Budapest, Besties and Birthdays!

It was only a few weeks ago that Brad sent me an email with the top 10 things to do in Istanbul... it was also then that I realised Brad was somehow under the false impression that we were going to Turkey for my 30th birthday... He was almost right, just a few countries off! 

We jumped on a plane in the wee hours of the morning; destination Budapest (in Hungary, in case anyone else is confused...)! With a quick stopover in Madrid, and 6 short hours of flying, we were finally at our airbnb, right in the heart of Budapest city. The 38 degree heat was a very welcome surprise. 

The chain bridge - 5 minutes from our airbnb

We dumped our bags and set off to Sziget, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, which is held on a small island in Budapest on the Danube river. Our air bnb host warned us that the price of beer at Sziget had increased to ridiculous levels since she had been 7 years ago, however at around AU$3.20 for a pint of icy cold beer, we were NOT complaining. We hate to think what festival prices are back in Aus currently!!!

Functioning on only 4 hours of sleep in the 38 degree heat, we ran from stage to stage (so much music, excitement, music and beer and music!!!) and saw, to name a few: Asaf Avidan, Selah Sue, Florence and the Machine and Jungle.

The array of different foods available was an attraction in itself for us - having lived off only Iberico ham and bread and Iberico ham for the last 8 months (I know, poor us). We ate approximately every hour just to make sure we had sampled every cuisine available.

Mauritania even scored a mention

The next day, a very special pre-birthday gift arrived in Budapest all the way from the faraway land of Aus. Sure, the delivery of barbeque flavoured shapes & gravox were AMAZING, but the main event was our BFF Loz, who came to see us AND to attend her very first music festival. We prodded her around the city in her jet lagged state (she literally hadn't slept for 30 hours) and like a trooper, she kept up and even showed great amounts of enthusiasm.

The Great Synagogue - largest synagogue in Europe

Parliament lit up at night!

Our friend Agota also arrived into Budapest that day (you might remember Agota from such blogs as, "around the world in 12-ish months" and earlier entries of this very blog). Budapest is her home city - lucky girl - and this would be the SEVENTH country in which we have been lucky enough to see her! 

Off to Sziget we went again! A sweaty train ride down the banks of the Danube and Loz was finally at her first music festival!!! Yayyyyy! On the schedule that night were The Foals, Interpol, The Ting Tings, Ellie Goulding and MØ.

The bridge over to the island

Rock 'n' Roll baby!

....More food....

As the night wore on (and after we had sampled reasonable amounts of local beer, Palinka and Hungarian Rosé), we all fell into the same routine of: selecting outrageously hard to find meeting points, telling each other that we'd be "back in a minute", wandering off into the darkness to do something VERY important (we could never actually remember what that was once we left the group), somehow getting completely lost in small tent villages on the island in a blur of bright lights and music before finally stumbling across the meeting point 45 minutes later without any of the others even realising we had been gone.... Such was the magic of Sziget.

So many lights!!!

Main stage

It was a fantastic night and at midnight, as Interpol busted out some tunes in their suits (in the 38 degree heat - respect), my 20's ticked over into oblivion and my 30's came a-knockin'!

Still got it...

We left with the dirtiest of dirty feet, the 'ringiest' of ringing ears and the highest of high spirits... A successful first music festival experience for Loz and great times had by all.

You can stand under my umbrella!

Proving that life only gets better in your 30's, Agota rocked up to mine and her mum's birthday lunch the next day with only 2 hours of sleep and freshly self dyed pink hair to boot! We enjoyed a Michelin star lunch with Loz, Agota and her mum. It was SENSATIONAL and topped off with a dessert that literally had fireworks in it.

We then successfully ESCAPED from an escape room in the heart of Budapest. This was even after Agota (a seasoned professional) declared numerous times, "we are definitely NOT getting out of here!" - and having failed twice in Australia already, I must admit I wasn't too hopeful myself - but alas! Third time lucky!

Another successful first for Loz who later commented, "escape rooms actually ARE fun - who knew?!,".... Ummm, I am not sure why she would think being locked in a dark room with fake murder scenes, whilst having to solve mathematical problems in order to escape would be anything other than fun?!?

Success!!!

With 8 minutes to spare...

Tour guide Agota then took us out to a few ruin pubs in Budapest (bars built in the ruins of old buildings - amazing!). Then we went to yet ANOTHER island on the Danube to check out the magical musical fountain and the bars there. What an action packed 30th birthday!

Musical fountain

Four different beers tap at a ruin pub

Which beer to choose?!

Ruin Pub

The rest of our time in Budapest was predominantly spent eating delicious varieties of food (Hungarian Goulash and Vietnamese were on the top of my list!!), and of course ticking as many tourist attraction boxes as possible. What a fascinating city, 5 days was not enough. On the last day we said our goodbyes to Brad & Agota as Loz and I headed to Barcelona for our next adventure... Watch this space....

Hungarian Stew with dumplings - DELICIOUS

Parliament - just a tad more impressive than Canberra!

St. Mattias Cathedral

Touch the golden balls for goodluck!

Shoes on the Danube holocaust memorial

Turkish baths - surprisingly refreshing even at 38 degrees! Luckily we practically had the place to ourselves...

No laps without swimming caps!

Pho - too excited to smile for the photo