Arrival in Budapest

After saying goodbye to Haji, I caught a late morning train from Vienna to Budapest 🇭🇺, the last stop on my trip. I have to say, it feels a little strange going back to travelling solo and staying in hostels after staying with Haji for the past few days!

While the cities I've visited so far this trip have felt firmly Western European in culture, I definitely feel like I've entered Eastern Europe in Budapest. However, compared to Bratislava and Targu Mures, the other main Eastern European cities I've visited, the soviet ⚒️ legacy here feels a lot less prevalent.

In the afternoon I went on a walking tour led by a Hungarian guy, who took us round the major sights in Pest including St Stephen's Basilica, the Hungarian Parliament Building and the controversial Nazi and Soviet war memorials. He re-affirmed a lot of what I had learned from the book on Budapest I'd read before coming to visit, particularly around Hungary's unique history and culture in the region, as well as Hungarian identity partly being driven by fighting (and most of the time losing) innumerable battles for independence.Read more