Today has been a quiet one as I spent most of the day doing research and shopping. I bought 2 new pair of shorts and 3 shirts, and will have to go through all my things tomorrow and figure out what to throw out so I can pack everything. I checked some of the shopping streets, but ended up buying most of the clothes at a big shopping mall called WestEnd (which is actually in the east end of town, strange). It also negates some of the money I was trying to save on this leg, but even with the clothes I'll only have spent about $260 for the 4 days here, so not too bad.
Deciding where to go next has been probably the biggest dilemma I've faced so far. I've changed my mind about 4 times in the last 2 days, with the options being to either go straight to Vienna next, or to loop down through Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia before getting to Austria. The advantage to the second is obviously that I get to see 3 more countries, and all 3 have been highly recommended to me by others. The disadvantages are more complicated. Bosnia isn't included on my rail pass, so I'd have to pay for it seperately, and the parts of Croatia I want to go to really require going through Bosnia to get there, so it's both or neither. That isn't so bad though - the real issue is time. Adding on the three countries really locks down my timetable to see the rest, and there are a lot of unknowns involved that could cause delays (for example, there is only one train daily from Budapest to Sarajevo, and it requires 4 border checks and may or may not be available the next two days since it's the weekend). I'm leaning towards just skipping them now, and having that extra week to spread around seeing more of the other countries instead of always having to be on the move. It will be sad to miss them, as I was really looking forward to seeing all three, but there's always future trips. Who knows though, I might change my mind again by tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Day 108: The Pest Side of the Danube
Since I spent most of yesterday on the west side of the city, today I stuck on the east side. I explored Vaci St again in more detail, specifically looking for clothes. I have discovered (not too surprisingly) that clothes wear out a lot faster when are constantly wearing, washing, packing, unpacking, wearing, etc them every couple of days, and I want to replace a few things while I'm somewhere that has good selection and is relatively inexpensive. I didn't buy anything in the end, but I'm going to go a few more places before I leave Budapest and will almost certainly pick up a few things.
For lunch I ate at Menza again. It had good, cheap food that is different every day, so as long as I'm in the area I may as well keep visiting. Today it was a cream of potato and cheese soup with a salmon and spinach pasta. I splurged and bought a lemonade with it as well, so it was $6 instead of $4!
Next I headed east on Andrassy Ave, which is the main street I've been using since it connects the place I'm staying with the city center. It's an old street with a lot of beautiful buildings, and the entire street is included in the Budapest UNESCO World Heritage site. I visited the House of Terror on the street, which had been recommended to me as the one museum to visit in Budapest if I was only going to visit one. The name sounds a bit like a haunted house, but the building (and the rest of the block) was used by both the fascist and communist regimes has a headquarters, and thousands of people were detained, interrogated, tortured and executed in a labyrinth of cells beneath the buildings. The building now is partly a museum of the regimes and partly a memorial to those who were killed. Even though they had good translations I found real history and information to be a bit lacking, but the audio-visuals of the place were pretty outstanding, if bizarre. A lot of rooms felt like walking through some eerie dream: walking through a maze where all the walls are made of wax bricks, a room where floorboards are ripped out and scorched with a giant glowing white cross lying in the dirt in the middle, a room that's dark except for tiny suspended white lights and a child's voice reading names (of the dead, I assume) - stuff like that.
I followed the street further east until I got to Heroes Square, Vajdahunyad Castle and the big park that surrounds them. It was another very hot day so I was happy to spend some time relaxing in the shade of the park and taking a break from walking.
The only real other thing of note I visited was the Central Market Hall. It's a big indoor market that was mainly food stalls on the ground floor and everything else on the upper walkways. I didn't buy anything, but it was a nice building and had a lot of fresh food.
For lunch I ate at Menza again. It had good, cheap food that is different every day, so as long as I'm in the area I may as well keep visiting. Today it was a cream of potato and cheese soup with a salmon and spinach pasta. I splurged and bought a lemonade with it as well, so it was $6 instead of $4!
Next I headed east on Andrassy Ave, which is the main street I've been using since it connects the place I'm staying with the city center. It's an old street with a lot of beautiful buildings, and the entire street is included in the Budapest UNESCO World Heritage site. I visited the House of Terror on the street, which had been recommended to me as the one museum to visit in Budapest if I was only going to visit one. The name sounds a bit like a haunted house, but the building (and the rest of the block) was used by both the fascist and communist regimes has a headquarters, and thousands of people were detained, interrogated, tortured and executed in a labyrinth of cells beneath the buildings. The building now is partly a museum of the regimes and partly a memorial to those who were killed. Even though they had good translations I found real history and information to be a bit lacking, but the audio-visuals of the place were pretty outstanding, if bizarre. A lot of rooms felt like walking through some eerie dream: walking through a maze where all the walls are made of wax bricks, a room where floorboards are ripped out and scorched with a giant glowing white cross lying in the dirt in the middle, a room that's dark except for tiny suspended white lights and a child's voice reading names (of the dead, I assume) - stuff like that.
I followed the street further east until I got to Heroes Square, Vajdahunyad Castle and the big park that surrounds them. It was another very hot day so I was happy to spend some time relaxing in the shade of the park and taking a break from walking.
The only real other thing of note I visited was the Central Market Hall. It's a big indoor market that was mainly food stalls on the ground floor and everything else on the upper walkways. I didn't buy anything, but it was a nice building and had a lot of fresh food.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Day 107: The Buda Side of the Danube
The switch from my hostel of last night to my place for the next 3 days went relatively smoothly. The place I'm in now is a private room in an apartment with 4 privated rented bedrooms and a shared washroom and kitchen. I'm on the Pest (east) side of the river, but a lot of the highlights of the city are along the west bank of the Danube on the Buda side, so I decided to focus on that for the day. On my way there I stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Menza that the guy who set me up in the apartment recommended. They have a fixed menu lunch for 990 HUF (about $4) that changes each day. I couldn't read the lunch description but ordered anyway since it's a pretty great price at a pretty upscale restaurant. It turned out lunch was two courses - a raspberry soup followed by mashed potatoes and chicken with a vegetable and rice stuffing. Probably one of the best meals I've had all trip, and can't really argue with $4 for it.
I also walked down Vaci St which is a big pedestrian shopping street, but I didn't really look into things in too much detail there yet. At the end of the street I crossed over the bridge to the west side of the river and hiked up the hill through the Jeubelumi Park to see the citadel and Liberty statue at the top (and the view of course, you know me and views).
I descended the hill on the opposite side and started hiking up the next hill over, which is the real interesting one. It contains the Budai castle (which now holds a museum and art gallery), some beautiful churches and a stretch of towers and walls known, for some reason, as the Fisherman's Bastion. The hill itself is also full of a warren of underground tunnels and chambers and a secret underground hospital. I was told that the tunnels are empty and not really worth buying a ticket to see, but if I have time I might check them out before I leave. Likewise I wasn't in too much rush for the gallery and museum since I'll be seeing much larger and more famous ones in Prague, Vienna and Berlin fairly soon. The castle had some beautiful fountains and sculptures around it though.
Further north on the hill was the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, which also gave another nice view down across the river to the Parliament buildings.
I meandered my way back through the city and picked up some simple food at a grocery store for dinner. I'm going to start my day tomorrow in the opposite direction, but I'm not sure what all I'll cover.
I also walked down Vaci St which is a big pedestrian shopping street, but I didn't really look into things in too much detail there yet. At the end of the street I crossed over the bridge to the west side of the river and hiked up the hill through the Jeubelumi Park to see the citadel and Liberty statue at the top (and the view of course, you know me and views).
I descended the hill on the opposite side and started hiking up the next hill over, which is the real interesting one. It contains the Budai castle (which now holds a museum and art gallery), some beautiful churches and a stretch of towers and walls known, for some reason, as the Fisherman's Bastion. The hill itself is also full of a warren of underground tunnels and chambers and a secret underground hospital. I was told that the tunnels are empty and not really worth buying a ticket to see, but if I have time I might check them out before I leave. Likewise I wasn't in too much rush for the gallery and museum since I'll be seeing much larger and more famous ones in Prague, Vienna and Berlin fairly soon. The castle had some beautiful fountains and sculptures around it though.
Further north on the hill was the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, which also gave another nice view down across the river to the Parliament buildings.
I meandered my way back through the city and picked up some simple food at a grocery store for dinner. I'm going to start my day tomorrow in the opposite direction, but I'm not sure what all I'll cover.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Day 106: Train to Budapest
My original plan was to spend the day in Sibiu and then do the night train to Budapest, but that didn't work out. Earlier in the trip, I was booking things almost a week in advance, but I've found in eastern Europe that it's just not possible. Trains are never on time (rarely even within an hour of being on time) and I don't have a firm plan on where I want to go until just before I leave, so there's a lot more winging it going on in recent weeks. Since I couldn't get a reservation for the night train I left in the morning for the ~10 hour ride and got into Budapest around 9pm. The train this time was a lot more comfortable than the one from Brasov to Sibiu, and while I wouldn't go so far as to call it relaxing it at least left me less stressed. I checked into a hostel near the train station for tonight, and then tomorrow am going to switch to the original accomodations I booked and start exploring Budapest.
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