Firework

Four days in Budapest was exactly what I needed. I have been/am so stressed out from architecture and life in general; it was nice to go on vacation and forget about reality for a brief moment.

Normally when I travel, I always plan out an itinerary that's detailed down to the hour. However, after the past couple of weekends, I am just exhausted with planning, so I just winged it. I had my trusty Frommer's Day by Day guide and just went with it.

I left Berlin Wednesday night (March 30) after studio and arrived in Budapest around 10:15pm. From the airport, I took a bus that took me to the metro station. Little did I know that their metro system stops at 11:10pm... So I was stranded for a bit, running around, asking people if they knew how to get to Ferenciek Tere, and their response would be in Hungarian, to which I gave a confused and sorry look. At least they tried to help, which was actually really nice. Finally I managed to flag down a taxi and got a ride to my hostel (Maverick Hostel, best one I've been to so far--great location, huge facilities, friendly staff). The taxi ride cost me 4500 HUF (about 16 Euros, about $25).
After checking in, I passed out for the night.

I was up and out by 9am on Thursday. I decided to follow the tour that Frommer's had planned out in the guide book, so my first destination was Heroes Square. Heroes Square is very much like the Brandenburg Gate area, except it's at the entrance of a park. In the square are 14 Magyar tribe leaders, and the center column features the Archangel Gabriel. To the left and right of the square are the museum of fine arts and kunsthalle, and behind is Városliget Park (City Park).

After walking around and photographing the square, I walked down Andrassy Ut, one of the more popular boulevards of Budapest. It reminded me a lot of Unter den Linden in Berlin; it's lined with little restaurants, shops, squares, and villas, and it provides a generous amount of public space for circulation. I walked until I reached the Opera House and checked out the exterior. I meant to join a guided tour, but I ran out of time during my trip. From what I've heard, the interior is gorgeous. I guess that's something I'll have to see next time I visit.

Next door to the Opera House is a little cafe called Callas Cafe. I stopped by for a quick breakfast which consisted of a croissant and a caffe macchiato. I sat at their tables outside and people-watched as I sunbathed and ate. Nothing more relaxing.

At some point I made my way down to St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest's largest church. I paid 400 Forints to get access to the tower and see all of Budapest from a bird's eye view. Budapest is a gorgeous city.
After the tower, I made my way down and into the church itself. The interior is like all of the other churches I've seen in Europe. The detail and lighting is absolutely beautiful. In one of the side rooms is the hand of St. Stephen himself (about 1000 years old!). Outside the church is a nice exterior plaza. Lots of people utilizing the public space and taking it all in.

Next stop: Parliament. I had thought that the English tour of Parliament was at 2pm, so I walked along the Danube River and made it to Parliament around 1:30. To my disappointment, the tour wasn't until 3:15, so I found lunch at a random cafe. I'm not sure if there's a specific name for what it was that I ate, but it was pretty much a piece of bread with toppings on it (it reminded me of tapas actually). Whatever it was, it was cheap and delicious.

I decided to fill in my time doing a mini-tour that Frommer's recommended of the Belvaros/Lipotvaros area. I walked around the Museum of Ethnography, the Agricultural Ministry, the Bridge Statute of Imre Nagy, and hung around Szabadsag Ter for a bit. I actually filled out some postcards while I was killing time. It was nice to check out the area and just lounge around a bit.

I went back to Parliament at 3 and did the tour of the interior. The tour is only about 45 minutes, and you only see three areas, but the interior is impressive. The guide told us that Parliament is big enough to run a small city of 30,000 people (how crazy!). Everything in there that looks gold is actually gold (there's a lot of gold paint inside). We saw the crown jewels as well and saw one of the conference rooms where all the important people have their meetings (I don't follow politics so I don't really care about their titles and whatever). It was nice just to do the tour so I could say I saw the Parliament building in Budapest.

After Parliament, I took the bus across the bridge and over to the Buda side to the Castle District and spent the rest of the day there.  I did some souvenir shopping and walked around a lot. I didn't go into any of the museums but just enjoyed the beautiful weather. I saw the Royal Palace where Katy Perry's music video for Firework was filmed (hence the title of my blog post), walked around the St. Matthias Church, walked around the district itself, and spent sunset at Fisherman's Bastion.
Around 8 or so, I found a random restaurant and got some dinner. I love Hungarian food because they use pepper in everything! It was a nice surprise. I ended up getting chicken paprikash and a beer and had a nice, relaxing dinner.

I took the bus back over to Pest and walked around for a bit, taking night photos. I ended up back at St. Stephen's Basilica before taking the Metro back to my hostel and calling it a night.

Friday morning, I met one of my hostel roommates named Evita, and we got to talking about our travels around Europe. This is one huge reason why I love hostels and why I love to travel alone; you end up meeting all these fantastic people from around the world and share your stories. We exchanged info and now we're Facebook friends (that makes it official).

I took it easy and didn't do any of the touristy spots that day.
In the morning, I attempted to go to the Great Synagogue, but because I am awful with directions, I went every way but the right way and ended up in a completely opposite direction. I gave up around noon time and headed over to Arena Plaza, the biggest mall in Budapest.

I met up with a friend for lunch at Leroy Cafe in Arena Plaza and had some fantastic Hungarian food. Goulash soup has quickly become one of my favorites. For dessert, I had some cottage cheese covered with corn flakes and a raspberry sauce. Very different but still good. We ended up having a 2.5 hour lunch, and it was so nice not to talk about architecture. It's been such a long time since I've had a decent conversation about life. Great lunch with even better company.

Afterwards, I attempted to go to the Synagogue again but by the time I found it, it was closed (just my luck). I flipped through my Frommer's guide and picked the Great Market Hall as my next destination, and I am very happy that I went. It was much like Pike Place Market in Seattle, except that the space is entirely enclosed, and there aren't guys throwing fish. Everything they sold was fresh, from the meat to the vegetables to the fruit. There were also a ton of souvenir and craft and pepper vendors as well as food vendors. I ended up buying a small bottle of apricot palinka, which is fruit-flavored brandy that is traditional to Hungary.

Next to the market was the Szabadsag Bridge, so I walked over it to the Buda side and climbed up Gellert Hill to watch the sunset. I made it to the statue of Gellert first, and then I continued uphill towards the citadel (which was closed) and then I walked around to the Freedom Statue and took some pictures. I sat around for a long while just enjoying the view of the entire city. I filled out some postcards to pass the time as well. The sunset was gorgeous from the hill. I'm so glad that I stayed to take night shots. I only wish I had my gorilla tripod to steady my camera, but regardless, I still got some nice pictures.

Eventually I was getting hungry, so I walked back down the hill and walked all the way to Szechenyi Ianchid (the Chain Bridge) and walked across. It really is a beautiful bridge, similar to the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan. Every night I was falling more and more in love with the city. It's a very romantic city with fantastic views everywhere you look.
Instead of going out to dinner, I stopped by the 24 hour store next to my hostel and picked up a sandwich. I spent the night relaxing in the hostel, just watching music videos and eating my dinner.

Saturday morning, I woke up, and met one another one of my hostel roommates who had just checked in that morning. His name is Gabriel, and after we started talking, we both found out that we're both studying in Berlin and both living in Kreuzberg. What a small world! So we exchanged information and hopefully I can get together with him for a beer or something.

That day was even more relaxing. I spent the whole day in Városliget Park, hitting a few of their attractions in the area. I first tried to visit the Városliget Castle, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to get inside. I'm not sure if the museum part is actually the castle or not, but I didn't feel like paying to enter, so I walked around and then went to the zoo! The Budapest zoo is pretty awesome. I spent about 5 hours there checking out all of their animals. I'm amazed by how close you can get to them, and how little security there is for the animals. I pet a sloth! and held a bird! It was a lot of fun just being a kid for the day.

When I finished playing with the animals, I hung around the park for a bit before I headed to the Szechenyi Baths that was across the street from the zoo. This is the most popular/famous bath house in Budapest, and it's no wonder why. It was soooo relaxing. Not nearly as amazing as the thermal baths in Vals, but close enough! It was also much cheaper compared to Vals. It cost me about $17 (I charged it to my credit card) whereas Zumthor's baths cost 40 Euros (about $60!). I spent about three hours just lounging around in the various baths. I spent some time in the medicinal bath and some of the other indoor baths, but most of my time was spent in the outdoor bath, where old men were playing chess and swarms of tourists filled the area. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep a few times and did the awkward twitch and hoped that no one else noticed... But man, oh, man, was it needed. After getting all nice and pruney, I finally left around 8 when the sun had gone down.

Again, I flipped through Frommer's to see what it suggested for food, and luckily there was a restaurant nearby called Bagolyvar that served cheap Hungarian food. The moment I walked in, I felt under dressed (not to mention my hair was still wet from the baths), but the hostess didn't care. I got seated and ordered all that I wanted to. I had a nice three course meal that consisted of a cucumber salad, some veal dish with "egg dumplings," and a crepe. Oh, it was so good. I left with a very satisfied tummy.

I originally planned on going to Margaret Island that night, but because it was getting late (and by late, I mean 10pm, and the Metro stops around 11pm), I skipped it and hung out around Heroes Square again. It's beautiful at night. After a while, I headed back to my hostel. I ended up meeting a woman named Mary Ann who is 69 and doing the whole traveling/hostel thing. It was inspiring to meet and talk with her! Hopefully I'm still traveling around when I get to that age. She was just a fun person to talk with.









That night I also Skyped with my family in New York. They were all at my cousin's wedding/reception, which I sadly missed. It was so nice to see everybody, even if it was through my computer screen. I can't believe it's been almost eight months since I've seen some of them... it's getting rough to watch life pass me by. I've missed birthdays and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years and a wedding... as much as I love traveling, it will be such a joy to see my family in a month and have that sense of "home."

Sunday was another "go with the flow" kind of day. I started off by walking down Vaci Utca, a small shopping street, where all I did was window shop. When I found a metro station, I made my way over to Margaret Island. I ended up walking along the Danube to the Margaret Bridge to get to the island. Thankfully I didn't go to the island the night before because there was construction going on and I could barely see Buda or Pest from the tip of the island. There were fences and blockades all around! I walked around Margaret Island briefly before I decided I was bored and headed back to find a bus.

My last stop of the trip was the Gellert Baths, and what a wonderful way to end my perfect vacation. I spent another three hours just lying around in various baths. Unlike the Szechenyi Baths, this was all indoors, and it was actually a little bit more expensive, which I didn't agree with, but oh well. Still, nice interior and sooooo relaxing. I wish I could go to the baths every single day... it's a nice way to counter the stress of architecture.

Eventually it was time to leave the beautiful city of Budapest. Luckily I left when I did because the bus system confused me a bit and the airport was packed. Siiiiiigh. I'm ready to go back.

I'll update about Prague next week, after final projects are due. Other than that, not much else to report about. Life is stressful as usual, and I've been pulling numerous all-nighters lately. My body hates me. Take me back to the baths!

And now I leave you with Katy Perry's music video of Firework. While I think the lyrics are funny ("do you ever feel like a plastic bag?"), I love that it was filmed in Budapest, so enjoy the beautiful view of the city.