Since quite some time I am travelling almost weekly by plane and start my trip after the airport transfer by taxi at Ferihegy Airport 2A in Budapest. The flight I usually take is at 07:20 to Warsaw which seems to be the worst time to checkin at the airport as this is the time of business travelling, no matter which day you decide to go. In terminal 2A you have guessed 30 checkin desks and two ways to enter the security check.

It first starts with the checkin which in my case does not take long as I use the quick checkin terminals to get my boarding pass but sometimes I need to drop off my luggage and thats where the problems start. There is a seperate counter for luggage drop of which you are not allowed to use, instead you need to queue with tons of other people who don’t have their boarding pass yet or online online print outs. This is another line than the usual one but still it is long enough to spend there half an hour and who got up at 4.30 to be at the airport by 6.00 knows to value half an hour. So I decided nowadays not to check in any luggage anymore as it simply takes too much time. I mean why the hell do I need to spend my time in a queue just to drop off my suitecase? Pointless.

That was point one where you can spend a massive amount of time at the airport in Budapest but than comes the security check which is simply a mess. You have 2 chances to enter the security checkin and as you can’t see from which side the queue is longer it is a bit of gambling (usually the right entrance is the shorter one). In any other airport I have been to the ticket and passport check before the actual security check is kind of organized but in Budapest it seems like you being in the queue for free beer at a festival. Two ladies trying to check hundreds of passports and boarding passes which in this time is almost impossible. And after you went through that you have to queue again for getting your security treatment but of course only 4 of possible 8 lines are open of which 1 is for priority.

So all in all I spend on a monday morning up to 1 hour on the airport just for checkin and security check. I am not a logistic specialist or an airport controller but my logic thinking is that people responsible should know at what time how many people approximately want to travel and in this case I open up a few more checkin counters and security check lines. When I go with the flight at 9.30 there are not so long queues of course because fewer people travel but the amount of open counters and security checks are the same so why not increase the number of people for one or two ours in the morning and it would all go much easier. By the way I am not the only one thinking like this, if you check the Foursquare page of the Budapest airport you will find comments like:

Extreme long check-in and security queues (Terminal 2A) at morning departures (flights between 7 and 8 am).

Watch out for security when departing. Its a hellish long line!!

So to be sure you catch your flight and not leave Budapest in stress you should take some time for checkin and security check. Once in there is not much to do wrong, it is a simple, small airport and that’s why I don’t understand how to have so big trouble in organizing a normal checkin.

Now that was the dirty version of Transilvanian swearing. If you want more of these videos check out this. They are absolutly hilarious.

So, merry christmas to all of you.

After we landed we went to Tulum, a little city 130km south of Cancun and honestly the better place because it has a lot of amazing sights and endless beach with little bungalow resorts which I like really much. We visited som Maya ruins which were just incredible. Also I checked out crocodiles in a lake which where around 2m long.

After 3 days there and several other interesting trips we headed over to Cancun. Basically this part where we stayed, called Hotel Zone, consists only of high class hotels like Marriot, Hilton, Le Meridien, Hyatt, Riu and so on. As I mentioned we stayed in JW Marriott, a AAA 5 Diamond hotel, which was absolutly above everything I expected. Several indoor and outdoor pool areas as big as football fields, spas, Jacuzzi, Tennis fields, amazing breakfast, all rooms with large flat screen TVs, 7 restaurants and so on. I mean this was just a blast. Check out some pictures:

I thought that the pictures of the beach would just one day of the year look nice but the water is even in the low season green, blue whatever. Paradise on earth if there wouldn’t be all these massive hotels. As I have read Cancun 50 years ago was a village of 2500 people basically living from fishing. What you find now is hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping centers, activity agencies and as it is a loved place by the Americans you can find your Hooters, CNN, US candy and all these things which annoyed me a bit.

The Mexican food is very nice, I thought that Hungarian food is somewhat spicy but the salsas offered next to your Tacos, Burritos and Fajitas are just hot hot hot. But good. You still could feel it the day after. And what you get next to every food is some kind of bean puree which I hated before we went there but now I really like it but I can’t see Tacos for a while anymore.

I did the tours I wanted to do. 2 tank diving including the boat was 61$, fishing including the boat and drinks 100$. Not too cheap but definetly worth it. Two things that for sure stayed in my mind, when we were diving down in around 15 meters in one of the reefs the dive master was “calling” us towards him and when he was putting his hand under some reef a shark came out. I was shitting my pants even though it was a not dangerous shark as I heart afterwards. But swimming with a shark wow. Second thing was catching a Baracuda which is a hell of a big fish with teeth like a monster. It was not too hard to get him out but it tooks some work and a beer afterwards. Check out this one:

All in all it was an absolutly amazing holiday which I don’t want to miss in my book of places I have visited but if I should go to Mexiko again one day it will not be Cancun. It is just too touristic.

Madonna played a mix of new and old songs, remixed songs and really good music even though I had the feeling that there was some decent playback involved. Mind you, the lady is 50 years old, absolutly fit and that show cannot be sung 100% live. Some songs really sucked but most of them were fantastic.

The only problem was the view on the stage. I mean we came a bit late but still we didn’t make it further than approx. 250m away from the stage which let Madonna appear maybe 5 cm tall. The screens were defintely not large enough to have a good view especially for the people standing far in the back. The next problem was that we had 3 bouncer like guys standing in front of us each minimum 1,90m tall so we had trouble to see the stage but in the end we could. Additionally they built up a lot of big tents for food and drink right in the middle where most of the people are standing or want to stand.

Pure horror was to get out of the venue. Basically 50k people had to cross 2 small bridges which led from the island to both shores of the island. From there the highway to Budapest was packed. I mean on a tuesday night you usually have no traffic at all but yesterday night there was high traffic at least till the border to Hungary. So I arrived home around 3 in the night. Overall it was a good concert except from some minor things but it was abig show.

Edit: Oh and what I forgot to say is that Madonna didn’t even come back on stage a second time. Just a big “Game over” appeared on the screens and on stage and that was it. But the audience didn’t even claimed it. Anyways that was a very sad end for many of the people.

As I live in the north part of the city on Pest side the first thing that I can see is Margit island.

OK, Margit island is not really a sight but it is the green lung of Budapest. I could even go through Margit island but today I didn’t.

The second thing which I see is the famous Budapest parliament. The picture is taken from the backside. Usually on pictures you see the side of the Budapest parliament which faces the Danube.

Already in the morning hours the queue of tourists waiting for their parliament tour is quiet long. I took a picture of that as well but its not really a sight so I leave it out.

Almost during the entire way to work I can see the Mátyás church in the castle district and the fishermen bastion including the beautiful Hotel Hilton.

Well the Hilton actually destroys the picture. I don’t understand who gave the GO for building this ugly hotel right next to one of the most famous sights in Budapest. Probably some private money was involved.

Next thing on the list is the Buda castle.

In daylight the Buda castle is not as impressive as at night. You have to see it with all the lights on. Impressive.

On the bottom of the Buda castle you can find the oldest and most impressive bridge in Budapest, the chain bridge. 

Same story here, at night the chain bridge is absolutly beautiful. One reason why I love Budapest

Not really a sight as well but a very beautiful building and in the same time the most expensive hotel in Budapest, the Four Seasons at Roosevelt Tér.

Here usually superstars like the Rolling Stones or Robbie Williams have a sleep.

After passing ugly hotels like the Sofitel you can find the next sight, the Citadella on top of Gellert hill.

Here I usually cross the Danube if I go by bicycle. Since the Freedom bridge is closed for cars I havt to cross the Danube on Petöfi bridge if I go by car.

If I turn around 180 degrees I see the Grand Market hall of Budapest.

The Grand Market hall is surrounded by constructions for Metro 4 nowadys quiet heavy.

The last sight I see on my daily trip is the famous Gellert hotel on the bottom of Gellert hill. 

It is nice to watch but as I heart it is not worth the price if you decide to stay there.

So in total I cover loads of sights on my daily way to work (and back) of course there are several other things I see like the Café Gerbeau or tons of churches along the Danube, especially on Buda side but that post would be too long if I would upload a picture for every little thing I see. It is nice to see all these places but as I said before at night it is much more impressive so thats one reason to wait for the winter because than I can see them all in the evening when it gets dark earlier. By the way this ride takes about 40 minutes so if you want to see a lot of sights and like riding the bike go ahead and rent one.

So from now on only budapestagent.com/blog can be found in Budapest. It gave the ranking for Budapest Blog a small push, from 15 or something to 12 now but thats definetly not all… still a long way to the top.

Unfortunately this is an everyday experience here in Budapest since the roads for bikers are too poor and there are just some in the entire city. But in the same time I love riding my bike and won’t let go.

Else, the city traffic is really killing me at the moment. Under Szabadság bridge on the Pest side one lane is closed, the Buda Rakpárt is completly closed and kis Körút and Hungaria Körút are both stuck anyways. This means for me that my way to work is nearly twice as long as usual but smetimes I go by bike which makes the way really enjoable and “short”.