Hungary – Culturista Life

Szechenyi Spa & Thermal Baths in Budapest

February 26, 2018March 31, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged Budapest, Hungary, spa, Szechenyi, thermalbaths, travelLeave a comment

What is better than visiting the most famous natural waters in Europe and relaxing with massages and thermal baths?

When you visit Budapest, especially for the first time, you know you MUST visit at least one of its thermal baths. The Pearl of the Danube has so many natural warm spring waters, that visiting a thermal bath is the reason most travellers visit the city.

The Szechenyi Bath is the biggest and of course the most famous one in Budapest. Besides that, it is one of the biggest natural hot spring spa baths in Europe.

The 18 pools are open all year long, even in the winter. The outdoor pool can reach a temperature of up to 40 degrees Celsius, which makes it a perfect choice for your winter vacation. The chess-boards on the sides of this pool, are something special and interesting to watch when everything around you is covered in snow.

What you will need with you

Towel or bathrobe (bathrobe is a way better choice for the winter)
Flip-flops (optional)
Bathing suit
A change of clothes
Hairdryer (optional)

Tips:

***You have the option to buy towels, flip flops, shampoo & bath gel from there.

Flip-flops: The floors in the spa are quite dirty, even though they are being cleaned every few minutes.

Bathrobe: If you visit during the winter and choose to go in the outdoor pool, you will freeze when you get out.

Szechenyi-Spa-Baths-Press-Photo-Outdoor-Pool — by szechenyispabaths.com

Prices

The prices are different for weekdays and weekends. You can find the whole price list here.

Bath Ticket with Locker: 19 euros

Bath Ticket with Private Cabin: 21 euros (20 euros on weekdays)

Bath Kit (towel, flip-flops, swimming cap, shampoo & bath gel, bottle of mineral water): 26 euros

Bath Towel: 13 euros

Szechenyi-Thermal-Bath-Outdoor-Pool-Spring — by Budapest Cards

Special Events

There are many parties happening in the Szechenyi Baths on Saturday nights, known as Sparties. The party combines relaxing in the hot pools while drinking and listening to the DJ´s music under an incredible light show.

More special events take place during holidays, such as New Years and Christmas. You can find more information on those events in the Spa´s official page.

Night of Baths in Budapest — by National Geographic

Budapest-Bath-Party-Szechenyi-Atmosphere — by Tripdvisor

10 Things to do in Budapest for FREE

February 12, 2018March 4, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged Budapest, Europe, free, Hungary, travel, whattodoLeave a comment

1. Gellert Hill View

On your way to Citadella, stop at Gellert Hill for the most picturesque view in all of Budapest. Take a moment and embrace the view. This monument will be specifically appreciated by photography lovers.

2. Margaret Island

A great place to unwind and become one with nature. The perfect time to visit would be during spring, fall or summer when the weather is very good and you can fully enjoy the park.

Inside you can find the Music Fountain, canteens, cafes, bike renters, the city´s zoo, a Japanese and Rose garden and many more sights.

3. Cross the Bridges

There are 4 gorgeous and big bridges in the centre of the city that unite Buda with Pest. Going towards all the famous sightseeing, you will see all of them and cross them by foot or public transportation. The chain bridge must be walked through during the day and at night.

4. Free Walking Tour

Who doesn´t love a free tour in a beautiful city? Someone that knows the ropes and history and will be able to give you more insight on the place you have visited.

Visit the official free walking tour website for all tour options and choose the one that best fits you.

5. Museum Lovers

Budapest has numerous interesting museums that are mostly come with a fee. However, during Hungarian national holidays (March 15; August 20; October 23) some of the city´s top museums open their doors for free.

So you might want to consider planning a trip during these dates if you want to take advantage of free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery, the Hungarian National Museum and the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture.

6. Budapest by Evening

Budapest is beautiful at all times of the day. But when the evening comes and the sun is about to set, it is truly an amazing time. The view is breathtaking and you get that cosy feeling of warmth.

There are so many people walking along the Danube with the sunset. Everything looks far prettier and it comes to be one of the best moments of being in Budapest.

7. Parliament Scenery

When was the last time you saw a sight, museum, monument, city that left you in owe. The Hungarian Parliament has that effect on people.

When you visit it in the morning, you can see all the beauty from both its sides and admire the detail in this gorgeous architectural building.

However, at night it can leave you speechless. By many, it is considered to be one of the most stunning things to see in Europe.

8. Explore Kosponti Vasarcsarnok (central market)

A market which the locals appreciate and visit daily. You can find anything from souvenirs to fresh produce.

As you enter, you will find all the local kiosks, where most Budapest citizen buy their vegetables, fruits and other products every day. However, on the second floor, you will find it filled with tourists, since it is the floor with all the souvenirs.

9. Fisherman´s Bastion

One of the top attractions in Budapest. You can access from Buda Castle or by bus. Its unique fortification and lookout towers, provide a stunning view of the city.

A truly unique and gorgeous sight. The architecture is so different from everything else you see in Budapest with hundreds of tourists visiting on a daily basis.

You visit both in the morning and at night. During the night the view of the Parliament across is breathtaking.

10. Palace of Arts

St. Stephen´s Day, is a national Hungarian holiday that occurs on the 20th of August of each year. This long anticipating festival takes place in Mupa, the city’s biggest concert hall. During the day, you will see jazz concerts and many other performances that end with a firework show.

Low Price & High Quality – Where to eat in Budapest

January 13, 2018March 4, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged Budapest, burger, dinner, Food, homemade, Hungary, lunchLeave a comment

If you are looking for a classy, expensive and elegant restaurant to try, you are in the wrong place. The choices in Budapest are endless, with restaurants and cuisines from all over the world and for all budgets.

What you will find here are the best places in Budapest for lunch and dinner based on low price and good quality at the same time.

1. Lucky 7 Burgers & More

The BEST burger you will have. It is flavorful and light. The burgers are made with high-quality beef and their homemade buns and ranch sauce are to die for.

Location: Piarista utca 1., Budapest 1052, Hungary

Price: € (approximately 10 euros per menu, including burger, side & drink)

What to try: Duck burger, Ceasar salad, Ranch sauce

2. Istanbul Kebab & Grill

A delicious Turkish restaurant, which also has delicious homemade foods. Very fast service and tasty food.

Location: Akacfa utca 5, Budapest 1072, Hungary

Price: € (2.30€ or 700 HUF for Gyros pita)

What to try: Gyros pita, Baklava

3. Vapiano

A pretty usual food place for Europeans. BUT, for some reason, this branch of Vapiano is not only fast but delicious. Everything is cooked much faster and for some reason, they taste even better.

Location: Vaci ut 1-3 | West End Center, Budapest, Hungary

Price: € (20€ or 6200 HUF for 2 pasta, 1 salad & 1 pizza)

What to try: One of everything (one pasta, one pizza, one salad)

4. Meatology Budapest

Welcome to our exception. If you want gourmet dishes at a very low price, this is where you go. 2 brothers with many years of experience as chefs, team up in the heart of Budapest to create tastes that will explode in your mouth.

Location: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 15/B, Budapest 1065, Hungary

Price: € (12€ or 3600 HUF for 1 burger & 1 salad)

What to try: Ceasar salad, Sticky pork belly sandwich, Meatology burger

a3acafd141c2572ef4480e78794e3d8e — by Restu.hu

5. Local Korner

Pizza lovers, time to design your own pizza. Exactly the way you want it with any topping you desire.

Location: Szondi utca 19/A, Budapest 1067, Hungary

Price: € (8€ or 2590 HUF for a 42cm pizza with cheese & 5 toppings)

What to try: Honestly, anything you want. Time to experiment

6. Hummusbar

Who doesn’t love a great hummus place, especially when it is ideal for vegetarians? With more than 14 restaurants all around Budapest, Hummusbar is here to travel you with its exquisite flavours. What makes it even greater, is that also has a delivery service for those lazy days.

Location: Oktober 6 St. 19, Budapest 1051, Hungary

Price: € (7€ or 2000 HUF for a falafel & hummus plate)

What to try: Falafel, Hummus tahini, laffa wrap

7. Soul Food

Jambalaya and Gumbo. What more do you want? Soul food that fills your soul with happiness.

Location: Kazinczy utca 32., Budapest 1075, Hungary

Price: € (12€ or 4000 HUF for Jambalaya & a burger)

What to try: Kreol burger, Jambalaya, Sweet potato bawl Aioli

8. Panineria

Any kind of sandwich you choose, will for sure be fresh and delicious.

Location: Oktogon 4, Budapest 1067, Hungary

Price: € (12€ or 4000 HUF for 2 sandwiches)

What to try: Philly Cheese Steak, Caprese, Paprica Chichen

9. Gyros Kerkyra Elterbar

A taste of Greece, right here in Budapest. The food is simply delicious and fairly cheap.

Location: Eotvos Utca | 5, Budapest 1067, Hungary

Price: € (3€ or 923 HUF for 1 gyro with pita)

What to try: Gyros pita, souvlaki, tzatziki

10. Pizzica

Whether you want a good and whole pizza or just a slice, make sure to stop by Pizzica.

Location: Nagymezo utca 21, Budapest 1065, Hungary

Price: € (1.60€ or 490 HUF for 1 pizza premium)

What to try: Proscuitto and potato in your pizzas

Where to go for Breakfast in Budapest

November 16, 2017March 4, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged breakfast, Budapest, Food, Hungary, travel1 Comment

You have decided to travel to Budapest for a few days, but your hotel does not provide breakfast, the most important meal of the day.

Thankfully, you are visiting a city where breakfast is praised and loved., with many choices in every part of the city. Below you can find the most popular and tasty places to enjoy your breakfast.

Keep in mind that each place is different and not all of them have the basic traditional breakfast you would expect. Some are for donat lovers or kurtoskalacs explorers.

1. BITE

Definitely one of the best choices for breakfast. You can choose something healthy and nutritious or something super tasty but not really healthy. The sausage rolls are just delicious. But the secret recipe for their cinnamon rolls is out of this world. By far the best one I have ever had.

Locations: Kertész u. 50, 1073 Ungarn

Teréz krt. 62, 1066 Ungarn

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2. Vinyl & Wood – Get Lost in Wonderland

Besides the great coffee and breakfast, what makes this place unique is the fact that you can have a coffee and eat WHILE shopping. Yes, shopping from a great selection of watches, sunglasses, wallet, backpacks, jewellery and socks.

Location: Wesselényi u. 23, 1077 Ungarn

3. STIKA

Pancakes and eggs Benedict. Great coffee and croissants. A great place for your breakfast. You will not be disappointed, since everything is simply delicious. But you might have trouble finding a table.

Location: Dob u. 46/a, 1072 Ungarn

4. The Donut Library

Although it is a very small store, it is truly beautiful. The moment you enter and see these colourful donuts, you know you will want to taste each and every one of them. Besides being delicious, they have some pretty unique fillings.

Locations: Károly krt. 7, 1075 Ungarn

Karinthy Frigyes út 18, 1111 Ungarn

Pozsonyi út 22, 1137 Ungarn

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5. Inez Bagel Shop

When you pass by a bagel store and you catch yourself staring at them and drooling from inside, you know this is the one bagel you have to try ASAP.

Location: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 40, 1054 Ungarn

6. 9Bar

A beautifully decorated coffee spot with great options in pastries and good coffee. Try the egg basket with ham and the sausage croissant.

Location: Lázár u. 5, 1065 Ungarn

7. Molnar´s Kurtoskalacs

Kurtoskalacs is a traditional cylindrical sweet-cake made from sweet yeast-down. You can find it rolled in different tastes, such as sugar, cocoa, almonds, cinnamon and more. Molnar only offers kurtoskalacs for breakfast, but is it worth trying it.

Location: Váci u. 31, 1052 Ungarn

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8. London Coffee Society

An adorable coffee place with a true Londoner´s style. For breakfast, you can have anything your heart desires, such as all types of eggs (poached, fried, scrambled), roasted beetroot puree with avocado and smoked salmon and vegan hummus.

Location: Dohány u. 27, 1074 Ungarn

img-20170426-123521-hdr — by TripAdvisor

9. Le Petit Bistro

Hands down, the most adorable coffee place I have ever seen. The moment you pass by, it caught your eye and you get the strongest feeling of being in France.

Location: Hajós u. 26/b, 1065 Ungarn

10. Any bakery

The city is filled with bakeries pretty much in every corner. They usually have a lot of options between pastries, types of bread and desserts.

Budapest in 5 days

October 17, 2017March 4, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged Budapest, Hungary, travelLeave a comment

On 5th of October, I travelled to Budapest, Hungary with my husband. It was a surprise trip for my birthday and to be honest one of the European cities I was really excited to visit.

We knew that 5 days were a lot for a small city like this, but we wanted to take things slow and fully embrace what the city has to offer.

View from Airport

Budapest from above

Day 1 – Orientation Day (05.10.17)

We arrived at 09.30 in the morning and our check in was at 14.00. We bought the single transportation ticket and decided to head in the centre of the city for some breakfast and coffee. From the airport to Nyugati Pályaudvar, you take a bus and a metro, which means you have to change 2 tickets. We had no idea, but we got lucky.

We arrived at Nyugati Pályaudvar and started walking to explore the area. We had a lot of hours until we went to the hotel, so we decided to go to a bakery and then to a coffee place.

Madal Cafe

Prima Pek Bakery

After our coffee, we took the way to our hotel (30 min walking) and the moment we arrived at the hotel, we just fell asleep for about 4 hours (we were exhausted). When we woke up at night, all I wanted to see was the parliament at night. And it turned out to be such a great choice.

This is the world’s third largest parliament building in the world and Budapest’s gem. Even though it is also gorgeous in the morning, at night it seems so grand and breathtaking.

We started walking along the Danube towards the Chain Bridge, to see the city at night. We passed by the Budapest Eye and St. Stephen’s Basilica, the most famous church in the city.

Day 2 – Shopping & Exploring Day (06.10.17)

Since we still had a lot of days left in our trip and the weather was terrible, we decided to go shopping and a bit of exploring around the city. We headed to WestCity End mall for shopping and lunch. And after, it was time to explore.

Of course, I had to see the Parliament in the morning. So we went from the other side of the Danube.

Day 3 – Fun Day (07.10.17)

The day started with breakfast at BITE, my officially favourite bakery/cafe by far. It was the only day we had no idea what to do. The weather was great, so we decided to visit Margaret Island and take it from there. It turned out to be the most fun day in Budapest.

Margaret Island is basically a very big park. Inside you will find the Music Fountain, a Japanese & Botanical garden, the zoo, ancient ruins and a Rose garden. We decided to rent one of the small bicycle/cars to go around. Hands down one of the most enjoyable park experiences.

Rent a car

Japanese Garden

Music Fontain

Day 4 – Tourist Day (08.10.17)

The day came that we had to finally visit the Buda part, where all the sightseeings are a bit higher in the mountain.

We started from the Garden of Philosophy and walked until Citadella, but we failed to calculate how tiring it would actually be to hike until there. We had to climb A LOT of stairs, BUT the view from all points was amazing. On the way down, we had to make a stop at Gellert Hill, which admittedly looks better from the bottom.

IMG_20171008_141417_220 — View from Citadella

The Buda castle was next. There is a small train that takes you up the hill, but we had to wait approximately 1,5 hours. Instead, we hiked… AGAIN. The Castle was nice, but nothing special to be honest. Thankfully, from there we could easily go to the Fisherman´s Bishop, the most unique castle in Budapest. It was our last stop and the sight I was looking forward to seeing since my first day in Budapest.

Because it wasn´t enough, we also came back at night to see Fisherman´s Bastion lit with a beautiful view of the Parliament.

Day 5 – Spa Day (09.10.17)

And the most glorious day arrived. After all this exhaustion from the previous day, we had to finish our trip with relaxation. What better place to do that, other than the Szechenyi Spa & Thermal Baths.

I will not get into it more right now, but it was very nice and a great way to finish our trip, after having fully relaxed.

Overall, Budapest is a beautiful city and extremely cheap. For 5 days of spending like crazy, we spend 300 in total for 2 people. I would definitely recommend you visit the city even for 2 or 3 days, which are also enough.

Bloggers that convinced me to visit Budapest

September 28, 2017March 4, 2018Posted in BudapestTagged Budapest, Hungary, travel6 Comments

So, next month I will be visiting Budapest for my birthday. I have been wanting to visit the city for a very long time, since I have heard the best comments about everything.

Most importantly, I want to relax and enjoy the thermal baths and spas.

I knew I wanted to visit Budapest so bad, but after reading Paige Chanel´s relative post, I was more sure than ever.

I booked my tickets and accomodation and started researching what to do. Then I figured what better way than read my fellow bloggers´posts and take into considerations their suggestions. And so I did.

´Thisisyouth´ convinced me within 40 seconds of reading to definitely visit the best Pizza restaurant in Budapest, since it is delicious and costs only 80 cents.

´Twobrits´ tempted me to visit the London society coffee, but instead I think I am gonna go with Stika (the gentleman-ladies picture did it for me).

´Tripping and Trekking´ and ´The6MillionPMan´sold me on visiting the Danube both in the morning and at night.

Oh ´Lime ´n´Lemony´, thank you for showing me that Vörösmarty square has a beautiful market, but also the BUDAPEST sign I was looking for.

I have always wanted to visit an Ice Bar, but i never thought I would be able to do so in Europe. Thanks to ´Living La Vida Leah´ I discovered one in Budapest. I do not know if I will be able to stand the cold and actually visit, but you never know.

´The Yellow Polaroid´THANK YOU. I only pray the weather is good, because I have some rooftop bar visiting to do.

I like food. I like trying new cuisines. Sadly, I am not very open to trying things I do not eat anyway, like some kinds of meat or veggies. When it comes to desserts, it´s a whole other subject. ´Roam with Juliet´what have you done to me? I want to eat this Gundel Palacsinta right now.

So, thanks to all. Thankfully Ryanair did not cancel my flight, so the trip is on and I am looking forward to exploring all the places you suggested!!