When the bustle of downtown Budapest becomes overwhelming, we can always escape the concrete jungle with an easy day trip to any of the many green areas located within our city’s borders; lots of them can be reached with a single ride from downtown aboard one of Budapest’s ordinary public-transport vehicles. Our “One Ticket to Paradise” series presents some of our favourite open-space oases accessible from the city center by taking a mass-transit trip with no transfers – for this installment we journey on bus 8E to the Ördög-orom Nature Preserve, located along a steep ridge of the Buda Hills.
Budapest’s bus 8E cuts a long east-west swath across the city, traveling from Pest’s outer districts through the heart of downtown along ever-busy Rákóczi út and crossing Elizabeth Bridge before winding around Gellért Hill and cutting through some hilly suburbs to conclude at southern Buda’s Kelenföld Railway Station. Along with its usefulness for commuters, bus 8E offers an often-overlooked advantage – it stops just a few minutes’ walk from one of Budapest’s wildest open spaces, a rugged forest running along a steeply slender ridge that provides panoramic views over the nearby hills and beyond: the Ördög-orom Nature Preserve.
Ördög-orom is anything but a manicured parkland – with an ambience not unlike America’s Old West, the preserve’s somewhat scrubby vegetation is pristine because it would be almost impossible to build anything on this knife-edge promontory of Budapest’s dramatically rising hills. The main trail here is rocky and frequently covered with scree, so hikers may find themselves scrambling on all fours whether ascending or descending the occasionally precipitous path. However, anyone who takes on this climb will enjoy a near-immediate transition from residential streets to bucolic isolation and sweeping vistas over Buda’s verdant hillsides and beyond, all scored by a vivacious community of singing birds in the thick brush.
The starting point of this journey couldn’t be more aesthetically opposed to its leafy destination – bus 8E hurtles through some of central Pest’s greyest hubs, with their only splashes of colour emitting from shop advertisements, clothing worn by hurrying passersby, and intermittent elements of architectural creativity. Catch bus 8E heading towards Kelenföld vasútállomás from busy Blaha Lujza tér, Astoria, or Ferenciek tere, and soon you’ll be whisked over the Danube in the direction of undulating green Buda; take a seat by the right-side bus windows to enjoy the ride’s riverfront views and a moving perspective over the majestic Castle District while wheeling around Gellért Hill.
After the riverfront is far behind and it seems the bus 8E driver might be getting lost while weaving amid suburbs of Buda’s foothills, passengers ride through the tunnel of flower stands by Farkasréti Cemetery and begin heading downhill towards the living throngs of Kelenfold Railway Station. To leave humanity behind at Ördög-orom Nature Preserve (with its name quite appropriately meaning Devil’s Ridge in Hungarian), alight at the Eper utca stop, where you will find nothing of apparent significance aside from a bright-yellow commercial building adorned with graffiti identifying this as a pet-supply store – although a peek through the window indicates that it’s really an indoor cactus plantation.
This enigmatic enterprise is an important landmark on our quest, because directly beside it lies Edvi Illés út, an unassuming street rising into a valley tucked amid the Buda Hills. Walk up it towards the antenna tower atop distant Szechényi Hill, and within a few minutes you’ll see the entrance to Ördög-orom on the left – although an imaginative onlooker might mistakenly perceive the trail as overgrown eroded ruins of collapsed walls from a long-forgotten castle.
Officially, this parkland-access area is the concluding end of Ördög-orom’s six-stop downhill educational trail, marked with large signs providing ample Hungarian-language information about the nature preserve’s geography, flora and fauna. It is possible to keep walking up Edvi Illés út to eventually reach Ördög-orom’s hilltop entrance from the street, where the nature path technically begins… but for anyone seeking a solid workout or an immediate departure from paved society, Ördög-orom is best tackled from this low-point trailhead.
A few wooden steps provide something of a gentle beginning to this hike, but soon we’re struggling to clamber up small boulders and hanging onto slim tree trunks while securing our next step. Fortunately, the first of many flatter trail segments begins just a few metres up from the base; from this small plateau looking almost straight down onto Edvi Illés út, it appears that we’ve just climbed the approximate height of a three-storey building.
Another steep stretch later and the views from this trail soon become far-reaching, as nearby hillside villas blend into Buda’s flatland Soviet-era apartment blocks and the smokestacks of Csepel Island’s industrial zones beyond. Unfortunately, the vistas from Ördög-orom include none of Budapest’s postcard-superstar landmarks, instead encompassing only the proletarian southern portions of Buda and Pest… but the path also features beautiful close-up scenery of the inner Buda Hills that cannot be seen from downtown, including thick forests and rustic agricultural plots tucked amid flashy modern mansions.
No benches offer respite alongside this trail, but occasional outcroppings provide especially lofty natural viewpoints that are well worth perching upon while catching your breath; during such panoramic pauses, the birdsong becomes loud and lovely. Exhilarated by the physical exertion, wraparound vistas, and an enveloping ornithological orchestra, it’s easy to lose yourself in bliss along Ördög-orom’s path – but don’t let your feet follow your drifting mind without watching every step, because some scenic crags are sited atop tall cliffs with no barrier railing.
Thankfully for hikers who are scared of heights, a railing does line the most slender stretch of this ridgeline trail, where the views span almost 360 degrees – during our most recent early-spring visit, Ördög-orom’s bushes and trees were only just beginning to grow leaves again, meaning that we could enjoy views through the branches while still delighting in all-enveloping greenery.
From here the uphill path is more level as it follows a gently sloping saddle leading to a forest-ringed meadow featuring a fire pit and picnic table, perfect for a relaxing stop amid some shade; a little further along, an old quarry features historic tunnels used as shelters during World War II. However, the most prevalent attraction of Ördög-orom Nature Preserve is its solitude – being too small for hard-core hikers and too rugged for average parkland strollers, this strikingly undulating green area is almost always devoid of other people beyond the occasional neighbourhood hippie or an outdoorsy parent encouraging their toddler to become a mountain climber.
After completing the entire Ördög-orom nature trail from end to beginning, the sight of suburban streets may feel unfamiliar following such a rigorous expedition through Buda’s frontier, but these roads lead to Edvi Illés út for a gentle saunter back to the downtown-bound bus 8EEper utca stop across the street from the mysterious pet-supply/cacti business.
However, it’s all downhill from the top anyway, and the trek along Ördög-orom’s trail is even more panoramic during the descent, so it’s tempting to go back the vertigo-inducing way you came – but in that case, be ready to re-enter civilisation with your trousers bearing signs of slipping onto gravelly slopes.
