Budapest, Hungary

You’ve gotta hand it to Si Yue, she really does her research. The b&b/hostel we stayed at in Budapest was one of the nicer ones I’ve been to. It was on the top floor of what I’m told is a traditional regular Hungarian apartment which has an indoor balcony/courtyard:The courtyards were all originally intended to house horses, apparently, but it’s all very quaint – old people would sit on the balcony and have candlelight dinners or play cards and stuff, and it naturally fosters a real sense of community I haven’t experienced elsewhere.

The city of Budapest is divided into two sections by the Danube river. They are called (interestingly enough) Buda and Pest:
This picture is taken from a small island called Margit Island to the north. On the left side (eastward) is Pest. To the right is Buda.

It turns out that Budapest is obsessed with Franz Liszt, kind of like how Florence was obsessed with David.

The main touristic restauranty street is called Ferenc Liszt street:

Down the road they have Liszt sitting in an armchair in front of his academy:

There’s also a statue of him in front of the opera house. You can see his legs in this picture below:

Speaking of opera, Si Yue and I ended up catching a show there (for about 4 euros!) – Verdi’s Nabucco:
This show features Jews prominently, oddly enough. One of the main characters is Zachariah.

There is a famous bridge, the Elizabeth bridge, that connects the two parts of Budapest together, and it lights up beautifully at night:

(Crossing it a day or so later, I stumbled upon this:I thought it was funky though Si Yue insisted it was dirty.)

My old friend Tal has been studying in Budapest for years now, so we met up for dinner, the first night:

Si Yue and I went to another St Stephen’s Basilica:
    

Budapest is the home to the biggest synagogue in Europe:  
For the curious, it felt smaller than the synagogues in Montreal, say the Shaar. Next door is Theodore Herzl’s birthplace:

Back to the national Hungarian sites, we walked all the way to the Heroes Square:

We spent a day walking around the old town of Buda, we saw their palace:Every capital city in Europe seems to have a palace.

From there you get an excellent view of Pest, and the Elizabeth bridge:

In Buda there were other pretty landmarks – the Matthias Church (left and below) and the Fisherman’s Bastion:
 

I also wanted to mention the parliament, a building that I found more beautiful than the palace, actually:

Also – and this is important - we stumbled upon a mall! This is the first time I’ve been in one in months, and it was actually really overwhelming:

It’s odd how

Budapisms

-The Hungarian currency is called the Forint. It doesn’t have any decimals (or cents) like the Japanese Yen, so they sell for cheap - 1 Euro for about 280 Forints.

-Something I forgot to mention about Vienna, but that is also done in Budapest, is how things are sold

-I had Hungarian goulash, and it basically tasted exactly like Irish stew… (I don’t think I mentioned that I had the stew when I was in Ireland…)

-Kinder surprise (kinder joy?)

-Budapest is known for its thermal baths:Si Yue and I went in, and it’s basically an outdoor hot tub the size of a swimming pool. There are several other pools set to different temperatures (35 degrees, 38 degrees… etc). We aren’t quite sure if it uses natural spring water or not.

There was also a sauna that was set to 80-100 degrees Celsius. I could feel every molecule I breathed when in that room. It was unbearable.

-The ticket booths at the metro in most places in Europe are electronic, kind of like the ones we just got installed in Montreal, but with many more options. In Budapest, however, they sell tickets in little shacks:
They don’t even have cash registers in these little things – they show you a calculator with the amount you owe them.

They’re also ridiculously strict about checking every single person that gets on or off a metro for their ticket. This is the polar opposite of what it was like in Vienna (or Amsterdam, or many places), where it’s basically based on the honour system – you can get on and off without even encountering a turnstile!

All in all, I really enjoyed Budapest. I’m not sure what I was expecting going in, but I had a really great time there. The people were nice, the food was great and the sites were beautiful. It was all very cheap, too! Everything was perfect besides the odd currency and the rain.

Oh, the rain…