In Love With A Buddha

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So, my second European holiday destination was Hungary, or more specifically, Budapest. I headed over there a few weekends ago with another Australian exchange student. I’d heard a lot of good things about Budapest, so my expectations were quite high and not only did it live up to those expectations, it far exceeded them. I loved Budapest, it was wonderful!

I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much in Budapest was the weather. I know talking about the weather is a bit mundane, but to go from Prague, where it’s been averaging about 15oC and is often cloudy or raining, to Budapest, where it was sunny and 25 oC all weekend, it was fantastic! It was such a novelty to be able to walk around without a coat or even a jumper! And because it’s a warmer climate, spring had arrived earlier and the whole city was so green and full of colourful flowers, it was really beautiful.

For those of you who don’t know, Budapest used to be two separate cities, Buda to the west of the river and Pest to the east of the river. They’re now the one city but each side still has its own atmosphere and distinct characteristics. I personally preferred the Buda side, because it was so beautiful to look at and was more relaxed. Pest is the commercial and business centre of Budapest so it is quite busy and there are always a lot of people around. Although, compared to Prague, Budapest was almost empty! There were a lot less tourists there and I think the fact that the city is bigger and more spread out than Prague meant that everyone was diluted into more space as well. I loved not having to battle my way through the tourists, it’s started to get pretty crazy in Prague!

We managed to explore the main sights of both sides of the city, as well as a little bit between the two sides. There are a few islands in the middle of the river that separates Buda from Pest and Margaret Island is probably the biggest one. The whole island is basically a park, with a few historical ruins, a sports arena, swimming pool and several touristy restaurants and cafes. There were a lot of places renting out push bikes, not just normal bikes but also 2, 4 or 6 person bikes. Byron and I hired a 2 person bike and set off around the island for an hour. It was a lot of fun and also an incredibly welcome relief to be able to sit down for a while! We did so much walking in the 3 days we were there that it took another 3 days for my feet and legs to recover and stop hurting!

There were a lot of obvious Turkish influences in Budapest, in several different ways, but especially in the food and the architecture. Hungary used to be a part of the Byzantium empire and it definitely left its mark on the country. I loved that aspect of the city, it gave Budapest a bit of an exotic feel - the buildings were beautiful and it was great to be able to eat some Middle Eastern food again. That’s definitely something I’ve been missing about Melbourne - the chance to get some good Middle Eastern food!
However, it’s not only the Turks who’ve managed to leave their mark on Budapest. I found Budapest surprisingly cosmopolitan and perhaps more multicultural than Prague. They’re both relatively homogeneous cities, with very few people who aren’t white, but multicultural influences seemed to be more obvious in Budapest.

There are several must-see sights in Budapest and we managed to see basically all of them while we were there. The only thing we really missed out on was going to a thermal bath. Apparently Budapest is very famous for its baths and there’s a heap of them, about 20 or so around the city. I really wanted to go to one but I ran out of time. I had the intention of going on my last day in Budapest but nothing went to plan that day! I wanted to go to a huge flea market that I’d heard about, which was out of the inner city. It was a little difficult to get to; I had to take the metro and then a bus, which only ran twice an hour so I thought I’d just walk there instead. However, I went the wrong way down the street and seeing as the area I was in wasn’t on my map, I didn’t know where I was! I wandered around a ‘lovely’ industrial area of Budapest for about an hour or two until I finally gave up and somehow managed to find my way back to the metro station and into the city centre.

After that frustrating waste of time I thought I’d go to the labyrinth in the castle area. The castle in Budapest is on a hill, under which is a huge labyrinth of underground caves and tunnels. They’ve been there for hundreds of years and have been used by everyone from cave men to warriors to people sheltering from the bombs of WWII. It sounded fascinating so I wanted to go along and walk through the labyrinth. But, I arrived there only to find it closed, even though it should’ve been open. So after this and the morning’s little industrial adventure, I had no time left to go to the baths.

The things I did manage to see in Budapest were wonderful though. We went on a tour of parliament and it is the most incredible building, both inside and out. The main entrances and hallways are all intricately decorated, with red velvet carpets, jewels and gold leaf. There’s altogether 40kg of gold leaf used in the building! The crown jewels are also housed in the parliament so we got to see them and the crown guards put on a little show for us.

The whole atmosphere in Budapest was great, everyone seemed happy and friendly and most people seemed to be able to speak at least some English and were fine about speaking it. There was one event we stumbled across that especially had a wonderful atmosphere. It was Earth Day a couple of days after we were in Budapest so there were some things planned to celebrate it that weekend. On the Sunday afternoon there was a huge Critical Mass in the city, where thousands of people turned up on their pushbikes and rode a set path through the city. We went to the square where it started and there were an incredible amount of people there! It was such a festive atmosphere; there was a design market, food stalls, stalls related to Earth Day and the Critical Mass, a DJ and a stage where bands were playing. It reminded me a lot of similar festivals or events that I’ve been to in Melbourne.

Another thing that we just happened to be in the right place at the right time for was the Dakar rally bikes. We just turned up in Heroes Square and there were a huge amount of Dakar rally bikes and vehicles there. Turns out it was some Central European Rally and that was the day that they had stopped in Budapest. Right behind Heroes Square was the huge City Park, so we went to have a bit of a look around. It had a heap of awesome stuff in it; it was like a park crossed with an amusement park crossed with a historical site! There was a castle and some churches, as well as one of Budapest’s most famous baths. They also had outdoor table tennis tables, trampolines, playgrounds and a huge fun fair just across the road, as well as restaurants and a zoo. It was just my sort of park!

On our last night in Budapest we decided to go up to Gellert Hill and have a look at the things up there and see the city from above at night time. It was a ridiculously long, steep climb up the hill to get there and it was slightly spooky too cos there were hardly any lights, so we were walking through this path in the forest basically in the dark. We eventually made it there safe and sound but slightly exhausted, but the view from up the top was definitely worth the climb! We could see over all of Budapest and see the castle and the parliament lit up. There was also a liberation monument on the top of the hill, which was pretty impressive. It was originally to commemorate and celebrate the Soviets for liberating their city but then once the Soviet occupation was over and everything Soviet and communist was being destroyed, it changed its meaning to become a monument to commemorate the people who died in the fight for the independence and liberation of Hungary. There was also a citadel on top of Gellert Hill, which we could only walk around. It was pretty ugly - I understand why no-one in Budapest likes it! However, their reasons for not liking it aren’t just superficial. It was built by the Austrian Habsburg ruling family so that they could flaunt their power over the city and stifle any independence uprising. It was built specifically there because it is visible no matter where you are in the city, so it would always be a reminder to the citizens of Budapest that it was this family who were in charge. Apart from that it really had no function to them whatsoever. Shows what happens when power and wealth goes to your head…

So, after that weekend I decided that Hungary is my new favourite country. Admittedly I’ve only been to 3 countries so far, so maybe it’s not such a huge honour… But I know that I’ll definitely be going back there some time and for anyone else coming to Central Europe, I can highly recommend it!

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Photos

Szechenyi Bridge
The oldest chain bridge in Budapest.

Margaret Island
Our awesome little push bike.

Margaret Island
Ruins of a cloister.

Heroes Square
Dakar rally bikes.

Vajdahunyad Castle
In the City Park.

Pretzels in City Park
mmm, yummy, right Jacob??