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Published: July 10th 2006
Hungarian Parliament
the cathedral-looking parliament in budapestour last full day in Prague was spent basically wandering around the city...we had a rather late start and journaled and had some breakfast in the lounge before finally heading out. first we had to do some errands, the primary one being laundry. we walked over to traveller's hostel down the street and dropped off our laundry, quasi-pretending we were staying there. they didn't ask any questions, so that was easy. we stopped back to pick up our forgotten passports, kasia got pizza and myself a drink from albert's, and then we headed to the train station to purchase our tickets to hungary. probably our favorite part of the morning's journey was seeing an old man's scrotum hanging out of his shorts on the metro. dobry den, indeed!
once our "business" was done with, we took the metro further south so as to go in the direction of the hotel movenpick, where i stayed 3 or 4 years ago. i was excited to see this anti-nazi memorial at sts. cyril and methodius church on the way, but it ended up being basically a plaque. super. we walked along another bridge across the river - nice and breezy and without thousands
bridge!
a pretty hot-looking bridge - the chain bridge, as its called. notice the lion and then the royal palace in the background of people like on the charles' bridge. we continued onward, stopping at a sports shop, until we reached the hotel movenpick, as cool as ever. we made ourselves at home and went straight to the bar. i had an iced coffee and kasia a banana split. next we took the lift thing up to the 'executive level' to get a nice view. back downstairs we bought stamps and sent our postcards. last but not least, we used their bathrooms. thanks, movenpick!
after walking through bertrampka, where mozart lived for a while, we headed back toward the centrum and then across the bridge, stopping at the globe bookstore. Our walking continued until stopping at Tesco, a big everything-type store based in the UK I believe. I bought some chocolate. surprise. by that time we were bored, for real, so we went to check out movie times at the theatre. 16 blocks was playing at 8:50...err, i'm sorry, 20:50. i don't know what to say - for as much as prague is gorgeous i think it lost its charm for me. between the hordes of tourists (especially british men and asians en masse), the not-the-most-friendly people, and the lack of things
from Pest...
view of St. Matthias' Cathedral the fishermans bastion from the pest side of the danube to do, it just didn't live up its expectations.
anyways....we stopped to get our laundry, did folding and whatnot, and then headed out in search of a place to eat. we ended up at i believe kafka cafe, which was located basically where kafka was born. i got roasted duck with cabbage and dumplings. it was pretty good, but nothing special. after dinner we headed back to kill time and pack and then went toward the theatre. the movie was really good. fighting through more tourists (we envision developing suits lined with razor blades so we can cut everyone who dares to present themselves in our path), we went back and went to bed shortly after.
waking up at 8:30 the next morning, we showered and got out stuff together. after enjoying another delicious breakfast or corn flakes with warm milk, we checked out and headed to the train station. there we had to wait over two hours for our train. we got some mcdonalds - i got the mctoast, basically a flat bun with ham and cheese - and chilled as surprise! more asians horded around us.
finally at 12:30 we went to board our train.
from Buda...
view from Buda of another nice bridge and of a building i have yet to visit... it was different than the others (well, our car was different) in that we were in an open car with groups of 4 seats facing eachother. kasia was across the aisle. i sat with a czech/slovene couple (they had a passport from both places) and then at one point a slovak barbie. the train ride was tedious and the air-conditioning was rather shitty. we tried to escape to the dining car where it was cool but of course they didn't accept credit cards and we had run out of czech money. nontheless, we survived the almost 7 hour ride...
our hostel was much further than expected, but we didn't feel like messing with getting ripped off by a cab or screwed over by unfamiliar public transportation so we walked. absolutely disgusting by the time we got there, two british girls coming out showed us where to go. the place was an old somewhat-delapidated building with a courtyard in the middle. the hostel owner, however, turned out to be really nice. he gave us a map and sat down and showed us basically everytying to do and not to do. as it turned out, he grew up in roger's park
Behind Matthias
statue in front of the beautiful bastion wall behind the cathedral - i was fairly confident his accent was from chicago from the getgo. our double-bed room ended up being down the block. we walk in and its basically a palace compared to everything we'ved stayed in. its a huge apartment for 3 "couples" and has a new kitchen, living room, etc. our room even has its own bathroom (unexpected!)
once settled, we went back to ask him for a food recommendation and also to make a free phone call to the u.s. so i could wish my dad a happy birthday. after that we went out to do a little bit of exploring on the main drag by our hostel. we got cash and then sat and had falafel at a nice-looking turkish fast food-type place. then it was off to the 24-hour market where we picked up stuff for breakfast and some lunch for the next few days. we're trying this new thing called saving money. i got yogurt, juice, cheese, and some weird things like ham cream cheese and a milky way drink. while paying i came to the realization that we will be absolutely clueless with this hungarian language. i can't even read/pronounce it let alone
speak it. anyway, after putting our food away we basically went to bed...
today, our first full day in budapest, was a huge success. i must say i like it a lot better than prague. there is a definitely eastern-feeling lingering in the air that i really can't describe but i like it a lot. but back to our day...it started out with a wonderfully warm and water pressure-ful shower. we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast and didn't head out really until 11-ish.
we walked from our place in the 6th district toward the danube until hitting the hungarian parliament. its quite the building, and looks a hell of a lot more like a cathedral than any kind of administrative building. we had heard that the tour there was bad, so we were satisfied with just taking pictures of the exterior. we then headed across the chain bridge, which is guarded by lions. another cool piece of architecture. once on the other side we took this elevator/gondola/car thing up to the top of the hill.
first stop was st. matthias church. kasia had to wear a little-red-riding-hood to cover her shoulders. the inside of
Altar
An altar in a side part of Matthias' the church had a blatantly eastern feel, and the walls were painted in such a way that it looked like the entire place was lined with tapestry. heading out from there, we walked along the edge of the hill where there are these beautiful white tower-looking things, plus a nice statue. i wish i knew what they were called and who the statue was of. alas...anyway, we did some exploring amidst the fishermans' bastion area and then headed back in past the cathedral where we enjoyed our lunch we had brought, sharing it with some pidgeons.
next stop was the royal palace. i'm not the hugest fan of what it looks like from across the river in pest, but up close it is gorgeous and at least in my opinion puts prague castle to shame. ornate white stone with beautiful gardens and entryways...our original plan was to visit the national gallery but skip the national history museum, both of which are a part of the castle complex. the national gallery, however, was closed, so we did the history museum and were pleasantly surprised. as part of the museum we got to explore the ancient part of the castle and
Parliament
from the buda side... even walk outside on its walls and through the gardens. there were all kinds of statues and artifacts dating from hungary's ancient history with the avar tribes and whatnot. definitely worth the meager entrance fee.
after that we basically wandered around the outside of the castle, first stopping to picture-whore ourselves and get every angle possible. we ended up being "lost" for at least a half our trying to continue PAST the castle/palace and toward the citadel, our next site of interest. finally we ended up at the foot of the citadel and had a ridiculously long route of winding staircases and paths to reach the top of this massive hill/mountain thing. at least it was shady because of all the trees.
the top was kind of mediocre since we had already gotten awesome views of everything from the palace. nonetheless we sat down to rest a bit and have something to drink. i met an older couple from san sebastian (basque country - north of spain) and yet again got to feel special busting our my spanish skills. i didn't even need to get warmed up this time. it worries me because i can see myself wanting
to spend a year in spain now...eek...but yea, so we sat there a bit, bought some postcards (and kasia a doll for some reason). we kind of ignored whatever else was up there on the top...
on our way back down the hill, it started to rain, but luckily not for long. once reaching the bottom we kept moving southward until reaching this cave church, built obviously inside of a cave. the people that built it apparently got the idea after visiting lourdes. it was...underwhelming... Heading across the szabadsad bridge, all of budapest was covered in this post-rainshower haze that gave it this awesome eastern glow almost. once across, we turned left on a main street of sorts lined with shops and restaurants and sat down at a cafe after being somewhat swindled by the girl working there. i ordered this spicy chicken in a pancake covered in a sour cream sauce. really good, and of course i've added the picture of it. we ended up sitting next to a spanish couple that had sat behing us on the train from prague, but i didn't converse with them. wouldn't want to impress too many people in a day :-)
Fountain
close-up of the palace fountain continuing down the street i found a limited edition twix white from germany (don't worry, i'm picking up chocolate bars everywhere). then it was time for the internet cafe where we are now...
tomorrow we're off to the thermal baths which are supposed to be amazing, but first we have to go buy kasia a bathing suit, lol. hopefully i can even out this farmer's tan as well...
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Karen
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Mythical Bird
That bird is very similar to the one that flew under the SUV driving in front of me yesterday. I drove into the remnants of the exploded fowl and now am tortured by the picture of the statue. Good times in Mundelein! Love you!