Baths, bars and breathtaking beauty in Budapest for the weekend

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Budapest. 

On a flight that was at least half hen-dos - Friday flights from Gatwick at this time of the year are always hen and stag central RIP me - we whizzed on over to Hungary, and it was my first visit to the country so I was mad excited.

Over the course of the weekend, we explored as much as we could, and guys, Budapest is beaut.

We tried to eat as much local cuisine as poss too - feast your eyes on this chicken paprikash, which was entirely delumptious.

Most people know Budapest is famous for its natural baths, but rather than go to the arguably prettier but more touristy central ones, my pals and I decided to venture out to Margaret Island - this gorgeously green island in the middle of the river - and try out the baths there.

The water was the most delightful warm temperature, but not so hot that it didn't cool you down which was great because BOY OH BOY was it a toasty weekend.

Oh, and in Budapest you can get wine spritzers in plastic bottles and we were all over that.

Delicious.

If you didn't know, Budapest is actually split into Buda and Pest, which are separated by the river.

Amongst all the historic buildings, there are a lot of ruins and run-down areas, but Budapest seems to make it work somehow.

You probably know about the ruin bars as they're pretty famous - we tried going to the best-known one but when we rocked up at about midnight there was a queue down the street that seemed to be made up of solely Brits, so we decided to skip it and find somewhere we thought a touch more authentic round the corner, if less famous.

Fun nightlife, has Budapest.

Buda-best Saturday night

A post shared by Rachel Hosie (@rachel_hosie) on Jul 1, 2017 at 11:44am PDT

And we were lucky with the weather in the daytime too.

I found that the different areas of the city had completely different feels.

The spot below, by the opera house on a beautiful big, wide, tree-lined street full of designer shops, reminded me of Paris.

And then across the river in Buda, we found this beautiful area that felt more like Prague with a touch of Bavaria.

I suppose I haven't really told you the main reason I was in Budapest in the first place, and it was both random and awesome.

The Red Bull Air Race was taking place in the city over the weekend, and I was there to interview Ben Murphy, former Red Arrows leader and current aerobatic pilot.

The race is insane and amazing - in the tiniest of planes, the pilots zoom down the river, slaloming through bollards and looping all over the shop.

Most excitingly for me, I got to fly with Ben - a proper G-flight with loop-the-loops and flying upside-down and everything!

I just did an aerobatic G-flight with loop-the-loops and flying upside down and everything and IT WAS AWESOME! Bloody loved it. Slightly rethinking my career choice. #airrace @redbullairrace

A post shared by Rachel Hosie (@rachel_hosie) on Jul 1, 2017 at 2:42am PDT

You can see a little taster of what it was like in the video below...

Man, I bloody loved it. It reminded me that I am at heart a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and I've decided I need to make the things I've always wanted to do happen. Like sky-diving. The question is... where?