Blogs from Budapest, Central Hungary, Hungary, Europe - page 16

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Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest December 28th 2016

Opted for the bus tour of Budapest today. Another bitterly cold day but our only opportunity to have a look around. First stop Castle Hill on the Buda side where we visited the most beautiful church I think I have ever seen. Unlike the Catholic Cathedrals we have seen on the trip (which have been beautiful in their own right, but also a little over the top with their gold) this church had mosaic tiles and paintings. Outside in the viewing area we had a beautiful view across the Danube to Pest. Street traders are a plenty in this area and I was hounded by one of them and I almost bought a "hand knitted" cardigan. Down from 60 Euro to 10 Euro then she changed her mind to Hungarian currency for which I had none. ... read more
Budapest
Budapest
Budapest

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest December 19th 2016

It was a trip I will never forget. My roommate Will and I decided not to go with the flow and do our own side trip. The rest of the foreigners were to invade Slovenia for a few days. We, on the other hand, were headed to Budapest, Hungary by train. Buda and Pest, two of the cities across the Danube River united in the late eighteen hundreds. It has a phenomenal architecture in Gothic and Neo-gothic styles. It is home to my favorite Parliament Building, completed in 1904. We only had a weekend there, so we tried cramming in as much as possible. After an exhausting first day, we got some local stew and went out with some new people we met at our hostel. We’ve already had a few drinks at a local dive ... read more

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest December 11th 2016

The very last thing we did before leaving Europe was to take the special night tour offered by the Hop-on, Hop-off bus. The night tour is non-stop, so no hopping on or off. The buildings that are the sights we stop to see during the day time are light up at night, and provide a different kind of beauty. Steve made sure that we went almost an hour early, so that we could get at or near the front of the line, so that we could go up the stairs to the second floor of the bus and sit right in the front seats, so we had nothing in front of us but window glass. Luckily, we were able to get those seats, and they really were the best seats in the house for the night ... read more
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Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest December 10th 2016

Budapest was a city that was every bit as pretty, in terms of architecture, and interesting, for the history, as Prague was. It's hard to pick a favorite place, but judging from the number of pictures we took, it has to be a tie between Prague and Budapest. Of course, we spent additional time before and after the river cruise in these two cities too, which may be the reason why we have so many more pictures of these. I am glad that we decided to do that, since we had the ability to go out and see more of the city during the days in the hotel than we would have if we had just had the days on the boat. Plus, if you are anything like me, and don't always feel up to walking, ... read more
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Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest October 3rd 2016

Geo: 47.4984, 19.0408Szia (Hello) from Budapest!Waiting for our ride to the train station for our overnight train ride to Krakow, Poland after three wonderful and activity-packed days in Budapest. While our time in Prague was great, we loved Budapest even more.We'll try to tell most of our Budapest story in pictures attached to this blog entry, but here's a summary of our time here:Arrived in Budapest the morning of Saturday, October 1 rummy as all get-out after the all-night train ride from Prague. Couldn't check into our hotel room yet, so we dumped the bags and staggered out into the bright sunshine, heading over to the Absolute Budapest walking tour company (founded and owned by an Oregonian, by the way). We were signed up for the 3 1/2 hour walking tour of Budapest the next day, ... read more
Tree of Life at the Great Synagogue
Hungarian Folklore Dance and Orchestra
Hungarian Parliament building

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest October 2nd 2016

Day 11 - Sun. Oct. 2 - Budapest Our last full day in Budapest we walked up Andrássy Street to the Párisi Nagy Áruház (Paris Department Store) one of the city’s first department stores. The building was constructed in the early 20th Century and was a popular shopping location, even through the period of communism. It was also at one time a library, which was of professional interest to us. The store closed down and vacated the building leaving it empty for years. The Alexandra bookstore chain rescued the building and turned the first two floors into a superb bookstore, office space and on the second floor they restored the Lotz Hall, a sumptuous space where they installed an excellent café. We had our lunch there before heading out on our walk to the Great Synagogue. ... read more
Ceiling in bookstore cafe
Central painting
Elaborate entrance figures

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest October 2nd 2016

Day 10 - Sat. Oct. 1 - Budapest Today is market day … well, every day in Budapest is market day with the exception of Sunday. Since we have a fully functional kitchen we decided today that the preparation of a lighter dinner was in order. So off we went to the Great Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok), which was built in 1896. This building has a cavernous interior and features three floors each dedicated to a distinct shopping experience. The ground floor has stalls, featuring produce, bakeries, and butchers. There is an abundance of products available to shoppers and the ones that attract your attention the most are the large hanging clusters of paprika peppers and the overstuffed goose livers. The second floor is given over to highly ornamented Hungarian made clothing and linens, souvenirs, and eateries. ... read more
Ground floor
Second floor
Produce stall

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest September 30th 2016

Day 9 - Fri. Sept. 30 - Budapest After a leisurely breakfast I went for a short walk to deliver some books that Brooke and I had finished, to the book exchange located at the nearby Starbucks. There was no need to continue carrying them in our luggage. Today we had purchased tickets online for an English language tour of the Hungarian Parliament building scheduled for noon. We walked over to the Parliament and down to the underground Visitor Center where we waited for our turn to proceed through the airport type security check. Once we had been cleared through the security check we picked up a audio headset so we could hear our guide, since several tours in other languages were being conducted at the same time. After our group had assembled we proceeded to ... read more
Corridors of Parliament
Grand Stairway
Ceiling over the Grand Stairway

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest September 28th 2016

Day 5 - Mon. Sept. 26 - Budapest John went off to Berlin today on a business trip at a really early hour, up at 3:30 am to get out to the airport for a 7:00 am flight. Needless to say the rest of us had our sleep patterns altered somewhat with the result that we slept in, some more than others. Since the apartment is equipped with a Nespresso machine and we had run out of pods I got up at 9 am to walk the 750 meters over to the Nespresso Boutique on Andrássy Street, the location of which we discovered yesterday opposite the Opera House. This Boutique gives a whole new meaning to purchasing coffee. We are use to simply going into our favourite grocery store and selecting our coffee off the shelf, ... read more
Sculpture for support
Heroes Square
Synagogue Tower

Europe » Hungary » Central Hungary » Budapest September 27th 2016

Day 3 - Sat. Sept. 24 - Budapest Today we actually started to feel as though we were on vacation, got up relatively late and over a leisurely breakfast we decided that we would take a sightseeing cruise on the Danube so we ordered tickets on line before we left the apartment. We took another relaxed stroll through the city starting with Váci Street, a pedestrian mall on the Pest side of the river, which is lined with stores and restaurants. One of our shopping missions for the day was to locate and purchase a travelling alarm clock for John; he has to catch an early morning plane to Berlin on Monday. We ended this portion of our stroll at the Elisabeth Bridge with lunch at the Monk’s Café that bordered the gardens of the Inner ... read more
Shopping under an arch
Church tucked in beside bridge
Bridge/tracks/road/docks




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