Budapest for the weekend

Great view of the Parliament building

St.Mattias church on top of the hill ("Budha" side)

St. Mattias

St. Mattias

St. Mattias

St. Mattias (looks like a castle!)

Parliament building on the Danube

The chain bridge over the Danube

The Chain Bridge

View of St.Mattias on top of the hill

Such a cute romantic scene!

St.Stephen's Basilica

St. Stephen's

St. Stephens

Budapest train station (I just got off this one!)

Sept 3&4

I was so happy that we finished our report friday night. It meant I have another free weekend to travel. The easiest was to take a 2.5 hour train to budapest which I did on saturday morning. I am getting braver with the public transit and am feeling quite adventurous by this time. I was like this in my youth but I think over the years I've gotten soft. I've been flying business class, staying in nice hotels and have drivers take me everywhere, in other words I havent had to really think for myself. To figure out my traveling on my own in places where they don't speak my language is really rewarding, but only if I get to where I'm supposed to go. They don't announce the stops on these trains so you really have to pay attention and not miss it. I never did figure out the reservation system and it's a trial & error for me. Twice I got kicked out of my seat because someone had reservations.

I decided to splurg and booked into a 5 star hotel for the night. They had a famous spa that's dated back to 1886. I figured if I didn't like the city I have the hotel to enjoy!

After checking in at the hotel I walked to St. Stephen's Basilica which was the meeting point for the free walking tour. It was a 20 minute walk through a quiet neighborhood. I have to admit that my first impression wasn't that great. I remember the words of my guide from the photo tour in prague, budapest is similar to them but darker and dirtier. By dirty I don't mean trash on the streets. It's more the buildings themselves. Most are stone structures that could be very nice but they seem to have a heavy layer of dirt on them.

Our tour group was a huge one (hey it's free) but they were prepared and split the group into 2. I learnt some nice history of the country. Hungary was a really big empire in its heyday. However, over the centuries it has lost more than 2/3 of its land. They were under Ottoman rule for a time during which they learned to grow peppers and now are famous for their hungarian peppers. I thought it was interesting that during the 2nd world war they actually sided with germany but hitler tricked them by inviting the hungarian leader for a visit and kept him there while german soldiers occupied hungary. They were betrayed by their own ally! The russians came to their rescue and freed hungary from the germans but then they forgot to leave! So hungary was under communist rule. The country shared the same important date in history which was the revolution in 1989 when the kicked out the russians. The current average salary in the country is 500 euros a month! Because of this corruption level is high. If you have an issue that needs to be resolved there's an incredible amount of beauracracy to go through, yes, it means bribery. I've learned in my travels to some of these eastern countries that it's normal and it's their way of making some extra money. I don't know if they are necessary bad people, it's something more like desperate times calls for desperate measures. Or it's the way of like that they know.

It was a hot and humid day and after 2 hours of walking I started to think about the nice pool at the hotel. The last part of the tour was to cross the chain bridge over the danube river to the budha side and climb up the hill to the castle. I debated ditching the tour and made the decision as we were walking over the bridge.

Walked back to the hotel and went immediately to the spa!

The next day I decided to brave the metro to the other side of the danube and walked up the hill to St.Mattias. I had 2 hours before I have to catch the metro to the train station. The day didn't feel too hot. As long as you sit still in the shade and not move a muscle. As soon as I started walking I started to sweat. Now add the hill I had to climb to get to the old town. The best thing I did was to "borrow" a hand towel from the hotel. A kleenex would have lasted me half a second. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I had my hair tied up, had prepared mentally to be sweaty and don't have to worry about finding a bathroom since I was losing all my bodily fluids through sweating. Ofcourse I get the excuse of eating gelato in order to keep cool!

I didn't have a specific destination after going up the hill, I just knew that's where the old town is. I just happened to run smack into St.Mattias cathedral which happened to look like a castle. The view was amazing. And the breeze was so welcomed after the climb.

So glad I was able to see all these different countries during this audit. It was interesting to hear how they have each survived some hard years including the german and russian occupied during which many died. There is a sense that they truly appreciate the freedom they now have. Someone said that those born into freedom it will act different from those who were not. This is at a time when the older generation (parents and grandparents) still act a little differents and are more cautious. They would be more frugal because at any given point everything could be taken away from you, or so they think.