeast in the direction of the opera house. Along the way, I passed through the theater district and saw the outside of some of the theaters in the district.
Just past the theater district was a statue of the famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in the eponymous Franz Liszt tér (square). At the end of the square was a music academy and a statue of another famous Hungarian musician, the conductor Georg Solti.
From the Franz Liszt tér, it was a short walk north on Andrássy út (avenue) before I crossed the Oktogon. I continued north on Andrássy út until I passed the Terror Háza Múzeum (House of Terror, which was unfortunately closed on Mondays). Across the street was another park called the Hunyadi tér. I sat there and enjoyed the weather for around twenty minutes before proceeding. I continued up Andrássy út until the next major intersection, the Kodály körönd. This consisted of four statues of significant figures from Hungary's early modern era.
I kept walking northeast along Andrássy út and finally reached the Városliget (City Park), which encloses some of the city's most famous tourist attractions. I walked through the Hősök Tere (Heroes' Square), an outdoor commemoration of significant figures in Hungary's history. Adjacent was the Szécheny Thermal Bath, which I decided to skip (I'm not really a spa person). The next attraction was the Vajdahunyad vára (castle), another neat architectural structure.
The park contained lots of greenery and a nice lake which I walked around. When I was ready to go, I continued to walk through the park. Along the way, I came across some fellow UT students at a farmers' market who shouted "Hook 'em" to me as they saw my (second) Texas t-shirt. There was also some big festival going on in the park.
Unexpected Basketball
As I prepared to exit the city park, I noticed an outdoor public sports court where tons of people seemed to be playing basketball. Since I had a couple hours until my train ride, nothing else planned, and only a backpack with me, I decided to check it out. I played two-on-two and three-on-three with some high-schoolers and adults. The language barrier was no problem: give-and-go and pick-and-roll are universal concepts.
Once I was done playing basketball, I thanked my new friends, wished them farewell, walked the remaining ten minutes to the train station, and prepared to head back to Zürich.
Final Thoughts
This was a great first taste of Budapest, in the form of a self-guided, twenty-five-mile, two-day walking tour of the city. I ate several classic Hungarian dishes in vegetarian form and had a ton of dessert, including the delicious kürtőskalács. It was super easy to get seated at restaurants as a single person.
I would definitely return to Budapest. Perhaps next time I'd spend some time in the House of Terror, the Fine Arts Museum, and the National Museum, since they were all closed this time. It would be fun to see the opera of another historic musical city, as I did with my family in Wien. I would also try to explore the rest of the region through some day trips.
Taking the night train both ways was a nice touch, both as a convenience (saving me two days of travel and two nights of lodging) and a novelty.
At one point, I sat down at a restaurant, was handed a menu, and couldn't identify anything vegetarian. I inquired with the host who responded, "This is Hungary, we serve meat with meat."