March 6 and 7
Szia from Budapest, Hungary! This just might be my new favorite city in the world!
I liked Hungary immediately. The drive from neighboring Croatia to Hungary was gorgeous. I stayed at The Hotel President in Budapest on Hold street. I was tickled pink checking in to see that the "President" part is true... heads of state from all of the world have stayed here (no U.S. Presidents). In the lobby, there is a display of the bulletproof glass in the Presidential Suite (complete with a bullet non-hole for proof!) and a map directing you to the helicopter pad, should you need it. I shan't be using my helicopter on this trip, nor my yacht.
I wasn't all that excited until I saw that Olivia Newton-John and Fat Joe have stayed in this hotel. Any hotel good enough for ONJ is good enough for me!
A quick stop at the ATM and I felt rich. Hungarian currency is called the Forint and 223 Forint= $1. So this 25,000 Forint is only about $112. Ha!
For dinner, I had to try goulash! This was my first time trying it and I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it was a soup, so I ordered goulash and a sandwich. Rookie move. Goulash is more like a hearty stew than a soup. It was delicious...chunks of very tender meat, a thick base and no vegetables to speak of (there may have been onions). I was so full after my meal I almost rolled up to my room.
The next morning, I was ready for a busy day of sightseeing!
Quick side note... if you're going to travel the world, be prepared for some strange meals. It's part of the fun. I found most places in Europe cannot cook an egg properly. The scrambled eggs are completely liquid. A few had hard boiled eggs, which got me through! But in Hungary and Austria, there were some very strange items served at breakfast. So I started my day with a donut, cucumbers, red peppers and black olives. And coffee, obviously!
Travel without a plan! I was on my way to buy a Big Red Bus pass when I noticed big groups of people gathered in front of St. Stephen's Bascilica. It turns out it was a free 3-hour walking tour of Budapest in English. Hooray! I snapped a quick photo of myself as the gorgeous sunrise lit up St. Stephen's Basilica behind me.
First a bit of a history lesson. Quick, I promise! Budapest is incredibly old. The Celts were here first, then the Romans settled here and called it Aquinicum in 106 A.D. (That's 2,000 years ago, folks! Mind. Blown) Then (like most countries in Europe) there is a long, complicated history of the area being ruled by various peoples and in 1541, the area was actually split into 3 parts, the Hungarian area, the Turkish area and the Hapsburg area. After 150 years, the Hungarians drove the Turks out. At one point during the Austria-Hungarian empire, Hungary was 3 times as big as it is today! In 1873, the 3 cities Buda, Pest and Obuda were combined into one to make Budapest. After World War I and the breakup of the Austria-Hungarian empire, Hungary was reduced to it's present size.
Today, there are almost 2 million people living in Budapest. It's a gorgeous city full of amazing architecture, fascinating history and wonderful people. Much like the Seine runs through the heart of Paris creating the Left and Right banks, the Danube runs through the heart of Budapest, with the old Buda on one side and the more modern Pest on the other.
My tour started out on the Pest side at the gorgeous St. Stephen's Basilica.
It's the biggest Catholic church in Hungary...96 meters high, to be exact. That height was selected as a reminder of the date of the Hungarian conquest of 896. The Basilica was built by 3 different architects, all of whom died during their work on the church. Over the door is written in Latin: "ego sum via veritas et vita", or the bible passage "I am the way, the truth and life."
Next, we passed by the "Uncle Charles" statue. Uncle Charles was a Hungarian police officer in the early 1900s. Children loved him and would run up to him and rub his belly. When a pretty girl walked by, he would twist the ends of his mustache in compliment. People still come here and rub his belly or twist his mustache for good luck. Our guide also told us that in Hungary, a woman who walks on a mans left side is a prostitute, while a woman on his right is a respectable woman. You'll notice I'm on his right, thank you very much!
Our guide took us to Elizabeth Square next, named after Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Franz Josef. Nowadays, it's where Budapest's youth comes to hang out and drink beer and enjoy lazy afternoons in the sun. They also come to leave locks on every available surface as a declaration of their love.
Our guide took us to Elizabeth Square next, named after Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Franz Josef. Nowadays, it's where Budapest's youth comes to hang out and drink beer and enjoy lazy afternoons in the sun. They also come to leave locks on every available surface as a declaration of their love.
It turns out, Hungarians have invented a whole bunch of things that I wasn't aware of. Some of them, the country would like to forget, like the hydrogen and atomic bombs. Apparently, there were a lot of Hungarians working on the Manhattan project. But they also invented awesome things... like the helicopter, binoculars and the Rubik's cube!
Did you know the current world record for solving a Rubik's cube is just 5.5 SECONDS? Ready to have your mind melted?
Next we saw the chain bridge... a Budapest institution! Selfie required!
Next, we walked across the bridge and explored the more historic Buda side of the city.
I loved getting to the top of the Buda side and looking down at the Chain bridge we just crossed and seeing St. Stephen's Basilica in the background. Just gorgeous!
Budapest Chain Bridge with St. Stephen's Basilica in the background
And a bit further down the Danube, the gorgeous Hungarian Parliament Building. Interestingly, it is also 96 meters high...the same height as St. Peter's Basilica, symbolically showing that religion and politics are always equal. There's also a law in Budapest that no other buildings can be taller than 96 meters.
The Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest
We continued our walking tour on Buda Castle hill (the castle has now been turned into an art gallery and library), but our guide was talking about what was under our feet. There are over 6 miles of caves below our feet. The prison there once held a very famous prisoner...Count Dracula! Plus, there was a hospital used to treat patients during WWII. I later toured the hospital and found it fascinating. You can read more about it here: Hospital In The Rock.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in Budapest shopping for some travel items for my nieces and nephews, where I ran into a Packers fan. Isn't that amazing... a fellow Pack Backer, half a world away. NOTE: This IS his "excited" face.
And finally, I checked off a delicious item from my 1,000 Places To See Before You Die checklist...with a delicious dessert at Gerbaud. It was delicious!
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I honestly think I could spend a week or two in Budapest, exploring her charms, history and mystery. But, alas, I only had 2 days here and it was enough to make a very lasting impression on me!Hands down, my favorite thing about Budapest was the architecture. Parts of the city look like Prague, parts look like Vienna, others distinctly Parisian. It's for that reason that many movies and music videos have been filmed there. Films like Evita, The Debt, Max, Munich, Transporter 3. It's a gorgeous city in it's own right, but it's also easy to disguise Budapest as another city.
I don't watch music videos, but our guide told us that Katy Perry's "Firework" was filmed in Budapest, so I checked it out. From the very first opening scene of the Chain Bridge, to the sequence at St. Stephen's Basilica to the ending sequence shot at the Budapest Castle on Buda hill, it's a gorgeous display of the city.
Take another YouTube break and watch it here.
I started this blog by saying "Szia," pronounced like "see-ya", which is how Hungarians say hello. Ironically, the way they say goodbye is "Hello!"
So, dear readers...hello from Budapest!
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