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Published: September 11th 2006
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Parliament
The amazing neo-Gothic Parliament building along the Danube. OK... so the title of this blog entry refers to a new saying we came up with in Budapest. A cherry on a sundae is the best part... the little something extra that makes something really good turn into something really great. So now we say, "This is the cherry!" when something extra great happens. It is cheesy but fitting... you will see why a little later.
Saturday was our sight-seeing day. Budapest is an incredibly beautiful city that is so completely different from Prague. The buildings and monuments lack a little of the Old World charm of Prague - while Prague is all medieval narrow streets and red tile roofs, Budapest is wide, tree-lined Parisian boulevards and tall Baroque structures. It looks newer in general, and I have not yet decided which city is better. The best way to describe the difference between the two cities is through a comparison. Prague is like Fantasyland in Disney World, while Budapest is like New York's classier sections or Boston. I love both, and I feel like a giddy school kid in either place.
In the morning, we went to the Prague art museum, which featured an exhibit on Picasso and
The Chain Bridge
This is the bridge which connected Buda and Pest in the nineteenth century. his lovers. It contained paintings and sketches of Picasso's girlfriends and mistresses throughout his many artistic periods. There is something really inspiring about seeing a Picasso right in front of you, even though he comes across as a womanizing bastard. Another exhibit contained the works of Rembrandt, while a side exhibit showed modern Hungarian artists' responses to Rembrandt's works (for example, pop art, op art, and digital image versions of some of his famous works).
After the museum, I decided to wander the city alone while my friends soaked in a thermal bath. I just could not convince myself that sitting in hot water was somehow more gratifying than seeing the historical and architectural highlights of Budapest. One of the most ridiculously beautiful sights in Budapest was the Parliament, an immense and imposing neo-Gothic structure along the banks of the Danube. It is beyond comparison. Over the next three hours, I pretty much speed-walked across the entire historic section of Pest and hit up all the main sights: the neo-Classical-looking National Museum, the Kossuth Monument, the main synagogue (the largest in all of Europe), the Great Market, the Danube promenade, and the Opera House. A really cool attraction is
Picasso in Love
We got to see a cool exhibit about Picasso and all his mistresses. the Chain Bridge which was built in 1854 to span the Danube and connect Buda and Pest. It looks like two Arc de Triomphes with spans between them... very cool. During my walk, I bought water in a metro station that had a picture of a grapefruit on it... it ended up being grapefruit and coriander flavored. In case you have not heard of coriander, it is essentially cilantro, and the water tasted like Indian food... gross.
While walking through the city, I came to the conclusion that Hungarian is the most difficult language in the world. It is nothing like Czech, as it is not derived from the Slavic language group and has almost no similarities to other languages I have ever encountered - its only linguistic relatives are Finnish and Estonian! Just to give you some idea, we all knew a pretty wide range of Czech words within the first days of being in Prague. By the end of a three day trip in Hungary, we were still saying, "Wait... how the hell do you say 'hello' or 'thank you'?"
OK, so now we have come to the point in the night with "so many cherries"...
Us on Gellert Hill
Drinking champagne on top of Gellert Hill. Gellert Hill is an enormous hill that sits in Buda over the Danube River. In the side of the hill is a church built into a cave that contains beautiful marble statues and small hidden chapels in side caverns. As you keep walking up the hill, you encounter amazing views of the city and the river. About half way up is a giant cross which commemorates Bishop Gellert, a Catholic martyr who was thrown off the hill in a barrel for trying to convert the Hungarians to Christianity in the eleventh century. When you reach the top, you see the first of many "cherries": a gorgeous statue of a woman holding a palm leaf that is perfectly lit from beneath. It is truly beautiful. When we reached the peak, we cracked open two bottles of champagne to commemorate the trip. As we looked out over the city, a full blood red moon rose over the steeples of Pest. "Oh man! This is the cherry." Just as we were getting excited over how cool the moon looked, fireworks started to go off over the city in the colors of the Hungarian flag - red, white, and green. "THIS is the cherry!"
Gellert Hill Monument
The beautiful monument on top of Gellert Hill. After a cool fireworks display, we began the trek down the hill and found a random slide that shot you out into the sand at the bottom of the hill. It was almost vertical and was incredibly fast and fun... "THAT WAS THE REAL CHERRY!"
Our last night in Budapest included a dinner in a fancy restaurant. We sat on the terrace and ate delicious food (cheese crusted turkey breast on a summer salad with dill followed by poppyseed pudding) and drank wine (that was classier than the cave wine... ugh, we are sooo trashy!). During our dinner, a marathon ran by... random and cool. We went to a club afterwards that was outdoors and suggested by our hostel owner. It was the definition of sketchy - young teenagers, smoking middle-aged men, gross drunk middle-aged women dancing spastically like Elaine from "Seinfeld." The music ranged from the Black Eyed Peas to Ray Charles to Stevie Wonder... and this was supposed to be the most happening place in all of Budapest! We finished the night in Club del Rio, a swanky, outdoor, Latiny club that offered a much better idea of high class Hungarian nightlife. It was a great way to finish a great weekend.
So Budapest was truly awesome. There is no other way to put it. I feel so lucky to be living this kind of life. Can't wait until the next city!
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