Last weekend was the stag weekend of a friend of mine and it was decided that 14 men should don some clean clothes and pay a visit to apparently one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe, Budapest. And I can confirm that it is a very beautiful city. Full of quite beautiful people and plenty of beautiful beers.

We flew out from Dublin Airport, after a few beers in the woolshed, my favourite bar in Dublin, to gather the troops – 6 Scottish lads and 8 Irish. Flight was nice and uneventful, but it was with in my opinion, the worst airline in the world. Why I let other people buy my airline tickets I’ll never know. However, Ryan Air at least got us there on time – including the stupid music. Next stop was the apartment where we were going to call home for the next 3 days, on the Buda side of the city, and right next to the Castle. And I don’t know if you could really call it an apartment but it did the job – 14 beds, two toilets and 3 showers. Not much in the way of luxuries, but the bed I was on was very comfortable at least, IKEA at its finest! And the first walk through the building site into the basement apartment had us all thinking of the movie hostel…

After a brief interlude, we then started our minor Irish and Scottish assualt on the city. Right next to the apartment was a nice small pub where everyone got their first Hungarian pint in, while we waited for our guide. The weekend was organised through a stag company – Budapest Stag Weekends – original name, no? They got us transfers to and from the airport, sorted out the apartment, and got us free into a number of nightclubs. They also give you a good list of pubs that you can safely drink in without the risk of a huge “foreigner tax” bill at the end. That said, the guide we had did tell us that we weren’t his normal stag weekend group of lads. And its true, as we really just wander to go out and have a few (very many) pints but not much after that.

That night our guide took us on a little tour of the neighbourhood and introduced us to the best shopping centre in the world. The centre was open pretty much 24 hours, the top two levels were all bars and nightclubs at night. So we spent our first night in the “dokk caffe”. We didn’t pay in but we did drink alot of beer. The poor waitress dreaded seeing us waving as it meant carrying 14 pints over to the tables! Is was then that we noticed that not very many other people in the place were drinking as much as we would back home and our guide told us that the nightclub culture is slightly different in Budapest. Not wanted to be rude or anything, we ignored that, and managed to close the nightclub at 5 or 6 AM. Still drinking.  Then it was home to bed.

Up early enough the next day, we decided to check out one of the local Irish Bar’s called Beckitts. We watched the football there and had food and started on the pints again after a brief hiatus. We then went on a nice walk around the Pest side of the city and marvelled at the parliament building and river. It was getting a little cold though, so we decided to seek the shelter of a local drinking establishment and found a absolutely tiny pub called – “The Little Irish Caffe”, on a random side street. Not wanting to disappoint we went in and just about everyone fit in along with two locals, who were playing the electronic poker machines just inside the door. However, the beer was good, the girl behind the bar friendly, but without a word of English. So a good few pints were had there. We then headed back to the apartment to get ready for the night.

Sunday was more relaxed and the drinking only started at around 6PM that night. That day we went bowling where I embarassed myself in a couple of games, and we strolled around a took in more sights.  Again into the pub next to the apartment to start the night though, and we played darts(this I was better at ) and drank until closing time. We then wanted to head out afterwards but we got the unfortunate news that no-where opens late on a Sunday night. However, we didn’t want to call it a night just yet so off to the off license to get a couple of cans which we polished off before hitting the hay.

Monday was going home day, so we treated ourselves to a steak lunch in a very fancy restaurant. The kind of place that you would allow 14 men into unless you knew they came from somewhere where the price of living was aound 4 or 5 times yours. A few of us decided to take in a few more sites, and headed up to the Castle to take in the amazing views that the Castle has to offer. It was pretty breathtaking. Budapest is a huge city and you can see why early Hungarians decided to settle there – mountains nearly all the way round, a large river and the hill in the middle for your Castle

We got home pretty late that night but thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It was an excellent weekend, and could recommend it to anyone.

One thing I would like to add though. Although we never felt threatened, Budapest is a large city like any other. It has its problems. One thing that was very strange was the complete lack of a police force on show. Everywhere has its own security, and these people didn’t look like very friendly. That said, 14 lads from Dublin and Glasgow have a lot of street smarts built up over the years and common sense prevailed all the time. No-one got too drunk that they couldn’t look after themselves and no-one put themselves in danger. You have to be careful in any large city but as long as you are, you can have fun anywhere.

We arrived last Thursday and had a few beers at the hostel. Then some food in the Augustiner brewery restaurant (Would recommend that you check this restaurant out if you ever go – also they keep the beautiful black horses that you will see at the festival in the stables right beside it. They even have a window so you can see them while you are eating!) and then off to the tents. Of course the tents were very busy, so we didn’t manage to get a seat – and the only way to get served is to have a seat. So we wandered down to the Paulener tent and sat outside – And the first Maß round was bought. How cool are Steins? Very! We joked about how boring pubs back home were going to be when we couldn’t bang our drinks off the table(and no spillage or breakage!) and sing hilariously loud songs! Anyway, just after the first round was bought, one member of our group headed for the toilet and promptly broke his arm! He slipped and fell and snapped the bone in the upper part of your arm and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance, and that unfortunately was the end of his Oktoberfest as he spent the rest of the trip in a bed in hospital.

The hostel we stayed in was The Meinenger hostel just about a 2 minute walk from where the tents are and was a really good place to stay. The bar they had didn’t seem to have a closing time and a number of night we’re pretty sure we saw dawn the next morning! Great fun was had by all in this hostel, and would recommend it if your going with a group of lads. TV’s in the rooms, comfortable beds and friendly staff make this the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in. It was a little on the expensive side – €200 for the 4 nights including breakfast but being so close to Oktoberfest probably warrants that.

I’ve been to Munich before and found it one of my favorite cities to visit. Its very tourist friendly and the people are always nice. I was there last year for their Christmas market with my lovely girlfriend and it was amazing. I stayed in the Arabella Sheraton Bogenhausen, which was a little expensive but very luxurious and perfect for a weekend break with your partner. This trip on helped that view as again I found the bavarian locals as very friendly and helpful. Even the police were ultra friendly (unless of course you’ve done something wrong and then you can expect a world of efficient pain!). It has loads to do, and one of those things that I’d recommend is a trip to Dachau concentration camp. It’s an eerie place, that teaches you a lot about what went on. Myself and my girlfriend went at the end of our trip and we recommend you do that unless it taints your view of the people you meet on the rest of your trip. The people that committed those crimes can never really be forgiven but its in the past and I really wouldn’t want it to taint your view of modern Munich as a beautiful friendly city. It can never really escape its history but can be proud of the city that it has become. All in all, I can recommend Munich as perfect for a weekend trip with the lads or the partner.