DAY 8: Budapest

Saturday, August 8th 2010

Our train was scheduled to arrive in Budapest at 8:25, but we were a little late. We got off the train and headed directly for the Info-desk. Got a map of the city and found out that it would be wise to buy the 24-hour travel cards. The metro station was right next to the train station, so we went that way. We couldn't find an ATM at the train station, but figured they would accept our credit cards at the metro station. You'd think, right? Wrong! They didn't accept our credit cards. Apparently, MasterCard is just not good enough. So we went back outside and started searching for an ATM. We asked some lady for directions and she pointed out the closest one. I took out 20 000 HUF (about 70€), which was just one bill. We then went back to the metro station. By now there was a pretty long line for the tickets, so Pinky waited with our bags while I stood in line with the money. There was the same dude in the ticket booth as the first time, and when I gave him my 20 000 HUF bill, he got an annoyed expression on his face and asked if I had anything smaller. I suppressed my growing rage and said "no, I do not" as calmly as possible. Finally we caught a train to the Deli train station, and followed the directions I got from HoselWorld. The hostel (Greenfield Private Rooms) was pretty easy to find. Our host let us in and showed us around. It was basically a large 2-story apartment: the downstairs was for visitors (three rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom) and the host lived upstairs with his girlfriend, who, as it turned out, was my namesake. 

Breaking the stereotype of girls being neat-freaks

We got settled in our large room with a nice view over Budapest, and then began exploring the city. Since we had the travel passes, we decided to go to the Pest side, which was further away from where we were staying. We took a tram from the Moszkva Tér (Moscow Square) and got out somewhere on the other side of the Danube river. By the way, Finnish and Hungarian are related, but the only similarity between the two languages that we were able to spot was the word "tér" which in Finnish is "tori". We had lunch at Coffee Heaven (my new favorite café, I hope they open one in Finland some day :P), where I had the best coffee drink ever - caramel latte macchiato. Nom.

Om nom nom

We walked towards the riverbank and then walked along it. Saw the Parliament building, which was huge and impressive. It was a very hot and sunny day, so we had to stop and reapply sunscreen at regular intervals. It would have been so nice to go swimming, but we didn't know the city well enough. We continued walking along the shore until we reached the Chain Bridge. We walked up to the other side of the Parliament building and saw the memorial site to the failed communism. At that point, it was so hot that we decided it was Cuba Libre o'clock, and started searching for a cocktail bar of some sort. We ended up going to some Irish bar, which had tables outside. Ordered two daiquiris and had to wait for quite some time, because the waitress was so busy she forgot about us. They were short-staffed and the bar was full of men watching a football game. After our cocktail break we started walking towards the St Stephen's Basilica, which was very close by. I walked into a metal pole, because I had the map in my hand and Pinky distracted me. So I walked right into it. It hurt. A lot. I still don't understand why there are metal poles all along sidewalks there - whose brilliant idea was that??

 The Hungarian Parliament Building

St Stephen's Basilica was awesome. So unlike all the other churches I've seen - it was white and bulky, whereas I'm used to seeing Gothic Cathedrals. According to Wikipedia, it's in a neoclassical style of architecture, so I guess that explains it. There was actually a wedding in the church at the time. We looked at the prices for going up to the top of the tower, and after a little division in our heads decided that it was very cheap. So we paid and started climbing the 364 (?) steps to the top. The view was stunning. It was also a bit cooler on the observation deck. Nice and breezy. We got back down and unfortunately couldn't enter the church itself, because we both had sleeveless shirts and shorts on. So we didn't see the mummified hand of St Stephen, making that something to do during the next visit.

St Stephen's Basilica

The never-ending staircase

We were both starving and tried to find a grocery store with no luck. So we ate at McDonald's, which didn't accept our credit cards! Luckily we still had cash. After we'd finished eating we walked to the Opera house and from there took a metro to the Heroes' square. Apparently that metro line is the oldest in all of continental Europe. It was very small, and the train was tiny too. We got out right in front of the Heroes' square (Hösök tére in Hungarian) and saw the Freedom monument. 

The city park is located right behind the square, so we walked there. It was quite nice, although the river was completely dry. There was a castle with an unpronounceable name, and several weddings going on all at the same time. One of the thermal baths was somewhere in the park as well, but we didn't find it and were too tired to look more thoroughly. We rested a little and then left the park. Took a trolley bus to the main train station and from there walked down towards the Astoria metro station, where the Synagogue was located. It is the biggest Synagogue in Europe and it was impressive. I'd read that there is also a holocaust memorial near there, but the entrance was already closed (it was late afternoon or early evening on a Saturday, after all), so we didn't see it. We took a metro back to the Deli station, got groceries and went back to the hostel. I was exhausted and my legs were killing me.

-Brain