We took a three hour bus ride from Bratislava to Budapest, Hungary. To pass the time during the bus ride we watched the movie, Mystic River. We arrived to a rainy Budapest- it really seems to rain a lot in Europe in the winter! The bus dropped us off outside of the city and our initial impressions of Budapest were not spectacular- shaped by the high number of homeless people at the subway station and the outdated, rickety subway cars. However, after taking the subway to a more central location in Budapest our eyes were opened to the beauty of the city.
Exploring Pest
Unable to check into our AirBnB apartment for two more hours, we took to the streets in the rain. We walked the Pest side of the city uncovering high end shopping streets, dozens of Turkish döner kebap (a theme throughout Europe) restaurants and a unique charm to the city. Modern stores occupied the bottom floors of grand buildings left over from another area. It was nice to see new and old coexisting.
Our rented apartment was located in Pest in the old Jewish quarter and remnants of that still remain- Jewish restaurants and several striking synagogues. This area was where the Jews lived during the war but is currently being transformed and is informally called the Ruin District. Trendy "ruin bars" are popping up in old buildings, protecting the building from being torn down and preserving the facade. Inside they breathe new life into these buildings that harbor some depressing history.
Airbnb
We walked down the street toward our rented our apartment and immediately recognized we were in a happening area with hip restaurants, bars, cafes, street food. Our airbnb host let us into the apartment and gave us a brief introduction of the place- she was very organized and well prepared as she and her boyfriend own the apartment solely for renting out. She told us that the building that the apartment is in used to hold Jewish families during the war who were related from their homes into the Jewish quarter.