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28.5:
Munich -> Budapest
29.5:
Budapest
30.5:
Budapest
31.5:
Budapest
-> Vienna
01.06:
Vienna
-> Munich
Overview
This was a
brief four-day
trip from Munich to Budapest and Vienna, which we did by car on an
extended
weekend, at the end of May 2003. We lost a lot of time driving
from Munich to Budapest, probably due to the extended weekend. Budapest
is a beaufitul city, with a special atmosphere and many sights.
Costs
Rooms were relatively
expensive,
both in Budapest and Vienna. "Relatively" if compared to accomodation
in
Portugal, where we paid around 30 Euro/night in pensaos in 2002, while
the cheapest double rooms with bath we found both in Budapest and
Vienna
were around 60 Euro. In Budapest possibly room
rates
are lower in low season (during this extended weekend the town was
packed
with tourists, mostly from Germany).
Food in Budapest was
cheaper than
in Germany and Austria. It is possible for instance to have a lunch for
two in a Chinese restaurant for 5 Euro (including drink). Prices for
food
in Vienna instead are more or less in line with prices in Germany (not
cheap).
Fuel for the car
("Normalbenzin")
was 103 Euro cents in German towns, 90 Euro cents on Austrian
motorways,
83.6 Euro cents in Vienna and the equivalent of 90 Euro cents in
Budapest
(225 Forint).
For an overview of other
expenses
please read the travelogue.
Money /
Exchange rate
(early June 2003)
1 Euro = 1.17 US $
1 Euro = 250 Forint
For current exchange rates
check
the Universal Currency Converter.
GSM coverage/
mobile phones
Hungary: full country
coverage; three
GSM operators. For coverage maps and more information click here.
Austria: full counry
coverage; four
GSM operators and one 3G operator; more information available here.
You'll need a GSM
900/1800 phone.
Before travelling to these countries check if your provider has a
roaming agreement with the GSM operators in Austria and Hungary.
Internet
access
In Budapest and Vienna we
easily
found Internet cafes. Rates in Budapest were 700 Forint/hour; in Vienna
10 Euro cents/minute.
Weather
Sunny and hot; some
clouds.
Health /
Vaccinations
None required or
necessary.
VISA / Entry
requirements
For Hungary a valid
passport is necessary.
EU nationals and nationals from several other countries need no VISA.
For
more information contact the Hungarian embassy of your country. Austria
is a member of the
European
Union and the Schengen zone. There are no border controls between
Germany
and Austria. General EU entry requirements.
Security
No problem at all.
28.05.03,
Munich -> Budapest
Garibaldi
guesthouse, Garibaldi Street 5, Tel. 01-3023456 (Fax/phone), 01-3023457
(phone only), garibaldiguest@hotmail.com; 60 Euro/night; big room with
big bath+shower, quiet.
Sunny
with
clouds; no rain; warm, with a fresh air
We leave Munich at 1:15
pm. Everything
runs smooth until there is the first traffic jam about 10km from the
Austrian
border. We spend around half an hour to one hour in the traffic jam.
Then
we enter Austria and refuel the car (90 cents/liter for 'Normal
Benzin'
91 ROZ) and buy the Austrian vignette for 8 euro. We drive past
Salzburg
and then continue, but not too fast (average around 100 km/h or less),
because the motorway only has two lanes, is full of curves and there is
lots of traffic. Around Vienna we get stuck in a huge traffic jam, in
which
we lose around one hour. We finally leave Vienna around 7:30-8pm and
after
a short drive get stuck in the next traffic jam (we lose around 30-60
minutes).
By the way, we make two short snack breaks of about 20 minutes each in
motorway restaurants.
The motorway from Vienna to
Hungary
is full of Austrian, Hungarian and other Central European cars. After
this
traffic jam the drive continues for maybe 20 minutes until we end into
the mother of all traffic jams. We lose two and a half hours at the
border,
because there are so many cars waiting to enter Hungary and the
Hungarian
border police thoroughly checks every single car. We finally enter
Hungary at
11:20pm.
Then I change some money (50 Euro) into Forint (at the bad rate of 232
Forint/Euro) and get the Hungarian vignette for 1900 Forint. Then we
start making phone
calls
and look for rooms to stay. We finally find a place to spend the night
for 50 Euro/night for a room with bath.
There is now a fast motorway
from
the Hungarian border to Budapest. 20 km from Budapest there are many
commercial
centres with shops. We manage to reach Budapest
around
1:30am and find the place shortly before two. The owner is still awake
waiting for us; even his wife shows up. We sleep at 3am.
29.05.03, Budapest
Garibaldi
guesthouse
Sunny
day,
warm; in the afternoon and evening overcast sky
My car has a ticket
(apparently parking
in Garibaldi street costs money). The owner of the guesthouse explains
that in the whole central area of Budapest parking is not free. Great,
so where am I supposed to park the car ?
In the morning we have a
talk with
the lady who runs the Garibaldi guesthouse (Mrs. Ena Bottka). She tells
us that the room rate is 60 Euro (15000 Forint), although yesterday
when
we booked the room the guy quoted us a price of 50 Euro. The Let's Go
2003
guide quotes a prince range of 6000-10000 Forint. The room is nice, but
is overpriced at 60 Euro (last year we payed 30 Euro/night for similar
rooms in Portugal). I call other places in the Let's Go guide, but they
are all full, so we are basically forced to stay in this place.
After a short and late
breakfast
(11am) Shirley and I start looking for an ATM. My idea is to go to the
Citibank ATM, as cash deductions from these ATMs are free of fees. It
takes
us over an hour to find the Citibank ATM, as driving by car through
Budapest
is very complicated if you are new in town. Finding a parking is a big
problem.
After lunch in a Chinese
restaurant
(very cheap at 1240 Forint, i.e. 5 Euro, for two) we start exploring
the
town. Getting by car across the chain
bridge to the base of the Royal Palace hill in Buda
is complicated and tiring, as there is so much traffic. We take the
cablecar
up to the Royal Palace. From there you enjoy a nice view of Budapest.
At
4pm something we go back to the car. The ídea is to drive to the
guesthouse, fetch the swimstuff and then got to the Széchenyi
bath (which closes at 7pm). Now, on the way back from the Royal
Palace
to Garibaldi street we make a mistake and drive about 500 meters too
far
to the south along the Danube. It takes us an hour to drive back these
500 meters, as there is a huge traffic jam in downtown Budapest. At one
point we are forced to make an (illegal) U-turn, otherwise we would end
up driving out of Budapest (in this town turning to the left is often
not
allowed). Overall it's very messy to drive by car across Budapest.
Since
we arrive to the hotel after 5:30pm (too late for the bath) we simply
give
up on the bath and relax in the hotel.
At 7:30pm we go out again. Girls and young women in
Budapest
are HOT. They like to wear sexy things (miniskirts, short dresses,
tight
pants, tight tops etc.) whích best put their curves into
display.
I haven't seen so many women dressing sexy things in a long time. It's
as if the women here were competing for attention, for who has the best
body shape. Or perhaps I live in a country where women dress very bad.
In the evening we have a
brief dinner
and then go to an internet cafe (700 Forint/hour; Andrassy Street 46;
Oktogon
underground station; quite fast access) to check the emails. On the way
back we take
the underground.
When changing lines, from M1 to M2, we are asked to produce tickets
while
in the underground station - before even being able to go on board of
the
M2 underground. We are told that we have the wrong tickets (ours
apparently
are single line ones for 120 Forint and we should have bought "transit"
ones for 190 Forint). The lady tells us that we have to pay 1500 Forint
fine each. Weird, because we haven't taken yet the second line. After
some discussion (with two ladies later joined by a guy) we simply walk
away.
30.05.03, Budapest
Garibaldi
guesthouse
Warm
and sunny
the whole day
In the morning we manage
to get out
of the guesthouse at 10am and start the sightseeing after a brief
breakfast
in the cafe next to the guesthouse. We briefly stop at the Parliament,
then get into the nearby M2 underground station. The ticket costs 80
Forint
and allows you to travel up to the third underground station. We get
out
one station later, at Batthyany Ter. After a quick look at the St.
Anna church we take again the underground to the next station, Moszkva
Ter. At the exit of the underground a controller checks our tickets
- the station of entry and the duration of our trip. Apparently this
time
everything is ok. It's a quarter to eleven and we start walking up the
hill to the Fishermen's
bastion
which we reach 15 minutes later. The entry fees to the monuments are
around
300-500 Forint per person.
We spend almost two hours
there,
then walk slowly to the Royal
Palace
which we reach at 1:30pm. Then the idea would be to have lunch
somewhere
in Pest. We walk down the Royal Palace hill to the base and look for a
public transportation to get us across the Danube. The problem is that
tickets are sold nowhere, i.e. there is no Metro station or newspaper
shop
nearby where we could buy bus tickets. So we simply walk across the
chain
bridge and get the Nr. 2 tram for two stations, getting out at the
Parliament.
The discovery of the day
is the Momotaro
Metélt chinese restaurant (Széchenyi U. 16), which from
the
outside looks like nothing special (the entrance is run down and
dirty),
but inside it's quite nice and the food is very good. Much better than
the Chinese restaurants in Germany.
After lunch at almost 3pm
we rest
for a while in the guesthouse. At 4:40pm we drive by car to the Széchenyi
bath (ticket costs 1100 Forint). Very nice place, with a wide range
of activities - thermal baths at 34 and 38°C in sulphureous water,
saunas and cold baths. kind of a hig speed circular whirlpool where
people
are moved by a strong current and indoor and outdoor basins and
whirlpools.
Beautiful setting.
At 7pm we visit then the
Varosliget
park, then drive to the base of the Citadel (we climb up the hill,
because
we can't find the road which leads up the hill.
Dinner is again in the
Momotaro restaurant.
31.05.03, Budapest -> Vienna
Hotel
Stadt
Bamberg, Mariahilfstrasse 167, Vienna; small double room with shower
and
water basin, no toilet, 64 Euro
Hot
sunny
day with a few clouds in the sky
We wake up still tired
from yesterday's
sightseeing (my eyes are still red, either from the sun or from
yesterday's
sauna). We check out at 10am and have a brief breakfast. Again the car
has a ticket for wrong parking.
There is little traffic
in Budapest
at 10:45am and we manage to get out of town relatively smoothly. The
motorway
is quite empty. It takes one hour and a half to reach the border and
crossing
it today takes little time.
Once in Austria we start
calling
the hotels and hostels listed in the Let's Go Europe 2003 guide. It
turns
out that this guide is pretty useless, because there is only a handful
of places listed and these places are all full. Probably these places
are
full because too many people are using the Let's Go guide and only call
these places. It would probably make sense to use a less widely used
guidebook.
Let's Go also doesn't
list the telephone
number of the tourist office, so I have to get it from the directory
service
of the Austrian mobile phone operator. I call the tourist office, but
since
nobody replies we drive to Albertinaplatz (where the tourist office is)
and make a reservation there (the tourist office will make reservations
for you for a fee of 2.60 Euro).
It's 3pm by now and since
the roads
today are blocked until 5 or 6pm due to an activity (marathon maybe),
we
decide to visit the downtown area until 6pm then drive to the hotel.
After
a late lunch in the Markt restaurant near the tourist office
(Maysedergasse,
24 Euro for two, food is ok), we walk along the pedestrian area
(Kärtner
Strasse) to the Stephan's church. Lots of people on the streets.
In Stephansplatz
there is lots of activity with several street
artists performing. From there we take the underground U3 for two
stations
until Volkstheater
(very overpriced at 1.50 Euro for two stations - they should lower
their
prices). From Volkstheater we stroll slowly to the Parliament
then from there to the Hofburg,
passing by the Volksgarten. Then we walk towards the Opera
and from there back to the car. It's now 6:20pm and we drive to the
hotel.
It turns out that the
hotel is one
star only and the room is a disappointment (very small, separate beds
in
opposite corners of the room, a TV on top of the cupboard). We change
to
a bigger double room without bath. It's regrettable that in a town like
Vienna you only get such a room for 64 Euro. In the evening we walk
out for dinner.
After dinner I briefly check my emails in an Internet cafe
(Mariahilfstrasse,
10 Euro cents/ minute).
01.06.03 Vienna -> Munich
Variable
weather;
sunny with clouds; brief shower at noon
We leave the hotel at
10:20am and
drive into town along the Mariahilfstrasse, briefly stopping in two
places
to take pictures. Around 11:30 we park the car in a back road near the
university. After visiting the Rathaus
we meet my brother Markus who happens to be in Vienna for the weekend.
Together we have a late breakfast in the cafe
Zentral (around 18 Euro for the three of us; a cake and a drink
each).
This Cafe has a very nice interior and excellent cakes (they even play
some music).
After we walk out; brief
photo stop
at the Votiv
church, then we fetch the D tram line to the Belvedere
castle (quite nice, though much smaller than Schönbrunn
castle).
Around 2pm we walk to the Südtirolerplatz and fetch the U1 to
Praterstern.
Basically it's a huge fun fair with a giant panoramic
wheel (7.50 Euro per person). Nice view
from the Panoramic wheel. It's almost 3pm and we go back to the car
which
we reach at 4:10pm after a brief snack (we have two change two times
the
underground).
Getting to Schönbrunn
castle and finding a parking takes almost one hour (we enter
Schönbrunn
castle at 5pm). We spend over an hour at the castle and just see a
small
part of the castle and park. There is a nice maze
(2.60 Euro per person) in the park. At 6:30pm we are back in the car.
We
refuel the car in a nearby petrol station (83.6 Euro cents for
Normalbenzin
- cheaper than the 103 Euro cents the Normalbenzin costs in Germany and
the 90 cents it costs in Hungary).
At 6:40pm we finally
leave Wien and
reach the border to Germany very speedily shortly after 9pm (no traffic
jams). At the border we again refuel the car (this time 90 Euro
cents/liter,
but still less than what the fuel costs in Germany). After a dinner we
reach home at 11:20pm.
Copyright (c) 2003
Alfred
Molon
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