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We
are back safe and sound from our trek to
Budapest
and overall we had a great time and are very glad that we went.
It is interesting how I learn something new (or a lot new!) in
each city we visit. For example,
Budapest
was actually two separate cities, Buda and Pest, which are
separated by the
Danube
River
. The two cities were joined in 1872. However, the two parts are
still referred to as Buda and
Pest
.
So
we took the first available train to
Budapest
which depart at 3:50. On the train however, we got our passports
stamped and we were given a free map of
Budapest
. I am pretty excited about the stamp though because we have not
gotten any on our adventures because all of the other countries
we visited (i.e.
France
,
Italy
,
Belgium
and
Austria
) are part of the European Union.
Hungary
is not so we got a stamp!!
We
arrived in
Budapest
at about 7pm and decided not to go straight to our hotel but
instead to first see some of the city and get dinner. Our first
impressions of the city we not that great.
We got on the metro from the train station and we
impressed with how old the metro system really is. I swear the
subway cars are the original ones. I am surprised they still
run! There is
also no system in place to check for tickets or to ensure that
all riders have paid. It is on the honor system I guess. You
simply buy your tickets at a machine and then stick it in
another machine to validate them before getting on the metro.
There are no turn styles or people checking tickets. I think
they would be able to afford new updates subway cars if they
installed a ticket checking process instead of letting everyone
ride for free. (Although, this is the same type of ticket system
that is in place here in
Vienna
. I am not complaining though, it is saving me money!)
We
meandered through the streets of
Pest
for a bit before heading to a vegetarian restaurant we found an
advertisement for on the free map we received on the train.
Since I do not eat meat on Friday we thought this would be the
perfect place to go and it truly was. It was by far the best
restaurant we have been to on this trip and I highly recommend
it for anyone who is planning on coming to
Budapest
. They had and ENORMOUS and very diverse menu (over 60 different
dishes) and it was extremely cheap! For dinner we each had a
freshly made
Berry
lemonade. I had Pumpkin tacos (taco shells
filled with pumpkin.) We tried to go back for lunch on Saturday but did
not make it because we were too far away.
Bummer…
We
then made the long and tedious trek to our hotel which was in
Buda (across the
Danube
). We had purposely booked our hotel a bit out of the city to
save money because we were under the impression that we would
have Rolly (our car.) So in order to get to our hotel we had to
take the metro to one station and transfer. Unfortunately for
us, the station we needed to transfer at was under construction
so it was not possible for us to transfer. Instead shuttle buses
were running to make the transfer. Luckily, one of the buses at
the shuttle bus depot went right to our hotel! So after about a
45 minute bus ride through
Budapest
we arrived. But the sights on the way were amazing! All of the
big building in the city were all lit up with different colors
and looked absolutely gorgeous!
On
Saturday we started our day by staying in Buda and heading to
Castle District or Castle Hill (Yes it is a GIANT hill with a
castle (
Buda
Castle
) at the top.) It was a nice change from the actual city of
Budapest
as it was clean and quiet. It had cobblestone streets and barely
any cars. The streets were all winding, monument filled and gave
some spectacular views of the surrounding areas.
We
then headed for
Buda
Castle
’s Labyrinth. These labyrinths gave a spooky view of the
subterranean world of the city. The
labyrinth of caves and tunnels which stretched for over 10
kilometres beneath Castle Hill. They were supposedly joined
together by the Turks during the Middle Ages for military
purposes. We were given a map as we entered the
labyrinths however, it was so dark inside it was impossible to
see it. I guess this was the fun of it! The
labyrinths in general were quite disappointing especially for
the ridiculously high cover change. It was just a maze of
tunnels and caves that were full of some sort of a modern
sculpture and art museum. (http://www.pbase.com/bossuytj/image/52389963)
They had some sort of weird music blasting in each of the caves
so it was pretty weird. The only really cool part of the
labyrinth was the wine fountain. There was a rectangular column
in the middle of one of the caves which was covered in fake
grapes and grape leaves. On each of the faces of the rectangle
there was a spigot with red wine pouring out. (http://www.pbase.com/bossuytj/image/52535444)
We could not figure out what the point of this was but it was
pretty interesting. Other tourists were filling up their empty
water bottles with the wine.
We
then grabbed some lunch on Castle hill before heading down to
Pest
. We first headed to St. Stephen’s basilica (http://www.molon.de/galleries/Hungary/Budapest/Pest/img.php?pic=2).
It is the largest church in
Budapest
and we heard that it can hold 8,500 people! We also learned that
it is not officially a basilica yet because the Pope has not
given it this honor. The people of
Budapest
just call it a Basilica. The interior of the church is laid out
in the shape of a Greek cross. The church is rather modern
looking (it was just renovated in 2003) and very ornamental. (http://www.pbase.com/bossuytj/image/52535477)
There is a giant dome in the middle of the church over the altar
and several chapels off the side isles (http://www.pbase.com/bossuytj/image/52397540)
. One of these chapels is St Dexter's chapel which contains one
of the church's most valuable processions, what is thought to be
St. Stephen's mummified right hand. Unfortunately we came at a bad time. The church was all roped off because a
wedding was about to take place so we would only see a small
fraction of the church from a small corner (we didn’t get to
see the hand). But I am glad they did this. The Bride looked
beautiful and she deserved to have the whole church. (Mike and
Lisa’s church should have thought of this!)
By
this point in the day we were pretty tired and EXTREMELY hot!
(This was definitely the hottest day we have experienced on the
trip!) So we headed to the `Broadway` of Budapest Andrássy Ut.
The street was rather empty and really nothing like Broadway in
NYC. But we passed the Opera house (http://www.molon.de/galleries/Hungary/Budapest/Pest/img.php?pic=31)
which was a beautiful building. They really do they Opera Houses
up here in
Europe
! You should see the one in
Vienna
! We then stopped
at a small café near the opera house for a break before getting
dinner. We tried to go to this restaurant that also had an
advertisement on the free map we received because they had
Hungarian food. But the restaurant menu
was small, very limited and contained no Goulash so we moved on.
We wound up at a restaurant sort of near the vegetarian
restaurant.
We
finished up the night at an upscale bar called the
Jazz
Garden
that was recommended in the travel book Brian, Janet and the
Girls gave me for my birthday. This was a great find! They had
live Jazz every night and the atmosphere of the place was
incredible. They had low hanging vines and the ceiling was
designed to look like a starry night sky. (It was black and was
spotted with little white lights). The band was very good as
well and all of their songs with lyrics were in English so we
had some idea what was going on.
We
left there at about 11pm and began a nightmarish trek back to
our hotel. While we were walking to the metro there was an
enormous power outage and the streets went COMPLETELY black.
Luckily I had my camera and we used the screen as a little
flashlight. Luckily the metro had power but we could not get on
because the line we wanted was not in service at the stop we
were at. So we tried to get on a bus that would take us to
another metro stop but the bus went two stops and the driver
kicked us off because he was done for the night. We then got on
another bus that would at least take us to Buda, but the driver
did the same darn thing, went a couple of stops and the shut the
bus down for the night. We finally made it to a bus-metro depot
in Buda at about 11:45 but the bus we wanted had stopped running
at 11:40. So we were somewhere in Buda with no idea how to get
to our hotel. Luckily a cab driver showed up at about 12:30 and
we hopped in. The cabbie definitely took advantage of us
tourists as he put his meter away and just gave us a verbal
price. But at least we got to our hotel and away from the drug
dealers at the depot.
Sunday
morning we left our hotel at 11am which gave ourselves two whole
hours to get to the train station and board our train at 1:10.
Surprisingly, despite the awful public transportation system we
arrive at the train station a bit before 12. Unfortunately for
us, the international ticket department is stuck in the 1970s.
There is only one computer in the entire department so all of
the ticket agents were scrambling to use it. It took us 1.5
hours to get the tickets which were HAND WRITTEN!!!!! How
aggravating! We obviously missed our train and had to take the
next one which did not depart until 3:50. While we were waiting
though we met two people (one from
Toronto
and one from
Copenhagen
) who attended the same university as Craig. What a small world!
We
got back to
Vienna
at 7pm and headed to TGI Friday’s for dinner (Yes they have my
FAVORITE restaurant here!!!)
It was good to have a taste of back home!
Today
I revisited the Hundertwasser street (the one with the brightly
colored apartments that were are built with no straight lines) (http://www.escapeartist.com/OREQ16/Vienna.html)
to take pictures and
am now at an internet café writing this to you.
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Elizabeth 
