Hungary 2025

Monday, 1 September 2025. Turkey Again! Just One Month Later.

I’m flying to Istanbul, arriving at night. The engines of the Airbus A321LR are enormous, with the lights of Astana twinkling beneath them.
I’m hoping to leave the cold and gloomy weather behind. It’s far too early for that sort of thing!
Once again, we were given a complimentary gift set, blue this time. At this rate, I’ll soon have socks in every colour of the rainbow. XD
The flight takes over five hours. Good thing I’m flying with Air Astana. Nice and comfortable. 🙂
And the food is as excellent as ever! Delicious beef with mashed potatoes, salad and a warm bread roll with melted cheese. Chocolate mousse for dessert. They also gave us some peanuts in branded packaging. Yummy!

Night-time Istanbul is shining like a golden treasure trove, as always. Upon arrival, I remembered that IST is my least favourite airport of all. Last time, I came up with no fewer than seven reasons why.
The passport control area in front of us was closed, so we had to trudge almost a kilometre to the next one.
Tickets for the Havaist shuttle bus have gone up to 275 lira. Well, at least you can pay by card. And I’d even forgotten that you have to take the lift near the exit down to Level -2 to get to the buses.

The journey took almost an hour. Eventually, I managed to get just four and a half hours of sleep at my old familiar hostel, Chambers of the Boheme. Not much, but at least I was comfortable! 🙂 And the location is super convenient, just a stone’s throw from Taksim Square and the shuttle bus stop. The owner even remembers me!

Tuesday, 2 September 2025. Overbooking and a New Country!

Finding a café that’s open at seven in the morning isn’t easy, even on İstiklal Street. I suppose Turkish cuisine, on the whole, just isn’t my thing. They cook meat deliciously, but all those hot spices and salads drowning in sauce… And once again, I came across that “burgundy carrot juice”. It looks gorgeous and is probably super healthy, but it tastes absolutely disgusting! And it’s spicy, too. Brr-r-r!
Google Maps is playing up again, as it always does in Turkey. It gives up even when location services are enabled. Totally unreliable. I should try Yandex Maps. They worked in the south, so perhaps they’ll work in Istanbul, too (actually, not).
I immediately caught the shuttle to the airport. The departure point is by the Point Hotel Taksim. Just head from the fountain towards “Divan”.

I arrived at the airport three and a half hours early and promptly ran into an overbooking situation. They issued me a boarding pass without a seat. “No seats available,” they said. And even checking in two hours before departure doesn’t help. Turkish Airlines seems to be guilty of this all the time. Apparently, the only sensible option is to check in online well in advance.
What an absolute disgrace! Then they wander around among the passengers, trying to persuade people not to fly, offering €250 in compensation if they give up their seats. Standing by the gate, watching everyone else board while having no idea until the very last moment whether you’ll be allowed on your own flight is a rather dubious adventure.
In the end, they finally called all seven of us on board at the last moment, and — wonder of wonders — there were even seats for us! I’d already been imagining myself squeezed into a jump seat… Now I need a little time to recover from the stress. And I’m feeling sleepy, too.)

The flight took two hours. Seems like nothing compared with the journey to Istanbul!
At Ferenc Liszt Airport, the queue at passport control was absolutely massive. Just one booth was operating, with two border officers to deal with everyone. It reminded me of Charles de Gaulle in Paris, oddly enough.
People were speaking Russian on both sides of me. What on earth was going on?! And I heard Kazakh, too. Everyone around me seemed so different.
In the toilet, the taps and hand dryers were combined into one contraption, branching out in three directions. Most unusual. Make yourself feel like a savage! XD
The 100E airport shuttle runs straight into Budapest, which is very convenient. The fare is 2,200 forints, payable at a terminal. I couldn’t figure out how to switch it to English, but I managed to press all the right buttons by instinct. Hungarian looks like complete and utter gibberish for me! X)

The city centre is full of tourists, souvenir shops and cafés. And it’s hot! Regal architecture everywhere you look…
I was lucky with my currency exchange: a good rate, even though I was right near the city centre.
It’s only a ten-minute walk to the Hotel President, past the magnificent St Stephen’s Basilica.
At the hotel, the huge doors open automatically as you approach. It’s a small thing, but a pleasant one!
The room is small but cosy. And the floor-to-ceiling windows, both in the bedroom and the bathroom, open outwards like doors onto a terrace that runs all the way around the floor, connecting the neighbouring rooms. An interesting design choice! XD At least there are curtains.


After checking in, I went out to explore. There was still half a day ahead of me!
There were plenty of interesting, beautiful people around. The architecture was breathtaking in its sheer monumentality.
At the Kolbizz café-bar, I tried a delicious fruity draft beer called “Mirage”. Then I walked down to the banks of the Danube, passing the enormous, proud lions on the Chain Bridge. I stumbled upon the magnificent Parliament building and even discovered a beer festival taking place just one block from my hotel.

The city looks like a postcard come to life. I also felt a bit of a disconnect: such majestic buildings, and inside them… shops and supermarkets! Well, they have to go somewhere, I suppose.
In the evening, I admired the panoramic view of Budapest from the rooftop bar’s observation terrace, savouring a complimentary welcome lemonade courtesy of the hotel.)

Wednesday, 3 September 2025. Exploring Budapest by Bike. Day One of the Conference

Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet. So much variety, so many different things — a real explosion of flavours! So many cheeses, too! Feta, blue cheese… My stomach felt rather heavy afterwards, but I was still good to go exploring.)

In the morning, I set off on a cycling tour! I found it on Freetour.com. They have an interesting approach: you pay at the end, whatever you think the tour was worth.
There were just three of us: the local guide, a Malaysian guy and me. We cycled a big loop along the Buda embankment, crossing Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island, passing the Parliament and riding over the Chain Bridge. Along the way, we stopped to hear interesting snippets from the city’s history. Cycling here is an absolute pleasure. The infrastructure is all in place, with bicycle traffic lights everywhere, too. A brilliant way to get to know the city! I left €20 for the tour.

The Comec5 conference was held at CEU — Central European University, also just a ten-minute walk from my hotel. There were about 50 participants, and I was the only one from Asia! Most were Hungarians, with a few Moroccans, Canadians, a Brazilian woman and an Ethiopian as well.
The presentations continued until evening, after which they laid on a much-needed light dinner. I hadn’t managed to eat a proper lunch, so the buffet was a godsend. I tucked into a whole pile of delicious chicken wings.)

Thursday, 4 September 2025. My Presentation and a Wonderful Cultural Programme

Another excellent buffet breakfast. Fried bacon, fruit salad swimming in juice, and some strange sweet, jelly-like, pearlescent things in it.
The morning was filled with various presentations in two lecture rooms, mostly on biology. Mine, on bioaccumulation, was scheduled last, at around five in the afternoon. I had lunch right there at CEU, in the canteen, for 3,500 forints. By the way, the exchange rate is remarkably close to ours: one forint is about 1.4 tenge.
The speaker before me — a certain David — was driving me mad. He kept darting back and forth to the board and back again, like a little devil popping out of a box on a spring. The poor soul who presented right after him could barely get a word out, just stammering and umming and ahhing.
It was my first time giving a presentation in English without notes and without rehearsing beforehand. I simply spoke off the cuff, as things came to me. I seemed to forget to mention half the important points, but managed to talk about other things that happened to come to mind. All in all, I got through it pretty well! 🙂
Afterwards, we had a one-hour guided tour of the city. Gabriella (our guide) spoke into a microphone, while everyone had an earpiece — very convenient.
We visited historic sites and monuments commemorating the war, the Red and White Terror, and even a statue of Ronald Reagan. We also heard the story of how even monuments that have fallen out of favour are always preserved somewhere. Apparently, Stalin’s boots can still be found somewhere, too. XD
Back at CEU, we climbed once again into the world of rooftops, heading for the roof garden on the seventh floor. We admired the soft peach-coloured sunset sky and the dome of the Parliament, bathed in amber light.
And then dinner awaited us aboard a boat moored on the banks of the Danube.

On the way to the pier, a rat scurried across the road. Hello, Paris! XD
“An excellent appetiser!” joked the keynote speaker.
Then came a welcome glass of wine and a wonderful evening, with golden lights glittering along the Danube and luminous trails shimmering on the dark water.
I was seated with Anna, an Italian girl, and three Hungarian ladies — Kristina, Kinga and Andrea. Anna was also giving a presentation about fish, but hers was about invasive species: enormous, 3.5-metre catfish in Italian rivers! The other three were actually among the conference organisers. Andrea’s surname, incidentally, was “Gulyás” — Goulash! XD
We had such a lovely time chatting, sharing dishes from our respective national cuisines and marvelling at how freezing the winters are at my home.
We also went up to the upper deck to admire the Danube at night. A happy moment. I wished I could stop time and make it last just a little longer.

Friday, 5 September 2025. The Metro and the City Park. Conference Closing Day

The final presentations wrapped up before lunch today.
It was sad to say goodbye to the conference, especially to Kinga. Such a sweet girl! I really liked her. What a pity we never managed to go for a walk together. I left her a postcard of Almaty as a keepsake.
I treated myself to another glass of draft beer — Mirage — for 3,000 forints. Although 400 ml in one go was perhaps a bit too much. So much flavour!
In the evening, following Andrea’s recommendation, I headed to Heroes’ Square.
Budapest’s metro, the oldest on mainland Europe, is small and boxy. A ticket costs 500 forints. The stations are almost at street level. It feels as though you’ve just walked down into an underpass — and there it is, the metro!
Heroes’ Square is vast, with huge bronze statues turned green with age, rather like the Statue of Liberty. Beyond it lies Városliget, the City Park: an enormous green space overgrown with mature plane trees, complete with a lake and Vajdahunyad Castle in the middle. The castle looks almost as if it’s straight out of a fairy tale, a whimsical mash-up of famous Hungarian buildings and architectural styles.
Incidentally, the public toilet in the park takes payment by bank card, through a turnstile. Just look at how far technology has come! XD

A green recreational area rises in a sweeping arc above the Museum of Ethnography. I climbed a little higher and found a spot with a view where I could sit and write my postcards.
Then, at a cosy café around the corner from the Basilica, I tried a local dish: a pork steak with potato wedges and a whole curly, cog-like piece of crispy pork rind. Plus a lemonade. Absolutely delicious! The bill came to 10,000 forints.

6 September, Saturday. The Central Market and an Aeropark!

My last day in Budapest. I’m flying out this evening.
Today I headed to the Central Market! Along familiar streets, without needing a map this time.
It’s interesting to watch souvenir prices drop as you move away from the touristy streets. They can fall by as much as half!
In one courtyard, I came across a huge floating Moon. Now that was something I wasn’t expecting!))

Budapest’s Central Market feels more like a gallery or a railway station. There’s such a variety of things on the stalls that your eyes don’t know where to look first! Marzipan chocolate, paprika, spirits and sausages, all sorts of souvenirs — everything Hungary is famous for. You could wander around the whole market and take your time choosing gifts for everyone.

I headed back to the hotel from the beautiful green bridge, taking one of the city’s yellow trams (still 500 forints for a ticket). I savoured a juicy salmon pizza at Pizza Eataliano — the Salmone Bianche, for 6,000 forints. There was even some left over to take away for the journey.
And then it was off to the airport.
The home of Wizz Air is paradise for aviation enthusiasts! The airport itself has a rooftop viewing terrace with seats, so you can comfortably watch all the comings and goings. People wave at planes taxiing up to their gates and greet them with applause.
And not far away there’s an amazingly well-stocked Aeropark Aviation Museum, where, for 3,200 forints, you can get up close to beautifully preserved aircraft from different eras — from the century-old veteran Li-2, with its square windows (the legendary DC-3!), to the enormous Tu-154. And you can even sit at the controls!
There’s even a piano by the departure gate, where anyone who feels like it can sit down and play.

7 September, Sunday. Istanbul Again — A Spirit of Adventure on the Golden Horn

To avoid getting caught out by overbooking again, I checked in for my flight a day in advance. Even then, there were hardly any seats left. People are clearly wise to the danger now.
Istanbul was wrapped in a thunderstorm during the night, so we flew all the way around it — a grand, ceremonial lap of honour!
In the morning, I left the very same Chambers of the Boheme hostel near Taksim and set off on a day-long walking adventure through the city.

There’s something so wonderful about heading off without knowing exactly where you’re going, giving yourself over to the spirit of adventure, with hardly any maps or navigation.
Atatürk Bridge, connecting Istanbul with the Golden Horn, was packed with fishermen from one bank to the other. Some had even caught something!
And in the park near Sultanahmet, seagulls were strolling about. Big ones, too. A little speckled one came over, and I treated her to a piece of roasted corn. The seagull was chasing away the crows trying to nick her prize.)

From Hagia Sophia, I headed west until I wandered into places where no tourist had ever set foot. The cats have their own street feeding stations — this is their kingdom.
I visited the charming Balat district, full of picturesque, brightly coloured houses perched above a winding maze of narrow streets.
Cats everywhere!

I had a delicious lunch in a cosy café for 500 lira. A little glass of freshly squeezed juice, meanwhile, costs 200.
Then it started to drizzle, so my rain jacket and cycling cap, which keeps the wind off my head, came in very handy. I walked back along the waterfront, where the bay’s grey waves lapped against the edge of the pier, gently sloshing beneath the hulls of the boats.

In the evening, Istiklal Street was packed to the brim with tourists, as always. Before my flight, I happily settled down at Clementine, a flower-themed café decorated in the French style. I treated myself to a “Chocolate Dream” with fruit tea. They brought me a whole DIY dessert set — assemble it yourself! — and even gave me a little compliment.)

It’s interesting how the idea of a café differs from place to place. Here, as in Hungary, cafés generally aren’t somewhere you can have a proper meal. They serve drinks and sweets — a place to “spoil your appetite”, as it were. But why not? You can always replace a meal with dessert!
Although, somehow, it’s just not the same without dinner. Good thing Air Astana serves tasty food. All that’s left to do now is wait for my overnight flight.