TOURING BUDAPEST WITH ANDREA MAKKAY

THE IMPORTANCE OF TOURS 

Andrea Makkay and Janet

You can do your research and read guidebooks until you are bleary eyed, and your paper cuts get infected. You can go online and watch videos about places you want to visit or catch a History Channel show about the ancient or recent history of your destination. You can even pull that dusty encyclopedia off the shelf. You can buy a map and look at photographs and read the menus of restaurants that whet your appetite. And, after all that preparation, you may feel you are ready to see everything at your chosen destination, and yet it is a guarantee you will miss something in your travels.

Unless you just want to idle away your time lounging poolside or lingering over an espresso in a faraway café, never underestimate the importance of being led on a tour.

TRAVEL v. VACATION

To lounge is a vacation. To explore and experience local customs is to travel. Both are very rewarding, but to get the most of your travels, a tour is recommended.

We’ve attempted to travel alone and though we have had some success, mainly because of Janet's meticulous planning, we still end up running around like headless chickens and missing things. Too often our reminiscing over past travel destinations is about opportunities missed. It is the nuance, the essence of a destination that requires a tour.  Without a tour you’re guessing and a missed opportunity at a truly rewarding experience.

Raw cashew in Costa Rica

THAT’S A STATUE  

Tours can be expensive though (and we don’t like spending extra money since we’ve already traveled so far to get to a place), but we have learned that the knowledge and experiences gained from a tour can usually be invaluable…usually.

Over the years we have taken group tours, walking tours, bus tours, van tours with several couples, and horse and buggy tours and our experiences have ranged from awesome to middling to flat-out disasters.

One tour in Costa Rica had us plucking the fruit of a cashew tree and listening to Howler Monkeys. A horse carriage tour in San Antonio had the cowboy clad guide who hailed originally from Brooklyn, New York pointing out “a statue made of metal”. A tour in Tenerife had us drinking wines from the Canary Islands with amateur vintners from Lanzarote, while another one pointed out the dive bars of Charleston, South Carolina. In the rain of York, England we simply circled this walled city a couple of times in a hop-on/hope-off double decker bus, periodically dodging raindrops after seeing something interesting. In Chester England we ran higgledy-piggledy in every direction for we had a very limited time before we had to go… In Split, Croatia we walked through the warren of alley ways of the former palace of Diocletian simply amazed we were even there.

I’m partially kidding about tour disasters. The urban cowboy in San Antonio did point out some good Mexican restaurants.

ANDREA MAKKAY

In all our travels though we have never taken an inclusive one-on-one tour. As we did our research about Budapest, we quickly learned there was a lot to see and the five days we allotted ourselves in this vibrant Hungarian capitol may have been wasted had we not hired a seasoned tour guide in Andrea Makkay.

It was the greatest travel decision we had ever made.

She was articulate, intelligent and spoke perfect English and was very engaging and enthusiastic in showing off her hometown of Budapest. She also adjusted our tours as we showed interest in various destinations, rather than taking a cookie cutter approach to showing us the city.  

For example she learned we had already gone to the Opera, the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, Heroes Square and the City Park and so concentrated our tour in a different area of Budapest. We also expressed an interest in seeing Memento Park, a collection of Communist-era statues that had been removed from Budapest and now sit in the park just on the outskirts of the city, and she made that happen for us. She also learned I collect hand-held subway maps. I have them from Tokyo, Stockholm, Barcelona, Paris and London. She showed up with a metro map of Budapest, and then taught us how to buy our fare from a station kiosk.

We hired Ms. Makkay for two days. The first was an 8-hour tour by minivan and the second was a ½ day walking tour.

Of course, Janet made all the arrangements. Her research led her to Andrea Makkay and after a series of emails over availability and payment we asked Andrea to guide us through Budapest. The payment was tricky though. She wanted cash in Euros, not Hungarian Florins as that currency has been unpredictable. 

Liberty Statue Budapest

Unsure we would be able to withdraw Euros from Hungarian ATMs we made arrangements to convert dollars into Euros with our local bank. We traveled to Hungary with the funds. 

It was €480 for the full day with the minivan and driver and €140 for the half day walking tour. 

To top it off she's famous! She appears in an episode of the History Channel's Cities of the Underworld, S1E6 where she talks about the secret caves of Budapest, and the hospital under Castle Hill that was also used as a fall out shelter.

Budapest is a fascinating city and she is a knowledgeable tour guide. If the road takes you to Budapest, be sure to contact Ms. Makkay.

ANDREA MAKKAY TOUR GUIDE BUDAPEST

Thanks for reading. Stop by again to read about our tour with Andrea Makkay soon.

Love Janet and greg

© 2023 by Gregory Dunaj

MEANDERING THROUGH BUDAPEST

I'M WALKING HERE   

BUDAPEST FERRIS WHEEL

If you travel to Budapest, Hungary, we recommend staying on the Pest side of the river. There are lots of attractions and all within an easy walking distance or a quick ride on the metro. Though there are several sites on the Buda side including a magnificent view of the Parliament Building, it is hilly and, though Castle Hill, as this section of Buda is called, is popular during the day, it shuts down in the evening.  What follows is a bit of what we visited on foot strictly on the Pest side of the Hungarian capitol.

K+K HOTEL OPERA

Janet booked us at the centrally located K+K Hotel Opera in Budapest. It is on a quiet side street just across from the Hungarian State Opera House which is on Andrássy út (avenue).  

HUNGARIAN OPERA INTERIOR

K+K Hotels is a European chain which was reasonably priced, had large rooms (for Budapest) and offered a substantial buffet breakfast. Other amenities included a sauna and a modest work out facility.

For our 5-day stay it cost us approximately $750 USD.

We would consider the K+K family of hotels again.

K+K HOTELS 

NUTCRACKER
STATUES

When we saw a performance of Johann Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus our second night in Budapest we left our coats at the hotel and walked to the opera avoiding the coat check lines. The hotel is literally just steps away from the Opera House. There are tours of the opera house available, but you can also just walk into the lobby and ogle the beautiful ornate interior. Previous to our arriving in Budapest, The Nutcracker Suite was performing and on either side of the entrance they had massive figurines from this holiday show twirling slowly in oversized glass tubes. The whole experience was enchanting.

Janet used to have season passes to the Philadelphia Opera and attending a performance at this beautiful Hungarian State Opera was high on her list in planning a trip to Budapest. Recently renovated all the seats had monitors for translating the opera into a preferred language, either Hungarian or English. The seats were great, 2^nd row, seats 4 and 5. Tickets were reasonably priced at $70 each.

HUNGARIAN OPERA 

LOOKING WEST

METRO STOP

The Opera House is located on Andrássy út. This avenue as well as the immediate environs are now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Construction on this storied road began in 1872 as part of the grand plan to make Budapest the rival of western cities like Paris, and to connect the inner city to the spacious City Park, where the Széchenyi Thermal Bath is located.

Budapest has always considered itself a western city, even when it was behind Communism’s Iron Curtain. Further east of Hungary Orthodox Christianity is the main religion, which is usually associated with Eastern Europe, but here in this Central European county it is Catholicism.

Andrássy út begins at Elizabeth Square where the Budapest Ferris Wheel is located and is today one of the city’s main shopping streets.

We walked to the Bath our first full day in Budapest taking advantage of a sunny day with mild temperatures and along the 2.7 km stretch we passed plenty of high-end stores, cafés, restaurants, museums, several embassies, stately mansions,  and beautiful villas fronted by resplendent gardens.

UNESCO LISTING FOR BUDAPEST 

THE MILLENNIUM UNDERGROUND    

BUDAPEST METRO

Now, we didn’t have to walk to Széchenyi or anywhere else in Budapest because of their extensive metro system. The Yellow line runs beneath Andrássy út and there is a stop right in front of the Opera House. The Yellow line is also called the Millennium line as this part of the underground was constructed in time for the 1896 celebrations marking the 1,000 years since the first arrival of the Magyars to Budapest. It is the oldest underground railway in continental Europe. The oldest in the world is in London.

Today there are 4 separate underground metro lines in Budapest and several tram lines crossing the city. Just make sure to buy a pass, or a ticket and validate it in one of the little machines on each train before it leaves the station. The Ticket Controllers are spirited. Here’s a primer to help you avoid a fine:

VALIDATING YOUR METRO TICKET IN BUDAPEST

WORLD'S OLDEST UNDERGROUND RAILWAYS 

ACCESSABLE BUDAPEST

All the main attractions in Pest are within a reasonable walking distance, but we would take the metro or an above ground tram in order to see more in our shortish time in the city.

Here’s a few places that we walked to or from:

St. Stephen’s Basilica

Just a few hundred meters down the street from our hotel was St. Stephen’s Basilica. Named for the first king of Hungary, St. Stephen forced a lot of the citizens to become Christian and for some reason there is a reliquary holding his right hand. The church is a popular tourist destination.

The wide köztér or plaza before the basilica is ringed by several cafes and restaurants.

SAINT STEPHEN'S BASILICA

Liberty Square

LIBERTY SQUARE

A few blocks from the basilica is Liberty Square where the American Embassy is located. In this square is the lone memorial leftover from the days of Communist rule which honors the Russian soldiers who died trying to liberate Budapest from the Nazis. It was left because it honors the soldiers not the Communist ruling party. The city used to be filled with communist era propaganda statues and commemorative plaques but were removed and placed in Memento Park on the outskirts of Budapest after the fall of Communism. You can’t walk there.

In Liberty Square there is a statue of Herbert W. Bush and another of Ronald Reagan.

Parliament Building

The magnificent Parliament Building was erected in the early 1900s When Pest grew after the Chain Bridge was created linking the two cities and forming “Budapest”. As part of the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire the Parliament was a show of strength and power to rival Vienna and to this day this majestic edifice proudly rises above the Danube. It is possible to take a tour of the Parliament, but you need to purchase tickets beforehand and arrive at a prescribed time.

PARLIAMENT BUILDING
BUDAPEST

The tour takes you through the ornate interior and eventually guides you past the “crown jewels” that were spirited away to Fort Knox at the end of WWII for safe keeping from the Communists. Eventually President Jimmy Carter returned them in the 80s. Some say there should also be a statue of Carter in Liberty Square.

PARLIAMENT BUILDING BUDAPEST 

Interesting note: On one side of the Parliament there was the flag of Transylvania being displayed. After WWI and the Treaty of Versailles Hungary lost 2/3rds of its land, of which Transylvania was part of and there are factions in the Hungarian government that want it back.

TUK TUK BAR 

In a previous entry in this blog we wrote about the Ruin Bars. They are in the Jewish section of town, behind the Dohány Street Synagogue. This synagogue is considered the largest in Europe and was rebuilt in 1991 after the Jews and the synagogue were decimated in WWII. 

The Ruin bars sprang up in the area that was derelict for years. That area is just a 15 minute stroll from the K+K Hotel Opera. 

But, you don’t have to head over to that area to have a drink, there’s plenty of watering holes even closer to our hotel, but our favorite was across the street from the Opera House and around the block.

The Tuk Tuk Bar had none of the frenetic noise or commotions found at Szimpla Kert the main Ruin Bar. Quiet, sedate, it was an oasis for this martini swilling couple.

TUK TUK BAR, BUDAPEST

THE GREAT MARKET HALL

This vast indoor market for all things Hungarian is probably the furthest we walked. Opened in 1897 the vendors here offer wine, paprika, candies and chocolates, meats, vegetables, souvenirs and more paprika. 

There are also several restaurants and food stalls on the upper floors. 

We had lunch at the Fakanal Etterem near the front. A cafeteria style set up for traditional Hungarian dishes and with a small Gypsy band playing music while you dig into your goulash. It’s a destination.

GREAT MARKET HALL
 BUDAPEST

FAKNAL ETTEREM, BUDAPEST 

GERBEAUD CAFÉ

No stroll around Budapest would be complete without a visit to Gerbeaud Café. Originally opened in 1858 and at its present location in Vörösmarty tér since 1870 this elegant coffee and pastry shop will transform any visitor to a time when Budapest was indeed part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with opulent décor, crystal chandeliers and an array of desserts that will give you the fortitude to walk back to your hotel. Yes, it’s touristed and yes, it’s a bit overpriced but Gerbeauds is a great place to indulge.

They also serve breakfast and a bistro menu. 

GERBEAUD CAFE

Vörösmarty tér is also where the Christmas village is located. In the warmer months tables are placed outside. There is a Millennium metro stop in front of Gerbeaud Café that would deposit you back at the K+K Hotel Opera.

GERBEAUD CAFE, BUDAPEST

Thanks for reading. Stop by again to read more of our adventures around Pest and Buda.

Love Janet and greg

                                    FAKANAL ETTEREM BUDAPEST

© 2023 by Gregory Dunaj