Feeling Hungary In the Best of Ways

I arrived in Budapest, Hungary the 12th of April swearing I would never take another night train again. Stepping onto the Budapest platform I felt like I had taken some form of sedative and didn't know where to start. I got on the train in Florence around 7pm and got into Budapest at around 10am having not slept for the majority of the journey. This is not because I have problems sleeping normally, most who know me well will testify to some story proving the fact that I can sleep through anything. Or most anything. Apparently not in a fully lighted train compartment with upright seats and no leg room with passport and ticket checkers coming every hour to bug you again and again. Needless to say it wasn't the most pleasant train ride I had experienced, but it was an experience. Finally having got off the train I was just praying this city would be worth it.

What I have experienced in the next few days made it beyond worth it. Budapest is luxury.

From the train station I took an easy bus over to my hostel, called the Baroque Hostel, that I was pleased with immediately. Just like the one in Florence there was a really great, helpful host, a laptop with free internet, a lounge area, a stocked kitchen and nice clean rooms. Unlike the other one however there was actually a TV in the lounge with cable and it was very well decorated. Very clean line modern with a few quirky baroque elements here and there. Basically it felt like a really nice apartment and as a result you could see all the guests lounging around the pad just hanging out and enjoying themselves. Instantly I met several kind and friendly travellers who became like roommates to me.

All I had energy for that day was to get some dinner in town after experiencing a chill afternoon so I headed towards the hostel staff's reccomended restaurant Menza and on the way soaked in the views of the beautiful and ecclectic embassy buildings along the main street. The weather was gorgeous and Spring had just started the blossoming process. The architecture was like nothing I had seen so far. A lot of art nouveau influenced buildings with intricate, unique details and bizarrely interwoven statuary. Menza was a really nice restaurant so I was surprised to see that the meals only cost around $8 US. I had an wonderful and luxurious meal consisting of a famous pumpkin soup with pistachios and Hungarian egg noodles with hot apple tea, then

went back to the hotel to cash after a loooooong day.

The next day I joined up with a kid named Pete I met at the hostel to wander around the town. We walked down to the Danube river, or Duna as they call it, seperating the old towns of Buda and Pest. These towns were combined by a Hapsburg initiative in 1873. Buda is the old part while Pest is newer. From there we checked out the famous chain bridge and climed uphill to the Buda palace which unfortunatly was closed for tours since it was Easter Maonday but was beautiful all the same.

(Chain Bridge and view of the river)


(Lift going up to the palace)


(Palace entrance)

Then I took a wander around the ancient Matius church which has a rich history. When the Turks invaded in 1541 it was conveted into a mosque, then turned back into a church and revamped 145 years later when the Austrian Hapsburgs took over. Then during the communist era much of it was destroyed so yet again it had to be redone. The church doesn't seem to show much of his however because it is rich with Turkish patterning, elaborate paintings and old statuary. I really loved it. See pics below:

Then we wandered around the Fisherman's Basion, a castle-esque overlook of the city and headed down to catch sight of another pretty church we saw from above with more Turkish patterning.

From there we crossed over another bridge and toured around the Margit-Szige island in the center of the river. Realizing we were hungary and tired we wandered back to the hostel stopping for dinner at some hole in the wall restaurant along the way. Here I had one of the best meals I've ever had, consisting of roast park (which the menu refered to as ironed pork) a berry sauce and a potatoe/onion concoction with a beer. The whole this was brought to us on silver domed platters and a delicious gourmet appetizer was served as part o the meal as well. All together I paid the equivalent of about $12 with tip which was 2,500 Hungarian florints (yes the bills are initially very scary). I felt like a queen.

By the end of the night however I wasn't feeling so hot . Only because I had been coughing like crazy all day. In Florence I came down with a head cold and what's leftover from that created a cough. I thought that was a sign of the end, but even today a more than a week later, I have a persistent annoying cough, although no other cold symptoms. I now feel your pain mom, literally. By the end of the day my lungs ache and my inner stomach muscles hurt from all the effort it takes to cough. If anyone out there has any advise about managing this thing, let me know because my drink-tea-whenever-possible philosophy isn't really working.

I crashed early and slept well so the next morning I was off and running. Found out Cmille was coming in that afternoon so I was super excited. Thought I would tour the Parliment that morning, but when I got there the police weren't allowing anyone in and here were people all around with Hungarian flags. I asked around and found out it was a protest of the new governement that the people aren't happy with. That's as far as they could explain in English. I thought I'd sit back and enjoy this new show unfolding but it turned out to be a peaceful protest, meaning a boring one with people just standing and listening to Hungarian speeches over loud speakers, so I kept on going wandering through side streets.

(Parliment from across the water)

Soon I stumbled upon a church called St. Stephen's Basilica and it looked cool so I thought I'd poke my head in. Sure enough it was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen, with a huge dome and more interesting style of decoration than I've seen yet in Europe. The patterning is fabulous, the statues very human and relatable, the paintings were all incredible. I just feel like the churches in Eastern Europe are warmer than those in the West. And they make the Western churches look practically agnostic in comparison. This church felt like ascending to heaven. The power of it all just smacks you in the face. And an interesting thing I found was that they refered to Hungary's conversion to Christainity as coming under the reign of Mother Mary. She is far more revered here than her usually more popular son. Altough I've seen the most moving Jesus statues here. I saw my first relic as well, which was very cool but creepy. The church had in a gold case the preserved hand of Saint Jobb Capolna. I couldn't really see it in te box but the picures were pretty gnarly (I mean that in the both good and bad sense).

Then I wandered through the downtown shops before arriving at the Jewish quarter where I checked out the synagogue. It was really stunning and moving because ther were so many remembrance plaques. This is a city that was drastically affected by the Holocaust and WW2, having experienced one of the first waves of Nazi takeover. Most of the city's Jews were collected for the concentration camps. They were largely sent to Auschwitz. More on that in the Krakow blog..

(Communist era building)

Then I wandered up the other main north-south street called Rakoczi to meet Camlle at the train station, moving very slowly feeling the need to take photos of every cool building I saw, of which there were many. The reunion was wonderful, I didn't realize how much I missed her till I saw her again. I also had the pleasure of meeting her new train friend Corey who soon became our new travel companion accompanying us to dinner and a night at the Szechenyi bathouse in the city park that night. All ended up being fabulous (including Corey). The meal, which was traditional Hungarian, was once again fit for kings and inexpensive and the bathouse was just beyond words incredible. There were three pools, one warm, one hot and one regular colder temp for swimming, and in the pools were fountains and currents to float along on with steam rising all around, all while srrounded by beautiful baroque buildings. It was like living in a dream and was my favorite experience I think so far. I came out so relaxed I could barely stand and I slept so well it was dreamless.

(Heroes Square in the City Park)

The next day we met Corey back at the city park to see the Mucha Exhibit at the Fine Art Museum. Me and Camille were so excited because we both LOVE Alphonse Mucha, who if you are not aware is the king of art nouveau, and you should google him to experience pure unfiltered beauty. Oddly enough we thought we were going to see this same exhibit in Montpellier untl we realized it wasn't coming til May. Probably because it was in Budapest, it was fate! I could have lived in that exhibit I loved it so much. The rest of the art wasn't so great, but we were so high on Mucha we didn't care. From there me and Camille wandered down to the downtown to check out some shops and parks while Corey experiened the cool but pricey Spy Museum. Then we all met up for an elaborate ice cream sundae before attempting to head over to the Roman Citadel. Instead we got distracted by a sweet vintage shop where we shopped until I ran out of time and had to get back to catch my train that left at 8pm to Krakow.

(Traditional Hungarian rafts store)

(Camille and Corey chowin down)

It was so sad to leave behind my freinds and all their cool plans for the next couple days (I would have spent the rest of the time exploring bathhouses really), but I was excited to reach my next destination in the country I've been wanting to see the most in Eastern Europe. The homeland of the Kashmark/Kaczmarek name. I was so excited to see Poland I actually ventured to get another night train out to have an extra day there.

So I exit this blog doing exactly what I said I would not do in the entrance preparing for another interesting experience. Stay tuned for next time to hear that story...

(Train Station with Metro construction in front)

-Kim