Bubbling Budapest

In the past two days we have cranked through Budapest, we saw everything we wanted to see and more in this short time. I am still amazed that we can still be going at our turbo speed, I hope we can keep this up for the next 2 months.

Let me start by giving you a little bit of an overview... Budapest is a beautiful city, there is lots to explore on both the Buda and the Pest side of the Danube River. Most of the buildings around the city look very old but they have actually all been built within the past 150 years (new for Europe's standards), this is because the city has been hard hit by many wars throughout its history (WWII destroyed tons of the city). Also, the architecture in the city is very eclectic, this is due to the wide variety of outside rulers/empires that have controlled the city. There can be renaissance, baroque and communist style buildings all next to each other... It is very bazaar. For that reason the city is very inconsistent - one block you can be on what feels like a high class western European street and then the next it feels like Big Brother is watching you and is extremely seedy. The city has a huge homeless population as well. It is apparent that Hungary is a post-communist country... parts of the city are stark and cold, some areas appear to be in a time warp, most locals disregard rules, the Forint (Hungarian currency) has been subject to inflation, many government run programs are highly inefficient, and supposably bribery is still actively used to get what you want, including good health care. Although Budapest may not be the best place to live because of the post communism era they are in, it is a wonderful place to visit.

Our first afternoon in the city we were lucky to attend the Budapest fall festival. The festival shut down one of the largest streets in the city and extended for over a mile. There were tons of food vendors, local crafts, performances (lots of traditional Hungarian dancing and singing) and tons of games for the kids. I found their games to be very creative.... For example, they had two huge hay bails and the kids had to race pushing the hay bails. The festival ended in Hero's Square (for those of you who have seen Avatar, this is supposably where a seen was filmed) where there was a horse race. I think all of Budapest was gathered in this square to watch the race, so it was so packed that we couldn't see a thing. The festival was such a great way to get submersed in the culture of Budapest right off the bat.

We took the underground back to the center of the city, this detail may seem superfluous but the underground was a experience. It was a complete time warp... We only went 15 feet under the street to where an old fashion looking tram with leather handles and wooden rails was, and there was also a small wooden ticket office and the tickets looked like ticket you receive at a carnival. It felt like the very first underground. We came to find out that it is in fact the second-oldest underground in the world!

As the light was perfect and the sun was setting, we climbed (390 stairs) to the top of St. Stephens Basilica Church. The view of Budapest was incredible! We could hear the singing of the 6pm mass as we climbed down the stairs. The inside was yet another impressive church. It amazes me how every church we see is completely unique and spectacular in it's own way.

We then explored the other two famous streets on the Pest side of the river. For our first afternoon in the city we covered so much territory.

Yesterday, we started our day by exploring the Great Hall Market. The first floor of the building is an entire fresh food market, similar to Naschmarket in Vienna, as there are so many smells and such vibrant colors from all sorts of fruits and vegetables. The second floor of the market was all local crafts and cooked foods. After breakfast at the market we crossed the river to the Buda side and climbed Gelert Hill, which provided another view of the city. We spent the rest of the morning on a walking tour with a local Hungarian, Suzy. Suzy was full of energy, had a spicy personality and gave us tons of history. We ended the tour at another impressive church- Mathias Church on the Buda side. There was not an inch of the walls inside that were not covered with ornate and intricately painted design... Yet another unique church. Our heavy Hungarian lunch weighed us down for quite some time while we wandered the streets. In the evening, we went to the Szechenyi Bath House. We spent two hours floating and relaxing in the large pools, hot tubes, saunas, steam rooms and medicinal pools. It was extremely relaxing after walking for 7 hours that day, but we both were prunes after. To counterbalance our heavy lunch we had dinner at a hummus bar, which was our favorite food in Budapest.

Today we spent most of the day at the House of Terror Museum which focuses on the Nazi and Communist rule within Hungary. We learned a ton and were so impressed by the place.

While in Budapest we stayed at a Hostel called Bubbles in Budapest. Basically a 3 bedroom apartment that had been converted into a 16 sleeper hostel. The owner was extremely nice and helpful, she prides herself on being a community hostel... This means all the guests tend to hangout together... This is nice in theory but this becomes less appealing after a long day when you are forced to socialize for hours when all you want to do is sleep. Our first night we tried to watch a movie but we were interrupted by this Irish Psychology professor, who was socially awkward, going through a midlife crisis and was using alcohol as a copping mechanism. Besides the weird Irish Professor the other guests were very interesting and nice people.

We had an amazing time in Budapest! We are now on a 3 hour train to Vienna and then an overnight train to Florence. We will be spending the next 8 days on a farm outside of Florence. We are both excited to have some country time and to be staying in one place for more than 2 nights.


Facts we learned from Suzy:
- the Danube is the second longest river in Europe- it goes through 10 countries
-65% of Hungarians are Catholic
- Hungary has been part of the EU since 2004
- their only natural resource is water
- the average Hungarian meal is about 2000 calories
- Hungarians invented the rubrics cube, ball point pens, and the first computer
- the Hungarian language has 44 letters in the alphabet
- the average income in Hungary is 400 Euro's a month- another result of the communist occupation