Time to break out of the mold and go to another city. As mentioned at the tail end of Part 3, the three of us (me, Norbert, Jenna) went to Budapest for about 30 hours just to see what it was like.
In short, it was beautiful. And cold. And we were not really prepared for the cold.
We jumped in the car and drove to Budapest, which was rather uneventful unless you count the part where I spent hours thinking that the lying-down deer that I saw were giant rabbits. But upon arrival, things got more interesting quickly.
We checked into an apartment that was much bigger than we needed and tried to immediately set out. We stayed in what was apparently a well-known area for food and young people, and we promptly found the permanent street-food place across the street; you walk inside and there are 5 or 6 food-trucks that sure don't seem to ever be going anywhere. It was a nice touch to get us started.
We stayed on the edge of the Jewish quarter and walked past the famously enormous synagogue, which had a Holocaust memorial artwork that was really mind-blowing.
.jpg)
In short, it was beautiful. And cold. And we were not really prepared for the cold.
We jumped in the car and drove to Budapest, which was rather uneventful unless you count the part where I spent hours thinking that the lying-down deer that I saw were giant rabbits. But upon arrival, things got more interesting quickly.
We checked into an apartment that was much bigger than we needed and tried to immediately set out. We stayed in what was apparently a well-known area for food and young people, and we promptly found the permanent street-food place across the street; you walk inside and there are 5 or 6 food-trucks that sure don't seem to ever be going anywhere. It was a nice touch to get us started.
We stayed on the edge of the Jewish quarter and walked past the famously enormous synagogue, which had a Holocaust memorial artwork that was really mind-blowing.
It's a willow tree. Except every leaf on the tree - and there are thousands and thousands - bears the name of a Hungarian Jew who was killed during the Holocaust. It's a really staggering thing to see. Unfortunately, you have to stand in line and buy a ticket to get into the Synagogue in the first place, and then this is actually through the Synagogue on the way to the Museum, I believe.
We continued on as Jenna wanted to see a little museum that was in a cave-system beneath the Buda Castle. It was used as a hospital during the war, and we took a tour that was relatively interesting, although the mannequins they used to stage the rooms were a bit too ridiculous for my taste. Except for the one that was straight-legged and on the toilet with pants around its ankles.
The highlights of Budapest are the Fisherman's Bastion, the Buda Castle, the Parliament Building, and the bath-house scene. We did not visit Buda Castle, but you can see it from most anywhere on the eastern half of the city (Pest is the eastern half, Buda the west. The sides are split by the Danube).
Before and after the tour we spent some time at the Fisherman's Bastion - which is not really a necessary stop on your tour for its own sake, but really is for the views - and took tons of pictures, mostly of the Parliament building across the river.
Sorry this is a panorama and you'll have to enlarge to see all of it
In the above, the bastion is all the way on the left (and right), with the Parliament building across the river, along with the rest of the Pest. We took one last set of stunningly great photos of Parliament after the sun went down and then headed back to our apartment in preparation for the baths.
It should come as a surprise to no one that visiting a public bath was a bit of a strange experience. On the one hand, it's just like a public pool: there's a lap-pool, there's the equivalent of a hot-tub, and there's an in-between one. On the other hand, it's outside, and it was evening, and the temperature was below freezing so every time you stepped out of the pool you felt like you might slip on the ice and fall to your death. In your bathing suit, no less.
It was also extremely crowded, and full of Italians who were making out, which is not a very pleasant thing to see/do in a public pool setting. We three kept making jokes about how unclean the water was, but it was still a lot of fun - especially the part Norbert referred to as the "toilet bowl."
The "toilet bowl" is a circular part in the warm-water pool (about 32 celsius) that has natural jets pushing the water around in a whirpool sort of way. It sounds simple and childish and it really is both of those things, but we must've gone around that thing 20+ times each. It was terrific.
The downside to all of this is that we forgot sandals for when it was time to be in the locker room. So let's change the subject to the next day's walking tour of Budapest.
Long-story short, we saw some very cool things again, walking around between the main churches and buildings on the eastern side of city after starting nearer the river and taking the above photo, but it was painfully cold and windy. Even if it wasn't the coldest day I can remember, we didn't bring enough winter-clothes for the trip to Europe because it would just be extra luggage-space that we didn't have. So with half-thawed toes we left the tour early, grabbed some food, and headed back toward Vienna.
That was really the gist of our trip to Budapest. It wasn't until about halfway through that drive home that I realized that the giant-rabbits in the fields I could see were actually the lying-down deer I mentioned earlier. I have good days and bad, you know?
Oh, the other important thing about Budapest is that it's basically Vienna's little brother. Very similar regal buildings, very similar feel, only slightly less grand. And much cheaper. Not as cheap as Bratislava, but cheap.
So that's just about it for the Vienna and Christmas story. The following day or two was New Year's Eve, which I've written about here, and then we just relaxed for another day or two and headed back to Milan in early January.
To recap: Part 1
Up next, I'll give a short entry about Kugelmugel and Piacenza. One of those is a city and one of them is a former micro-nation, kind of. Which one do you think is which?
Comments
Post a Comment