I arrived there Friday afternoon, thinking that maybe the language would be somewhat similar to Czech, um...not even close. I have to admit that my first impressions of the city were not that great. The bus station was really sketchy. Doesn’t help that it was a rainy cold day, but there were homeless people everywhere, sleeping in the metro station and quite a few sketchy looking characters. But of course I have traveled quite a bit so am to the point where that stuff doesn’t phase me anymore and instead is quite the place to people watch.
I was able to make it through the still communist inspired metro, and found my hostel alright. It was situated a block away from the Danube river so was a great location. The owners of the hostel were just great giving out tons of information about the city. Although I knew quite a bit going in as had read my travel book on the bus already...yes I’m a geek and love travel books! First stop was the Hungarian National Museum. Once again I am a geek and really enjoy history museums. More like information on the country. I had pretty much zero knowledge of Hungary or of any of its history so the museum was great! What did I learn...well to make a long story short the country has pretty much always been occupied or controlled by someone else. The main information that they want to leave you with is that the country was pretty much founded in 896 by the alliance of seven tribes called Magyar (Hungary). Their first king was St. Stephan crowned in 1000. Then in 1541 the Ottoman’s controlled the territory which was huge as in present day Slovakia and parts of Transylvania. Next were the Habsburg’s which is you live in Eastern Europe you know all about them as they were quite a dominate and influential empire in that came into power in 1686. They were in power for a long time where finally there was a duel monarchy Austria creating an Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until WWI. What I found really interesting is that after WWI the country was divided and it lost two-thirds of its territory. I can’t imagine that happening. Then of course came WWII and then after Communist control and finally back to republic in 1989. Such crazy history!
National Museum
Inside...pretty amazing!
After the museum I walked one of the main pedestrian streets and went shopping for souvenirs and finally ate at a traditional Hungarian pub/restaurant. They of course like in the Czech Republic serve goulash as well as make claim to the spice of paprika. You can buy paprika everywhere and it’s in tons of the dishes! I decided to go for the mushroom goulash instead of the gizzard goulash...was not feeling that adventurous that night, and had a great meal. Not to mention it was super cheap. Like Czech it’s a pretty cheap country when you eat in the local places. Oh and the money is quite different as well as it’s about 180 Hungarian Forint to $1 Canadian. So it’s really hard to convert. Not to mention that at night I was still thinking in Czech Crowns where I gave the waitress a really bad tip but if we were in Prague it would have been good. Didn’t realise it until I was a couple of blocks away. Whoops!
Then next morning I awoke to the sun shining. This was pretty much a miracle as in Eastern Europe the sun does not shine. I was expecting rain so needless to say I was extremely pumped as I had planned to do a walking tour. First up I headed out to the Nagycsarnok, or the main market for breakfast. This place was awesome with a ton of stalls inside a huge building consisting of two floors. They sold fruit, vegetables and really any kind of meat you wanted along with a ton of paprika. If lived there I’m sure I would be a regular at the market.
The Market
Inside
From here it was off to my walking tour. I’m a fan of the old walking tour as you can get a pretty good sense of the city after one of these. Our tour was supposed to be about 4 hours but ended up being 5 so was quite the tour. We saw a ton of statues as the city is littered with them. But I honestly can’t really remember any great stories about them. We were then off to Saint Stephan’s Bascilca the church that is named after their first king. It’s exactly 96m high which is after 896 when Hungary was founded, and there’s a rule in the city that no building can be higher than this point. So as you’ll see from my pictures, there are no skyscrapers in the city. Speaking of the city it’s actually two cities as well; Buda and Pest. Buda being on the west side of the Danube and Pest on the East.
St. Stephan's
Next it was a walk up to Varhegy or Castle Hill. Like in Prague there is a large castle on a hill beside the river. I have to say it’s not as nice as Prasky Hrad but it’s still great none the less. The views from the top are amazing of course as you can over look all of Pest and the huge Parliament building that they have. Along with the castle on top of the hill you have an old Medieval town that was built back in...It was awesome to walk the streets and look at the old buildings and churches, not to mention the awesome promenade that overlooked the city...just great views.
Walking up to the castle
The side view of the castle as I could not get far enough back to get the whole thing in a picture
Another view
View from the top of the castle...you can see St. Stephan's in the background
Another angle with the Parliment Building in the background.
An example of the Medievil Streets
Pomenade on the opposite side of the castle overlooking another part of Buda
There was a ton of information on that tour and I’d be lucky to remember half of it. The tour guide definitely loved his country and kept telling us stories on how they were the first to invent this and that. Apparently the telephone that Bell discovered was because of his time spent with Hungarian scientists and so on. They do have the oldest metro station in Europe as it was built in the 1890’s. Only some parts of it are still opened and I actually did ride it. Quite small but to be expected as people back then were not as huge as we are now. Also they built the first suspension bridge. I took a ton of pictures for my dad as I knew he would be interested in that. Although I did see pictures from WWII where I think most of the city was destroyed along with all of the bridges, but they did rebuild them back into their original state.
The suspension bridge
View from the bridge looking back at Pest
View looking at Buda
After the tour I headed to the House of Terror; a museum displaying information when the country was run by the Nazi’s and Communists. I found it really interesting especially all the information from the Communist time. What struck me the most or what I remember most vividly was a video I watch on the work camps they used to have. They documented survivors of these work camps and their stories. Everyone was always in fear of being sent to one of these and rightfully so as there was one story of a women who was found making out with her boyfriend behind some leaders house. Well she got caught and was sent to a camp. They also had about 6 women who used to be in one of these camps and showed them returning to the camp a couple of years later when the Communists had left. They also had their guard or Communist head lady (I’m not sure what you would call her) there as well. It was quite something to watch these ladies confront this lady who used to control their lives as she could decide pretty much anything for them...as in are they are allowed visitors, or scrubbing the toilet as punishment. It kind of seemed as those she didn’t think she was as harsh as what the ladies claimed her to be...I think she was in denial of course One of the ladies openly forgave her which was awesome to see and pretty big of her. I went for a walk that night and here are a couple of night pictures...
Agricultural Museum at night
View of the castle at night
Sunday morning I got up fairly early as I really wanted to make it to the baths. Hungary is known for their thermal baths, a fact I knew nothing about until a friend told me about it before I left. So naturally I had to take that it in as well. I went Szechenyl Furdo a huge bathhouse in the middle of this beautiful park. I looked like I was entering a museum it was so big and old being built in 1908. I paid my entrance fee and was told where the change room was. Upon entering the change room I see a man in a towel blow drying his hair. Hum...they told me the wrong one. So I went back outside to ask again. Um...nope that’s the right one. They have little small enclosed change rooms where you can change into your bathing suit and then lockers on the side where you can put your clothes. Like I said the place was huge as I had to ask in order to figure out how to get outside to the thermal pool. Granted inside the place was filled with pools, saunas and places where you could pay extra and receive a massage. The water was about 35-37C so quite warm but not as warm as the Moose Jaw Spa. Or maybe that’s just because the temperature there was probably only about 0C compared to -20C so maybe that’s why it felt hotter. I don’t have any pictures from the inside of the pool as I kept all my stuff in the locker but you would have seen a huge outdoor play with statues everywhere and water pouring out of them into the pool. You kind of felt like you were back in the days of the Romans at one of their bath houses. There were a ton of local people there as well just hanging out for a Sunday swim, along with lots of large men wearing speedos (this is Europe!) playing chess in the water too.
The Bathhouse...as you can see it looks more like a museum.
Side profile
My last big sight to see was the Parliament Building. It’s the third largest in the world so I really wanted to take a tour of it and was not disappointed. It took about 9 years to build and was finished 1905. They have 20km worth of hallways in it along with Hungarian crown which was stolen in the past and then found and now displayed in one of the main rooms. They also house parliament there two or three times a well. It’s really quite amazing as you can see from the pictures.
Outside the Parliment
The roof of one of the many hallways
The Parliment seats
All in all my time was awesome and I think I learned more in regards to history than I did all through my high school years so the $40 bus ride was definitely worth it!
2 comments:
Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences...it's great to see the pictures and read your thoughts about a country I may or may not ever get to visit in person...thanks!
that was awesome. i will see all these places someday, but since i can't now, this is great to read. loved the history ... and the pictures, of course!
you are adventurous! heading there all on your own. keep posting!
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