Interrailing - Day 9: Exploring Budapest

We started our day with chores and matcha – specifically, going to a launderette, and getting a yuzu matcha soda from the nearby shop. The laundry was quite expensive at €10 for a wash and dry, however the staff fully took care of it for us, so we were able to "fire and forget" for a few hours while we went and explored

For brunch, we were quite unsure for a while about what places nearby would be good for vegans, especially because we really wanted to try some authentic Hungarian food. We ended up trying a few places that seemed promising but ended up being closed, so gave up and split off – the meat eaters went to an Étkezde, essentially a basic cafeteria-type establishment serving cheap and filling meals. It seemed like a win-win: we'd try authentic food without a tourism influence, and would save some money too. The downside is the food was definitely not catering for any dietary requirements: when we asked the server what each meal was, he amusingly went through each of the ~12 trays and kept repeating "this is pork, this is pork, this is pork", and occasionally "this is cheese" or even "this is chicken".

The serving was huge though, and worked out at about between £5 and £7 each, so pretty cheap on the whole. We ended up trying:

• meatballs in a tomato-pepper sauce, served with plain boiled potatoes
• cabbage rolls with some sort of meat and vegetable filling, served with rice
• the pea and beef casserole, and a block of deep fried cheese

It was all pretty tasty, and incredibly filling. For vegan food, we went to a nearby cafe which had a smoky eggplant salad and a apple pie for a decent price, then sat in a park and ate all our food together.

After lunch we needed to head back to collect our laundry, stopping at a corner store for some drinks along the way. We then took a quick break and decided to visit the House of Terror – a slightly amusingly named museum about the effects of communism on Hungary.

The House of Terror

The House of Terror was a really unique museum – it took you through a long exhibit about the various history of Soviet occupation in Hungary, including how it came about, the resistance, and the eventual fall. Some exhibits had this very "hardcore" background music which set the mood well but made it a little hard to concentrate. Unfortunately I can't recall too much of the specifics as there was a lot to take in, but it was interesting experiencing a much more lived-experience perspective on the USSR and Soviet occupation, compared to the very detached view people from the West tend to have. If it's not clear, they really aren't too fond of it, hence the name of the museum. We ended up being rushed out as despite arriving around two hours before closure, we still didn't have time to fully take in everything – so I'd definitely recommend visiting!

Dinner

We headed home at this point, getting a bit of shopping for dinner. We decided to try our hands at making goulash, which was simple enough and tasty enough, more or less just a standard stew. We watched the movie Old together – my very brief review would be a 6/10 – and then headed to bed!

Our Travels