:: Sunday, April 09, 2006 ::

Buda the head! (Part the Second)

(If you haven't already, you should read Buda the head! (Part the First) first.)

Saturday morning (the 18th) we woke up (relatively) bright and early, had breakfast in the hostel and prepared to head out. Budapest is famous for its springs and baths, either traditional Turkish, taken in the nude, and wherein they alternate days between men and women to protect one's delicate sensibilities, or the more modern Hungarian baths, which are coed and require swimsuits. Unfortunately, in all the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the trip, we had forgotten our swimsuits. So while our friends headed for the baths, swimsuits in hand, Polka dot and I instead went to Statue Park, my must-see destination for the trip. On the way to the shuttle bus stop for the park, we stopped by St. Stephen's Basilica and the Grand Synagogue.

St. Stephen's Basilica

The Grand Synagogue

Statue Park is located outside the city, and contains a collection of old communist statues and memorials that were saved from the general destruction of such things after the fall of communism. Being a closet red myself, I had to go, and we spent a fine (though muddy) morning wandering around the park. I'm very happy that someone had the foresight to save these old statues. I can understand the reasons why most of the formerly-communist countries destroyed these things (who really wants a giant statue of Stalin overlooking all of Prague?), but at the same time, they are a part of these countries' histories, and shouldn't just be thrown on the rubble heap of history and forgotten. And in Budapest, at least, they've at least made some effort to remember their history, warts and all (while simultaneously and capitalistically milking a little cash out of tourists like me).

Me and my boy Lenin

Marx, Engels, and McCreary

Polka dot and Lenin (notice the subtle statement of opposition)

We returned to the city in the afternoon and met up with our friends, crossing the Danube from Pest into Buda and wandered around Varhegy (Castle Hill), visiting Matyas Church, Fishermen's Bastion, and Buda Castle itself.

Matyas Church

Fishermen's Bastion

Me and Polka dot at Fishermen's Bastion

The Turul, a giant eagle who sired the first dynasty of Magyar kings by raping the grandmother of Prince Arpad, who led the Magyar tribes into Europe

Marta, Tiffany, and Elizabeth at Buda Palace

While our friends went back to the hostel for a nap, Polka dot and I visited the Castle Labyrinth, a series of karst caves beneath castle Hill that have served as medieval cellars and WWII-era bomb shelters, and which is now home to, among other things, a giant sunken stone head that brings to mind The Lord of the Rings. Following that, we rejoined our friends and went to dinner at a nice Hungarian restaurant where I had wild boar, which was quite good, before ending the night at the hostel pub with a few drinks.

Giant stone head in the Castle Labyrinth

We had to head back to Prague on Sunday, but our train didn't leave until the afternoon, so we spent a beautifully sunny and warm morning back across the river in Buda, this time visiting the Citadel and Victory Monument, probably the highest point in the city with spectacular views. And with that, it was time to head back to Prague.

The Victory Monument at the Citadel

View of Budapest from the Citadel

Me and Polka dot on the Danube, the Citadel and Victory Monument behind us

The "Blue" Danube

Going home

There is still a lot we didn't get to see or do in Budapest, so I would definitely like to go back again. Overall, it was a really fun weekend, and I'm so glad that I have opportunities like this now that I'm living in Europe. This kind of thing is one of the exact reasons I moved here in the first place, and I love it!

Where will we go next? Bratislava? Vienna? Liechtenstein?

Who knows, but I want to hit them all. Catch ya on the flip-side.

:: posted by Rob 12:57 PM [+] :: 1 comments
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Buda the head! (Part the First)

Finally I have a chance to write about our post-Ides of March trip to Budapest, the capital of Hungary, way back on the 16th through 19th of March.

We were supposed to go with a few friends on an overnight train from Prague to Budapest on Thursday the 16th, but unfortunately they brought only their reservations and not their actual tickets. They resolved to take the first train on the 17th and meet up with us in Budapest Friday afternoon, which left me and the Polka dot with a 6-person couchette compartment to ourselves. So the trip passed mainly in blissful sleep, albeit with wake-ups at 3 and 5 am so officials could check our passports as we crossed into Slovakia and Hungary, respectively.

We arrived in Budapest round abouts 7 am, and headed for the Marco Polo hostel, which may be the best hostel in the entire world. Cheap (3000 Hungarian forints a night for a dorm bed, about $13 US), neat, and clean, with a variety of room types over 5 floors. We had considered getting a private double room, but opted for 2 dorm beds instead for financial considerations. It turned out to be a good plan - a dorm room at the Marco Polo only holds 12 beds, and our two were completely separated from the other beds by divider walls and curtains, so we could actually make our own private mini-room. We each had our own luggage locker/wardrobe with lock and 2 bathrooms to share with the rest of the room. In our two nights there, we never had to wait for a bathroom or shower, and our roommates were all well-behaved and quiet. Finally, the hostel also has a basement pub where you can hang out and eat and/or drink, and where they also serve free breakfast every morning. I want to back to Budapest just to stay at the Marco Polo again! ;)

Anyways, we hopped the metro for 1 stop to the hostel (we could have walked, but we really had very little idea of where we were), checked in and dropped off our stuff, and headed out into the city. We weren't really sure what to do, as we had expected to plan our day with our friends, who hopefully had more information about what Budapest had to offer. But that plan was obviously out, so we just wandered towards the center, and eventually ended up at the Danube, which divides the city into its two constituent halves, Buda, on the right (western) bank, home to Buda Castle (and including Obuda, or "Old Buda"), and Pest, on the eastern bank, where we and our hostel were. Unbeknownst to me, Budapest had originally been three different towns (as you can see if you look at old novels or maps where it's referred to a Buda-Pest), and weren't incorporated into one city until 1873.

Polka dot on the Danube, Buda Castle in the background

The famous Chain Bridge over the Danube, between Buda and Pest

The impressively Gothic Parliament building, on the Pest side

We headed back to the hostel in the afternoon to take a quick nap and meet up with our friends, but we couldn't find them. (It turned out that they had arrived slightly later than anticipated, and did not have roaming activated their phones, so they hadn't been able to call us or receive any of our calls or texts to them. And just as we headed downstairs to the pub before going out, they were going upstairs to our room, so we missed each other.) Not knowing any of that at the time, we once more struck out into the city, this time heading deeper into Pest in the opposite direction to Heroes' Square, where statues honoring the great Magyar heroes of old are displayed. Beyond the square, we also found Vajdahunyad Castle, beautifully lit up at night, and so we spent a little time wandering around there as well.

Heroes' Square in the twilight's last gleaming

Vajdahunyad Castle at night

Inside the castle grounds

We headed back to the hostel on the yellow metro line, which was the first underground subway line in continental Europe (starting operation in 1896), and where the train and stations are still decorated to look the way they originally did, complete with beautiful wrought iron railings, old turn-of-the-century advertisements on the wall, and announcements for the next stop preceded by a decidedly 19th-century -sounding organ-like tone. It was quite cool, like stepping back in time! We stopped off for dinner at a Pizza Hut, of all places (for good ol' American comfort food; sadly, while Prague has no dearth of McDonalds and KFCs, it has a decided shortage of Pizza Huts and Taco Bells), before winding up at the hostel's basement pub, where we finally found our friends. We had a few drinks, caught up a bit, made plans for the morrow, and headed for bed.

Up next: Day Two

:: posted by Rob 10:37 AM [+] :: 0 comments
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Ibhola Lethu

Once again, far too long between posts, and far too much important information to impart in the limited time I have available. Who would have thought the life of an English teacher could be so busy?

As I egotistically reported last week, 'twas indeed my birthday. So a hearty Thank you! to those of you who sent birthday wishes, and in some cases, gifts! Woo-hoo! The Polka dot and I had a quiet birthday dinner at a local pub/restaurant which was quite nice. We followed it up with a celebratory pub crawl with friends on Friday, and the rest of the weekend was spent recovering from Friday night (in Polka dot's case at least; I was fine!).

The weekend before, I went to my first professional football match (aka soccer, for you Americans) with Polka dot and our friend Courtney. One of my classes is for a publishing company that publishes, among other things, sports magazines and newspapers, and one of my students had free tickets, which he gave to me! The match was between AC Sparta, one of Prague's top teams, and FK Teplice. More information on the clubs (in English) can be found here and here. Unfortunately, both teams were good enough that it was a scoreless game (nil-nil, as the Brits say), but we had a fun time, and a it was good day for a match: warm (finally!) and though a bit rainy, our seats were covered. And we got to hear the Sparta Ultras (kinda like "superfans") chanting, "Let's go, Sparta, let's go!" in English. Kinda surreal, and unlike in the U.S., live sports games here don't have an announcer giving a running commentary, so all in all, it seemed strangely quiet. Afterwards, we joined our friend Adrian for a bite to eat as his local pub/eatery, than we headed to another pub for pool and foozball. Woo!

Of course, before even that, we went to Budapest. Sadly, however, the details of that particular journey will have to wait for another time. This weekend, perhaps? Who knows! I'll even try to get a few pics up for your viewing pleasure, as well.

Until then, Sizobonana!

:: posted by Rob 7:58 PM [+] :: 1 comments
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