Spymon

Introduction

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I needed to get away. Working a shift pattern of insanity with only myself to blame, my boss had convinced me to claim back the extra time I'd been working. She pencilled me in a nice 4 day weekend but knowing if I spent it at home, it was only a matter of time before five minutes checking my email turned into a day. A politely answered call meant a 30 minutes on the phone. Sat on my daily commute home as the sun was setting I fired up the laptop to see where my Avios would take me, surely it was better than scrubbing someone's toilet... (These views may not be the same as my employer!)

As usual Ms. Spymon was less than convinced as we were going to visit her family in France in two weeks time. With the football season over and the in-laws about to give birth we'd either experience the joy of a baby or watching paint dry for a week, I thought I'd probably end up working as it would be more productive than watching the paint. Ms. Spymon was even less convinced than ever with this argument.

Over the weekend Ms. Spymon gave me a list of places she'd like to visit. Whilst she went out to work I went to work BA.com and set up one of my holiday spreadsheets. After cross referencing my list against reward flight availability I messaged my colleague S who visits a different country every month, "Budapest, Dublin, Madrid, Lisbon, Munich, Warsaw or Brussels". With a lightning fast reply, Budapest came back, with Brussels a second option. I then scoured the net for cheap accommodation. Dublin was ruled out quickly. Flights to Brussels had pretty awful times to max out the weekend, so Budapest was the winner! Using a decade of sales experience, I used my infamous guilt close successfully and at around 1AM Monday morning the trip was booked and 55000 Avios and £100 were parted with. I spent the next two days checking Chow Hound and the morning of the trip reading the Lonely Planet guide to Budapest. I asked S for some last minute tips and another colleague also called S for ideas. I also realised that most people don't document their travel with the same level of detail I do... Uh oh, I'm worried I scared a few people… If S and S are reading, the travel card was a great idea, if we'd had a few more days it would have been great to visit one of the famous hot spring baths and a few of the ruin pubs

Work to LHR to BUD
BA870: Departure 20:55
Aircraft: A320
Seats 3D and 3F

I finished work at 17:45 and battled my way via the Northern line to Leicester Square, enjoying the usual fight through exasperated commuters, tired children and lost tourists.

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The crowds thinned out as I headed west, leaving only world weary travelers... Struggling to stay awake and knowing Ms. Spymon had won the race to the airport I was chatting to colleagues and picking up last minute odds and ends whilst they told me to stop working (which was a nice way of saying leave me alone).

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However, as soon as the tube pulled into Heathrow I turned off my phone mid conversation as holiday time had finally arrived.

After stupidly trying to use the lift and getting crowded out by tourists entering from the wrong side, I took the escalators. Following the signs to T3, along the travellators, another escalator and up into the light.

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I crossed the courtyard and tried not to inhale the nicotine filled air. I Entered Zone G to find Ms. Spymon waiting for me.

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The Club desks looked slow so we took a free ET desk instead. Our check in agent was not super happy and not super miserable, no mention of the lounge, or fast track or a priority tag.

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Fast track would have been fast but Ms. Spymon ruined it again with a stray bottle of water in her bag. We headed to the lounge and found a spot next to some rather drunk EK passengers, the lady in the couple started to juggle some fruit and the both of them were rocking through the drinks at lightning speed.

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We both picked up some food from the buffet as we were not feeling 100% confident in what BA had in store for us on board. The slop from the troughs was pretty good and I enjoyed a fruity glass of 2011 Chinon to the wash it down.

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We boarded via gate 9 which was close to the BA lounge and the adjacent CX lounge.

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It looked like we might be a little late departing but in the end we got away quickly. We arrived at the gate and blazed right through Fast Track just as boarding was about to start. It was a longish walk down the jet bridge and once again time for the usual high quality BA welcome.

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We settled into row 3 and we were soon up and away to a beautiful sunset over Heathrow with amazing red clouds. We then continued upwards through the snowy, white peaks.

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Hot rags soon followed and then a drinks run. I chose a refreshing G & T, Ms. Spymon a Bloody Mary. Nothing like a good strong drink to get in the holiday spirit and with enough CE sectors under my belt to avoid the novelty of the battery acid blue top.

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Dinner was served with the choice of either chicken or prawn salad. I chose the chicken, Ms. Spymon the prawns.

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The food did the job for dinner mark two and a red wine induced haze followed by the time the cheese kicked in.

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We found the dessert worked best with an oat cake dipped in it and an increasingly improving cup of coffee tried to sober me up as we headed over some city somewhere at night.

We were well and truly in holiday mode... We soon touched down and the passengers in front of us were having quite the conversation. We disembarked and made it through passport control in about a minute. There was a short wait for baggage before getting our Főtaxi to our hotel for the night. (Főtaxi reads like faux Taxi in French which made us laugh quite a bit) Our driver was friendly but we were probably not the best company as it was after midnight local time.

Hotel: The Three Corners Hotel Art

We soon arrived at our hotel and with a quick check in we were soon sound asleep.

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stu1985

Great start to your report Spymon.

Must say - the prawn salad doesn't look that substantial for a flight of that length. Your meal looked decent enough though. I'm sure I've had that prawn salad on Band 1/2 flights.

layz won't be happy that you have shunned the Monopole

Madone59

Nice photos - thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to the rest ^

Spymon

Thanks stu1985. We were quite happy with our food on both the outbound and inbound. On the way back the prawn curry you posted on your Lisbon TR makes an appearance as does the Monopole, which seemed a lot more enticing after trying some of the local spirits in the lounge before hand!

Thanks Madone59, hope you enjoy the rest, plenty of food, drink and sights coming up!

Spymon

Our room was small but clean and barring someone's alarm with the vibrating force of a small earthquake going off continually from around 6am we were happy. We went downstairs for our complimentary buffet breakfast with a mix of hot and cold items like eggs, bacon or sausages and fruit, cold meats, cheeses, breads and pastries. The quality was fine for what we paid for the hotel and we'd be happy to stay there again. We picked up our Budapest cards from the front desk which gave us 72 hours use of the bus, tram, metro and boats and entry to a number of museums for about £22 each. The value of these really depends on your likely hood to visit the museums on offer. We left our case at the hotel and went out to explore.

Our first stop was the National Museum, housed in a grand building.

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There were a few highlights for me, the mosaic in the basement, some bone saddles and some communist art. Some of the interior was pretty spectacular.

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We spent an hour and a half in the museum, we could have spent longer but we felt we'd get more than enough Hungarian history from our guide book.

Our next stop was the Grand Synagogue and we were lucky enough to arrive just as one of the complementary tours was starting.

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Our guide was charismatic and we felt he would not have looked or sounded out of place in a 1970s Scorsese or Coppola movie.

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He did an excellent job of explaining the unique features of the building including its organ and the nice Catholic lady who plays it, its similarities to a Catholic Church, such as the having the rabbi at the front and two pulpits in the middle.

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Of course no visit here is complete without the retelling of the tragic destruction of the Jewish population of Hungary at the end of WW2. There are a number of beautiful monuments to the dead in the gardens to the back and side of the main building, made in hope that such an event will never be repeated.

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There is also a museum though unfortunately we were short of time and did not manage to visit.

We went back to the hotel to collect our bags before taking the metro two stops followed by a short walk to meet our AirBNB host. Public transport in Budapest is an eclectic mix of modern and what looked like communist era buses, trains and trams.

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We arrived at the property and as in the description, the entrance way had a certain rustic charm to it. Daniel buzzed us in and we climbed the stairs.

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Other than a slight smell of damp the flat was lovely and looked just like the pictures. Daniel was friendly but his recommendations were not very exciting and were not much better than our taxi driver the night before. Unfortunately our host got a touch defensive about this when we left our feedback to him in private after giving him a positive public review. As someone who works in customer services I appreciate constructive private feedback to improve what I do, hopefully Daniel will reflect on what we told him and take it in the spirit we intended, not as a personal criticism.

We settled in and took Daniel up on his recommendation for lunch, Kantin serving cheap touristic Hungarian fare. Around £6 for all this food...

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The food was good but we spent the rest of the day feeling like someone left a lump of lead in our stomachs. Hungary is one place that gives the USA a run for its money when it comes to portion size.

We spent the afternoon walking the streets as we thought it a bit late in the day for any attractions.

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Once we were exhausted we headed north on the metro to Laci Konyha for dinner but not seeing the poorly placed sign advising the restaurant was closed for a private event and then tripping over the stairs in front of said party. We ended up booking for the following night and hoping they'd not remember us too well.

In the end this failure was for the best, as unsure what to do we felt like a drink or two and ended up at Doblo to partake in one of their wine tasting menus. Ms. Spymon having grown up in one of the best places in the world for wine was curious to try some Hungarian wines. We had 4 small glasses each (approximately just over half a bottles worth) and a very generous portion of ham, bread and cheese all for around £10 each.

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Each glass came with a full explanation of tasting notes, geography and history delivered in flawless English. Wow, a fantastic evening and highly recommend if you are a novice to Hungarian wine. We did the basic tasting but there are plenty more to choose from.

Being completely full and a little tipsy we headed back the short walk to bed, for a good night's sleep despite the best efforts of one of the many local night spots.

krazykanuck

This TR really isn't helping lessen my desire to want to return to Budapest in the warm season since I was there in November last year. I had the exact same thought re the public transit, with brand new trains running along side ancient subway cars.

Spymon

Sorry, krazykanuck, looks like my TR is doing a good job for the Hungarian tourist board . We were really lucky with the weather as apparently it poured with rain the day before we arrived and the day after we left. The new metro line and some of the trams are as modern as anything you'd find in the world. Interestingly having consulted Wikipedia some of the metro trains are indeed soviet made, however even the oldest ones on the Budapest metro are much newer than many that run at home in London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Metro

Spymon

We started the day with breakfast at the Blue Bird Cafe. Fruity espresso, flaky croissant and soft, sweet banana cake with a generous portion of Jam and butter washed down with an acidic, Coca-Cola branded orange juice. Service was friendly and if we had more days on our trip we would have been happy to go back again.

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After breakfast we headed to the magnificent Basilica of St Stephen it was really quite beautiful.

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We also saw an interesting relic of the Catholic church, the Holy Dextor aka The Holy Right Hand of St Stephen and wondered what other religions are so fond of such artefacts.

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We then headed to Castle Hill, taking the metro and foolishly walking up the hill instead of taking the bus. Our first impressions were that we'd arrived at Hungarian Disney Land, with pristine painted buildings and hardly a person in sight. As we walked deeper into the Castle District it turned increasingly into tourist central but the views were quite special.

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We visited the two museums at a pace far greater than we usually manage, but found neither to be enthralling. We saw some nice paintings at the Hungarian National Gallery but the Castle Museum was particularly disappointing, mainly because there's not very much castle left.

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On the way down the hill we stopped for lunch at Ildiko Konyhaja, a place recommended in our guide book as supposedly being rather cheap. The food was OK, with giant portions of meat. Once again, the typical Hungarian portion seems much more generous than anywhere else we've travelled too.

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We then headed to book a tour of the parliament building which is one of the most beautiful in the world (after London). The tour was good but felt a little rushed.

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After the tour we had a quick walk around City Park and enjoyed a sugary sweet glass of lemonade before heading back to Laci Konyha but not without some drama. Thanks to my trade mark poor timing and even worse sense of direction, we missed the metro train twice making our reservation tight. We then got escorted by a ticket inspector off of the train as the month had ever so slightly rubbed off on our plastic Budapest cards. We really thought we were getting fined but in reality the ticket inspector was having trouble reaching her boss to get authorisation to sign off our tickets as not dodgy.

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We were only 15 minutes late in the end and enjoyed a unique dinner at Laci Konyha which is a modern Hungarian or in my book fusion restaurant. Service was warm and we did three courses from the a la carte. They also do a 5 course tasting menu with optional wine pairings.

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We had an amuse bouche of local bread, serrano ham, olive and olive oil and fresh black pepper. Really, nice, particularly the olive oil. A very classic combination with no room to hide, but done well.

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For starter I had duck soup and Ms. Spymon had focaccia / Soft boiled egg, aubergine, foie gras espuma, focaccia. The smoked duck was delicious, a bit like eating the best piece of bacon money can buy. For anyone who doesn't eat pork and wants to know what good bacon tastes like, you must try this! The broth with coriander and coriander oil was light and clear. There were also noodles in the soup, hinting of an Asian influence to proceedings. On closer eating the soup morphed into a Thai soup with hot chili and sour lemon grass. It was refreshing but a slightly odd combination, it was also impossible to eat with only the spoon provided. Ms Spymon 's course reminded me of the inside of a Tuc biscuit but in a good way. Again, quite Hungarian with the cheese but unusual in execution. I enjoyed a fruity, sweet glass of Tokaji with my soup, I was really unconvinced when told it would go with the duck but it handled the smokiness of the duck and the Thai flavours quite well.

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For main I had veal cheeks with pickled vegetables. Eating this course gave me the sensation of eating meat with salad but also accompanied by pak choi and delicious roast garlic. I still can't work out the sauce even now. The food was perfectly cooked but the flavour combinations quite odd. I had a glass of Cabernet Franc with my main which was fruity and buttery and went well with the food.

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Ms. Spymon had salmon, rye gnocchi, young radish, raspberry, chanterelle, sauce and veg. All traditional ingredients but an unusual execution.

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For dessert we both order the Raspberry, camomile, sea buckthorne. We nearly skipped it but that would have been a huge mistake. It was refreshing and delicious, for better or worse the highlight of the meal.

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We were given a mini cake and a filled chocolate to finish. A good meal that we are glad to have tried, though the flavour combos in some of the dishes were not to our taste.

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You can find the daily menus here, lunch looks a bit of a bargain https://www.facebook.com/lacikonyha.etterem?fref=nf

Full and refreshed after an amazing dessert we headed home to sleep.

Spymon

We began our day with a trip to the Grand Market which we quite enjoyed. There was a huge array of meat, fruit and vegetables available for purchase.

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The stalls seemed to be doing a brisk trade with the locals, whilst the upstairs area filled with bric-a-brac and food stalls lured tourists and natives alike.

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Although it was only 11am quite a few men already had their beers ready.

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For breakfast we decided to try langos, a deep fried bread with a choice of sweet or savoury toppings. With our eyes being bigger than our bellies we went for one each. Ms. Spymon chose chocolate and banana and I took chocolate with coconut, cocoa, almonds, chocolate sauce and hundreds and thousands. What we didn't realise were all the add-ons that looked to be included were extra and we ended paying what felt like London prices for our food. This was probably the only time on the trip we felt we'd been caught out as tourists.

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After breakfast we headed over the bridge, taking the tram and then getting the bus up the Gellert Hills to the Citadella. The views were magnificent and well worth the time.

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As we were short on time, we made our way down via the bus rather than walk through the gardens. Back in town again and we checked out some photography museums. First up was the Mai Mano House Gallery set in a beautiful old building in the theatre district. With photos from Andre Kertesz mainly covering the first world war and a few more recent ones up until the photographer's death in the 1980s.

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Next up was the Robert Capa Gallery. There was an exhibition of his less known colour works. I thought they were amazing and for me, one of the highlights of the trip in terms of museum visits. He truly lived a short life to the full.

We then had a light lunch at the beer garden over the road before heading back to the flat to collect our bags and head to the airport. A simple trip on the M3 and then the bus to the airport.

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We arrived at the Club desks to find them over flowing with a family who had chosen to make the most of the CE baggage allowance and were fiercely repacking all 15 bags of it at the check in desk. Judging from their reception at LHR I don't think they were used to dealing with such formalities without executive assistance. After all three regular check in desks started to empty we made our away from the Club desk and were promptly checked in.

There's no fast track on BA at BUD, much to one passengers disgusted look and subsequent argument. Despite this apparent set back we were through quickly, just about dodging the school group. After a run through the shops we arrived at passport control with no queue and went straight upstairs to the lounge. I recall reading the contract lounge here was not much to get excited about but not being hungry (pun not intended) the bar was quite fun and I tried some of the local goodies. I began with an over generous shot of Palinka, continuing with a more sensible shot of the best named drink in the world; Unicum, which I found much more agreeable. I washed these down with copious amounts of water and coffee to no great effect. This local stuff is pretty lethal... There are nice views on the tarmac and we watched our aircraft taxi to its stand.

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Flight BA0869 BUD T2B to LHR T3
Departs 18:55
Aircraft A320
Seats 2A and 2C

We soon departed the lounge and took the two minute walk to the gate. A priority queue was available which was not called but enforced. We were quickly aboard and settled in to row 2. Ms. Spymon had the double window and was nominated for picture taking duty. The crew seemed very friendly. Hot towels were offered on the ground.

We were soon airborne and had a misty view out over Budapest. The drinks service began and I went with the battery acid blue top, which was surprisingly drinkable today, though after the Palinka I think almost anything seemed drinkable and Ms. Spymon took a G & T. Food was a prawn curry or chicken salad. The tray contained the usual cheese, coffee and a rather tasty apple crumble dessert. I tried the other red on rotation which I preferred to that on the inbound. Whilst it may not have looked like much, I was super stuffed from dinner. Both of us enjoyed our meals.

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The crew did a couple of check-ups but seemed to have a jolly good chat for the last half hour of the flight.
In all though two great flights from BA and a great way to spend Avios on what would have been an astronomically expensive trip as we booked literally 72 hours before departure.

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DSC09268 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

DSC09270 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

DSC09276 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

DSC09278 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

After a hike to passport control, a short hike to baggage reclaim and the long wait for our bags we headed over to the tube to find delays on the Piccadilly line and then the destination board correcting itself every 30 seconds for the next ten minutes. The reality we were on our way home had kicked in. By Acton Town we were at rush hour level busyness but without the peaceful silence. We were happily crushed all the way to St Pancras before our train home to Canterbury.

DSC09282 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

DSC09283 by Simon Halsey, on Flickr

To sum up, it was three days to switch off, shut down and relax. Just what we needed before heading off to France a week later. I was also pretty pleased with myself. Ok, we were in CE and we managed one fancy dinner, but have I managed to do a trip with no desire for 5 star hotels and no intention for any dining one up man ship... Well for now anyway. It's easy to complain that Avios are worthless after the recent devaluation but without them doing a last minute trip would have been impossible to afford. The value is slightly different if we'd travelled in ET outside the tourist season and booked well in advance. But with CE flights currently selling at £194 pp each way I think it was Avios and money well spent.

Spymon

If you enjoyed this TR you might like some of my others in the links below:

Three Birthdays Featuring BA vs Easyjet, Lots of Food and Amazing Mountain Landscapes(2015)
Eurostar, TGV, Canoe and a Puppy (2014)
The Adventures of Rebecca Blanton - LHR to CLE on UA (Y) AKA another LHR T2 Trial (2014)
South India: Featuring BA F, 9W, 6E, SG and the Indian Railways (and lots of food!) (2014)
Coffee in Catalonia: Featuring BA, RENFE, SNCF and some good food (2013)
Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a Boat (2013)
For Family, Football and First Class by Train (2013)
Experiencing BA Club Europe (LHR-LYS-LHR) As Family Matters (2012)
A West Coast Adventure: San Francisco, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with VX and BA (2012)
Three Ways From A to B a Statusless Persons Guide: BA vs. Eurostar vs. Easyjet (2012)
Voyage To India: Delhi, Agra, Orchha, Khajuraho, Varanasi (EK, SG, IT and Indian Railways, 2010)

stu1985

Spymon - great finish to your report! Budapest is somewhere I want to go. Your pics are great. I particularly liked the ones with the views of the bridges and the river.

Hope you enjoyed the Unicum.......

Spymon

Thanks stu1985. Budapest is very reasonable, even if you want to live life the SFO777 way rather than our more humble attempts. Unicum was an unexpected delight . I have another brief TR coming up too...

JohnRain

Thanks for posting this very interesting TR Spymon. I'll be in Budapest this weekend and will definitely visit some of the places you reviewed. Very helpful indeed.

Spymon

Thanks JohnRain, hope you have fun.