An all-inclusive-comprehensive-expialadocious review of study spots in Budapest

Seeing as this week marks the beginning of Midterm Season at BSM, all of us students are stumbling around looking more grey-circled and out-of-it than usual (which is saying something-- we are, after all, a bunch of math majors).

So I thought it might be a good time to do a little café review/ranking of all the places I've studied (or tried to) here in Budapest as I've explored the vibrant café culture in the city. A note about my own tastes: I'm not very big into coffee (definitely a tea person) so the cafés that most impressed me drink-wise have been those with the best tea offerings. Unfortunately, I have not been taking very good photos of the cafes I've been in, so all the photos you see here (with one exception) have been taken directly from the café website (with website linked in caption). And we're off!

11. Massolit Books & Café

An okay café, but definitely not my favorite. Website

This was actually the first café I visited in Budapest, and while the wooden-shelves bookstore vibe was pretty nice, there wasn't a lot of seating. The big dealbreaker for me was the mediocre "apple tea" which was essentially apple juice warmed up and sprinkled with cinnamon.

10. Goat Herder

A nice place, but not great for studying. Website

The closest café to the BSM building and a haunt for caffeine-deprived math students who don't feel like indulging in the 75 cent coffee from the machine at school. The café is pretty, bright, and airy, with nice couches and tasty cakes. But I wouldn't recommend for studying- it's quite small and as a result gets a little loud and cramped.

9. Solinfo

A pretty space and quality food, but not quite my vibe. Website

Solinfo really tries to be aesthetic, and to some degree it succeeds-- its furnishings and decor are impeccable, and there are some nice spots of greenery. It's also good for studying: it's quite big and has a lot of seating and plugs. But, ultimately, it's a little too clean-cut for my taste. But you really can't complain- it's a nice café.

8. London Coffee Society

This is a neat café. Would go again for the delicious food and cool music. Maybe not to study though. Website

I liked this place. I wouldn't come here to study regularly, but the one time I did I bopped to electronic music (the only thing they play) and had some delicious banana bread while at it. Its vibe is super chill (and German) and the brunches look absolutely delicious. A cool place.

7. Mon Cherie

It looks and feels like a chain, but you really can't argue with chocolate pear tart that good. Website

Out of all the cafés on this list, this one felt most like a chain. It's clean, big, and has a ton of tables. Its decor is generic but tasteful, and its cakes (I had a chocolate-pear tart) are very good. This is a dependable option if you just need a decent place to study and aren't looking for a special vibe.

6. Nem Adom Fel Kávézó és Étterem

Loved this place. A great café to study in when they're not having events. Website

I loved the vibe here: it's vaguely cellar-like with flowers and pictures dotting brick walls. The space somehow manages to be large and bright but maintains an aspect of coziness. The sandwiches are cheap and good. The only real downside (or upside?): they tend to have a lot of events. I got caught in a random Bach concert while there. Check their website for event offerings!

5. Café Csiga

This place became my second home while my roommate was sick. Now it holds a special place in my heart. Website

Café Csiga, I learned, is expensive, but only if you order from their regular menu. On weekdays they have a student menu with cheap, delicious food available at a bargain. The great thing about this café is that in the evening it seamlessly transitions into a dinner location while maintaining a vibe that's chill enough to have your laptop out on the table (make sure to sit near a plug-- I recommend the corner table upstairs). When my roommate got really sick, I exiled myself from the apartment and spent a good six hours here ordering various goodies and dinner from the student menu while studying.

4. Neked Csak Deszo 

Drinking and studying? Who would've thunk it. Website

When one of the people in my project group suggested coming here one evening to do work, I was skeptical that we'd be able to pull out our laptops at a place that Google Maps called a "brewpub." Surprisingly, I was wrong. The place is fairly well lit with a super great vibe (and plugs!), and on a weekday night we got a project proposal typed up while sipping on well-priced beer and cocktails. Unexpectedly fun. I recommend the cucumberry!

3. Madal

Crowded, but for good reason. Great tea! Website

Located by the ELTE library, this is the OG study café in Budapest. I can see why. The vibe is picture-perfect, with big windows letting in lots of light and pleasant wooden decor, and the desserts are lovely. I had a mango-blueberry cake, but there were plenty of other healthy-ish (plant-based) and traditional offerings. The tea was a real winner-- a big pot of Rooibos vanilla that lasted me a good hour costed me only 600 forints or so. It's crowded though, and fills up quickly even on weekday afternoons.

2. Írok Boltja-Parnasszus Bookstore

A pleasant place to study if you're like me and like to study in the quiet (no music). I was surprised by how much I liked sitting here. Website

I came here on a sunny Saturday afternoon to pick up a book to read over spring break, and I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely the bookstore is. Situated on Andrássy Út, I expected this place to be busy and loud, but it was neither of those things. I spent a couple of quality hours in the cozy upstairs surrounded by books and using the free Wifi after I had purchased my book. There are only three tables up here, but I was the only one who was sitting for an extended period of time. Refreshingly quiet after so many other crowded study spots!

1. Magvető 

Don't mind Eric- he's just being weird. But look at how lovely! Website

My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE café in Budapest. It's a well-lit, beautifully decorated place with an entire wall of books and lots of window seats to set the mood. The desserts are to die for, and if you're only going to be there once I highly recommend the cheesecake-- light with an unbearably delicious crust, it's easily the best cheesecake I've ever had. The tea, too, is phenomenal, with custom herbal blends like goji-pomegranate or grapefruit-apple in good-sized pots. The music is great (I've been here long enough and often enough to hear their entire playlist, can attest to every song they've got). Also, if you're a fan of dogs: lots of dogs come here. It's a great place. HIGHLY recommend. My only piece of advice: go before 4 pm as they tend to close early.

A Szob Story: How a trip to Visegrád Turned into a Fantasy RPG

Four nerds decided to go on a trip to Visegrad over the weekend, and just like that a simple trip turned out to be straight out of a fantasy RPG-- a veritable quest to reach a castle.

Getting to Visegrád is, I repeat, very easy. You buy tickets at Nyugati station for five bucks, hop on a train, ride just shy of forty minutes, then hop off and you're there! And you can begin the hike to the castle and see the sights.

Unfortunately due to a riveting conversation about category theory and a general lack of awareness, when Owen asked "where are we supposed to be getting off?" he immediately answered his own question-- "it's here, it's HERE!"

We rushed to the doors. They had already closed and as the train was pulling away from Visegrád, we saw a glimpse of the castle we were supposed to be hiking towards fade into the distance as we zoomed into the abyss. We had missed our stop. It was 9 am.

So we got off at the next stop and contemplated sneaking onto the next train in the opposite direction, which was conveniently just about to leave from the station. We hesitated-- what if we were fined? What if the train didn't stop at Visegrád? And in those two seconds of hesitation the train pulled out of the station and we found ourselves in Szob, a completely random village along the Danube.

We took stock of our situation: at least we weren't in Slovakia! And, of course, we whipped out Google Maps.

This is what we saw.

The best plan seemed to us to just walk along the Danube until we got to Visegrád. That way, we wouldn't get lost and it would be a pleasant walk by the river. The first mile or so was enjoyable. The day was crisp and clear, the river was blue, and we even stopped to share a steaming lángos at a small riverside stand and let the crispy, cheesy, bacon-y treat burn our fingers as we devoured it.

The clouds rolled in, though, and it got windier by the river. At the all-important crossroads at Zebegény, we decided to abandon our river plan and brave the woods. After all, we had Google maps. There was no way we'd get lost if we just kept heading in the same general direction. So we turned off from the river path and headed into town.

Welcome to Zebegény, young travelers. Stop by the local Spar to refuel with chewy candies and water and be on your way!

Unfortunately, we got sidetracked by the side quests (why does that always seem to happen?) There were a few trails marked in the back of Zebegény with interesting castle signs. So we walked up, saw a few nice vistas, and ended up at a memorial which after reading the signs is to commemorate (or lament) the splitting of Hungary after WWI. Which I suppose makes sense, as we were along the northern border of Hungary.

The view of Zebegény and a sliver of the Danube.

A memorial.

Here, again, we found ourselves at a crossroads. Our options: continue to a valley path which Google Maps told us would head straight to Visegrád OR head directly uphill to another, less travelled path which had a very indeterminate final destination.

We talked a bit about our options, then decided in Kevin's words "as long as we head in the same general direction it's probably fine." We headed uphill.

At one point (our thighs burning and our breaths heaving), we considered going off-trail and cutting back down the mountain to intersect the valley path, which we knew was large and flat and easy. But after a few scary moments of being almost lost in the woods, we decided it was too late to change our minds (no way do we turn around: that would be ludicrous) and we had to keep charging forwards.

So we ended up climbing up a mountain.

Natalia and Owen are confused because we are lost.

Ah, but what awaited us on the other side? At around 12:30 pm we finally arrived at Nagymaros, the town just across the river from Visegrád.

Welcome to Nagymaros, young travelers. Admire these yellow flowers, because it is almost spring. +10 happy points.

We walked through the town and passed many country houses, each of which had its own dog (or two) to bark at us for walking past their owners' houses. Finally, we had reached the Danube again. And just across the river, our goal the castle was in sight.

Back on the Danube, we can finally see the castle. It is 1:30 pm.

We had to get across the river. So we did what anyone would do in an RPG and asked around to get some information. A waitress and a shopkeeper were both unhelpful, but then a fellow hiker (and boys' camp leader?) took pity on us and told us about the ferry that was leaving from the dock in fifteen minutes for a small fee of 450 schmekels. I mean, forints.

So, after approximately six hours which included climbing a mountain, passing through multiple small villages, and fording a river, we finally arrived at our goal: the hike to the castle.

Of course, it started to rain. We considered turning back and hunkering down in a cafe, but Kevin with his indomitable attitude convinced us that the rain would be over in an hour. So we continued up the steep, steep, road (as it turns out, there is also a hiking trail meant for walkers without cars, but that would've been too easy) and into the mountains until we finally reached the castle.

We made it!!

The castle itself was interesting with a few small historical exhibits, a wacky wax museum, and some fun medieval torture devices open to the public to try (it's fun!)

Oh no, I'm trapped! My friends will probably have to go on a side quest to find the key.

One side of the fortress.

The castle was beautiful, and the views were also stunning. But as it turned out, there wasn't more than about 2-3 hours worth of sightseeing and hiking to do in the vicinity. So our RPG adventure seemed to be well timed. And we were all happy to have not been eaten by wolves along the way.

Happy travelers

But the adventure was not over. We headed down the mountain and saw a paper sign saying that the next ferry would be at 6:45. So we stopped for dinner, took our time, and returned to the ticket vendor at 6:20. The window was closed and dark.

Had we misinterpreted the paper sign? Did those lists of times not in fact correspond to the ferry times? We panicked (well, I panicked) a little bit as we headed to the dock to do some sleuthing. Luckily for us, a few other people were in the same boat (ha) who could actually read the Hungarian on the paper and who told us that the ferry would, indeed, be coming and that we could pay for the ride to the ferryman directly.

It was dark, and the stars were out (more stars than I had ever seen yet in Hungary). As the ferry quietly took us across the river, we shivered in the dark and pointed out Orion and the Little Dipper.

We got to the train station, and realized that the ticket booth here, too, was closed. Predictably so, I guess. We whipped out our phones and tried to buy tickets online before the next train came... and then the next train came. Another crossroads: do we hop on and try to buy the tickets on the train or stay off and catch the next one?

The warmth of the train beckoned. We hopped on. And realized, to our extreme chagrin, that once the train leaves a station, you can't buy tickets from that station anymore. The ticket man was coming. We had no tickets. So we got off at Kismaros, and realized NOT ONLY that the next train would be coming in an hour, at 8:30 pm, BUT ALSO that the train we had just gotten off from as well as the next train leaving from Visegrád would both reach Budapest before we got on the next train stopping at Kismaros.

This is what distress looks like. I am holding a carrot that I am stress-eating.

Of course, we did make it back to Budapest around 9:30 pm, which all things considered is not bad at all. And after a day full of adventuring around the Danube, I'm pretty sure the four of us collapsed in bed as soon as we got back to our apartments.

So our Szob story ended up turning into a wacky fantasy RPG adventure and with the strength of the paprika in our systems and a sense of "general direction" we had a fantastic day.

Bushy Busós, Scary Sheepmen

What do you do when a huge fluffy monster in a terrifying mask jumps on you to give you a hug, stroke your face, ruffle your hair, or jump around you maniacally? (or possibly all of the above?)

One of these terrifying creatures.

Well, on March 3, Carnival Sunday, in Mohács, Hungary, I would learn the answer to that question. It was the Busó Festival (which, if you've been reading along, you should know is pronounced "boo-sho"), an annual celebration, as I would quickly learn, of fertility and beating those damn Turks. But mostly fertility.

Wikipedia had told me the legend of the festival far before I stepped onto the cobbled streets: when the Turks occupied the village in the 16th and 17th centuries (read about Eger for more about these nasty Ottomans), the villagers hid out in the woods, and, on the advice of an old Slovak man, waited until a thunderstorm to dress up in terrifying costumes, make as much noise as possible, and march back into town. Those cowardly Turks thought the busós were literally demons and allegedly ran out of town. In some more boring versions of the legend, it's winter that the villagers beat back, but what fun is that?

A sample of some of the kinds of masks that we saw. They're really big and wooden, and combined with the giant fur coat make the wearer look like a literal Yeti.

Anyway, ever since then, the people of Mohács celebrate that glorious victory by dressing up in the costumes of their ancestors (the women dressing either in traditional garb or as witches with carrot noses), making a lot of noise (with strange wooden contraptions that make your eardrums feel like they're rattling out of your head), getting rip-roaring drunk (can't speak for every villager but that was generally my impression) and generally embracing their fertile sides by accosting unsuspecting women tourists.

In the beginning of the morning, before I realized that the hugging and the ruffling of hair was going to get real old real fast, I was so thrilled with being accosted by the sheepmen that I insisted on a selfie.

That wooden thing he's holding is a loud clacker. Also notice how huge he is in comparison!

Mohács is a small place. Eric (friend I came with) and I spent the first half of the day walking the length and breadth of the town multiple times, stopping every so often to admire the ubiquitous street shows, folk performances, and spontaneous busó processions happening on the crowded streets, and jumping (or at least I did) every time they fired a cannon (blanks, I hope) about once every two hours.

We snagged a picture with a busó who was otherwise unoccupied with finding a woman to busó around.

Ohoho, what is THIS for? We would soon find out.

This iconic guy on the right was "playing" a stringless violin with a spoon and whistling the notes all day.

LOTS of processions like this one with LOTS of cars and busós and women processed down the streets that day.

For food it was definitely a heavy Hungarian kind of day. We stopped at a stand for lunch that had giant iron cauldrons full of all manner of Hungarian foods and essentially picked the two that looked the most delicious. What we ended up getting (to share... it's a lot of food) was my absolute favorite Hungarian dish Toltott Kaposzta (cabbage stuffed with pork and rice) and another dish... which we assumed was beef. It was not beef, and when we cut into it and realized it was less fibrous and more porous than expected, we asked the woman next to us what it could be. She responded "blood."

Hungarian specialties for sale.

Our lunch. On the right, we have some lovely Toltott Kaposzta and on the left... a mystery...

Aha, we rationalized, the kidneys filter blood. Maybe we are eating kidney.   

Since then, after consulting two Hungarians and doing some Internet research, I have come to the conclusion that what we were eating was actually congealed pig's blood fried with onions and spices... called sült vér, it's a traditional breakfast dish at Disznótor, a kind of Hungarian pig feast where a giant pig is slaughtered and eaten all day and nothing is wasted.

So after fueling up with the blood of my pig-enemies (I guess?) it was back on the road for more busó madness. We headed to the river along with a giant procession hauling along an ornately-decorated coffin, which was put on a barge and then allowed to float gently down a river (one of the witches, I assume she was part of the act, followed the coffin and screeched and carried on about letting it float down the river).

Eric posing from our vantage point (a stone wall we had to clamber up) of the coffin floating away (that speck in the back)

It was late afternoon at this point, and I had decided after one particularly aggressive busó chased me around the square in order to give me a big bear hug that I was going to avoid eye contact and fast-walk whenever the busós were around. It was all in good fun, but at a certain point you get a little tired of the face-stroking and hair-ruffling.

THIS guy respected my boundaries.

Want to add a disclaimer that we DID see some monogamous busós, which really made my day.

For dinner we decided to top off our cholesterol-heavy day with a nice load of grilled meat, including some fatty, tender grilled pork and an enormous spicy sausage (notice a theme here, anyone?).

My camera didn't have the range to capture the sheer amount of meat at this meat stand.

Mmm, meat.

As evening fell, Eric and I (along with the entire crowd) gathered in the town square to watch a gaggle of busós light a giant bonfire (along with a man (Turk? Winter?) made of straw) on fire. Some cheerful folk music played in the background as the fire roared in the twilight countless embers flying into the sky and falling into the thrilled crowd. After watching the bonfire burn for around ten minutes, us (and the other day trippers) marched out of the town to catch the 6:40 buses, lined up like ducks in a row at the station, back to Budapest.

Behind us, I like to imagine that the witches and busós were dancing around the bonfire as their town slowly emptied of tourists and they could reclaim the night.

"Wear Proper Shoes" in the Tatra Mountains (also, some useful traveltips)

After spending a lot of time in cities (Budapest and Vienna... I will eventually get around to writing about Vienna) I was craving something breathtakingly outdoorsy. Some friends had recommended the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, so without further ado (other) friends and I planned a spontaneous trip up north to Poprad, the so-called "gateway" of the Tatras and a (slightly dinky) town in Northern Slovakia.

What you will hopefully be seeing if you follow the instructions below...

Figuring out how to get there was no easy feat. There aren't great directions online about how to get from Budapest to Poprad and then from Poprad to the actual mountains-- thank you obscure TripAdvisor forums-- so to save any future Budapestians some of the stress I (as an intensive planner) had, I'm going to remedy this Internet gap immediately:

HOW TO GET TO POPRAD/ TATRA MOUNTAINS FROM BUDAPEST:

1. Buy tickets from Keleti Palyaudvar in person to Kosice (big destination in Slovakia) at the international ticket desk. It should cost about 20 euros round trip, and there's a train that runs daily at 5:55 am and another at 5:55 pm (check the MAV website just to be sure).


2. Don't worry about booking trains to Poprad in advance. It's very easy to buy these at the Kosice train station, and all you have to do is check the timetable in advance to see how much of a rush you have to be in to buy the tickets. You want to go from Kosice to Poprad-Tatry, and there are lots of trains that go fairly regularly.


3. Once in Poprad, we were able to walk everywhere (including our absolutely amazing and immaculate Airbnb).


4. When you decide you want to go to the mountains, everything you need is in Poprad station. Take advantage of the excellent information desk and get at least two brochures: the mountain railway timetable brochure and the trail map brochure (this one is quite commercial and not a comprehensive trail map but it'll be enough for you to get an idea of where the trails go). On the information lady's recommendation for winter hikes, we paid 1.50 euros each way to get to Stary Smokovec and began both our hikes there. There were also day passes for 4 euros and options for longer passes as well.

Since by the time we were situated on Saturday it was already 3 pm, we opted for a quick hike beginning in Hrebienok (it was easy to walk there from Stary Smokovec) and looping to Bilikova chata and back. The mountains are breathtaking in the sunset and we definitely got some Mac-desktop worthy shots. I'm pretty sure I shot the exact same photo with three different kinds of lighting.

I might be talking to an imaginary friend here...

Slightly blurry (adds character!) photo of the gang!

@Apple if you're looking for new backgrounds...

The next day, we hopped on the 7:30 am train and planned to do a long hike to Teryho chata, which the information lady told me we needed "proper shoes" for. She might have been looking at my Nikes when she said that. We definitely weren't in any sort of proper gear (I was wearing as "layers" every piece of running clothing I own and three of our party were sporting jeans).

We began the long hike optimistically, though, buoyed by Carpathian landscapes and absolutely quiet trails (save some early-morning cross-country skiers, who are really brave about skiing right next to those intense snowy drop-offs). The paths were a little slippery, but nothing we couldn't handle ("proper shoes" HA!).

Wow! She's a stunner.

After a certain point, though, the wind picked up and the mist rolled in, and we were walking in a ridge between two peaks and staring up at the steel-grey rocks, wondering when it got so steep. The scant few hikers in front of us stopped and reached into their bags to strap on their spikes. We, of course, started bear-crawling our way up the some 70-80 degree incline. So... this is what info lady had meant by "proper shoes"!

While hiking up, this was the view from behind...

...and to the front...

...and what we had to climb up!

I'm pretty sure the Europeans thought that we were insane. Multiple people gave our tennis shoes and jeans pointed looks. One even told us straight up, "even you Americans know how to play with fire in the middle of all this ice and snow" (not exactly like that, but almost).

Unluckily (or luckily?) for us, at a certain point it was too steep for us to continue and we kind of slid our way back down the ice and snow to more level mountain.

The hike down was, unexpectedly, even more fun than the way up. Tempted by the enormous, marshmallow-like snowdrifts, we may or may not have gone off-trail a number of times. And when my entire leg fell into a dune of snow, we peered into the resulting hole that went down and down and realized that there was so much snow that in fact it was covering entire trees...

That's a tree.

And this is what it took for us to realize that there are buried trees here. The hole just kept going into the abyss...

Also important to mention: all along the more travelled paths we saw that people had left their marks on the mountain by writing their names (or other things) on the sturdy snow. Well, we left our marks, too. Near the end of the hike, we decided that a few iced-over hills of snow were essentially natural slides, and the guys who were wearing jeans left faint blue stripes on the slide down-- our mark on the Tatra Mountains!

At the bottom of the mountain, we decided to cough up the 6 euros to go sledding down the 1-2 km sled track from Hrebienok to Stary Smokovec with these old fashioned toboggans that literally bounced on little hills of snow on the way down. Avoiding all the innocent hikers while zooming down a mile-long slope-- exciting stuff!

We ended the day on a long, crowded train to Kosice (apparently, they overbooked the train so that every single seat was already reserved) before finally transferring to a blessedly empty train back to Budapest.

FYI the prettiest thing in Kosice that we saw was this cathedral.

Upon returning to Budapest, I realized that seeing the words "Keleti Palyaudvar" rings especially like home. Kind of funny how quickly that happens!