Budapest 1999

Transcribing my 1999 travel journal from Prague last week was so much fun that I'm jumping ahead and now giving you Budapest.  I'm being self-indulgent (and avoiding composing an original essay), so feel free to skip reading this post, and await my next exercise in actual creative writing.

-------------------------

Thursday, September 16 -- 8:45 p.m.
Budapest

Sitting in the basement bar, having a beer, at what certainly is the strangest hotel I've stayed at on this trip.  But let's start at the beginning.

***

Up this morning [in Vienna] and took the subway to the Westbahnhof to catch my 8:30 train.  Arrived in Budapest about 11:30 and found what I suppose was the official accommodations desk.  A single man stuck back in a niche of the station in an area he shared with loud rock music and several young black guys playing arcade games.  (Keleti station seemed sort of shabby in general.)

He called several hotels that were booked up, and finally sent me out here.  Only $35/night for a small room with a shower, including breakfast.  Had to go one subway stop, and then transfer to a trolley bus that went on forever out into the sticks.  Recall that Hungarian is not an Indo-European language.  Outside a very limited tourist area, virtually nothing is translated into English.  I had only the names of the two streets at whose corner I was supposed to get off the bus.  I'm amazed and extremely proud of myself that I actually made it here!  It's a residential area, similar to a suburban area at home.  Coming back to the hotel just a few minutes ago, the air was warm and fragrant with flowers and filled with the loud chirping of crickets.  Many fairly elaborate single family dwellings.  At least, I'm seeing a part of Budapest that few tourists do, I'm sure.  School was just letting out on my first trip out here from the train station, and it all seemed very domestic and un-touristy with kids getting on and off the bus, kidding around together in a way indistinguishable from home except for that bizarre language they were speaking.

After settling in, I quickly retraced my steps and ended up downtown at Deák Ter -- the center of the subway system and, I presume, the city.  I didn't like Budapest at all, at first -- it was confusing, traffic was heavy, and nothing was in English.

I've changed my mind.

I knew I was weakening when I finally reached the Danube (the "Duna") and looked across to the castle hill on the Buda side.  Not just a castle, but a whole complex of buildings high in the air.  I walked across the Chain Bridge and up to the castle.  Prowled around the walls and through all the beautiful baroque streets, many lined with horse chestnuts just reaching their falling-nut stage.

Actually, much of Budapest reminds me of Paris.  The trees, the autumn air (the same time of year that I first saw Paris), the heavy 19th century style of the buildings on the Pest side of the river.  The views of the river and skyline from the hill are unforgettable.

I re-crossed to Pest and wandered all around the central area, getting continually lost despite consultations with the map I had purchased.  Had beers at a couple of outdoor cafés. I decided to come back to the hotel about 7:30, when it was still light, so I could use landmarks to find my way home.  But it was dark anyway by the time I got on the tram -- and I still made it ok.  We are the 12th stop from the subway station -- so long as I count and don't get distracted, and assuming the bus actually stops at each stop, I'll be fine. 

I'm still all alone in the bar.  A boy who seemed to be about 14 came in, smoked a cigarette, waited a bit longer, and left in disgust.  The barmaid seems to have disappeared.  The beer, by the way, is Steffl Bier, an Austrian brand.

Tomorrow, I'll either do an examination of churches and museums, having got a feeling for the area today, or visit the Danube Bend by boat.

Friday, September 17 -- 3:30 p.m.
St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest

Just wandered in and am sitting under the enormous central dome of the cathedral.  High baroque style -- ornate but dignified.  Exterior is covered with scaffolding and sheeting where it's being scoured to its original white.

The apse has a very large second dome over the high altar.  A statue of either Christ or St. Stephen stands under a pillared canopy holding in his hand the Hungarian (two cross pieces) cross.

Basic color is dark red marble, which is used on all the walls and pilasters.  The dome itself is a lighter pink and the apse dome, topped by a glass oculus, is all in gold with various angelic figures done in pastels.  A very impressive church, with great dignity.  Easy to forget that this was the cathedral church of Cardinal Mindzenty, who was imprisoned for so many years in the 1950s by the Communists.

Friday, September 17 -- 9:50 p.m.
Budapest

Two rolls for breakfast, and a pot of absymal coffee.  Needed plenty of milk to make it palatable.  I'll try tea tomorrow.

Made my now familiar pilgrimage by bus and subway to Deák Ter.  Spent some time locating the stop where the airport bus leaves Sunday.  My timing is going to have to be fairly precise to make my plane on time.

I then walked back across the Chain Bridge, and wandered all around the Palace on the castle hill.  The Palace, which stands out so clearly from the river below and from Pest, now houses the National Gallery of Art, as well as several other national museums.  Wandered around the castle hill some more, passed through the Vienna Gate, and hiked back across the bridge.

Saturday, September 18 -- 9:50 a.m.
Budapest

Sitting at the Anna Café in Kristof Ter, one of my favorite sitting haunts.  I'm planning to go to Szentendre, up the Danube, this morning.  I originally planned to go by boat at 9 a.m., but it was overcast when I woke up and a boat trip didn't sound too attractive.  I'm going by regional transit instead, but may come back by boat if the timing works out.

Yesterday, I followed a tour route suggested in my Lonely Planet guidebook, and took the subway out to the City Park.  Walked around watching kids playing basketball, and saw the incredible agglomeration of architectural styles in the Vajdahunyad Castle, now occupied by the Agricultural Museum -- looked like Count Dracula's castle, and indeed the most dramatic portion of the structure was Transylvanian in inspiration.  Came back to the Opera by subway, then walked down the October 6 utca (avenue), its buildings still pock-marked from Soviet shelling in 1956.  At the end of the avenue was the Soviet memorial commemorating the city's liberation by the Russians in World War II, sited ironically directly in front of the American embassy.

Near dinner time, I hiked up to the Citadel on the Buda side of the city and stayed up at the top until the lights came on across the city.  Very spectacular, and I couldn't resist taking several time exposures that I knew were doomed from the start.  I really need a tripod, but I carry enough baggage around with me as it is.

Came on back down the hill in the near-dark, and re-crossed the Erzsébet Bridge -- which also afforded great views of the Buda side with the Palace and Matthias Church looming over the city, glowing with artificial light in the dying twilight.

Saturday, September 18 -- 1:15 p.m.
Szentendre, Hungary

I am just finishing an excellent lunch of Hungarian stew (sort of braised beef) on dumplings which are cut up in small pieces like a form of pasta.  Sitting on the terrace of the Vendéglo restaurant, overlooking the central square with an ornate "plague cross" in the center.  Café was quite full when I sat down, but is now thinning out.  On the far corner of the square (I'm sort of at the apex of an isosceles triangle, if that helps!) is a typical Hungarian parish church, with an onion bulb, short conical steeple, and ornate cross on top.

I am overwhelmed by charm.  Szentendre is obviously Carmel for those who can't get to California, but with a Middle European rather than Spanish colonial motif.  There definitely are things for sale here, and much more English in use than I saw in most of Budapest.  My guide book says that tour buses disgorge regularly here -- thankfully, "the season" appears to be past.

Sunday, September 19 -- 10:40 a.m.
En route to London

I ended up spending all day in Szentendre.  I walked around after lunch, out onto the highway.  When I returned, a German language band was playing in the town square.  The leader was the conductor, a comedian of sorts, and a  pretty good singer.  The music was mainly Austrian and German folk tunes, but the group swung into "Hello Dolly" at one point, with the singer doing a remarkably good, gravelly-voiced, unaccented imitation of Louis Armstrong.  The band occasionally broke into a chant and took another slug from the beer mugs they kept at their feet.

I bought Mother the only present of the trip, a stuffed hausfrau she can add to her bear collection.  It was 1680 forints, or around $8.00 -- something similar might be around $30 at home.

I spent enough of the day listening to band music that I decided not to return by HEV, as I had come, but to take the Málev river boat back to Budapest.  It was coming down from Visegrád, on the Danube Bend, and we filled it to capacity at Szentendre.

In fact, we had overflow that had to wait for another boat.  Today was mostly overcast, with occasional sun breaks.  But it still was an enjoyable two hour ride back to the city.  Passed a number of nice vacation homes on one island, where we stopped to pick up a passenger and her baby, and passed a number of joggers, walkers and bicyclists on Margaret Island -- all of which is a park.

Talked to a couple of girls who were students at NYU, living the past month in Budapest.  They will be studying in the city until Christmas.  They are math majors, and Hungary apparently is famous for its mathematicians.  One of the girls was from Madras, India, and had been a student in the U.S. for two years before coming to Budapest.

Hated to tear myself away from nocturnal Budapest.  I kept returning to the Danube and gazing at the illuminated buildings glowing like a fairy land on the hill across the river -- and wondering, of  course, if this was the last time I would ever see Budapest.

I keep allowing what one might call "an elegiac mood" to creep into this stupid journal! 

Last night, as though to celebrate my departure after two weeks of near-perfect weather, we had wild thunder and lightning, and pouring rain.

Up at 5:15 a.m., standing at the bus stop, waiting in the rain-scented morning air for my #77 trolley bus, light just touching the sky.  Dogs barking in the distance, roosters crowing, an occasional early-Sunday pedestrian walking by briskly.

Hungary.  I think I want to return.