Eurotrip - Budapest, Hungary

August 18th - 29th, 2022

Original plan: stay in Budapest for five days and then continue on to Romania for 10 days before heading to Italy to complete the Alta Via 1 that we had rescheduled for September 12th before heading to the Himalayas.

Later plan: stay in Budapest for five days then fly to Korea, possibly Japan, and finish our trip with a month trekking in the Himalayas.

Actual plan executed: stayed in Budapest for 11 days, decided to cancel our AV1 trek and try again next summer, then fly to Amsterdam and then to the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

Skipping Romania was an easy decision -- we were beyond sick of cities and Central Europe. Cancelling the AV1 was harder, and disappointing to say the least. Not making it to the Himalayas was another huge disappointment -- doing some version of the Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp was one of the first things on our RTW list. We also really wanted to go back to Asia but with Japan not quite being open for visitors yet we decided to axe that too. I had to be realistic about my tendon, and even though we had taken some time to rest in Budapest and it was much better, it was still not fully functional. Trekking for 8 days or a month was just not doable.

It took all week to decide where we wanted go to next. What a wonderful problem!

We had high hopes that the Faroes and Iceland would make up for what we missed.

But, back to the city at hand -- Budapest! Which I think ended up being my favorite central European city.

We got off at the bus station and took the metro into town. Inconveniently, the M2 was being worked on at our stops so we had to get off and get on a replacement bus for the last few stops which were (barely) standing room only.

We managed to find our front door and decipher the directions to access our airbnb, revealing an incredible historic space.

Note the locations of the brown kiosk by the front door -- chimney cakes -- and our two windows behind the tree, with the orange flowerboxes (second floor -- third for us american heathens -- to the left of the orange ad).

We really loved this apartment -- between the 14' ceilings, gigantic windows with nesting wood shutters, highly crafted woodwork, and plenty of space (and a washing machine!!!) -- we thought it was great. It was also steps away from a metro station and the heart of Budapest.

The kittens were a nice touch and we were also shocked by the pristine sofa that seemed to have survived from 1989. If you opened the window the smell of fresh chimney cakes from directly below wafted up to your nose and tempted you to partake.

We headed out to a Spar to stock up on groceries, our hearts glad to have someplace to cook.

The next afternoon we decided to go for a long walk along the waterfronts.

My first impressions of Budapest were very high.

The architecture was just as incredible as in Vienna except here the styles of architecture were much more varied, and included a lot of marvelous elements of art nouveau.

It was very busy with tourists.

Along the waterfront we saw lots of people sitting on the benches along the river waiting for the sun to set. We passed another Holocaust memorial of empty bronze shoes along the river.

I was hoping to photograph the Hungarian Parliament building at night, an early 20th century masterpiece of the neo-gothic.

We crossed the river and looped back, admiring the city lights.

Some of the most prominent buildings were not lit up though, and we wondered why.

Lots of revellers wandered the streets with us.

We hadn't actively avoided walking around at night elsewhere in Europe but I usually wanted to see buildings and walk around during the day, so we could, you know, actually see the city. By the time we'd get back in the afternoon we'd inevitably be ready to eat a sandwich and chill and not make it back out in the evening.

I guess when we arrived in Budapest we subconsciously yearned for something different.

We walked through a street closed off to vehicle traffic that was lined with what looked to be closed fair booths. Was something going on this weekend?

We sat on a bench across from the Parliament and waited for the lights to come on -- supposedly to happen at sunset. We sat and waited and eventually it seemed clear that the lights would not be turning on for whatever reason. So we headed back home, making for the next crossable bridge. Széchenyi Chain Bridge was closed for construction so we had to go another bridge further.

We saw some lightning as it began to drizzle.

And saw some really nicely illuminated bridges. I loved how different they all are.

The one we finally found to cross was lit up with the Hungarian flag colors.

Seeing the buildings lit up at night was fantastic.

It was raining lightly, but that's okay.

We had our raincoats.

When we got back we googled what event was going on this weekend. Turned out today was Saint Stephen's Day and there were supposed to be fireworks!

In the morning, we saw on the news that the two heads of meteorology at the National Meteorological Service had been axed! The forecast called for rain and thunderstorms but only a light drizzle appeared and they had postponed the fireworks accordingly!

We also learned that the Parliament building was open to the public for the holiday so we headed over to see if we could get inside.

First we stopped by the Hungarian State Opera, a 19th century neo-renaissance number which was quite an attractive building.

There was a LOT of architecture to gander at along the walk.

We listened to the voices around us -- it sounded like an alien tongue. We later looked up where Hungarian sits on the tree of languages and as I suspected it is basically an island, along with Finnish and other Ural languages.

We arrived at the Parliament building and found an extraordinarily long line to enter. It had also started to rain. We followed the line for a few steps then stopped to visually locate the end -- and we turned around to where we had just come from -- to see the line snaking all the way around the square and off towards the next blocks.

Mehhhhh. We didn't have the inclination to stand in line for hours in the rain so we headed back to the airbnb.

Below is Saint Stephen's Basilica, which we could see from our windows. Named after Saint Stephen, the first King of the Magyars in the year 1000.

In the afternoon it cleared up so we headed out once again to watch the sun set over Buda Castle, since we were only a few blocks from the river. This time, the lights were on.

In the morning we took the oldest metro line on the European continent -- the M1, completed in 1896 to the City Park, and home of the famous Szechenyi Thermal Baths (which got more than a passing note in 20th century architectural history!)

We walked into the park and found some sort of military event going on -- there were tanks and military vehicles lined up along with men and women in uniform and various kiosks displaying work and missions of the units of military.

We approached what appeared to be a castle and found yet another event happening. This was the Vajdahunyad Castle, where there were currently medieval activities taking place and people dressed up to match. We watched a band with lutes (my favorite stringed instrument!) and were pulled aside by a young man wielding a jousting lance. He beckoned us over to a pair of prisoner shackles and a stand with a wreath.

He asked us if we could play a game -- so we agreed (a little reluctantly, recalling our experiences in Egypt). He described what the game was -- he would blindfold me and shackle Vitali; I would have to take the lance and have Vitali navigate me through voice with the lance through the wreath on the stand to free him.

So we did! We asked the guy if people tip him and he was a little surprised and told us no, he was hired to come here and entertain visitors. And we talked with him a little bit, learning he had always been a dreamer who loved knights and he had a girlfriend who had just returned from Thailand. We told him a little bit about our adventure and we exchanged IG handles. He was a really kind person.

We left the crowd and headed to another part of the park. The park had a large variety of settings -- huge open grassy areas, areas with shade and trees, areas with sculpture...

And we would find an unexpected surprise -- an architectural gem -- the House of Music.

The enormous golden wing revealed itself as we were drawn under it's sweeping organic canopy, clad in geometric aluminum composite material panels.

The space underneath was exceptional -- trees punctuated the underside of the wing and even penetrated the voronoi-like openings.

Wow. The dappled sunlight penetrating the wing recalled being in a forest, as did the numerous columns and actual trees.

There was a gentleman performing underneath, filling the space with lively music.

On the side of the building, a smaller amphitheater with seating.

We walked around the entire building and appreciated the black panels on the back.

On the "sides", the wing ended only a few feet from the angular glass geometry of the enclosed portion of the building. There were some nice gold bird decals on the glass which I thought was a nice touch.

We headed inside were the first thing we noticed was an elegant black spiral stair.

There was a LOT going on but somehow it was successful. There were lots of people just sitting and enjoying the space.

We walked up the spiral staircase to the second floor, where we saw how some of the light wells continued through the space.

The staircase was suspended from the deck above.

There was a little cafe upstairs too although not yet open. It felt like a treehouse. My favorite kind of house??

There was some sort of 'sound dome' in the basement but that required a ticket so we didn't go.

I absolutely adored this building. What a unique and playful design. My only commentary would be that the gold geometric panels on the underside of the wing may have been more successful as an organic shape, responsive to the voronoi-like light wells.

My reasoning is that the building itself is angular and geometric while the roof wing is supple and organic. The angularity of the building should not have been imposed on the wing -- it would have been enough to see how the geometry of the wing and angles of glass met at the threshold and extended beyond the interior. It's successful the way it is though.

We continued our walk and encountered ANOTHER unbelievable building!

What looked like the stern of a clipper ship rising up from the grass -- a delicate upheaval or striated geometry. Nearby was some sort of monument in weathered steel.

We took a closer look at the cladding of the building, which turned out to be a traditional knitting pattern, fittingly housing the Museum of Ethnography.

Done up in an aluminum grid that had these blocks fitted into each square. Damn, labor intensive.

Then we walked through the steel column installation in the middle -- the 1956 Hungarian Revolution Monument -- marking the the spot where a statue of Joseph Stalin was pulled down by demonstrators on the first night of the revolt in 1956.

You could walk between the columns until they got too close together. The surface texture of the columns were phenomenal -- varying between random sections of gold and silver striations.

On the outside, the monument transitioned from weathered steel to shiny stainless.

Stunning. A beautiful symbol of change.

We turned around to look at the museum of ethnography from atop it -- which wasn't quite open yet -- but watched tourists cheerfully stepping over the red tape and walking to the top.

We continued through the park, passing by what looked to be a BBQ joint with a giant sling chair. We stopped by the metro station in the park to buy tickets for the way back but found them out of order...

We made our way for the edge of the park.

Andheaded for the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, opened in 1913, and done up in a stunning neo-baroque style. I remember spending at least a few minutes talking about this building in class.

The building was the perfect sunflower gold.

We walked all the way around the baths and back to the park-side entrance which was quite beautiful.

We debated visiting but we didn't particularly feel like paying to hang out in water with hundreds of other people....

So we admired the exterior.

And walked into the lobby to see what we could see. Pretty nice!

Neat. Then we walked over to Heroes Square and the Millenium Monument.

Which features statues of the Seven chieftains of the Magyars -- who were the leaders of the seven Hungarian tribes at the time of their arrival in the Carpathian Basin in AD 895.

There were some parade floats on display.

We were done for the day so we headed for the nearest metro to look for a ticket machine -- and was disappointed to not find one. So we kept walking until we found a station that had a working machine.

The M1 stations were directly below ground level (unlike every other metro system I had ever been on) and done up quite nicely in colorful tile and green painted cast iron. The names of stops whizzed by with pronunciations we could hardly match to the words on the wall.

We headed to Spar to grab some groceries. I found an excellent brand of gluten free cookies and gluten free muesli, which is really hard to find in the states. Vitali found some Duff beer!

And then Vitali walked to a gluten free bakery for me, bringing back a wealth of carby goodness. The croissants were pretty good.

We discussed our upcoming trek and decided I should probably sit down for a few days to see how much more healing I could squeeze in before we made a decision on whether to do the trek or not. So I rested while Vitali ran and brought home dinner -- twice -- from a DEDICATED gluten free restaurant with burgers, duck, and onion rings.

I love onion rings. I love them so much I will go through the trouble to occasionally make them at home -- only for them to last five minutes before we've gobbled them all up. They had them here and they were so delicious I could cry.

We ordered from a DIFFERENT dedicated gluten free restaurant and found that food excellent too! I ordered a philly cheesesteak, if you can believe it, and a chicken burger.

Some evening later after I had rested for a few days (we extended our stay at the airbnb twice -- until we had been there a week), we headed out for another night walk. I wanted to photograph the Ferris wheel in Elisabeth Square by our apartment.

And photograph it I did.

We walked through the park and found a really cool sunken building with at least a restaurant or two and a bar -- and a band playing.

There was a reflecting pool and you could see through to the space below.

Nice night vibes.

We decided to stay for another four days in another apartment so I could rest up some more. So came the moving day where we had to find somewhere to exist between check-out at 10am and check-in at 4pm.

We decided to head back up to City Park.

Since we had so much trouble trying to buy tickets from machines we downloaded the transit app and bought four tickets prior to leaving the airbnb. We walked down to the metro and found that this one didn't have wi-fi though -- so we debated the issue of not being able to validate our tickets and decided to just get on the train.

The train was quite full and we decided to get off a stop early at the south end of the park instead of the next stop in the middle. This would, in hindsight, turn out to be a critical mistake.

As soon as we stepped off the train we caught sight of two ticket checkers who were shouting at people to stop. Some folks kept walking and made it through but we were at the back of the train and got caught. Us, and two Israeli girls.

The dour looking Hungarian men demanded to see our tickets. So I showed on the app that we had some. BUT -- I had not validated it which would turn out to be a mistake I'll never make again.

Their english consisted of "problem" and "you must pay" -- and we argued for a few minutes about the fact that we were not trying to cheat the system -- that we had bought and paid for tickets. But they demanded the fee for riding without a ticket -- what we calculated to be $50 -- per person! The Israeli girls calculated this too and we were all kind of outraged. They paid without too much fuss since they were actually trying to skirt the system but we refused.

Eventually it became clear they would not let us go until we paid so we swiped our credit cards and walked away -- yelling "Fuck you!" as we left.

So our trip to the park ended up costing $100.

Eventually it was time to go and we had already processed our emotions about the ordeal. When we checked our credit card a few days later we saw the charge was only $19 a piece. Both the Israelis and us had miscalculated how much the fee was! At least that.

So we rode the metro back home (with paper tickets) and walked across town to our new place.

Did you see the babies on the facade? WTF?

Our new place was under construction -- they were adding an elevator -- but it was in another historic building and the space was huge -- probably 1,000 SF apartment with tall ceilings and huge tall windows. It was painted in some truly awful pastel colors, including the kitchen millwork...

One morning we walked over to the GreatMarket Hall, which was meant to be a spectacular 19th century neo-gothic structure.

And it was. It was already scorching hot outside so we quickly ducked into the space.

A huge volume enclosed the central hall along which shops were lined up. The aisles spread from this main volume off to the sides and there was a second floor too. It was a lot of tourist goods but also there were meat and vegetable stalls.

It was hard to see in the picture I took from the front but the roof had a very striking yellow and green pattern.

It was too hot today so we headed back to our apartment, passing by the Corvinus University of Budapest, which was in yet another impressive historic building.

We also passed Liberty Bridge, in a striking green .

Across the river we could see Gellert Hill.

On Saturday evening was the rescheduled Saint Stephen's Day fireworks, so we checked the weather and headed up the hill to watch.

We walked up a Very Steep Hill and found a nice spot at a high point overlooking the river.

We were about two hours early so we could ensure a good spot -- and watched the sun set.

When dusk fell, three airplanes did a flyover.

The view over Buda Castle and the Danube was magical.

The fireworks show started with a short drone show featuring a giant icon of Saint Stephen and a bird.

Then we were treated to 45 minutes of very good fireworks, which I had fun photographing.

The smoke became very dense as the show progressed.

After the show was done we walked back down the hill (with thousands of others) and towards our apartment, but found all of the bridges closed. They were closed because of the fireworks -- and had to be inspected for unexploded munitions before being reopened to the public. So we asked the staff at one when it would open -- and he said an hour. So we sat to wait for a bit but then decided to walk to the next bridge to see if we could cross there instead.

We found the next bridge closed too, and the staff there said they didn't know when it would be open. So we headed to the metro to see if there was wi-fi so we could buy a ticket. And there was not. So we walked to the NEXT bridge, which was open, and we were able to cross. Phew.

On our final day in Budapest we walked through the Castle District, determined to see the last few attractions we had missed -- Fisherman's Bastion and photographing the Parliament building at night.

We walked through the an area in the district, below Buda Castle that was filled with bars, restaurants, and terraces.

We continued along the hill heading north.

We walked by Matthias Church, a 14th century gothic assemblage.

And finally we arrived at Fisherman's Bastion, which looked straight out of a fairy tale. According to historians it is called Fisherman's Bastion as the area protected the fishermen's guild in the middle ages. The buildings you see now were built in the late 19th century in a neo-romanesque style by the same architect who restored Matthias Church.

It was crawling with folks getting the perfect shots of themselves and their partners.

The texture of the place was phenomenal.

I bet you can rent the place to get married for some exorbitant rate.

Satisfied we had now seen the highlights of Budapest, we walked down the hill to the riverfront, ready to sit and wait for the final shot I had been chasing for 10 days.

We sat along the river and waited for the sun to set -- and when it did it was nothing crazy, but there were some nice pink hues happening on clouds in the distance.

And -- at long last -- the shot I was waiting for. Bravo.

We walked back to our apartment, crossing Elisabeth Bridge.

Perhaps it was the quality of the built environment, the seemingly endless dedicated gluten free options, or maybe because we got to see it at night -- but I really liked Budapest as a city. It was lively and colorful and varied and very enjoyable to be in.

The next morning we would head to the airport and towards Amsterdam, which ended up being more adventure than we bargained for!