Budapest, Hungary

May 2017

Ed note: Since this was my 2nd visit to Budapest and 4th to Hungary, I have not bothered with background information.

After our Caribbean trip to St Vincents fell through, I had to come up with a quick trip abroad and opted for Budapest, Hungary. I had visited the city in 1998, but Wendy had never been to Hungary so she could tick off another country. The Ryanair flight left from Stanstead at the very civilised time of 11.45 on Saturday June 6th. It was packed and had stag and hen party groups

Arriving at the Ferihegy airport about 20km from the centre, our car hire had a meet and greet. A girl met us, walked us to the road and a couple of minutes later someone arrived in a small car and gave us a lift to the office down the road. It turned out this would be our car. It had less than 900km on the clock.

There was a Tesco’s superstore nearby so we could stock up on road food before heading into town to look for our guest house. I had a printed general google map to get us to the vicinity but nothing detailed. I followed my nose using Route 4 to the western side of Budapest and when I thought we were in the vicinity, I took a right off the main highway. With complete luck, I saw some hotel signs and spotted the ‘Korona Pension’. I later spotted another sign but after turning left at a T-junction and following the road, we lost the scent. I doubled back to a flower market near the T-Junction and was told the guest house was down the first road on the left. We had found it using no sat nav or map.

The guest house was nothing special. We were able to park the car in a forecourt. Our room had a balcony overlooking the car and the road which was quite busy. Strangely, each morning, we had to walk next door to a restaurant. In the basement was a limited help yourself breakfast but it was ok. At &163;22 a night for 2 people including breakfast, we weren’t complaining.

On the first night, we drove to the flower market and found a bar/café that did some Hungarian staples – goulash soup, fried camembert cheese as well as fast food. The barman/waiter spoke good English and explained some of the strong Hungarian herbal liqueur such as unicum. Hungarian beer was excellent. We returned on our second night to try other things.

The Rough Guide said “A relatively small, landlocked nation of just over ten million people, Hungary boasts much more beyond its beautiful and very hip capital city, Budapest”. Yet Budapest dominates the country in every sense- administratively, commercially and culturally. It is divided into two distinct parts by the River Danube with the historical Buda district on the elevated west bank and the more dynamic Pest district on the eastern side.

On a wet Sunday morning, we headed downtown to the centre following the River Danube. “Viewed from the embankments of the Danube, Buda forms a collage of palatial buildings, archaic spires and outsized statues, crowning craggy massifs” (Rough Guide). To our left the enormous Royal Palace dominated the other side. It is made up of various buildings dominated by the 18th century Hapsburg upgrades. It now houses various museums.

We passed the imposing Chain Bridge which was completed in 1848 and the first permanent crossing between Buda and Pest. On either side of the Bridge were two huge towers that support mammoth chains from which the bridge takes its name. We would cross it later when we headed for old Buda which stood on the cliffs opposite our first destination on the right – the Parliament building. Since it was Sunday we could find free parking anytime we wanted to stop.

Budapest’s stupendous Parliament building sprawls for 268 metres along the embankment and the façade of the Hungarian parliament is one of Budapest’s defining sights and is described by the Rough Guide as “scores of flying buttresses and 88 statues of Hungarian rulers lift one’s eye towards the 96m high cupola that straddles its symmetrical wings.” Completed in 1902, one of the finest neo-Gothic buildings in Europe had taken decades to build and at that time was the largest parliament building in the world.

On the promenade near the river were the Shoes on the Danube Bank sculture. It was created in 2005 (and not here on my initial visit) to honour the people (mainly Budapest Jews) who were killed by fascists in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The sculpture represents their shoes left behind on the bank.

Just to the right of the Hungarian Parliament Building was an underground memorial to those 800 demonstrators killed in the Kossuth Massacre of October 25th, 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution. This was the first major challenge to Soviet rule since World War II and the Soviets sent in the tanks. These Hungarian freedom fighters had only rudimentary weapons to face their Soviet oppressors. At the other end of the Parliament building was a visitors’ centre with a small museum. Tours were available of the building but they were all sold out today.

On the other side of the Kossuth Lajos Square was an impressive neo-classical building. Built 1893-6, it served as the country’s Supreme Court until 1945. The grand exterior and richly ornamented interior reflected the majesty, power and ambition of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The building itself was more impressive than the exhibits of the Ethnographical Museum inside, but the colourful displays of local costumes, toys, furnishings, and wedding customs passed an enjoyable half an hour.

Crossing the Chain Bridge, we drove to the Castle District and Old Buda. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the medieval town of Buda grew up around a castle built in the 13th Century. I had explored this area thoroughly on my first visit to Budapest. Climbing up to Fisherman’s Bastion which the Rough Guide described as “an undulating white rampart of cloisters and staircases intersecting at seven tent-like turrets”, it offered the most picturesque views of Pest across the river – specifically the white Parliament Building. The Bastion was built as a monument to the Guild of Fisherman in 1985.

Nearby the impressive Matyas Church (1470) was converted into a mosque by the Turks in early 1500s and also a battleground in World War II. It had been a late nineteenth century re-creation grafted onto the remains of a 13th century church with diamond-patterned roofs and toothy spires. Renovated in 1968 it looked like the original. Between the bastion and the church, an equestrian statue of King Stephen honoured the founder of the Hungarian nation.

Back down at river level on the Buda side, we made for the Gellert Hotel facing the Szabadsag Bridge. This was a famous art Nouveau establishment opened in 1918. But it was its thermal baths, the finest of all the great bath houses in Budapest that we were interested in. Damaged during World War II, it had been re-built in late 1940s.

The admission was for the whole of the day (we had two hours left before it closed) and contained a main swimming pool surrounded by high galleries and marble columns. It was a bit of a maze inside, but we eventually found two pairs of soaking pools decorated with colourful mosaics and majolica tiles. The pools had different water temperatures ranging from 27-40’C. I tried out a series of saunas which increased in temperature – the final one seemed to burn the soles of my feet. The steam room was more pleasant I also tried a freezing plunge pool. There was an outdoor pool with a wave machine but it was raining when we were there. It was a relaxing way to end the afternoon.

With no map, I had to guess my way back. I found the main highway that I recognised from this morning, but did not know which road off it to take. I did a u-turn when I thought we had gone too far and doubled back. I took a guess on a road to the right. It turned out to be our road – found again, completely by luck.

On Monday morning we drove around the Budapest ring road to the eastern side and joined the M3 heading north east. Flat agricultural land surrounded us. We turned off for Eger which is famous for its wine, Egri Bikaver (Bull’s Blood) and florid Baroque town centre. The former paid for the latter in its eighteenth century revival.

Parking up near the old castle we walked through the pleasant pedestrianised streets to the large Dobo Istvan square. The sun was shining. On the square was a Minorite church, a twin towered Baroque edifice completed in 1771 and one of the most stunning in central Europe. A latin inscription above the door said “Nothing is enough for God”. Inside, it was empty but with atmospheric choral music playing.

While Wendy was taking in the church, I got down on one knee and proposed to her for her hand in marriage which rather took her aback. I had a short speech written down which was just as well because I was shaking a little and would not have remembered my lines. We had been together for 10 years, living together for 5 and it was about time I made a decent woman of her. Outside, we got a local man to take our photo in front of the church.

Exploring the streets, I had to finally jog back to the car which was on a parking meter and move it. I found a space behind the massive cathedral where I had told Wendy to head for. The 1836 Cathedral loomed large above a wide flight of stairs. Instead the vast exterior had a baroque feel but was not as ornate as the Minorite church.

We explored more of the streets including the u-shaped Archbishops place, old town hall and other churches. It was a really pleasant place. We decided not to see the famous 40m tall slender 14 sided minaret from when the Turks had occupied the town. It would give use an excuse to come back sometime in the future.

The rain started to bucket down mid- afternoon and it was time to make tracks. Instead of returning via the M3, we took the old highway 3 back towards Budapest – a narrow but straight road passing through small agricultural villages containing churches and tidy streets. In a field of yellow rape, we pulled up to have a very late picnic.

On our final day (Tuesday), we headed back around the ring road to Godollo to visit the former Royal Palace which lies 30km from Budapest just off the M3. From the 1740s, the Habsburg’s royal family used it and in the 19th century, Emperor Franz Joeph’s wife Sissy preferred staying here to Vienna. Two World Wars took their toll on the building. It was commandeered as a General HQ by first the ‘Reds’ and then the ‘Whites’ in 1919-20 and pillaged by both the Nazis and the Red Army in 1944. One wing was later turned into an old people’s home. It had been restored a few years ago. It was a pleasant but nothing too exciting series of rooms that had been returned to portray the state rooms and private apartments used by Franz Joseph and Sissy (supposedly ‘ the most beautiful woman in the world’) His rooms were decorated in grey and gold, hers in violet. I took a walk around the grounds which were mostly lawns.

Then it was off to Vacs, 40km north of Budapest a town on the River Danube with a sleepy atmosphere. I had visited other Danube towns on a previous trip but never Vacs. Making for the river for a picnic, I found a parking area. While we ate, we watched local canoeists and rowers tackling the strong current and windy conditions. Behind us stood a large long plain building with low security fences. Security guards would occasionally pass by. Wendy said that it looked like a prison. I didn’t think it was because we were able to park so close, but after we pulled away and I looked in the guide book, I discovered that it was indeed the town prison which in the past had been notorious for its tough regime.

We were able to follow a river side road to the old part of town which had tree lined cobbled streets. We came across the neo classically designed Cathedral impressive for its façade of gigantic Corinthian columns. The main square called Marcius 15 Ter was a handsome mixture of Baroque and Rococo architectural styles including the Dominican church and town hall. The square also had a jumble of archaeological diggings. In the late afternoon sun, it was quiet and had a pleasant ambience.

We made for the airport, stopping off for a pizza in a bakery en route. We returned the car with no damage and were driven back to the airport, a bit earlier than anticipated. The Ryan Air flight was not due to leave until 9.20pm. In the end, it was delayed for over an hour and we didn’t take off until around 11 o’clock. Stansted airport was very quiet at 1am but it meant a late arrival home at 3am. I was up for work less than 3 hours later.

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