Bratislava, Slovakia & Budapest, Hungry 06.02.26

 Travel day, Friday 06.02.2026 Bratislava, Slovakia.

Early flight from London Luton, 6am arrival at 09.20. Got the bus to Bratislava train station, which was about 25 min drive costing 80p, what a bargain! Nice 20 min walk into the old town, checked into hotel APLEND city around 10.45, luckily our room was ready so we got in, freshened up and back out to explore for the rest of the day. We had a butchers around the old town which was beautiful, lovely old buildings, churches, a lot of different embassies, and was a fascinating walk around. We headed towards Bratislava castle, walking by the UFO Bridge on the way. It was a bit of an unnecessary expense to go up (€12.50) and then drinks on top so we didn't bother, maybe if we go back it would be something to try. Walking up a load of stairs to get to the castle was worth it as the views over the city were fab! 

On our way back of course we had to find the Irish bar so had a couple of drinks in there before heading back to the hotel. We were pretty hungry now so decided to try the restaurant at the hotel. We had some local dinners which were really nice & tasty, we really enjoyed the food. 

After dinner we took a walk to find the blue church before heading back and to bed, ready for another long day tomorrow.

Travel day number 1, Saturday 07.02.2026 Budapest, Hungary.

Train to Budapest, Hungary from Bratislava.

No rush to get up this morning, however we still went down for brekkie at about 9 (lie in for us), it was a lovely continental breakfast along with a few cooked items such as bacon, sausage and egg. Was a good start to the day.

All packed and ready for check out, we started our walk back to the train station but decided to go a different way, found a nice little park where we had a sit for a while just taking in everything, such a beautiful country, lots of statues, architecture and sculptures. 

We got to the station really early,the train wasn't until 14.05 but we was there around 11, we wasn't sure where else to go in the city with the limited time we had so just went early as we also wanted to scout everything out, trains, platform, food etc, it wasn't too bad in the end as there is a nice small cafe we had a few drinks in, time went pretty quick, was very easy to navigate and we boarded the train about 14.00, we  found nice seats with a table and off we went to our second country of the weekend. The train was comfy, we had some snacks & drinks that we brought with us, we listened to the footie, played cards and before you know it the 2hr 20 trip to Hungary was done! 

We arrived around 16.30, come out of the station and knew we needed the number 9 bus so jumped on the first one we saw and of course soon realised it was going the wrong way, we needed the one on the other side of the road, luckily I noticed by the time we got to the first stop so off we jumped and walk back over the bridge back to the other stop. On the plus side we had a lovely view down the river from the bridge. We got to our hotel about 17.30 after the mistake but still with plenty of time prior to our river cruise down the danube. We stayed at ETS Savoy hotel, was really nice hotel in a perfect location and pretty cheap for 2 nights (£274 not including bfast). We grabbed a taxi via bolt to get us to the docks for our trip, which was a river cruise down the danube with a free welcome drink, only cost us £15 each via get your guide and was an hour long, was a really good trip to do as the parliament building was all lit up, you have to make sure you do this prior to 10pm though as the lights go off at 10, we done our cruise at 19.40 so in good time.

Once we docked back in we got the bolt taxi back to our hotel and went on to find somewhere to eat, we went to a restaurant close to our hotel called Petrol, it was really yummy, quick, good food and not too expensive.

Sunday 08.02.2026

Nice lay in today and not up and out until 10.30. We managed to navigate catching the trams/ metro and buses which are all really cheap, around £1 per time or you can get a day ticket but we didn’t really need it in the end so just stuck with getting a ticket each time we used them. We made our way to Buda castle district where we had a walk round, visited the fisherman bastion, 100% recommend visiting here, it was free and the views were amazing, we were especially lucky as we had clear blue skies and sun!

After we finished taking in the views we walked down and caught the bus back into the city where we found the shoes along the Danube.

 What it commemorates

• During World War II (1944–1945), Hungary was under the control of the fascist Arrow Cross Party.
  
  

• Thousands of Hungarian Jews were executed along the banks of the Danube River.
  
  

• Victims were forced to remove their shoes before being shot — shoes were valuable and could be resold.
  
  

• Their bodies fell into the river and were carried away by the current.
  
  

The memorial honors those innocent people who lost their lives there.

Once we finished along the Danube we were in need of a drink, where better than to find an Irish bar seems to be our thing now when we are away to make sure we find one in each city. The one we found was called James Joyce, we watched a bit of footie. Had what we thought was going to be a snack, some chips with cheese and bacon, but turned out it was a huge portion, which in any normal circumstances would have been great, but in this case a shock as we had dinner booked for 5pm and this was around 1pm ! Hey ho, we still enjoyed it as they were very yummy.

We still had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservation, so we decided to go for a walk to try find a cocktail bar, however the trouble we had was it seemed a lot of cocktail bars didn't open until 16.00 or 18.00 so got a bit stuck with where to go, we ended up walking 20 mins to the ruins bar which was pretty interesting inside, we had a bit of a look around there but didn’t find anything that we really fancied to drink so as we come back out we stumbled across Karavan street food, was a lovely little place to walk around with lots of food options but more importantly there was a cocktail bar which sparked our interest as of course we wasn’t hungry at this point, the cocktail we had were very nice and very strong so full makes from us ha ! 

We made our way back again as now it was time for our dinner reservation at The Magic 2, this was a restaurant pretty much based on Harry Potter with all the magic but I would presume due to copyright wasn’t all kitted out exactly like the films/books. We sat down at our table which was in a room with a magic mirror, there were several different room designs, all pretty cool. We ordered a couple of cocktails, all pretty reasonably priced. Dinner I had a really nice pork dish with rice and Chris had brisket with potatoes.

Once we had finished our meal we decided to find the Tiki cocktail bar which the both of us had seen on Tiktok which looked really nice, so off we went back 20 mins again near to the Karavan street food market to the Tiki bar, now the vibe in there was great and the cocktail were banging but it was very expensive ! We had x2 cocktails each and the bill came to about £60 ! however I would certainly recommend a visit, even if just for the one.

After a very long day and quite a few cocktails we were just about ready for bed ! We got the metro back to the hotel and zonked out for the night.

Monday 09.02.2026 - Home Time 🙁

Lay in this morning, which we certainly needed after all the walking yesterday, so chilled until check out at 11. We was starting to get hungry now so wanted to find somewhere that would keep up full until we got home, we looked at a few local cafe which in hindsight we wish we went to, though in the end we ended up at the Hardrock Cafe, which we know is more expensive than the local places but we just fancied it to be honest!We had a massive American breakfast that definitely filled us up and did indeed keep us going until we got home so I guess in the end it was worth it for the money. We had a bit of time before heading to the airport so we just had a walk around, as it was a nice day.

Flight took off at 16.55 and we landed about 19.30 UK time. By time we got through security, grabbed the car and were on our way. We were certainly hungry so grabbed a Maccy Ds on the way home, getting in at around 20.30.

We are now looking forward to some sun, which we will hopefully get at our next stop, Napoli!