Budapest - October 1-4, 1999

To tell you the truth, I really don't remember much about Budapest. The weather was lovely - the last really good weather we were to have on the trip. Sunny and warm. Lots of tourists. I also remember getting somewhat tired of having to get up and do something every day. Unfortunately, my memories of Budapest are somewhat tainted by my overall crankiness because of that. I got my second wind, but not until the next stop on the tour after Budapest, Vienna.

We arrived there late in the day after the trip through Slovakia from Krakow. Slovakia was once part of Czechoslavakia but decided it wanted to be its own country. The Czech Republic, no dummies they, said good riddance. After all, Slovakia was the poorest part of Czechoslavakia, and the government paid a lot of money to subsidize that part of the country. Now the money could be used for bigger and better things.

As I said, we got in late. After dinner at the hotel, the Hotel Korona, which is pretty much in the center of the Pest part of Budapest, a large group of us decided to go on a night boatride on the Danube river. See the buildings all lit up, that kind of thing. The cruise was narrated, although the narration was on the hokey side. Someone pretending to be the Danube talking. But the buildings were pretty, as were some of the other sights. That's a picture of the chain bridge that I took while on the boat ride; it's one of the few that came out. And we had a cheese tasting party at the end. Me, who loves cheese, did not like this cheese.

The next day, Saturday October 2, we had our scheduled city tour. Budapest reminded me a lot of Paris - the buildings all seemed to be very pretty architecturally but the stone was all the same color. Budapest is known as the "Paris of the East", or something like that. It is also known for its spas; they are everywhere in the city. I did not know this before me trip. They even have public spas. One of the spas is renowned because its visitors play a lot of chess.

Our local guide this morning was named Georgie. That is not her real name but some sort of English translation of it. She took us first to Heroes Square, the picture you see over on the left. Heroes Square is where everything important happens first in Budapest. In 1956, when the Hungarians tried to overthrow the communists and were unsuccessful, the revolt started in Heroes Square. The Square itself is fairly large, with one large statue in the middle (that's the one in the center) and others encircling one side/end of the square. I remember the square as being pretty nice, albeit crowded. Also, we didn't get to stay there very long.

We went next over to the Buda side of Budapest. The city itself is cut in two pieces by the Danube river. On the west bank is Buda and on the right is Pest. Pest is larger and more commercial, or so it seemed to me. But all the good, historical stuff is on the Buda side. Like the castle.

Of course there was a castle. And, like the one in Warsaw, it was heavily damaged during World War II. And, like in Warsaw, the Hungarians rebuilt it. But, unlike Warsaw and Krakow, tourists don't tour the castle. The Hungarians have decided to make use of their castle and subdivided it into three different museums/performance halls. But the outside is very impressive.

Another thing about Budapest is that there are Roman ruins everywhere. You just turn around and there's a column or a wall just in the middle of everything. Like on Castle Hill, where, as I am sure you ascertained, the castle is. All around the castle, the Matias Church, the Fisherman's Bastion (those last two being other things to see while on Castle Hill), there are ruins. There's a hotel up there on the top of Castle Hill, and it has incorporated ruins into the structure itself. Kind of different, coming as I do from a country that's lucky if it has any ruins at all.

So, being good little tourists, we toured the Church (unlike a lot of older churches in Europe, you can take pictures in this one) and the Fisherman's Bastion, some sort of lookout spot on the top of the hill. We came up to the top of the hill on a bus. (Well, that shouldn't surprise anyone, being as that's how all the tourists get to the top of the hill. Normally. Later on that day, I came back on my own and walked up it. It's quite the hike.) I mention this because one can also take the funicular from the bottom near the river and the Chain Bridge to the top and back down again. I only took it down and I think my one-way trip cost me about $1. But that's later.

From there, we toured the rest of the normal, touristy spots (since I'm not mentioning them, you can see how much they affected me) and returned to the hotel. And that was the end of the city tour. But only noon. Time to figure out the public transportation and go vist Aquincum.

What, you ask, is Aquincum? Aquincum was the main Roman settlement about two millenia ago. The largest concentration of ruins is here, as well as many artifacts and an actual tile floor. But to get there required use of the public transportation system, i.e., the subway/train. It's not all that expensive, maybe twenty cents for a one-way ticket. The only problem is, you must by your ticket from a machine (meaning you need exact change) or the local kiosk, which means it must be open. And, on Saturday, they close at noon or so. This didn't matter so much on the way out to Aquincum as on the return trip - I couldn't find anywhere to buy the ticket and finally pretty much begged a man on the train to sell me one. The moral of the story is to make sure you have your return ticket before you go anywhere. Of course, I could have walked. Then I could have seen the old Roman ampitheater. But I didn't.

But, I did make it to Aquincum and back. Aquincum is in a suburb of Budapest. I guess you'd call it that. It wasn't the most scenic part of the city, to be sure. But there were lots of ruins. Many pillars, columns, wall remnants, you name it. And that tile floor. That's one of the many pictures I took while I was there over on the lower left. There's also a museum with some artifacts in it. Lots of pottery, some coins.

After my eventful journey back to the city from the 'burbs, I went back up to Castle Hill. I think I mentioned that already. Quite the hike. But there are some very nice views from up there. Along with the ruins. There were a lot of weddings taking place up there on the Hill. Apparently, couples like the idea of getting married in the Matias Church. I saw two or three wedding parties on my afternoon visit.

The rest of the day I spent walking back to the hotel, across the Chain Bridge, by the main church in Budapest, St. Stephens Basilica, by a very large synagogue, detouring to KFC for dinner (yes, Virginia, KFC is alive and well in Budapest), and finally back to my little tiny room at the hotel. Since I had my own room, it was not very big. Harvey, another traveler on his own, also had his own room (I'm assuming it was similar to mine), and he called it a "garret". An apt description. The TV reception wasn't very good, so CNN didn't come in all that well. MSNBC, however, had excellent reception.

The next day we went up the Danube towards Slovakia. The Slovaks and the Hungarians really don't like each other at all. There's a bridge in the city of Esztergom that was destroyed in World War II. Esztergom in a Hungarian city, their version of Jasna Gora in Poland (for those who didn't read it yet, Jasna Gora and Esztergom are their countries' respective religious centers). Across the Danube from Esztergom is Slovakia. Because the two countries don't like each other, no one bothered to repair the bridge.

We also went to Szentendre (that's Saint Andrew to you and me), a small, market city which nows caters to tourists. Some very nice stuff there, but it's like a permanent swap meet that evolved into a town. A very nice church in the center of the town. The thing I remember most about Szentendre, aside from all the shopping stalls, is that the ATM's wouldn't give me any money. I took it as a sign and didn't buy much. I did get my mother the kitchen witch, though.

And, finally, I visited the one and only attraction on my entire trip with the word "museum" in the title, the National Museum of Hungary. I couldn't miss it, being as it was across the street from the hotel. Since I love history, I figured that this was a good place to go. And it was. My only complaint is that I didn't take nearly long enough to go through it. Too much time left in the day after I was done, and I'd done all I wanted to do. Or planned to do. So, I went home (figuratively speaking) to my hotel room.

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