Budapest has a rich history but it also is moving forward quickly. It has a vibrant art scene to go along with its historical monuments and culture.

For our first and second week we were pretty good about knocking things off our “Must do” list. This list is one thing each plus a few more things. Mr.7’s thing is usually a zoo, Ms.10’s thing is usually a Water Park, and Mum and Dad love old stuff so we’re easy to please in almost any European city.

What I didn’t know is that the Palace of Arts holds a treasure trove of very advanced art and design! Check out these pieces by students and established practitioners:

So much great art and design, I wish I could show everything because I was really inspired to create after seeing all the great stuff. Even the animated stories gave me an appreciation for Hungarian art.

Think Sweden and The Netherlands have cornered the market on furniture design? Wow please add Hungary to your list; clean lines and beautiful wood fuse nature and modernism (my humble point of view):

The Palace of Art is on Hero’s Square which is a historic monument in its own right:

Across from Hero’s Square is a spacious, beautiful park, and beyond it is the Budapest Zoo (more on this Zoo in my next blog post).

Transport is always key for us in any city. Budapest has a great system, mostly honor system since we have seen very view ticket checkers on buses and trams, only the subway, where you go to a purple ticket machine and you are offered all sorts of options. We didn’t get a month pass, seemed too expensive, but 24 passes were perfect for us and meant we didn’t have to buy multiple tickets. Handy for after a long day when all you want to do is go home.

I’m amazed by the kid’s creativity too, they take our clothes and make amazing outfits/costumes out of them. 🙂

I’m in love with not only art and culture but also old, rusty well-designed shop signs. Here’s one I found on our street that really amazed me.

The Budapest Market Hall is deep in tourist territory, but was still so worth a visit. Vendors sell the best fruit and veg and the opportunities to buy souvenirs are plentiful. Man I wish you could taste the blackberries we bought here; amazing.

We saw this later on our walking tour but I did know this was St. Stephen’s Basilica, named after the founder and first king of Budapest, Stephen. There are many images and honors to him all over town, his Basilica watches of a main street through the centre of old town downtown.

We knew there was a Cat Cafe in Budapest and had to go check it out. The cat’s are pretty aloof but it was really fun for the kids to see if they could pet a few of them. One cat, a red one, was the 2nd biggest cat I’d ever seen; he was like a small tiger with gigantic paws.

On adventure days (usually on the weekends) we take the Subway, tram, train and/or bus as far as it will go and see where we end up. I’m always so happy to see new things on these jaunts.

The newer subway trains are automatic so there’s no driver to block your view as you hurtle along the tunnels.

Szimpla Kert neighborhood has this amazing space called Szimpla where we went for a Sunday morning market. (I spotted Keira Knightly wandering around; it was cool that no one bothered her.) So much great food and drink, we even got to try truffles for free; a good sales pitch.

Budapest is actually two cities joined together, Buda and Pest (say Pesht, not Pest) and a popular slogan is Buda F-ing Pest (replace Lovin with F-ing). I’m sure we’ll buy some tshirts online to commemorate this fact.

Our apartment on the 4th floor has a great unobstructed view of the park across the street and all the sunrises and sunsets. I have too many photos to show them all, but enjoy this particular one from our 2nd week in Budapest.