Let's start with the pub hopping night, after all it's the one that caused me fall sick. Oh before that, I came across this pub hopping tour thank to the earlier free walking tour I joined during the day.
There're few sessions for the free working tour, 10am, 2pm are the two that I remember where the later one is the session I joined. Highly recommended because it gives a very brief yet good introduction about Hungary, particularly Budapest. One interesting fact about the country is that the very first 9 tribes who came to Hungary were from Asia, so they are NOT European. But of course after many incidents happened, wars that wiped out huge population, immigration, rebuilding of the nation, a healthy mix of ethnics can be found in Hungary. They don't differentiate themselves into certain ethic or races, rather they call themselves Hungarian. And one thing that they're proud of is the difficult Hungarian Language.
The tour took 3 hours, covering Buda and Pest. Not going into the details about the city, since I don't really remember much. This tour provides you a nice door into city. Not forgetting the helpful tour guide who was so willing to answer all our questions, includes the good restaurant, the bath, the food, the pub like Simpa! Don't sign up for any package until you've done this tour because you'll realise that this tour basically cover everything in Budapest, within the walkable area.
Got myself some beef goulash with noodles after the trip. And without wasting much time, I ran back to leave my bag and return to the meeting point, got ready for the pub hopping a.k.a pub tour.
This is where the crazy things happened.
The first pub gave us a free shot, they call it 'pinky', a pink vodka with gassy liquid; you have to drink it immediately after the bartender poured the gassy liquid so that the gas does not vanish. The logic behind is that the gassy liquid will bring the alcohol straight into your brain instead of stomach, hence you get drunk faster. The shot is FOC, and then i got myself a beer for around RM15.
We played some ice breaking games, a very good platform to start a conversation with other travellers or someone you wished to talk to.
After that we went to another old school bar to have another bottle of beers before heading to the next one where we got another free shot. By the time we reach Simpa, I was already super tipsy. And the night was just too awesome! I don't remember much about Simpa because I was so drunk but miraculously I managed to walk back!
The next day I started to feel sick. Had some duck cuisine with foie gras, very nice I remember, probably the best duck I had.
The next few day I was terribly sick, forgoing the bath. The heavy rain and cold wind made it worse but I still got some souvenirs from Great Market Hall. Things here are almost the same in all stalls but those in front sell at higher price. The tips here is to get things you want from stalls in the middle; you can get as much as 50% cheaper! Spotted some nice scenes outside the Great Market Hall despite the unfavourable rainy weather.
There was one night I went out with a guy from Ghana to 'hunt', for girls! His flirting skill is GODLIKE! Hilarious and entertaining night!
Since I was sick for most of the time, I did not do many things. But the party nice is really worth the trip. Do not go during the weekdays, it's a dead city. It gains its life on Friday and Saturday, where energetic tourists fly in for the crazy parties. Sunday is the transition day and Monday is totally blue.
I shall not forget this splendid view of the parliament house at night
