We had made our way to Margaret Island (Margit) just off Margaret Bridge in the middle of Buda and Pest – it seems that this place is one of Budapest’s best kept secrets from many young travellers because out of every blog post I read (which were numerous) and every friend and colleague I asked, none mentioned Margaret Island nor had heard of it when I returned and asked. And my, what they’ve missed out on. In the day time this is a beautiful island park with so many different areas to it that our weary feet didn’t make it to the other side. We came across a large water fountain that was mesmerising to watch in the day time, but so much more so at night – though I’ll get to that later. We strolled through the park as far as our legs would carry us before heading to a restaurant called Hippie Island.
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| The water fountain by day |
It can be hard for us to find somewhere good to eat that understands and caters for Jen’s allergies (egg and nuts) and despite having a limited menu when it came to meals without these ingredients, they did ok at providing her with a meal that would satisfy her. As we sat in the open top restaurant, the sun went down and darkness fell so we finished up our meal and started to walk back to our Boat Hotel. As we made our way towards the exit of Margaret Island we saw a plethora of lights coming from the water feature we had so enjoyed earlier that day. We walked to it and found a spot that didn’t block any one else’s view and stood there for over half an hour watching the show. It was a light show, perfectly timed with songs that suited a variety of listeners. Some people ballroom danced on the edges, others made the whole park their stage and then there were the few who were oblivious to the view of others and stood directly in the way, but we tried not to let our irritation towards the latter spoil it.
I filmed a fair amount of the show but peered over my phone (which you can catch on my Instagram!), determined to capture the moment but also experience it at the same time.
As the show came to a close we strolled back slowly on the left side of the bridge towards Buda, with a stunning view of the Hungarian Parliament, the Fishermans Bastion, Matthias Church and the rest of Budapest to admire. We couldn’t resist taking a few photos.
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| The Grand Jules Boat Hotel we stayed on with the beautiful sites of Budapest in the background |
The next night (don’t worry, I’ll cover all of our day time activities in another post or two!) we got a little dressed up and made our way leisurely to Hard Rock Cafe, where we knew for definite that Jen could find a good meal. The sun hadn’t yet set so we made our way passed some riverside bars and down to the Hungarian Parliament and walked alongside the Shoes on the Danube Bank, a heart wrenching monument to those that were murdered at the edge of the River Danube during World War II. It was quite hard to see and think about what had happened.
We moved on from here heading deeper into Pest and found Hard Rock Cafe on the edge of Vorosmarty ter (square). We spent a short time here, tucking into a salmon dinner and I had a mojito whilst Jen enjoyed a mocktail.
From here, we wanted to explore some of the sites within Pest by night.
We were aiming for one of the infamous Ruin Bars, though with Jen unable to drink due to health reasons and I not wishing to do so without her, we were only going just to experience it. We headed to what some call the ‘mecca of all ruin bars’, Szimpla Kert. It was honestly one of the most unsual things I have seen in my life. Each room had a different theme to it, some were playing House music and had a rowdy crowd, others were more like a dark coffee shop with people at tables having casual conversations. We hopped from room to room trying to see it all and take photos along the way. It was fairly busy but not as packed out as some of the clubs and bars we’re used to in the UK. Had we wanted a drink it wouldn’t have taken long at all to get one as the bars were mostly empty. It was only around midnight at this time though, and with many of the ruin bars closing at 4am or later this was probably early doors.
Post ruin bar tour, we began heading back to Buda taking a bit of a detour through side streets and eventually into a very large food court of sorts. The most unusual thing I found about Budapest pest is the lack of street lighting down the backstreets compared with the illumination of the rest of the city. Going down what were just flats and restaurants at night was as creepy as anything, but the rest of the city was blindingly bright. Whilst it is a relatively safe city, I wouldn’t recommend wondering down these streets alone. We passed through the numerous restaurants and bars, enjoying the scenery and headed back towards Margaret Bridge.
On our final night we took the opportunity to take the last boat trip of the day (8pm) that was included in the cost of our Hop on Hop off bus ticket. The queue was huge and there were two boats that were filled up. We managed to get seats on the front half of the boat but the sun was only mid way through setting so it was still fairly light. We got a good shot of its final descent and some great views of the Hungarian Parliament – it’s just a shame we didn’t get to travel up the River Danube a little later in the evening. We could have stayed on and gone all the way back round, but that would have meant walking right from the other side of Pest to the top end and over to Buda, so we decided to get off at the only stop along the route, Margaret Island.
We decided to return to see the light and water show once more, but despite getting a seat near to the water’s edge, several people decided to stand in front of us and at some point almost sit on our laps rather than find a spot around the edge. We came to find that the music and sequence of the light and water was a repeat of what we’d already seen anyway so we decided to leave, only a little annoyed at how inconsiderate others can be. It was our last view of all the city’s beautiful architecture illuminated and reflected by the River Danube so we of course snapped a few more photos before heading to our hotel to pack.
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