Budapest, Hungary

Heeeeey, Eastern Europe! How ya doin, buddy? Fourteen hours in train from Venice, Budapest is definitely worth the trip. Wow. I was totally blown away by the outstanding architecture and the beautiful old buildings in the Hungarian capital. It definitely left me hungary for more.

You liked that Hungary joke, didn't you? Read more, and I'll try to throw another one your way. I know you're hungary too.

I have to comment before we start that we met the coolest hostel owner ever while we were here. His name was Jim, and he was from "the Jungle," as he put it (yes, that's Chicago). So we had this cool Chicago guy explain to us the ins and outs of this incredible Eastern European capital, a city with an intense history of wars, occupations, and name-changes.

Hero's Square. These are the guys who fought the old Soviet Union to take independence. There was actually an old building on the main street leading to this square that today is known as the Horror House. This house (I don't think I have a picture) was a Soviet structure where they used to torture and kill suspects for years during their occupancy.

Today the people there seem quite subdued. Gosh... I wonder why?
(This point of view was substantiated by Jim, who told us a little about what he'd learned in his time there)

The old castle in the Pest part of town. Budapest used to be two different cities. Buda, the most ancient and important part, is located up on a hill on one side of the Danube River. Buda was very important in the old days because of the strategical positioning of its great castle and palace. Many great dynasties fought over Buda, and when it eventually came to be under Hungarian control, the authorities merged it together with the growing city of Pest across the river. The combination became the great metropolis of Budapest, ancient and modern industrial.

Ab with the lagoon and the castle. Sorry, this is not the castle in Buda that I was talking about. This is a different one.

Here is the Danube River. We climbed up a big hill in Citadel Park for this fantastic view over the city.

Here is the same view at night. In the center is the Chain Bridge, the most famous and oldest bridge connected Buda (on the left) and Pest (on the right). The left side of the photo shows the hill with the castle and palace. It's not a Walt Disney World looking castle; no, it's of a big castle grounds: an area of ancient ruins, a great cathedral, a grand palace, markets, shops, and tall castle walls surrounding it all.

I am standing in front of St. Steven's Basilica. Inside the basilica is actually the relic of St. Steve's right hand. Thank goodness they got the right and not the left.

Now I'm standing on top of St. Steven's Basilica. The hills of Hungary are behind me and the city in the background. We didn't see too much of Hungary on the train (seeing as how Budapest is in the western half of the country), but we did see several large lakes, a lot of farmland, no mountains, but a lot of hills around the Budapest area.

Sausages are big there. I was glad to see that. They're big everywhere in Germany and Eastern Europe, I think. We've got a couple different flavors of brats here; mine is slopped with a pond of Dijon mustard, and I also added a red pepper filled with sauerkraut.

Here's a wide view of the great Market Hall of Budapest. It's a massive structure for food markets, craft markets, and whatever else. They had all the freshest food, all the best sausages, meats, and lunches, and all the most typical handmade souvenirs and handicrafts.

Ab is standing with a big bag of cherries and another big bag o raspberries. We probably ate at least a kilo of fruit that afternoon...

Another example of some of the fantastic classical architecture. There are a lot of faces on the buildings. Jim explained to us how you could tell what kind of building it used to be by looking at the expressions on the faces. If the face is gargoylish, and snarling, angry, scary, whatever, it means that the building was a residence... beeecause the faces were supposed to scare away bad spirits. If the face was angelic, smooth, smiling, or generally pleasant looking, it was probably a building for the arts. Some of the grander statues and designs, like the one in my photo, were most likely reserved for government buildings.

Speaking of government buildings, here is Parliament. The stretch of the city along the Danube River has got to be one of the most beautiful areas of any city I've ever seen.

A statue of an ancient king on a horse is displayed here in the midst of an area in the hilltop castle district called the Fisherman's Wharf. These cool spiral topped buildings and nice lookout castle walls made this section of castle a unique attraction.

The church in the castle district is incredibly old also, and the decor is different from other churches I've been in. All of the walls and ceilings are painted in bright patterns of blues, reds, yellows and greens. My pictures of churches are always so dark, but I thought this one of the stairs turned out nice. You get an idea of the kind of painting I'm talking about.

Here Abby and found someone to take our picture again. That is the Chain Bridge behind us (we're on top of the hill in the castle district) and you can see St. Steven's Basilica beyond the bridge.

I am on the Chain Bridge here, and you're looking at the Danube River with Parliament on its eastern shore.

Again, the Chain Bridge; this time looking the other direction toward the castle, which you can see in the top left corner.

Jim had us visit a old church that was built inside a cave on a hill near the river. It was dark inside, so my photos weren't the best, though it was definitely worth our time to see it. If I were ever to attend a service in Budapest, this would be the place.