On this trip I was with two friends. We didn't have more than four days, so we were looking for the city where we could go easily and not wasting time on transportation. Decision was Budapest. The cheapest option was the train. Bad decision was the date. We pick the most unfavorable moment for travel, it was Catholic Christmas. Don't get me wrong about that. I thought of closed shops and stores during the holidays. So before you go anywhere, pick the right date. Second important thing is apartment. We booked the great one, on two levels. The price was good.
Departure was at 22 o'clock and we arrived in time. We did another thing wrong, we entered in first class and we sat there and on our ticket was second class. We didn't see that until ticket conductor came to us. I think it was two hours after departure. We had to move to second class, even though the first class was empty, but never mind. We had a good mood, so nothing couldn't change it. The second class was even warmer, but full. We found three seats near the toilet. XD ogh, that smell.... again, never mind. Think about something else. Lucky for us, we had three hours left, cause we ignored first conductor's warning :)
We arrived at 6 o'clock and we were hungry like wolves and my friends were looking for coffee. I don't drink it btw. ...so we were nervous and ready to bite. Don't think that we didn't already ate our sandwiches. Oh, we did. :)
Keys of apartment we have to take at 10 o'clock so we needed to kill about 4 hours. Let's go for some food. Our sense of smell was very sharp.
Fast food always works. We find some WiFi, killed time sending messages to our people that we arrived safely. Even after stale cheeseburgers, we were happy like children. "Now we can go wherever you want", we said that at the same time. :) My friend sent the apartment owners a message asking if we could come earlier. We got the affirmative answer, so if you come somewhere earlier send the message and ask politely the same thing. You don't have nothing to lose.
After a shower and a few hours of sleep, we went out. We saw St. Stephan's Basilica, named after Stephan, the first king of Hungary. I need to tell that i was already in Budapest when i was in high school, but i can' remember this church. We wanted to come in but the liturgy already started, so we stay out. Our plan was to look at the interior, so it wouldn't be polite to that during liturgy
If you ask me, the most beautiful building is still Hungarian State Opera House. We were a little bit shy and didn't know how to just walk in, without some ticket, 'cause at that time there was no performance. I just broke the ice and came in. When i saw the interior, i called my friends to join me. Stunning....
Maybe you need to go there to see it better than these pictures can show. I was a little embarrassed to take pictures because people were watching me in a strange way. Do you have that problem?
Dinner....The best gulash ever, sorry mom.
After glass of beer and the specialty of the house, we needed some extra time to rest from the food. I'm hungry right now. :)
This bicycle took my attention. Model of the city was on it. Actually, this was a commercial for the model shop.
We walked by the Danube and we went back to the apartment.
First day was over.
Hello world! As usual I always get up first, so my job was to wake up the two of them. Hard job, must admit, they don't like when someone wakes them up. Our apartment was near the train station, so we need to walk about 30 minutes to the center. This day was for museums. I checked before coming to this city, like I do every time when I travel, working time of every museum that we want to see. Only Terror house was working that day. We thought that we will spend maybe two or three hours inside. No, we stayed more than four or five.
You can't take your stuff and camera with you, so we have to put everything in their wardrobe. I didn't like that, no one did. I put my phone and money in my pockets and a bit angry started to look around. Concept of this museum is to show how Hungarian people suffered during and after World War II. At some point I couldn't agree whit some facts, but I believe that everybody sees different, maybe we learn different. I must say it was very big exhibition and probably they don't change anything, it is like it is. There is a huge tang in the middle of that building.
When we came out it was almost 18 o'clock. Then there were wrangling between our desires and stomachs. The stomach almost won. Restaurants did not work. It was Christmas Eve. We were looking for any shop or some fast food, but no. Suddenly we found a restaurant, named Vogue. My friend knows that i would never mention some names in bad context, but maybe he will be proud now. The meals were cold and overpriced. My friend paid too much for appetizer and what he ate was two slices of paprika, two slices of red onion, two slices of bread and if i remember well two pieces of crude fat of pork, it wasn’t real bacon. :D My other friend and i have proper dinner compare to his. :D But wait, it wasn't all. Then came bill more than it should be. In our country, you leave a tip depending on the service. We used to it. In this bar/restaurant was some rule that they will take plus 10% of the bill. We asked for manager, but waitress didn't know English so we try to explain with hands and legs that we are not satisfied with dinner. We are not spoiled rich kids. In student days we ate in a canteen and lived in a student dorm, so we know when it' s something bad and this is not just bad, this is too expensive. I left my friends inside cause it was so funny to watch my friend arguing with some lady who doesn’t even know foreign language. We paid and we were hungry at the end. On the way to the apartment we laughed like crazy. Something good happened, the day wasn't destroyed and I brought some soups and some cookies from Belgrade, so we ate that for dinner. We had TV and we watched Les Miserables and that's how second day ended.
Third one was the best for me. That day I saw so many things from my list. My friends wanted to go to Tropicarium. I already been there in high school and wanted to see something that I didn’t, so…I choose to walk alone. Best advice is to follow some group of tourists like I did. I felt safer. :)
It was so cloudy and my plan to make good photos was partly successful.
I always bring map with me, and I also installed offline map on my phone. There was no way to get lost
These shoes represent the suffering of the Jew. In this city you can see a lot of monuments dedicated to them.
On the right side of Danube is a few kilometers long promenade. As you walk you can see at your right side Main building of the Corvinus University of Budapest. Next beautiful one is Hungarian Parliament Building. That building took all my attention.
A guard shift was held in front of the parliament.
My next stop was some park with lots of monuments. It was a little bit depressing. Maybe it was because of the winter. My idea was to ride a bike during our little trip through the city, but it would be little bit tricky because I didn’t see track for bikers.
I saw open shop and decide to buy some postcards. I want to believe there are people who still send them. :)
It was time to meet my friends at St Basilica at 18 o’clock if I remember well. They had fun in Tropicarium. They saw so many species of animals that are not present in zoos. I remember when I was there everybody took picture with that shark at the entrance.
We decide to go inside and look around which we supposed to do when we were here two days ago. My pictures from there are blurry but I found one good.
It was Christmas. We felt some happiness and tiredness. We sat on the bench to rest and looked at the amazing ceiling. Suddenly my friend said hello to someone. It was his professor from the faculty. We couldn’t believe that we met someone from our country. It is not impossible but I can’t explain that feeling.
After almost one hour, it was time to go back to the apartment, ‘cause we needed to pack our staff. Tomorrow was our last day.
Plan was to see the other part of the city and Square of Heroes. First time I took metro in Budapest. It was pretty fast. We made to the Buda, the western parts of Budapest. There was two ways to get to the Citadella. Of course we chose steep and slippery one, it was faster according to the map. After less than one hour we made it to the top.
After we saw the fortress we went to see Buda castle. Magnificent view and magnificent architecture.
It’s getting darker and we only have to see Fisherman’s Bastion. White marble was so stunning and it looked like in a fairy tales.
It was dark. We stayed there maybe hour or two and we have to walk across the bridge straight to Square of Heroes and back to train station. I think we walked about 15km that day.
After two hours and maybe more we get there. Our feet were killing us. I had blisters. xD
Squere of Heroes…
But look at this ice rink, which is just at the back of the square. Vajdahunyad Castle is on the left
After this sightseeing, it was time.
We had two hours until the departure of the train. We killed in a coffee shop where my friend expect a coffee with his name on it, but he didn’t get it. What a pity xD I drank very interesting coffee without caffeine, but with nuts.
We took our stuff from the locker and wait on some bench. Some guy was creepy and he sat down next to me and he heard me when I said that to my friends, but I was relaxed ‘cause he can’t understand me. But hey, after half an’ hour he asked me on Serbian which train goes to Belgrade. I was so ashamed. Watch on your mouth!
This time we picked proper class. It was long ride in front of us, enough time to rest and prepare for work next day.
It was really short trip but longer post than I thought it would be. I have one more advice, when you travel pick spring or summer or snow if you can choose, because you remember the city or country in colors which are at that time, in spite of good company and crazy adventures.
I want to remember this trip by the taste of these marzipans. :)
