Budapest (3/22-25)
I've been slacking on my blogging responsibilities, but I promise I have a good excuse. Your favorite American in Spain was sick for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and discovered last week that it was strep throat. So while that wasn't fun, I've been on antibiotics for a few days and feel much better. I've been busy, busy, busy, so I'll jump right back into where I left off.
Budapest: Beautiful, grand, gritty. The colors are more muted, bridges more plentiful, people friendlier, and buildings older (looking, at least), and taller. It's also about as cheap as Copenhagen is expensive (very). It's incredibly vague to say, but Budapest has a very distinctive character, that's made by its two sides- Buda and Pest. Although I grew to love the city in the few days I was there, I didn't have the best introduction with it. After assuring us that the meter was fair, the cab driver that drove us from the airport to our hostel ripped us off and charged us about three times as much as we should have been (60 Euros versus 20). We fought with him, but ended up weakly giving in, as we didn't know what else we could do. At least we didn't get charged 200 Euros, as we later learned a friend of Avantika's did!
After grumpily arriving to our hostel after paying too much for the cab, we were pleasantly surprised by the fact that we had been randomly upgraded from a 12 person dorm room, to our own private room! We slept off our frustration, and began Wednesday morning with a fresh start. We started our day off with a free walking tour, from Nobert The Nice Local Hungarian. He taught us some fun facts about Hungary, such as that the ballpoint pen and Rubix cube were invented here, and also aliens and fiction creatures in movies like Yoda often have their speech translated from English to Hungarian and back to English to give it the "right" broken sound. Our day pretty much consisted of the structured tour, which was very interesting despite the cold and windy weather, and our own wandering around. The biggest sight we saw was the Fisherman's Bastion, which is a grand terrace with a beautiful view on the Buda side of the river.
The Buda side is quieter and more residential, with smaller streets and big hills that are quite striking from a distance. It's said to have a more alouf and pompous vibe to it, and while I didn't spend enough time there to get a total understanding of it, I definitely was able to recognize where that stereotype comes from. We stayed on the Pest side, which is flat, and much more lively, with streets full of restaurants, cafes, businesses, and monuments like the famous Opera house, the Parliament, and St. Stephen's Basilica, to name a few. After a traditional lunch of paprika chicken and goullash, I spent the rest of the day exploring on my own, as Avantika wasn't feeling well. We were staying right by the famed Great Market Hall, which at 3 floors, somebody could explore for hours. The first floor is more of a typical grocery store, while the second floor is almost entirely meat and fruit, though there's some cheese thrown in there too. The third floor is split into two part, with half being full of tchotchkes and apparel, and the other half having stalls of prepared street food. I didn't get anything at the time, but keep reading, because eventually I did and it was GREAT. Budapest definitely had more of a metropolitan feel than Copenhagen did. Copenhagen is obviously very city-like, but I think the tall gothic architecture and heavy traffic definitely made Budapest seem like a more imposing city. This was all going through my mind while I took the long walk to Hero's Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a large plaza surrounded by statues of iconic figures, which was made even more beautiful by the night.
The sun came out the following day, which was started with a shared chimney cake. I sadly didn't get a picture of it, so please accept this copped picture from Google.
It's a delicious donut-like confection, except thin and a bit crispier, and can be eaten by tearing and unwinding pieces from the cylindrical shape. We made our way to the Jewish Quarter, where we spent a while gazing at the Great Synagogue (Budapest may be cheap, but they certainly hike up prices for tourists where they can), which happens to be the biggest synagogue in Europe.
Lunch was at a small local place recommended by our guide from the previous day, and he definitely knew what he was talking about because that place was good. We made our way towards the river, stopping at St. Stephen's Basilica, because if there's anything I haven't seen a lot of in Europe, it's a good, old-fashioned beautiful cathedral. There was a woman outside dancing and singing in traditional garb (fan included), which was fun to watch for a bit before we entered.
It was seriously gorgeous though, with a stunning dome that you could easily miss if you don't have the sudden inclination to crane your neck. We mixed our church and state and went on to visit the Parliament, which is giant! I don't know what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't prepared for how massive it was, which I think it emphasized by it's lack of grounds. It's just a huge, beautiful building on the side of the road, because Europe likes to be casual. We caught the changing of the guards, which was interesting to watch, but is much more laid back than the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.
The Parliament is right along the river, which we walked along for a while, and passed the Jewish Shoe Memorial, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are maybe 50 pairs of bronzed shoes set along the street that runs parallel to the river, memorializing the Holocaust in a very unique way. Many of the shoes are filled with candles and flowers, and some of the children's ones have small trinkets in them too.
We looked at the shoes for a while before crossing one of the many bridges to climb up Gellert Hill. The hill, by the way is named for the then Bishop, now Saint who was put in a spiked barrel and pushed down, where he rolled all the way to his death. It's a bite of a hike, and many people don't do it because it's significantly steeper and less accessible than the nearby Castle Hill (where Fisherman's Bastion is), but it's 100% worth it. The panoramic views at the top are absolutely incredible, and if there's anything I love, it's a good view (I love a lot more than that, but I really, really do appreciate views!!). I spent probably too long up there just staring at the city, but eventually came down and we headed back to the hostel where we rested before dinner and a free pub crawl. The pub crawl was a lot of fun, and I met some great people there-- a few Moroccan guys, a British girl, and some Germans, all of whom were wonderful, and then there was some idiot from Boston. Of course. Our guide took us to several authentic bars and pubs, one of which had their own apparently locally famous drink called the Shrek.
The next morning (and final) we were able to drag ourselves out of bed and head to the one attraction that we were willing to drop a significant amount of cash on-- the baths! Budapest is famous for their thermal baths, and we chose to go to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath and were not disappointed. We went with a friend that we met the previous night and spent about an hour and a half more than we planned there, but the rush we were faced with later was definitely worth it. Lounging in the warm (hot is really more accurate, as one of the pools was 100F!) blue water, surrounded by beautiful bright yellow buildings outside felt like the epitome of luxury in those few hours. There were surprisingly few tourists, and an even more surprising amount of locals, particularly old men who played chess at a board that was a permanent fixture at one corner. There are several baths inside as well, but I felt like I could spend forever floating in the baths outside. We eventually pulled ourselves out of the water and decided to take the metro back instead of walking, as we were short on time. Little did we know that we should've just saved ourselves a bit of time and a whole lot of money and even more grief and called a cab. After buying metro tickets from the ticket window (the machine was broken), we jumped on to the train as it came to the platform, rode a few stops and got off at our station. It was there we were fined about $35 each for not validating our ticket, something that we saw no signs for, nor was ever mentioned to us by the man selling us the tickets. I'm still bitter and have some resentment. I loved you, Budapest, but treat your tourists better! Our hostel was able to call us a cab (that cost a very small fraction of what our first one did, thankfully), but we didn't leave before trying the traditional langos, and I'm so glad we did. Langos consists of a lightly fried dough, topped with savory toppings. It almost always have sour cream and cheese, and then it's up for variation. I added arugula, fresh ham (because Spain hasn't given me enough of that), cucumbers, and tomatoes. Yum! I ate on the side of the road while waiting for a cab to pick us up, who played Fairytale of New York on the way to the airport. Hasta Luego Budapest!
Budapest: Beautiful, grand, gritty. The colors are more muted, bridges more plentiful, people friendlier, and buildings older (looking, at least), and taller. It's also about as cheap as Copenhagen is expensive (very). It's incredibly vague to say, but Budapest has a very distinctive character, that's made by its two sides- Buda and Pest. Although I grew to love the city in the few days I was there, I didn't have the best introduction with it. After assuring us that the meter was fair, the cab driver that drove us from the airport to our hostel ripped us off and charged us about three times as much as we should have been (60 Euros versus 20). We fought with him, but ended up weakly giving in, as we didn't know what else we could do. At least we didn't get charged 200 Euros, as we later learned a friend of Avantika's did!
After grumpily arriving to our hostel after paying too much for the cab, we were pleasantly surprised by the fact that we had been randomly upgraded from a 12 person dorm room, to our own private room! We slept off our frustration, and began Wednesday morning with a fresh start. We started our day off with a free walking tour, from Nobert The Nice Local Hungarian. He taught us some fun facts about Hungary, such as that the ballpoint pen and Rubix cube were invented here, and also aliens and fiction creatures in movies like Yoda often have their speech translated from English to Hungarian and back to English to give it the "right" broken sound. Our day pretty much consisted of the structured tour, which was very interesting despite the cold and windy weather, and our own wandering around. The biggest sight we saw was the Fisherman's Bastion, which is a grand terrace with a beautiful view on the Buda side of the river.
The Buda side is quieter and more residential, with smaller streets and big hills that are quite striking from a distance. It's said to have a more alouf and pompous vibe to it, and while I didn't spend enough time there to get a total understanding of it, I definitely was able to recognize where that stereotype comes from. We stayed on the Pest side, which is flat, and much more lively, with streets full of restaurants, cafes, businesses, and monuments like the famous Opera house, the Parliament, and St. Stephen's Basilica, to name a few. After a traditional lunch of paprika chicken and goullash, I spent the rest of the day exploring on my own, as Avantika wasn't feeling well. We were staying right by the famed Great Market Hall, which at 3 floors, somebody could explore for hours. The first floor is more of a typical grocery store, while the second floor is almost entirely meat and fruit, though there's some cheese thrown in there too. The third floor is split into two part, with half being full of tchotchkes and apparel, and the other half having stalls of prepared street food. I didn't get anything at the time, but keep reading, because eventually I did and it was GREAT. Budapest definitely had more of a metropolitan feel than Copenhagen did. Copenhagen is obviously very city-like, but I think the tall gothic architecture and heavy traffic definitely made Budapest seem like a more imposing city. This was all going through my mind while I took the long walk to Hero's Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a large plaza surrounded by statues of iconic figures, which was made even more beautiful by the night.
The sun came out the following day, which was started with a shared chimney cake. I sadly didn't get a picture of it, so please accept this copped picture from Google.
It's a delicious donut-like confection, except thin and a bit crispier, and can be eaten by tearing and unwinding pieces from the cylindrical shape. We made our way to the Jewish Quarter, where we spent a while gazing at the Great Synagogue (Budapest may be cheap, but they certainly hike up prices for tourists where they can), which happens to be the biggest synagogue in Europe.Lunch was at a small local place recommended by our guide from the previous day, and he definitely knew what he was talking about because that place was good. We made our way towards the river, stopping at St. Stephen's Basilica, because if there's anything I haven't seen a lot of in Europe, it's a good, old-fashioned beautiful cathedral. There was a woman outside dancing and singing in traditional garb (fan included), which was fun to watch for a bit before we entered.
The Parliament is right along the river, which we walked along for a while, and passed the Jewish Shoe Memorial, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are maybe 50 pairs of bronzed shoes set along the street that runs parallel to the river, memorializing the Holocaust in a very unique way. Many of the shoes are filled with candles and flowers, and some of the children's ones have small trinkets in them too.
We looked at the shoes for a while before crossing one of the many bridges to climb up Gellert Hill. The hill, by the way is named for the then Bishop, now Saint who was put in a spiked barrel and pushed down, where he rolled all the way to his death. It's a bite of a hike, and many people don't do it because it's significantly steeper and less accessible than the nearby Castle Hill (where Fisherman's Bastion is), but it's 100% worth it. The panoramic views at the top are absolutely incredible, and if there's anything I love, it's a good view (I love a lot more than that, but I really, really do appreciate views!!). I spent probably too long up there just staring at the city, but eventually came down and we headed back to the hostel where we rested before dinner and a free pub crawl. The pub crawl was a lot of fun, and I met some great people there-- a few Moroccan guys, a British girl, and some Germans, all of whom were wonderful, and then there was some idiot from Boston. Of course. Our guide took us to several authentic bars and pubs, one of which had their own apparently locally famous drink called the Shrek.
The next morning (and final) we were able to drag ourselves out of bed and head to the one attraction that we were willing to drop a significant amount of cash on-- the baths! Budapest is famous for their thermal baths, and we chose to go to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath and were not disappointed. We went with a friend that we met the previous night and spent about an hour and a half more than we planned there, but the rush we were faced with later was definitely worth it. Lounging in the warm (hot is really more accurate, as one of the pools was 100F!) blue water, surrounded by beautiful bright yellow buildings outside felt like the epitome of luxury in those few hours. There were surprisingly few tourists, and an even more surprising amount of locals, particularly old men who played chess at a board that was a permanent fixture at one corner. There are several baths inside as well, but I felt like I could spend forever floating in the baths outside. We eventually pulled ourselves out of the water and decided to take the metro back instead of walking, as we were short on time. Little did we know that we should've just saved ourselves a bit of time and a whole lot of money and even more grief and called a cab. After buying metro tickets from the ticket window (the machine was broken), we jumped on to the train as it came to the platform, rode a few stops and got off at our station. It was there we were fined about $35 each for not validating our ticket, something that we saw no signs for, nor was ever mentioned to us by the man selling us the tickets. I'm still bitter and have some resentment. I loved you, Budapest, but treat your tourists better! Our hostel was able to call us a cab (that cost a very small fraction of what our first one did, thankfully), but we didn't leave before trying the traditional langos, and I'm so glad we did. Langos consists of a lightly fried dough, topped with savory toppings. It almost always have sour cream and cheese, and then it's up for variation. I added arugula, fresh ham (because Spain hasn't given me enough of that), cucumbers, and tomatoes. Yum! I ate on the side of the road while waiting for a cab to pick us up, who played Fairytale of New York on the way to the airport. Hasta Luego Budapest!
Comments
Post a Comment