Hungarian Rhapsody

Day 9: Budapest, Hungary

As I briefly touched on before, Budapest is divided into two parts by the Danube River: Buda and Pest. They were actually two separate towns that eventually merged together into the capital of Hungary. The Buda side is considered the historic area where the Romans first settled in ~100 AD. The Pest side is considered the "modern" area where most of the current commercial and governmental activities take place. Interestingly, Buda is super hilly, but once you cross over the Danube River, the land flattens out like a pancake (Pest-side and across the rest of eastern Hungary).

I really enjoyed walking through Budapest because I think I got a decent feel of the city in just a day. It's a wee bit more grungy than Krakow (which makes it look less like Disneyland), but there's much more to see than the traditional Old Town area. Don't get me wrong, the "Old Town section" is still the prettiest and most historical area of any European city, but at this point I was getting tired of seeing the usual Cobblestone Roads + Castle + Church + Black Plague Monument = Old Town equation.

Heroes' Square.

One of the defining landmarks of Budapest, which shows the 7 Magyar chieftains that led the Hungarian people into latter-day Hungary in the 9th Century, as well as other prominent Hungarian leaders. It was built in celebration of Budapest's millennium anniversary in 1896.

We spent most of the morning wandering through the Castle District, which was located on the highest peak in Buda. Unfortunately there was a lot of scaffolding going on and I wasn't able to take many good photos of the actual Old Town area, but the view across the Danube River over to Pest was clear and beautiful.

The view of Pest from the Fishermen's Bastion.

The red dome in the distance is the Hungarian Parliament, seriously one of the most gorgeous buildings I've ever seen.

Matyas Church.

I've never seen patterned tiles on the roof of a church before -- have you?

After WWII, most of the buildings in the Castle District were destroyed if not severely damaged. This is really the running theme of Central Europe... the Hungarians rebuilt their city, but left this former Ministry of Defense building in its bullet-ridden condition as a stark reminder of the war. If you looked closely you could still see blobs of molten lead in the center of each hole.

Hungary cat.

I found this little guy snarfing down food behind the building's boarded up window. It was a lucky shot, since I had to stick my camera blindly under the metal bars.

After the brief morning tour, my mom and I decided to wander Budapest by ourselves, starting along the main Pest river bank and then up Andrassy Avenue, where all the fancy shops, museums, and Opera House were located.

Inside St. Stephen's Basilica.

So unlike Poland where 90% of the country is Roman Catholic, only ~50% of all Hungarians consider themselves Catholic. St. Stephen, who was the first King of Hungary, introduced Christianity to his pagan country in 1000AD, and is actually one of the few saints recognized by both the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

St. Stephen's Basilica was ornate, decorated with marble of all colors. Guess what... this marble is FAKE. Fake fake fake! Hungary has a lot of raw materials, but marble is not one of them. Because they only wanted to construct its buildings out of domestically harvested materials for its millennium celebration in 1896, the Hungarians devised a method to make their own "marble" out of crushed stone, paint, wax, and adhesives. Wonder how St. Stephen's Basilica manages to have over 50 marble colors? Just take out your crayon box! Funny though since "fake marble" actually costs 3x more than real marble, but that's just another example why Hungarians are considered as a whole to be a very stubborn group of people.

At Market Hall where you can load up on souvenirs for all your foodie friends!

For lunch we âté goose pâté.

I noticed a pattern while travelling through these Central European countries -- each place had a landmark or an area that they called the "Paris of [ ______ ]", "Champs-Élysées of [ ______ ]", "Venice of [ ______ ]"... it's like they have some sort of inferior complex or something. Well here we are now at Andrassy Avenue, the "Champs-Élysées of [Budapest]".

The House of Terror Museum, former headquarters of the Hungarian Nazi Party.

The Hungarian State Opera House -- models posing together right after a fashion show.

Their lips/clothes were really THAT bright! They look good together, but which one of these outfits are actually wearable?

One of many beautiful yet vacant buildings on Andrassy Avenue.

Many of these houses were still boarded up, overgrown with weeds, empty. I'm sure that Budapest has made huge steps in revamping itself since the fall of Communism, but it's clear that there's still a ways to go for the city to regain its former glory.

In front of Vajdahunyad Castle in the City Park.

So THIS is the type of insanity that I had to deal with on this trip:

Mom: Ooh, look... I want to take a photo of that castle!

Me: Okay. [Looks down into purse to take out camera.]

Mom: [Already in position.] Look at me! Are you ready?!

Me: [Looks up. Feels an immediate hurling sensation.] What... are you doing?!

Mom: Yea, I look fabulous don't I? [Strikes 10 different poses.]

Me: I'm going to put an end to this.

[Snaps one and leaves the scene of the crime.]

On the Metro back to our hotel.

A lovely evening stroll across Chain-bridge, with a charming silhouette of Buda.

I soaked in thermal baths for each of the 3 nights that I was in Budapest. Apparently one of the main reasons why the Romans settled in Buda was so they could enjoy its thermal springs (how indulgent)! My hotel conveniently had a spa in its basement so I didn't have to travel to any of the public bath houses. Although the hotel bath were not nearly as fancy as the famous bath houses, it was still a fantastic way to unwind and decompress after punishing my feet for 8 hours straight. Ah, I miss Budapest...