Szeged - Hungary

Szeged – Hungary

Post published:10 September 2016
Post category:Eastern Europe Europe Hungary

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City of Sunshine

If I mentioned in the previous travel guide about Timisoara that we left Szeged only in mind should we have time for visiting it or not, well, here I am writing the guide for it. Yes, we did have the time for it, and yes, it was actually the best decision we could have done. We did not expect such a beautiful city at all, and in this occasion it was actually a proper surprise for me. If I always like to check pictures of the places I am going to visit before hand, for the Szeged it was not the case. I though we would not have the time to go so I decided not to find any further information. Now after the trip, I am extremely happy that we did go! Not only myself, but everyone of my friends we travelled with too.

Located on the eastern part of Hungary, it does actually borders not only with Romania but to Serbia. It’s the last city in the country on the east, and the 3rd biggest, and it’s curious nickname, the Sun City, comes because it is the city with the most hours of sun through the year! Who would have thought the more the east the more the sun, but this is due to its geographical location, with no nearby mountain ranges. Another unexpected fact, the incredible large amount of art-nouveau architecture everywhere in the old town. From modest to absolutely amazing examples that seem to be taken from Barcelona.

Due to its extremely compact historic old town core, where the streets follow a perfect orthogonal grid pattern, and right by the edges an inner ring road avenue divides it from the “newer” areas by the west, and the river to the east, it is very easy and straightforward to visit and enjoy every sight without needing too much time. To give you an idea, we arrived to Szeged from Timisoara at around 16.00pm, and left the city slightly before 20.00pm in order to have the first section of driving with some daylight before night. If I must confess, this was a bit too short time; an entire half a day would be perfect for anyone as there are no further important sights once you are out of the small historic core. (more…)

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Budapest - Hungary

Budapest – Hungary

Post published:5 March 2013
Post category:Eastern Europe Europe Hungary

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The Heart of Europe, Pearl of the Danube

It always feels great to return to a city you love so much before. This was about the right time to enjoy once again the stunning Budapest. And for sure it will not be the last and won’t pass many years either to step back in its pavements. It keeps impressing me as for the first time for its elegance and great planning of urbanism with so much to see and do everywhere and the amazing food.

It is really unbelievable the fate the city had for the past centuries. Destroyed many times, being the most recent the great destruction suffered during WWII, it has always recovered from the rubble, and thanks goodness it kept, retained, and rebuilt after the war most of the incredible Austro-Hungarian impressive constructions. Only Vienna (as the capital of the Empire than once was) can rival with such elegance and opulence, but Budapest does not come short. Both cities have always competed with each other in having the best and grandest of them.

This is therefore not a city you can visit in a short weekend time. It will need at least 3 full long days or otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy the countless sights and attractions. It is also a city that requires public transport in order to get to the different areas of the city as it’s quite a large city with very spread tourist sites. A 4 days city break would be ideal in this case.
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