We are spending four nights in Budapest this Christmas, a very exciting time for us because we will be meeting our daughter’s fiance, Geri’s, family for the first time. He’s such a lovely chap that we know they must all be lovely too, and it will be so interesting to experience Christmas with another family, in another culture.
We have an airbnb in Budapest, near Geri’s family home, on the Buda side of the River Danube. On Christmas Eve we are celebrating a Hungarian Christmas courtesy of Geri’s mother, Viktoria, at his family home. On Christmas Day the extended family are coming to our airbnb for a more English take on the holiday. In between, and on the days following, Geri has devised a tourist itinerary for us, to introduce us to his home town. So exciting. We will of course be returning in August 2024 for the wedding….. so we will see Budapest in winter and summer glory.
We are taking various items of food with us and also Lucy discovered that Tesco’s are big in Hungary and they have exactly the same online system and delivery service as the UK, so she has done a food delivery to the Airbnb for more festive food! Thats a nice surprise.
To be honest our trip out was immensely tedious and I don’t think I would choose to come indirectly again. When we booked our flights, the direct ones were really expensive so we chose to come with Lufthansa through Frankfurt. Both flights were over an hour late taking off which just dragged out the day and then when we landed in Budapest, it took over an hour to bring a set of steps to the plane and then another 20 minutes to get the buses there. We got up at 0530 UK time this morning and we got to the apartment at about 8pm UK time. Exhausted. At one point we crossed over the Danube and it was a beautiful view up towards the castle and the palace.
Having said that it is enormously exciting to arrive with snow falling and a few inches on the ground – a white Christmas is in store which was completely unexpected. Also the apartment is absolutely lovely and so spacious. I will post links and pics.
We stopped at LIDL on the way home (Geri, so kindly, picked us up) and picked up some more food – it was an amazing LIDL, much much bigger than UK ones and we have a big one near our home in Hawkinge. Lucy cooked us lovely steaks and Geri’s mum had made us a big dish of traditional stuffed cabbage which was just delicious. Played a game, drank some wine and looked forward to Christmas Eve tomorrow.