Advertisement
Published: September 3rd 2007
Twilight Zone We arrived this morning in Budapest with no delay at 8AM but with a serious case of jet lag that finally defeated us into a 1.5 hour nap at 3PM. We each had about two hour’s sleep on the airplane which was of course uncomfortable as usual, Delta offering no turnaround surprises to a legacy of bad experiences, but we got there in one piece and they were cheap, so . . .
On the flight from Columbus we somehow got stuck with row 13 on the CRJ which means we were front and center on the lavatory and all its accoutrements, which wouldn’t be so bad except that our fellow voyagers didn’t seem to understand that shutting the lavatory door would be the minimum courtesy after they’d done their business. The flight from JFK to Budapest was an icebox but it smelled considerably better than the last so we were happy.
Enough about what we’ve been working on leaving behind . . .
We arrived in Budapest on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, not too warm, not too cold. Fehrigny Airport is modern, clean, and the staff was professional, reminding us of the Toulouse airport
in its design, layout and size. We weren’t accosted by any mercenary taxis and hopped in line to grab a cab. We were assigned to a black Mercedes E-Class and a driver who was mildly surly and who Manny thinks definitely had some Turkish blending in his lineage. He drove like a maniac too.
The average posted speed from the airport to the center was 70 km/h and with absolutely no exaggerating, the guy was averaging 120 with peaks to 140 km/h. Yes, 140km/h is nearly 100 mph and this was NOT on an expressway, it was on a four lane median-divided arterial road (think Olentangy River Road). He was very adept at driving like a lunatic which Jennifer wouldn’t know since she was hiding her face in her hands, but he did a fantastic double-lane change where the road widened at one point, cutting off two cars at once and giving a nice bumper polish to the two in front. We wish we had a picture of this guy but we got the feeling he was in a hurry so did not want to press him to spend more time as we fumbled with the camera.
The Hilton Budapest The hotel is one of the best in the city and its location, design, and view reinforce this fact. We were permitted to check-in at 9AM and were upgraded to an Executive Floor room which had an amazing view of the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Danube.
Playing Tourist As we walked the Castle District at 9:30AM or so, it was basically us and then a cackle of senior citizen tour groups. As the day progressed and hangover subsided we saw younger folks, a few Americans and French, but mostly Italians and Germans.
Our impression of the city is that a best way to summarize it is that it is very Germanic in design and personality, which may be an unfair judgment when rendered on a Sunday morning. Its picturesque setting in the hills and on the banks of the Danube combined with well-placed imposing structures make it one of the most viewable cities in the world. Sadly, as you dig deeper you realize that the country’s long occupation by foreign powers and its history in war have yielded very few structures that remain unmodified from before the 19th century. There are of course a few
exceptions but even our hotel is a predominantly modern structure mated to an old 14th century Franciscan Abbey. The rest of the Castle District has amazing buildings but the street layouts and their design is clearly indicative of more careful planning and the monumental scale of the 19th century.
We visited the Royal Palace which had a very impressive selection of Hungarian paintings which are without a doubt under-appreciated, but the palace, though imposingly beautiful from the river, is very Spartan in its design and the interior has been completely whitewashed of any significance with a clear rework in the 1970s or 1980s into the museum structure it is today, fortunately the beautiful artwork mitigates this condition.
Though there is a strong showing of tourists in the city (we can’t seem to get away from them), there are no lines anywhere (which we of course like), indicating that the city has a long way to go to becoming a mega tourist attraction.
Tomorrow we plan on spending time on the lower Pest side which is in fact the living heart of the city and should offer a different perspective from the aristocratic Buda. For now we’re enjoying
Random Energizer Bunny . . .
. . . and he was carrying a box of Duracels???a bottle of Chateau Dereszla Tokaji that we bought from the House of Hungarian wines and plan on taking a sunset stroll on the banks of the Danube River. We will also be looking for the prospective stowaways the Jenni and Melissa requested from Jennifer.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.589s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 34; qc: 143; dbt: 0.259s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
