A Postcard from Budapest

At the end of December, after Christmas and before dissertation stress, my boyfriend and I jetted off to Budapest for new year. We flew from Aberdeen to London then onto Budapest. Despite long delays in London we arrived late Friday night ready to get up and explore on Saturday morning.

I had downloaded Lonely Planet Budapest for my ipad before we left so had a pretty clear idea of everything I would like to see. On the first day alone we visited the 'Great Market Hall' and had a walk across the river to Budapest castle and Fishermans Bastillon for the views over the city.

In the evening we almost failed at finding somewhere for tea because it didn't occur to us we might have to book, a lot of steps later and some tense words we found an italian on the main street that was delicious.

On our second day, New Years Eve, we headed north from our hotel walking through the Jewish Quarter to the 'Szechenyi Thermal Bath' and even though we didn't go in the entrance was impressive enough. We then stumbled upon Heroes Square as the sun was setting. By that point we'd we'll passed our steps target and got a taxi back to the hotel for a power nap.

In the evening we pre-booked Jamie's Pizzeria in this really cool part of town with lots of restaurants. It was one of the best pizzas I've ever eaten out so I'd definitely recommend that. Afterwards we found a pub for a few drinks before heading to a square to bring in the new year surround my people are fireworks. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel via the river which was beautiful - the best new year I've ever had.

On our final day I was determined to see the parliament building but apart from that it was pretty chilled. We had breakfast at 'Astor Food Room' and just did some general exploring trying to take as much of this awesome city in as possible.

In the evening we booked 'Trófea Grill Restaurant' which was an all you can eat (and drink) buffet style restaurant with lots of Hungarian food. Perfect if you want to try things without commiting and the deserts were amazing... it didn't stop me from having a Hungarian chimney cake on the way back to the hotel though.

Honestly Budapest is probably the best city I've ever been too. I can't quite put my finger on it but there was so much to see and the atmosphere on the freezing cold days was lovely. I'd recommend it to anyone!

Now where would you recommend for next new year?