Budapest, Hungary

The Hungarian Adventure: Budapest

Thursday, January 11, 2007

I caught a morning train to Budapest (Keleti). The journey was relatively uneventful aside from the intimidating Hungarian police (with an assortment of very intimidating weapons around their waist) that kept yelling at me for my passport (it certainly felt like they were yelling at me…). What was kind of funny about this is that I had only thrown my passport into my bag as an afterthought, thinking ‘well, just in case’ – since I thought there wasn’t any border control whatsoever in the EU. Thank heavens I did, because the last thing I would ever want to do is cross a Hungarian policeman!

I arrived in Budapest just after 1pm and no sooner had I hopped off the train that I was being bombarded by locals offering me a room in their private accommodation and others offering me taxis. It took a while to actually get out of the station and be on my way, but once I was, it was only a few minutes to my hostel… Or, at least to find the general vicinity of the hostel! The hostel was located on a busy street just outside of the city center – you had to go through a short alley into a courtyard and go up some stairs a couple floors, go down another hall and you’d eventually find the place (visible signs may have helped!). So, needless to say, it was another feat to actually find the hostel. The hostel was gorgeous though, and I felt immediately at home. I arrived just as the others staying there were getting up from the big night on the town the previous night. We played 20 questions, or rather they did… Turns out they don’t run into many Canadians in their travels and were very excited to ask me all about Canada. After some explaining that no, Nova Scotia is not Newfoundland – it’s actually the south-eastern point in Canada (and for the Boston girls – yeah, you can actually get to N.S. in like 10 hours by car…) we were fast becoming friends. They kept me company while I waited for Danny to arrive. She was supposed to arrive around noon, so the fact that I had arrived at the hostel before them had everyone a tad worried! I checked my email once more to ensure I had indeed gotten the date right and then just settled in to wait… and wait… and wait! Poor Danny, she had the same issue as I, but it took her a little over 2 hours walking around the block to find the hostel.

When we finally met up, the exploring began. We decided to just head out and walk around to see what the city has to offer. We were also on the hunt for an authentic Hungarian restaurant. About 3 hours later we had walked the entire Pest side of the city and frustrated ourselves to no end trying to find a restaurant. We had an ongoing tally of Burger Kings, but sadly Hungarian restaurants seemed to be few in number… A security guard at a local book shop finally pointed us in the right direction and we ordered up some authentic Hungarian dishes. I had what Kim had recommended before I left, Chicken Paprikash and Danny ordered the goose. After our delicious meal we made our way back to the hostel to plot our adventures for the next day…

Friday, January 12, 2007

In the planning stages of our trip, Danny and I had decided that the number 1 place we both wanted to go was Statue Park. For those who may not know, Statue Park is an outdoor museum of all the Soviet statues that were removed from the streets of Budapest following the change of political system. It is the only such communist collection in the world. As the ads for the museum say, it offers a “glance behind the iron curtain”. We decided this would be our priority, so Friday morning we got up and headed off to the bus station to catch the direct bus to the park. As we got off the bus, we were amazed by the wind – it was so strong that it was literally picking up rocks and throwing them at our faces. I had to wear my sunglasses to protect my eyes. The driver had given us about an hour to tour around and as we were being tossed by the crazy wind and we noticed the lack of English signage we began to realize that would be far too long! About 30 minutes later we had seen all we could and posed with the statues in everyway we could think of. Being outside the city, basically in the middle of nowhere, we had nothing else to do. We sat on the bus listening to my iPod for the rest of the time laughing at the others still trying to manage the park – the wind was seriously too much for anyone!

Getting back to the city center, we decided to check out the market that we had heard great things about. Just our luck we get there and find a Hungarian restaurant so we grabbed some lunch before shopping around… The market was massive, but it was a lot of fun to see the authentic Hungarian way of life – I mean what better way then at a local market! A few hours later he had spent way more money then we had thought, but at least we had some fun presents for the ones back home.

Our next activity of the day was the Thermal Baths. We arrived at 5:30, just after dusk to the baths in the city park. We quickly changed and went outside to the pools. It was about 16 degrees out, so we didn’t mind walking around in bathing suits outside and when we got into the pools – which are naturally heated at about 40 degrees in springs and pumped into the city, the craziness of our day seemed far behind us! We spent the next hour and a bit joking about how romantic our relaxing bath under the night sky was, and how jealous all those at home struggling with the insufferable temperatures would be at the sight of us! Sadly, we did have to get out eventually and after the mad dash to the warmth of indoors and a quick change, we continued our romantic evening over drinks and dinner at TGI Fridays (I love that I can find one in every city in the world!). I highly recommend the chocolate dipped strawberry – a drink to die for!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Busy day! Time to see everything that kept getting postponed as other things came up. We started the day at the House of Terror. It’s a museum that serves as a memorial to all victims of the Nazi/Soviet era. It aims to give visitors an idea of what life in Hungary was like during that time. The museum is located at 60 Andràssy Avenue – the very location of the Arrow Cross (and later the Red Army) headquarters, and where many were imprisoned, tortured and executed between the years 1944-56. As you approach the museum you see pictures at about eye level that circle the building – there are candles at the base of each picture. As you walk into the museum itself (after the lobby, I mean) you are faced with a massive wall – about 4 stories tall – with the pictures of all the victims and on the ground in front of this wall is a tank sitting in a puddle of water that runs down the sides of the ledge – crying for the victims. The museum is full of videos, pictures, relics and reconstructions of the cells prisoners were kept in. The experience is beyond words – I honestly can’t even begin to describe the exhibits and the emotions they evoke. If you ever find yourself in Budapest, all I can do is highly recommend you visit this museum – it is sure to be a highlight of your stay!

After our somber morning, we made our way over to the Castle District in Buda. Getting off the underground we climbed the millions of stairs to the castle and walked around the grounds. The Buda side is quite hilly and offers magnificent views of both the Buda and Pest sides of the city. While in the castle we again found ourselves in a Hungarian restaurant (amusing after the drama of Thursday night – of 4 meals in Hungary, we ate at Hungarian restaurants 3 times… Maybe they aren’t so hard to find after all!). I had the Goulash made from wild boar this time and it was fantastic! Following our lunch, we continued to walk the castle grounds – taking fabulous pictures from the lookouts, and visiting the shops in the area for the remainder of the afternoon (I was finally able to locate some postcards – it was seemingly impossible the whole trip!).

As the sun was setting we headed back to the hostel to collect our things and then it was off to the train station to return to Vienna. The trip home was much more enjoyable, and the “polizei” weren’t as intimidating this time (cute even – but even with Danny’s coaxing I wasn’t about to join them in their carriage)!

Return train fare to Budapest: €32
Hostel for 2 nights: €16
Souvenirs and gifts: €35(ish)
Meals: €40

Spending a weekend in Europe with one of your best friends, when really you should both be back in Canada in class… priceless!