Recap | Five days in Budapest with our friend from Holland | Sneak peek on what I'll be posting soon

A friend over from Holland

A few weeks ago our friend from Holland was finally arriving for a short visit of five days to stay with us. We were looking forward to seeing her, and we got to be tourist in our own city.
We did not plan much on forehand though, because of the possible rainy days, we thought it would be best just to see day by day what we were going to do. One thing was for sure, that we had to visit the biggest thermal bath in Budapest. This would be a day out for me and our friend only. My boyfriend offered to take one for the team, and watch the little lady that day. For the rest we would just see when we would feel like doing things, and this meant that the first day after her arrival we did not do that much, but relax. We had been talking until late that night, as we had a lot of catching up to do.

Finally we ate at Hippie Island

Not only did we explore Budapest by foot, bus, tram or subway but we also visited some touristic places and with that we also had several nice dishes. One of those was at Hippie Island on the Margret Island. We've walked passed Hippie Island every time that my boyfriend, daughter and me went to the Margret Island, but actually sitting there to eat something was the first time. The food was actually really nice, so I will make a post about this as a Budapest travel tip soon. Because I highly recommend you have a drink or eat something when you're on the island! The coctails are also delicious, even the non-alcoholic tasted just as good as the one with alcohol. The picture above this post is made from the menu that is printed on the tables.

After all these months in Budapest I got to visit the Széchenyi thermal bath

We read that small children weren't allowed there, unless they don't wear diapers anymore, so all this time we didn't go there. This was my chance to go, as our friend wanted to go there too. So we went, and I must say it was wonderful! We have made plenty of nice pictures in between the relaxing and of course I will make a post about this too soon. Too bad they had a huge tv screen outside in front of the most relaxing pool because of the world cup. This is what it looked like when the match started.

Illustration is made by our friend, when she was here.. And I didn't want to keep this from you, as I will not be using it in my post about the Széchenyi bad because it will spoil the beautiful pictures lol. And yes, I am allowed to use it, that was the whole idea.. She got in the drawing vibe when she saw our daughters pencils. But isn't her drawing funny? In reality it was even worse actually, because there were lots and lots more people all staring at the screen.. You could not even enter or leave the pool anymore on that side because of all the sheeple staring at the match. I wonder why on earth you would pay 15 euro entrance fee for a thermal bath, to just watch a game that you can watch in about every pub/cafe for free? I mean drinks weren't allowed at the pool, so no beers along with the game here.

Bavaria City race was in Budapest too

For days we had been hearing lots and lots of plains, and every time I told my boyfriend that it sounded just like that day that they had these plans and formula 1 races in town a while ago. But we didn't see any of the plains. Until my boyfriend, our friend and our daughter went to see the parliament building (because it's a must see of course) and saw hundreds and hundreds of people next to the Danube river. It became clear that Bavaria City races were in town. I wasn't with them, but I went there too the next day, so I do have some pictures and videos but I need to check if they are post-worthy. If so, I will of course make a post about this too.

Tasting Hummus for the first time

Although we had discovered the Hummus bar when we were still living around the corner, and already adopted hummus as a thing we really like, our friend did not know it yet. So after the long walk back to find a toilet when we saw the city races, we thought let's go eat there. It's not expensive at all and we had to eat anyway. Unfortunately the fries they served with the rest of the food were horrible (normally they aren't) and almost black. But the falafel and hummus were just as delicious as always. I didn't make any pictures this time because of the failure on our plate (the fries) they wouldn't have made a nice picture, so I will get back to that the next time we eat there.

Google playground bar and St. Stephens Basilica

For the rest we visited the Google Playground bar, which is quite nice even when you have children. Because there is a playground! And the food is limited in choice, but very good and recomendable. The last thing we visited before our friend had to flygh home again was the St. Stephens Basilica. If you click on the link you will find my post about that visit. So long story short, that post is the only one I've delivered after she left that was about our tourist days in Budapest. I was really out of my normal routine, so it took a while to get into that again. And I have quite some drafts in my documents that I "only" need to finish.. I will try not to make you wait too long, but it's nice to have some posting material on forehand for when I'm totally inspirationless..