Tourist guide of Budapest 1.

Last year when I went to South Korea to participate at an international program, I've met also a girl from Malaysia. She studied after that one year in the UK, and before returning home, she visits some other European countries, so we meet again in Hungary - isn't it amazing?
Because I'm busy, I can't be her guide at Budapest, but I'll take her to a city called GYŐR, and also my home village, called BEZI.

For her I wrote a guide about Budapest - which are the most beautiful places to visit, how can one get there, how can you use transportation, where can you eat delicious food for good prize, etc.
Take a look, you may find it useful, too!
(Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes in English.)

SIGHTS, TRANSPORTATION

First: as for the transportation: if you do down ont he Oktogon in front of Burger King, there will be a cassa of BKV (Transportation Company of  Budapest). Here you can get tickets. I’d suggest you to buy a 24-hours-ticket, it’s 1640 HUF if I remember well. (One single ticket is 350 HUF.) I wouldn’t cheat on transportations, because at subways always there are controllers, and also on trams and buses they’re really frequent, mainly summer time, so you better buy tickets because the penalty is much more expensive. Budapest is not so big, so you can reach a lot of sights on foot, but for the longer distances it’s better to take something transportation. First try to make a day-plan, and count which is better J

You chose a very good place to stay, it’s near Andrassy Street, which is a part of the World Heritage. From Oktogon if you go along the street towards Heroes’ Square, you will find many nice buildings, cafés, museums, embassies. You can reach Heroes’ Square within 20 minutes on foot, too. It’s nice to take a walk there. 

From Oktogon, if you go towards the city centre, you’ll pass the Opera House, which is also definitely worth visiting. At the end of the Andrassy Street there is the St. Stephen’s Basilica. It’s one of the two highest buildings in Budapest (the other one is the Parliament). You can take photos from the square in front of the Basilica, or you can go inside, with English guide it’s 2000 HUF/person (if you don’t want to go to the tower it’s 1500 HUF/person). You can check the website here: http://en.bazilika.biz/
The square is surrounded by cafés and restaurant but I’d not suggest you to buy anything there, because they are very expensive. The one I reccomend is an ice cream shop called GelArto, at the corner of the square. You will find it easily, there are always many people queueing there, but it’s worth waiting. The ice creams has very special flavours, and you don’t get balls but they form an ice cream flower. You can check the facebook site here: https://www.facebook.com/GelartoRosa?fref=ts

From the Basillica you can go to Deák Ferenc tér on foot in 5 minutes. You  better memorize this name of the place, because it’s the city centre, here you can take all lines of the subways, you find many restaurants and shops here.
Budapest has 3 lines. (Subway in Hungarian is metró {metro}) They’re marked with 3 colours.
1st line (another name Földalatti) reaches Oktogon, too, so if you take this one, you can easily go to the city centre and transfer to other useful subway lines, buses or trams.
/This line was the first subway line in Europe, except the British Island, but if you see only the European continent, Hungarian subway was the first. It still has a retro style.)
The first stop of the 1st line is Vörösmarty tér (square), which is a place for festivals and events (e.g. Christmas market), but also surrounded by clothes shops, and it’s the end of Váci street, which is also a famous tourist spot, you can walk along, it’s a very long shopping street, not just clothes, but souvenirs and restaurants as well.

If you take line 1, you can go also to Opera, and Heroes’ Square. If you have looked up some information about Hungary, you surely have read a bit about Heroes’ Square, which is surrounded by the Museum of Fine Arts, Art Hall and the City Park, where you can find the Amusement Park, Zoo, National Circus, Agricultural Museum (Vajdahunyad Vár, even if you don’t enter the museum, you can take a walk inside its yard, it is a very beautiful building, mainly int he evening!), Transportation museum, and the Széchenyi Spa. I’m sure you won’t miss this area.

If you take 2nd line, you can go to see the Parliament, and also go to the other side of the Danube below the river. You can take this subway at Deák tér and go til Kossuth tér, there is the Parliament and Museum of Ethnology. If you have time, you should visit the Museum of Ethnology, where you can see an exhibition about Hungary’s country life, too. (http://www.neprajz.hu/)
If you take my advice, you may reserve an appointment for visiting the Parliament, because in the summer time there are so many tourist, you may have to queue for long hours until you get in. There are English speaker tours (45-50 minutes long), of course. The entrance fee is 1750 HUF under the age of 26, if you have international student card (ISIC). The English speaker tours are every day 10:00, 12:00, 13:00, 13:45, 15:00.  If you would like to reserve a period, tell me, I can do it for you so you don’t have to wait. Please tell me in advance, because the earlier you book, the better chance you still can get tickets. From here if you take 2nd line again and go to Batthyányi tér, you will get off the other side of the Danube and the whole building of the Parliament can be seen. You can take beautiful pictures from here ^.^

By the 2nd line, you can also go the Keleti pályaudvar (East Railway Station), from where you will take a train and go to Győr. The name of the stop is also Keleti pályaudvar.
/How to reach Keleti pályaudvar from Oktogon? There are 2 ways.
- From your hostel you go to Oktogon on foot, take the Line 1 in front of Burger King, go to Deák tér, there transfer to Line 2, and get off at Keleti pályaudvar.
- From your hostel you go to Oktogon on foot, you take the tram 4 or 6, go til Blaha Lujza tér, get off, go down to subway Line 2, get off at Keleti pályaudvar.
I’d suggest the first option because the tram is always crowded, and stuff…/

I don’t think you will use often, but we have 3rd Line, too. You may use it to reach Kálvin Tér (square). Why? From here starts the Ráday street which is full of restaurants which provides traditional Hungarian food, but I wouldn’t suggest you to go there, because the most restaurant are not cheap. But, from Kálvin tér you can walk to the National Museum which is really beautiful and worth visiting. It has a nice yard, where there are always people, sitting ont he stairs, or in yard under the trees, reading books, chatting, etc. (If you walk more, you can find my university campus ^^. I hope you will have time to take a look at it! It is written ont he front gate: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bölcsészettudományi Kar). Or, if you walk the other direction, you can go to the City Market Hall, which you definitely have to visit! There are many vegetable, fruit, cake, etc. shops, and the 2nd floor is full of souvenir shops, which are not cheap, but you may take a walk around and see what they provide. And here you can also find some buffets, where you can eat some traditional Hungarian food, and their prize is let’s say quite okay. 

But! Nearby there is one of my favourite places in Budapest. It’s called LEVES (in Hungarian means ’soup’). This is a really small place, where you can eat cream soups, sandwiches and cookies. These are all they have. But every day 4 different kind of soups (they have cold raspberry cream soup everyday, that is my absolute favourite ^^), 4 different grilled sandwiches, and 2 kinds of cookies).
Prizes:
0,5 dl soup: 450 HUF (+topping is +50 HUF, you can choose cream with mint, cheese, tortilla, crouton, mandels, etc.)
small sandwich with the soup together 790 HUF
big sandwhich with the soup together 990 HUF
cookie: 250 HUF

In front of the City Market Hall you can take the tram 47 or 49 and cross the bridge, so will reach the Gellért Hill. You can find the Gellért Spa here. You can easily climb up and see the statue at the top. You can see the whole city from up there. It’s worth ;)

Near the City Market Hall you can go down, too, and you can take Tram Line 2, it is Europe’s most beautiful line, because it goes along the Danube, so can see a really nice view with the Gellért Hill and the Royal Palace. From the Fővám tér stop you can go till Kossuth tér stop where the Parliament is, but if you take my advice, you take this tram from Fővám tér until Vigadó tér (Vigadó is a big concert hall, its building is nice, too), and go on foot till Széchenyi István tér, where the Chain Bridge is (or you may easily take a walk along the Danube from Fővám tér until Széchenyi István tér). I recommend you to come back here in the evening, too, because the night view is just amazing!

At Széchenyi Istvár tér you find some building of ministries, and also the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In front of the Academy there is bus stop, where you may take number 16, which goes up to the Royal Palace District. It may be crowded, but don’t worry, these buses come really often.

You may get off at Szentháromság Tér. Here you can find the Matthias Church, and the Fishermen’s Bastion. These all are fascinating, and so is the view from here. You have to buy tickets, if you want to go up in the Bastion, there are gates. You also have to buy tickets to visit the Matthias Church (for students it’s 700 HUF). From here you can go to the Royal Palace on foot, it takes about 5 minutes. Inside the Palace there is the National Library, Museum of Military History and the National Gallery. All the houses of this district are monuments. From the Royal Palace you can take the Budavári Sikló (funicular). It takes 900 HUF/person. If you take off at the bottom, there will be a bus stop of number 16 which goes back to Deák tér. Or you can take number 16 also near the Royal Palace, and go staight to Deák tér.

If you have time, I’d suggest you to take a river cruise on the Danube in the evening. When it’s getting dark, you can see almost all of the famous sights of Budapest at the same time and they have a beautiful view. I’ve told you earlier the place Vigadó tér. Around that, there are many docks, almost all has night cruises. I took one 2 years ago, the fee was 1000 HUF/person that time, buti t was really worth! It’s just amazing. (If you don’t want to eat or drink anything, and you don’t need a guide, you just sit on the top of the boat and look around. Try to search for this option!)

Some more spots:
The Margaret Island
From Oktogon you take tram line 4 or 6, and get off at Margitsziget stop. You can walk around the whole island, it has some small buffets, a mini zoo, which is free to visit, an outside stage for concerts and stuff. It has really nice parks, the people of Budapest come here to relax very often, you can also take a rest here =)
The National Theatre
I’ve already mentioned the tram line 2. If you go till the Millenium Kulturális Központ. Here you can find the National Theatre with a small, special park, and the Palace of Arts.