I do this because I consider myself an extended tourist in Budapest.
Riding the 100E Bus
Today I had to go to the airport and meet my S.O. and her sister who were returning from SE Asia. From my front door to the top of the stairs at the Opera House M1 Metro Station takes 3 minutes. I arrived at almost exactly 07:00. I missed the train in the metro by about 10 seconds and had to wait 3 and a half minues for the next. Two stops and I was at Deak Ferenc ter, the up stair "D" (remember that) to the 100E Bus Stop. Not a terriably long line. The bus came about 5 minutes after I got there. About half those waiting got on the bus and there was room for more, but ....
It really bothers me the lack of consideration of others. This time to joy it was European tourists and not Americans. The European tourists are easy to spot by the NY hats. Anyway, they would stand in the doorway and argue that they wanted to ride the bus without a ticket. Or they would stand in the doorway where the tap and pay is located (not a great design) drop their luggage, rummage through the purse looking for thier phone, turn it on, find the payment app, tap, tap again, tap again ... until BKK staff forced them to hold it in one place long enough to register. Then pick up the luggage, discuss among themselves if to walk right or left to a seat ... as a result the bus havng to keep to schedule left half empty with maybe 20 rather angry customers still standing at the curb.
Back to time: We arrived at the airport at 08:50, so 50 minutes from Opera House to airport including wait-times for metro and bus.
The flight from Istanbul is on time, 3 minutes early at 08:02. 08:45 the S.O. texts and says she is through immigration and has the luggage, but her sister is still in line at immigration. My S.O. has an Asian passport but is exempt from the fun of EES because she is resident in Hungary. The sister is traveling on a UK passport and is resident in the UK and so has to go in the other line for EES. This is not for enrolment, she is already enrolled, this is just to get into Schengen. 9:30 she joins the S.O. and walks into the arrivals hall. So it was about 90 minutes from landing time to arrivals hall.
A short walk to the FoTaxi Kiosk and a request for a taxi large enough for me and two Asian ladies. That’s a special request because Asian ladies only travel with luggage that is equivalent in size to ancient steamer trunks ... one each plus cabin baggage. It took less than 3 minutes for our personal mini-van taxi to arrive at the curb but we paid a premium for it. Nice enough driver had us home before 10:15.
The Weather
The last two weeks were downright cool here. Beautiful weather, like a late spring. That’s over. Today 97F and it will stay there for at least the next week. Saving graces are low humidity and the fact that high temps here are offset by cool mornings. The burning hot rarely goes beyond 3 hours out of the day. But still, it’s not fun.
Its almost August so we have 30 more days of this. But to be honest, the summer has had some silly record breaking highs but in total balance hasn’t been that bad.
The Winelovers 100
I got an email notice that tickets for The Winelovers 100 have gone on sale. This is a wine tasting event at the Corinthia Hotel, and it’s one of the best wine related events of the year. A local wine publication lists the 100 Best Hungarian Wines 2026 and those and 80 more will be the focus of the wine tasting event at the Corinthia Hotel, 26 September. Buy a ticket, sample, meet the vintners, enjoy the ambiance of one of Budapest’s most beautiful hotels. Advance tickets come with quite a discount and are worth buying early. Be one of the maybe 5% in attendance that isn’t Hungarian. https://wineloversrendezvenyek.hu/winelovers-100/