This year's mid-winter travels took me to relatively new EU member state, Hungary.

My posting has been so erratic this year that most people probably wouldn't have noticed but, following on from a trend begun last year for visiting cold places in the middle of winter, I was holidaying in Budapest for the guts of a week last week so missed all the exciting events of that time (bar what I happened to catch on BBC World or CNN in the mornings while I munched my breakfast).

Compared to Prague, Budapest seems much less geared up for tourism, certainly in the middle of winter, but (perhaps partly because of this?) I enjoyed Budapest much more. There's so much to see that I think we barely scratched the surface.

Follow up:

A feature outside the House of Terror commemorates the 1956 revolution against the Soviets

I've got a lot of good things to say about the bits of Budapest I did see. Obviously with the country being run by communists for 40 odd years, a number of tourist sites focus on this. I didn't manage to make it to the statue park, where the statues of Soviet 'heroes' from across the city were moved to in order to prevent them being vandalised; and send out the message that Hungary is stronger than communism and therefore there is no need to airbrush it out of their past. I did see the Terror House though and it really is a stunning museum. It's built on the site where the Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian Nazis) made their headquarters for all of 8 months before the Soviets took over Hungary and used the it for the HQ of their secret police for the next 40 years. What stands there now is a testament to the atrocities that were carried out there and you can pick up paper sheets in each room that explain what's going on in English if you don't want to fork out the cash (I think it was £3) for audio commentary.

I really did get the feeling that our own little problems paled into insignificance next to what happened here. It made me ashamed to think of the MOPEs we get on TV whining about PSNI 'brutality'. Budapest's House of Terror would be a useful educational tool to help them understand what the word really means. Sadly, no photographs were allowed inside.

There's a wide selection of restaurants, most serving at least one or two traditional Hungarian dishes, which generally means goulash and/or something with Paprika. I can recommend both the Paprika Steak from a little pub (whos name escapes me) on Moscow Square and the Goulash starter at the pricier Spoon restaurant boat on Pest side of the Danube beside the chain bridge (the views are incredible). We also discovered a slightly more secluded restaurant on Dohany Street attached to the "Vera Jazz Cafe" which had very friendly staff and a wide range of dishes which, if not Hungarian, were definitely new to me.

Buda Castle Palace: categorically not a rip-off of Belfast City Hall

Moving on, the city itself is very impressive. A zoo's a zoo of course, but the morning spent there was relaxing and, being flat, much easier to complete than a lap of Bellevue. The architecture is something else as well. From St Stephen's Basilica and the Parliament building in Pest to Buda Castle Palace (in fact most of Castle Hill) on the Buda side of the river there's lots to see. In fact, it's worth a trip up to Castle Hill and to the Fisherman's Bastion solely for the view looking down over the Danube at Pest.

It's not just the places either, even getting there is a pleasure. Whether you want to walk and admire the scenery or avail of the various options for public transport. It's probably worth getting a Metro Day Ticket (1350 Florints, approximately £3.50) or 3-day ticket (3100 Ft) which lets you experience how a good metropolitan transport system operates (it's a free pass for unlimited travel on the extremely efficient underground or Metro system as well as trams and buses). Translink could definitely learn a thing or two from these guys. Of particular note is the Metro 1 line or Millennium Underground, built at the end of the 19th century. The stations, recently restored, are beautifully decorated and the Metro saves you from the long walk up Andrassy Street which was once the main boulevard, but which, for the most part today, seems to be made up largely of embassies and consulates once you pass the inner city end.

From what I'd read, no trip to Budapest would be complete without visiting some of the many coffee houses for which the city is apparently famous. Indeed we visited quite a number of them, but none more notable than the New York Coffee House at the corner of Dohany Street and Karoly Korut. Attached to the New York Palace Hotel and former traditional hideway for Hungarian writers (I'm guessing not so much in recent years given its prices), it's probably the most expensive coffee house in Budapest, but it is exquisitely decorated and if you're watching the purse-strings you can enjoy an 'Italian Breakfast' (croissant, orange juice and cappuccino) for 1500 Ft (£4).

Just one thing to watch out for, almost all Hungarian restaurants seem to expect a tip as a matter of course and many include a service charge of 10%-15% on your bill.

Drawbacks? There weren't too many negative points about my trip (at least none that were anything to do with Hungary itself!) but I must bemoan the lack of cider. I know it's a British and/or Irish drink, but it was soul-destroying to go to an Irish bar and realise that even they didn't have any! I did partake in what I believe is the local tipple, Dreher beer, on one night but as I'm no connoisseur of beer (by a long shot) I'm in no position to comment on how it fares against others.

Finally, I'm disappointed to say that I learnt, for all intents and purposes, absolutely zero Hungarian (bar how to pronounce words I read, which isn't much use if you don't know what they mean). I felt terribly guilty when buying items in shops and didn't know whether it would be more rude to feebly mutter "Thank you" in English or not to say anything. On the one hand it's great to be able to visit different places, but at the same time it's embarrassing and shaming to have to rely on the locals' knowledge of your language just to get by in their city. Hungarian is apparently difficult to learn compared to other languages (and it certainly seemed it) but I still would have liked to have learned the basics.

Oh yes, and I noticed that, when shopping, every cash register seems to have a little plate beside it (though supermarket ones have a more familiar plastic shelf instead). It took a little while before I realised, but not only would the locals always place their money on this plate (rather than hand it directly to the cashier) but the cashier would always return the change the same way. They probably thought we were being rude handing it straight to them, I don't know. Perhaps if I'd managed to string a few words together I could have asked, but there's always next time, because I definitely want to go back (preferably at a warmer time of year) to see the bits I missed.