Budapest: Warning Now Entering Eastern Europe

Buda on the Left, Pest on the Right

Its hard to remember arriving in Budapest, we have been here for over 2 weeks and the time has started to blur.  We took the bus from Vienna to Budapest- a short 2 hour drive followed by a 3 stop ride on the subway and we arrived at our next accommodation. First a note about the subway or metro in Budapest.  We have used several transit systems over the past month- London, Prague, Vienna- all with certain degrees of modernness or areas in need of repair. Upon arrival in Budapest we emerged from the bus and went to the underground. Upon seeing the subway car pull up to the station we both immediately stopped in our tracks and expected to hear the sounds of Mother Russia and the associated troops around the corner.  I don't know where they dug up these subway cars from but they are rough to say the least-with a hefty dose of graffiti and an apparent need for new brakes-desperately as evidenced by the noise we heard as it was pulling into the stop.  The stations we found vary in their modernness however it is apparent that the thought to put large font signs in multiples places to direct people had not occurred or was not included in the budget of the Budapest Transit Authority. (At one major station where 3 lines met there was only one sign per line on the platform).  One last thing to say about the Budapest Metro-if you want a true visual watch the movie "Kontroll" or Control in English, its about the ticket inspectors in Budapest-pretty good even if it was with subtitles.  

Outside the main Market

After the exciting journey through the socialized means of transportation, we found our accommodations easily (right next to one of the many "Szex Shops" in Budapest).  We were staying with a structural engineering PhD student named Kitti.  We had a room to ourselves in her fully-furnished apartment for a whopping $24 dollars a night.  Burdened with a full plate of working part-time, teaching and doing her Thesis she proved to be a fantastic host, telling us where to go, how to get around, tidbits about the culture and history of Hungary.  So we were off to a great start.

Terror Museum

One of the first places we visited was, based on our hostess's recommendations was the Terror Museum.  During the both the German and Russian occupation, the later of which lasted until 1991, they had a building in downtown Budapest where the secret police used to interrogate citizens for all sorts of reasons.  This has been converted into the city's most popular museum giving a history of the city during occupation. We found out that Hungary had avoided occupation in WWII until spring of 1944 when it fell to the Nazi party.  In about 6 months, the Soviet Union took over Budapest leading to a long period of socialist leadership.  It was interesting to think if the Hungarians had been able to stay independent for just a little longer, how different the country would be today.  It was a good museum, certainly not the most uplifting, and at the end you go to the basement floor and see the old interrogation / torture rooms and cells where they kept prisoners.

Over the weekend we were shown around by our hostess and able to see a bit more of the local culture.  One night she took us out to a favorite restaurant where we were able to try authentic 'Hungarian food' followed by checking out some of the night life.  Hungarian food is pretty intense... if they were to modify (or as Katy would say 'G it up') it just a bit, the food could be fantastic.  Most dishes are very heavy and not well-rounded.  Goulash, the most popularized Hungarian dish, is simply beef in a paprika sauce served over noodles.  Tasty, but no vegetables or any relief what-so-ever.  Hungarians are also big fans of cottage cheese and sour cream, they go on everything from pasta to potatoes to fried dough. All these food have potential to be great dishes, they just need a little expanding with locally available foods.  Also, almost all restaurants are packed with smokers making your reek for the next several days (get with the program Europe).  

Fisherman's Bastion

While the food needs some slight modifications, the bars don't.  We were taken to a "rubble bar" after dinner, which was an old building with several stories, done up with really random decor eclectic enough to come off as cool, with one room leading into another, and ample locations to sit, drink, listen to music or whatever you desire.  While sitting having a drink, there was a young bar-maid going from table to table selling of all things: carrot sticks.  Because the novelty, it has apparently been a big success in that bar- you can surely envision some of the conversations that must go on after a bit to much to drink and a girl sells you a giant carrot stick.  

It was 1991 when the last soviet socialist government official/troop left Budapest, only 20 years ago, so we've observed a few funny things about the remnants of the socialist era.  For starters, there are constant subtle reminders  about how everything is best here in Hungary.  One of the first tourist magazines we picked up mentions the fact that the Hungarian tap water is best in Europe!  It later goes on to mention in the General Information section that there are very few homeless people as there is national health care, people can get treatment so no one would need to beg on the streets (I didn't get the correlation either- we also found out from Kitti that the medical system is likely to fold within about 2 years and that most people who can afford it pay for private care or have to slip the workers in the national system some extra money to get any sort of decent treatment).   When visiting the National History Museum, we walked through an exhibit about how Hungarians contributed to every major leap in modern technology.  The best part of the exhibit was the phrasing about the accomplishments 'You might not be surprised to know that a Hungarian was instrumental in the development of the modern day television', not to mention the hologram, the surgical laser, and so on.  

Statues atop the Citadel

One of the must do's in Budapest is experience the public baths.  I know what some of you are thinking 'ewwww a bunch of people-some surely with questionable sanitation habits- sitting around in a giant bathtub for hours on end sounds like a sure fire way to get either a foot fungus or rash' (please note, Will is currently laughing at me).  So maybe there is a certain element of truth to it, but let's face it, people have been taking advantage of the thermal hot-springs here for a long time.  There are several public baths in Budapest, but we opted to go to the oldest: Szechenyi gyogyfurdo or as Will and I referred to it- Szechuan Fish. (Don't worry we plan to abominate every language we come across).  Its the largest baths in Europe, opened in 1913 and the water is supplied from a thermal spring with water around 75 degrees Celsius or 170 Fahrenheit.  Its a huge complex, on the inside are locker rooms and showers, after that you walk into a complex system of pools with various different temperatures from the cold plunge pool, the 34 degree pool with water aerobics and finally smaller warmer pools around the 38 degree range. Intermixed are a variety of saunas and steam rooms.  We however spent the majority of our time outside in one of the giant pools that hovers around 38 degrees.  There is a large Olympic length pool for laps in the middle and another pool on the other side which was drained and being cleaned at the time.  So we sat in the warm water and soaked away for about two hours. There was some good people watching at this establishment, from the women from Calgary who was telling stories about being chased by moose, to the old man corner where they set up a chess board on the edge of the pool and a heated battle of the minds occurs with visitors taking pictures.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the baths to post- if you Wikipedia-it, those are similar pictures to what we would have posted. 

Dove from Jesus Christ Superstar

Fuzzy Pig

One day we were able to hitch a ride outside of Budapest from our host, Kitti and visit the neighboring city of Szentendre, a posh little town where all of the tour buses go with fur shops, the 365 day-a-year Christmas shop and all the overpriced ice cream you could hope for.  It was pretty similar to Niagara-on-the-Lake, entertaining enough to keep us busy for a solid two hours and to grab a coffee.  But outside of this little town we visited an outdoor history museum where we spent the afternoon.  This was the equivalent of 'Colonial Williamsburg' or 'Black Creek Pioneer Village', with acres upon acres of houses built to reflect the different regions of Hungary around the turn of the 19th century.  While there were many pretty churches and houses setup for us to walk around, the highlight of the afternoon was undoubtedly the petting zoo.  Why, you must ask, would the highlight of this trip be a petting zoo?  Because this zoo had fuzzy pigs... fuzzy pigs, I tell you!  The pigs and all the other farm animals were just a little different from North American animals, enough to make it interesting.  The sheep had extra pointy horns, the cattle were super-sized and the doves wore bell-bottoms.  When Kitti picked us up and we explained with delight how we had a great time, she, being a local, didn't seem very impressed, but I'm sure you back home can appreciate how this was a highlight.

Parliament Building

Finally, the one thing that everyone raves about regarding Budapest is how beautiful the city is, we are here to say, what you have heard is correct.  For those not up on their Budapest history, it was once two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River cutting through the middle of this capital city.  The vast majority of sights to see are on the river where Bud and Pest has tried to show each other up when building their cities over the many years.  Per all the guide books, and again Kitti's recommendation, the best way to see these sights is on bike.  So, Katy and I bummed Kitti's bike, rented another and biked the town.  Seeming how we had been walking the city for a week at this point in time, we were pleasantly surprised as to how much ground you can cover on a bike instead of foot.  We toured a pedestrian island, road past Parliament, across the many World Heritage bridges, and finished the day by climbing to the top of the city and scoped out the city Citadel.    Skeptics, if you are out there, we must attest biking the city is the way to go.

All in all we spent two and half weeks in Budapest and had a great time.   Our hostess was great, the city had plenty to offer and was financially viable, the people were welcoming and we had no problems considering we only knew two words in Hungarian.  Both hello and goodbye are szia, pronounced 'see-ya'.   We could have cut the time back by a day or two, but the city definitely warrants a visit. Until next time...Szia! =)