Last night I planned to have a couple of quiet beers at the hostel, but after some pool, foozball, and homemade rakia I found myself at Szimpla kert for the second night in a row. Szimpla kert is one of Budapest’s famous Ruin Bars. There are heaps of these abandoned buildings turned pubs in Budapest and they are the most famous nightlife attraction here by far. This particular ruin bar happened to have a sunday market on today so I thought it would be a good chance to cheek it out in the light of day, and sober.
The market was very chill. One bar was open so you could have a few arvo beers, and the market was a mix of home made craft’s and local food produce. There was also a soup kitchen, pay what you want type deal going on out the back similar to Melbourne’s Lentil as anything. The walls are covered in art, etchings and graffiti and the furniture is made from recycled parts of everything and anything. I could really see these places doing well if they sprung up in Melbourne, although our extremely tough Health and Safety laws would never allow places like this to exist unfortunately.
These bars are really interesting, although both nights I have been I noticed they are just filled with tourists and no locals to be found at all, at least not at this one. Its still a really cool atmosphere and a lot of fun, just don’t expect to find any Hungarians here.
After from checking out the ruin bar market I also went to see the right hand of the king at the St. Stephen’s Basilica, but didn’t have the coins to turn on the stupid light so I couldn’t see it.
I also did the free communism walking tour in the evening which was really awesome. Our tour guide actually used to smuggle western goods across the border with his father during the communist times and had some really good stories to tell along with the historical information.
