Visiting Buda and Pest

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My dad came into to Prague to visit this week. We stayed in Prague fro two days. Went south to Ceske Budejovice for a daytrip and then headed to Budapest. We did a lot of fun stuff in Prague besides the general touristy stuff. After taking my dad around to Prague Castle, Old Town Square, Vysehrad, Wencelas Square and the like, we went to Letna Park, walked through the entire park - hoping to see maybe a foot left of the Stalin statue that used to be up there (but were disappointed to find an unworking giant metronome). Then we walked over to the Royal Botanical Gardens. Both places I had been meaning to visit but never got hte chance. I really enjoyed Letna Park, which is definitely not taken over by tourists and enjoys a bit of the alternative culture along with family visits and picnics, and has a really neat children's play area. From the metronome area there is a wonderful view of Prague's southern bridges.
Our trip to Ceske Budejovice was interesting... We took the train, however the tracks were being worked on so we ended up transferring to a bus halfway through and then back to a train for the last leg of the journey. The "train" ended up taking much longer than a bus would have., and cost 100 Kc. more. We got there and climbed the clock tower and visited the main fountain, both in the town square, then we made our way to pizza. After feeling content and full we bussed over to the brewery to go on a tour... only to find the only tour of the day is at 2 PM (the time in fact that we reached the city by taking the earliest "train). But you can go on a tour if you make a reservation ahead of time. We decided not to make the journey worthless and visited the gift shop so we could bring back a few souvenirs for friends and relatives. Then we hiked back to the bus depot and took the next bus back to Prague. It was definitely a trip that was more about the journey than the ending goal!
And on to Budapest...
Well, the train ride is long, but nice. Traveling through Slovakia was nice, because I hadn't had an opportunity to visit, so though I never got out of the train, at least I saw the terrain and interacted with several Slovakians on the train. We stayed on the Buda side, near Buda Castle, but away from the commercisal district, the shopping and dining. It was just a short busride away from the city center so it wasn't bad at all. We opted not to buy the "Budapest Card" which gives free busrides for the two or three days that you buy it for along with free admission to many museums and sights. We did buy the three day bus pass, which we definitely got our money's worth with. We also walked a lot of the city, and it is a BIG city. In the first two days we saw Hero Square, City Park, Andrassy Boulevard, climbed to the top of St. Stephens Basilica, Parliment, Buda Castle, two museums in Buda Castle - National History Museum and the National Gallery-, St. Matthias Statue and shopped a bit on Vaci Street. We alos went to a few great meals near Liszt Square. So we were a bit exhausted by our third day.
We decided to spend the rest of the third day climbing Gellert Hill, visiting the museums at Gellert Hill's Citadel, adn attending the Thermal Baths at the Gellert Spa, the latte beign probably the best idea yet. The Citadel museums were really interesting and included a photo gallery documenting wars around the world from 1945 to 2005. There were a lot of really great photos, but of course it was not very uplifting. The second museum was a wax museum and it actually included information about Hungary's involvement in World War II and the years following. It was very interesting (and enjoyable) to hear the history from a different point of view. The baths... oh the baths. It was nice. There was an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor swimming pool, a wave pool, a sunbathing area, a giant whirlpool outside, a whirlpool inside, saunas, steam rooms, thermal baths with mulitple temperatures, a salon with massages... oh man. It all felt so nice after all the walking we did. Budapest was a great city to see, and I was very glad to learn about the history from all the museums... it seems to be taken over and destryoed then rebuilt more than any other European city, and the influences from all the different cultures create a really great city!

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