Food, Hungary

Travel the Pest Side of Budapest Part One

February 22, 2017

Buckle up ladies and gents, cause this is gonna be a very long post that full of pictures and pictures and pictures because I love it to be very visual. Anyway, on my second day traveling in Budapest, My buddy and I walked from site to site and from Pest to Buda, trying to see everything in a limited time. In the end, one of my finger toes bleed to death, if I’m allowed to exaggerate. But in this blog post, it’s only gonna be about the Pest side of Budapest and I will divide it into several parts because if not it’s gonna be damn long of a post. For those who are looking for the Buda part, patience is a virtue my friend.

Okay, where do I start? Well of course we always start with breakfast. No one wants to be grumpy in a beautiful city like Budapest.

Vintage Garden Restaurant

I made a blog post especially for Vintage Garden Restaurant that you can look in this link. It is a French style restaurant with a top-notch decoration inside. The ambiance really do make you think like you’re somewhere in provence or something. It was also located in the inner city of Pest side of Budapest, and quite approachable from my Airbnb where I stayed at. Once again, if you want to see all the pictures and stuff of Vintage Garden Restaurant, you can click the link here.

Spinoza Cafe

Breakfast wouldn’t be complete without an appropriate dessert and coffee. Just around the corner from Vintage Garden Restaurant, Spinoza Cafe has quite a ratings from the internet and I decided to go for it. The Spinoza’s cappuccino was great and the cake called Dobos Torta, which is a Hungarian cake that has layers and on top of it there’s caramel that’s really hard to be cut with only fork (but not impossible). The total price of two coffee and a cake plus service charge in Spinoza Cafe is around 2240 HUF or about €7,50. What I seriously like about this coffee house is the very friendly host/waiter/server.

Dohány Street Synagogue

Right after Spinoza Cafe, I make a route to Dohany Street Synagogue, which is the Jewish Synagogue. Sadly it wasn’t open for public during my trip in Budapest because they have like a celebration or something (I don’t remember clearly) and if you’re not Jewish, you cannot enter the synagogue. It still look pleasing just from the outside. Oh and look at that beautiful sky that looks so good with the Dohany Synagogue. I’m partly recommend this site because there would probably occasions where the synagogue is not open for public, but like I said, you can always just take picture from outside (and it’s free!).

St. Stephen’s Basilica

St. Stephen’s Basilica also not far from the Dohany Synagogue. Still in the Pest side too. I didn’t get in to the St. Stephen’s Basilica due to tight schedule, but I believe that the basilica is a Roman Catholic church (thanks to Google for the info). I also find out that Stephen is a very popular name in Budapest (or maybe in the whole country) because it is the name of the first king of Hungary. I really like the architectural of St. Stephen’s Basilica, and every single building in Budapest! I Googled what kind of architectural style it is and it’s neo-classical, somewhat like almost like Italian renaissance but not really (trust me, I’m not an architecture student and it confused me too). I like that the St. Stephen’s Basilica is a nice place to take Instagram picture (let’s be real here). There are some spots that my friend and I took quite a lot.

Hint for social media picture: It’s definitely not in the entrance or the front of the Basilica. You should go around the building and from there you can find some quiet spot to take picture without a rush.

Gelarto Rosa

Just across St. Stephen’s Basilica, there’s this little ice cream haven called Gelarto Rosa. Basically they’re selling gelato in the shape of rose. Not only it’s visually pretty, it’s also a delicious gelato, not to be compared with Italy of course. You can combine flavors and the more you pay, the more flavors you can get. They will make the rose gelato in front of you which I think it’s pretty cool. Gelarto Rosa is packed with tourists because it’s located very strategically just across the basilica. Fortunately it stopped raining and beautiful sunshine complimented my gelato perfectly.