Whatever happened to us happened “while we already had Schengen” 🙂 I don’t remember the number of trips we spent abroad to get the Schengen money. The countdown begins from the day we give the holiday news to the children. “Mom, how many days will we go to school until the holiday?” 60 days, 40 days, 10 days, 5 days, 2 days later, we are on the Wizz Air plane heading to Budapest on a sunny March morning. We learn at check-in that the seats are unnumbered. We wonder if such a plane is possible, but we take back our words when two people spread out in the triple seats:) “Mom, the cars look like caterpillars,” says my son as the plane takes off:) The journey passes in the blink of an eye and here we are at Budapest Airport. Since we are passengers with children, we are immediately put forward in the passport line. Long live civilization. Although there are transportation options such as bus and metro to the city center, with two children, two suitcases and two strollers, only a taxi can take us and we reach our apart hotel in half an hour for 25 Euros (7500 HUF). On this trip, we prefer one of the apartments consisting of one room, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom, instead of a hotel room, due to its location in the center, its spaciousness and its affordable price. There are more accommodations of this type than hotels for Budapest on Booking.com. We did not experience any problems with this choice during our stay at Prime Aparts. On the contrary, we can relax in our room while the lambs lie on their beds in the living room and watch cartoons. We pay a total of 167 Euros for 3 nights. Unlike hotels, apartments do not serve breakfast. We also have breakfast at nearby cafes and patisseries, no problem. We arrive at the hotel around noon, leave our suitcases and start our trip without waiting for our room to be prepared. On the map of my target restaurants that I prepared the day before, I notice that Menza Etterem is very close to our hotel. Etterem means restaurant in Hungarian. We are already starting to get hungry, and we reach Menza step by step. At lunch time, all the tables are full, we wait at the bar for a while and examine the menu. A very nice table is set by the window, crayons and coloring papers are brought to our table as soon as we sit down, how nice 🙂 We often encounter the paint and paper issue in the later days of the trip. On the menu, the lunch menu of the day is around 1000 HUF, main courses are around 2000, 3000 HUF. We think that eating out is cheap in this city, but we later realize in the restaurants we go to that we made our decision early. After filling up on delicious creamy soup, chicken legs, mashed potatoes and pork chops at Menza, we hit the streets. We understand from the very first hours that we made the right decision by purchasing the strollers. When our mushers walk for 10 minutes, they complain that they are tired and throw themselves into their strollers. We are walking along Andrassy Street, which resembles Bagdat Street in our country. On our way, there is the Opera House, which is at the top of the list of places to visit and places to see. Those who have been to Budapest before and those who do not know that we have children recommend us to spend an evening watching the opera here, but is it possible to have opera with children? We ask the lady at the counter, she says there is a 6 age limit. Well, ours are 5.5 to 6, we buy the cheapest 4 tickets for the opera that evening (total 6000 HUF) and continue on our way, smiling at our action. After taking photos from St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we reach the banks of the Danube River. The view on the opposite side of the river is worth seeing. We get to the Chain Bridge, but we don’t go to the Buda side because we are tired. Budapest consists of the combination of Buda and Pest, divided into two by the Danube river. The two banks are connected to each other by 9 bridges. The bridge we reached, Szechenyi Bridge, also known as Chain Bridge, is the most impressive among these bridges. We reach Vaci Utca Street by walking along the Pest coast. This is the most touristic street of the city, similar to our Istiklal Street, closed to vehicle traffic, with more classical style restaurants, cafes and their derivatives on both sides. We sit down at the street-facing tables of the restaurant called Duna Csarda and have a drink while the lambs fall asleep in the stroller. 🙂 Before the opera in the evening, we return to our apartment with a pistol and rest for a while. We like that most places to see in Budapest are within walking distance. Finally, we are at the opera… We know that the opera will last 3 hours, but we have no idea how long our people can last. 15 minutes after the start, Dora sneers and says, “What kind of thing is this?”, which indicates that alarm bells are ringing. While their attention was getting distracted when one or two folkloric themes were added to the opera, we left the hall after 45 minutes:) Well, it’s not bad at all:) For dinner, we choose Matyas Pince, famous for its Hungarian cuisine and traditional music, from my restaurant list, unfortunately there is no room. There is Taverna Dionysos right nearby, but there is no room there either. We start to drift from place to place while looking for a restaurant that suits us. This job is quite difficult with the lambs in the stroller. It is not like the trips where we would happily visit restaurants with our husbands: (Exhausted, we decide on a Japanese cuisine. The lambs fall asleep in their strollers without eating anything. We experience the first disappointment of our city trip with children. We have learned our lesson for the other nights. We decide to make a reservation and hit the spot. We end the night with a glass of white wine from our favorite Chinese and Japanese cuisine at the restaurant and bar called Tokio. Actually, our apartment is still within walking distance, but we are exhausted, we take a taxi. Does it ever say 5000 HUF for 1 km? It’s a night tariff. What a tariff! While coming from the airport during the day, it said 7500 for 1 km. This is not a night tariff, it’s literally a fraud tariff. I think they have set a special tariff so that if tourists wandering around get on, you will open this tariff… We add the feeling of being deceived to the feeling of tiredness and lie down on the bed in a bad mood. The next day is a new day, new hopes… This time, before looking for a cafe for breakfast, we buy lamb with cheese and coconut milk from the first bakery we see. Our children, who do not like milk, take half a liter of milk away. This must be what they say, “You’re going to leave the child who doesn’t eat hungry, see how he eats.” 🙂 First, we have breakfast with a “Starbaks Stayla” sandwich at California Cafe Company. Our puppies are very surprised when they see three dogs waiting in line for coffee 🙂 Then we sip our cappuccino at the New York Cafe, the famous Kaaba of tourists, which was opened in 1894. Cappuccino is an excuse, the ambience is wonderful. This place is very similar to the opera we went to yesterday. Even in the morning hours, an uncle plays the piano, how nice 🙂 Our destination is Turkish baths… This is the attraction that attracts our family’s most attention on the “Things To Do” list for Budapest 🙂 The lambs have been asking when we will go to the hot pool since we arrived. We look at the map, there is a half-hour walking distance, we decide whether to walk or not. On our way, we take a breather in Heroes’ Square, pass through the City Park and reach the Szechenyi bath. Entrance fee is 17000 HUF for 4 people. Wow, dear audience! There is such a thing as shameful for people between the ages of 0-6 who do not get paid at least. Anyway, we call it the sweat that goes into the bath, and here we are in the warm pool in the open air in the middle of winter, we feel great 🙂 We don’t get out of the water until our hands are wrinkled… After enjoying the bath, we go to the Robinson Restaurant in the city park where we are. A light rain begins to fall, and we eat our meal in awe at our window table overlooking the lake. For this meal, Ahmet prefers spare ribs, while I prefer oven-baked duck legs on homemade pappardelle. The lambs also pick and choose from what we eat 🙂 The hot water relaxed us all, the lambs fell asleep on top of the chairs. We’d better go to the hotel and get some rest. There seems to be traffic on the route we are going to take. We want to try the metro. I hate going underground like a mouse in European cities, going up and down, walking and walking underground from this line to that line, but I really like the Budapest metro. We are in the subway 5 steps after descending a short escalator. This is the first time I see this. The men must have been too lazy to dig deep 🙂 The metro moves through the narrow tunnel as if it were going to scrape the walls, we get off at the station closest to our hotel and easily reach the daylight. We do not realize that it is raining heavily until we prepare a few beans and go out in the evening. So, it was rainless for 3 days? We don’t even have an umbrella. We sit the children in their strollers, spread the towels we took from the room on their knees, and run to a pub, which is the closest public space to us:) We toast to our health with our beers, and the lambs with their lemonade:) The rain is finally stopping. We set out towards the Greek tavern where we booked a place for tonight because we couldn’t find a seat last night. Here we are in the tavern… A Greek musical group of 5 people on the stage, garlic mussels accompanying our white wine on our table, melted cheese in an eggplant roll, calamari, Greek salad, mmm delicious… When the lambs fall asleep in their strollers, we pull them to the corner, oh don’t touch our joy! Naturally, the night ends by performing sirtaki on stage 🙂 Last day… A bright sun after the rain. We immediately throw ourselves into the streets. We have our breakfast at the sunny tables of a beautiful cafe opposite Menza Etterem, where we went on the first day together with the Hungarians who came to have their breakfast outside on the weekend. What a pleasant surprise that they served my Earl Gray tea with honey and lemon slice, just like I drink it every breakfast. Only Hungarians understand my taste 🙂 Sorry, I came across it once in Skopje, not to be unfair to the Macedonians 🙂 Now the direction is Margaret Island… Margaret Island is in the middle of the Danube River, in the shape of a long thin leaf, from one end is the Margaret Bridge, from the other end is Margaret Island. It is a green islet connected to both the Buda side and the Pest side by the Arbat Bridge. What happened on this island in history is not my area of ​​interest, but I can say that today it serves as a summer resort for the Hungarian people with its parks, botanical gardens and sports facilities. We reach the island via the Margaret Bridge on the side closer to the center. After the park, garden, swing and slide attractions, we return to Pest over the same bridge. Our goal is to see the shoe figurines made in memory of the Jews who were murdered by having their shoes removed and shot during the Second World War, and whose bodies were dragged into the Danube. But since the Parliament Building is under renovation and covered with barricades on all sides, we cannot reach the beach at that exact level: ( We are upset with our fate and move towards the Chain Bridge. This time, we cross the bridge and set foot on the Buda side for the first time. As soon as the bridge is finished, we take the cable car we come across. We go up to the Royal Palace. We pay 3600 HUF for 2 adults and 2 children to go up by cable car, which takes only 3 minutes. We visit the garden of the palace and take a breather in the place where the archers are. On the way back, we take beautiful photos of Budapest. We return from the Chain Bridge and have lunch outdoors with a view of the bridge at one of the boat restaurants right at the foot of the bridge. After a while, the wind picks up and we start to feel cold, so we leave the boat. The destination is Vaci Utca again. We stroll along the street and stop by Hard Rock Cafe Budapest. We actually planned to just drink a beer, but the photos on the menu whet our appetite, Dora made a huge sundae, and we ordered Fish&Chips with the beer. On the way out, the children see a statue of a naked child with its penis and butt exposed on the street, this is so interesting to them that they dance around it and harass the child every time 🙂 Our reservation for dinner is Matyas Pince, one of the most famous restaurants in Budapest, which has been serving its customers for 110 years. ‘also. When we entered the restaurant, live music had already started. The ambience is impressive. We feel like we have been teleported to the Middle Ages. The lambs drink creamy chicken soup with spinach noodles, and we accompany our white wine with smoky cheese risotto with vegetable skewers. Can a meal be this delicious on a full stomach? It’s really amazing… The restaurant is not very crowded this evening, our table is very close to the stage. Right in front of us, chubby Hungarian uncles are having a musical feast. When they found out that we were Turks, they blew it up while we were going to Üsküdar. When they start playing the soundtrack of Scent of a woman, I experience emotional explosions in my soul, just like the explosion of flavor in our palate. Music penetrates me, makes my heart tremble. T Now it’s time to go… We wander the streets of Budapest for the last time with the lambs asleep in their strollers and return to our hotel. Our flight is at 6.30 in the morning. We reach the area comfortably with the airport transfer we arranged from the hotel (25 Euros). Since we have children, priority is given to us again, we are the first to board the plane 🙂 As soon as the plane takes off from the runway, the whole family falls asleep and we reach our homeland in the blink of an eye. We are coming to the end of our first European trip with two children, two strollers and two suitcases. After all the tiredness and boredom, only happy moments and happy memories remain… You can follow the author’s other articles at www.gezentianne.com. Mavimore Turizm is a travel agency registered with TÜRSAB. Document number: A-8307