A filler about Budapest

hii again! I was just looking at the picture of the Hungarian Parliament House we took today, and compared it to the Marzipan version we saw yesterday. The resemblence is uncanny!

The actual Parliament House taken from Buda Castle

versus

Krups with the Marzipan Parliament House which we saw at the Marzipan Museum in Szentendre yesterday

Budapest, Hungary - Day 3

Location: Our room in 2night Home Hostel

hiii! Such a tiring day with lots of exercise as we explored most of Budapest on foot, with quite a bit of climbing!

We started it off with an attraction really close to our hostel - the Great Market Hall. From the guide books, it sounded like a huge place piled with tons of groceries and souvenirs, and Matt told us it would be good. So we set off after our last breakfast at 2night Home and walked about 5 minutes towards the city and found the sprawling hall.

It was, as the guide books described, primarily for food. The whole ground level was made up of food stalls selling mainly fruits and vegetables, but there was some other stuff too. Like a Paprika stall! Where they hung strings of chilli and garlic around the shop. We found it really interesting and took turns to take photos there.

Check out the interesting decor of the shop!

While doing that, we even ran into Matt who was doing grocery shopping there. So got a group photo in front of the Paprika stall. We so wanted a photo with him! But none of the passers-by wanted to help, so he just said he'll take one with us when we got back from our touring.

I was craving for a nice, juicy citrus fruit, so got an orange to munch on the way before heading to the second floor which was packed with souvenir stalls, and Hungarian snack stalls. I decided this was the best place to get a Hungarian doll for the golu so got a cute lil thing for a decent price. They had lots of cute stuff! My favourite was a horse hanging on a spring with a cigar in its mouth, and if you light up the candle inside, it actually smokes! Very cute, but I didn't buy it.

After some light shopping, we headed for Gellert Hill. To get there, there's no proper public transport (kind of like how most of the parks in Singapore are not really accessible unless you manage to get the NParks bus) so we decided to exercise and walk all the way up. So we crossed the Danube and walked uphill all the way, taking some breaks in the middle to take photos. Especially when we finally saw the first sign of the peak of the hill after about an hour. The Liberation Monument showed us that we were heading the right direction.

Group photo with the Liberation Monument

The monument was built to commemorate Hungary's liberation from Nazi rule. But it wasn't such a big deal so we leisurely explored the area. The view was absolutely fabulous. In fact there was also a Citadel there which we could've climbed for a better view, but we didn't want to pay extra for it :P This place was actually used as a fort before, so there were some cannons and other artillery here and there. We eventually found a spot overlooking the Danube, with the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building in the background.

Neela and I with the Danube River and the Hungarian Parliament along the river bank

It's not so obvious here in the photo. The weather was really nice and windy too so we decided to relax there for a while, with the stunning view in front of us, and munched on our packed-up breakfast/snacks.

Our next destination was Castle Hill. I forgot to mention that the Danube River splits Budapest into two countys, Buda and Pest. The latter is where we stay, where most of the city is, which we covered day before yesterday, and is on flatter terrain. On the contrary, Buda is mostly hilly, with the two main hills being Gellert Hill and Castle Hill. So we decided to cover both sides of the county today.

Buda Castle was unlike the other castles we had seen so far. The architecture adopted here is Baroque-style: squat and round, rather than the tall, lean, Gothic architecture we saw in Vienna and Prague. But despite the un-impressive height, this seemed the most castle-like to us, with its stone walls and pointed towers. Could totally imagine Rapunzel letting down her hair here!

Us three in front of Buda Castle, atop Castle Hill

The lack of people made a difference too. The castle stood there, lonely and deserted in the gloomy weather (this kind of affected my mood too heh). And there were no signs to take us to the popular areas as we entered from the side, rather than the main entrance. So it really felt like a castle adventure, exploring the place and imagining how past-dwellers would have roamed around.

Soon we found the more popular areas, Matthias Church (which was closed) and Fisherman's Bastion.

A statue of Stephan I of Hungary at the Fisherman's Bastion

The view from here was even more amazing than that from Gellert Hill. We could see a lovely panorama of Pest, including a much closer view of the Hungarian Parliament.

The Hungarian Parliament along the Eastern bank of the Danube

Again, we took a break here to take in the view and take some picture. The breeze was lovely too so we stopped to rest for a while before heading to the most recommended place in our guidebook, the Castle Labyrinths.

The guidebook told us to go there after 6pm for a spookier adventure, as the lights are turned off then and explorers are equipped with just one oil lamp and nothing else. So of course, we waited till 6pm to go in.

It was such a rip-off. Entrance fee was 1500 Ft (about S$12) and what the guide book failed to mention was that half the chambers would be closed during the night-time experience!! We were SO annoyed. And Neela had to stay back to answer a call so Krups and I were all alone in the dark (and I'm pretty scared of the dark coz of dumb Haunted Houses that I've been to before sigh) so I just clutched her arm tightly and we walked through the deserted labyrinths. It was definitely spooky for the first 10 minutes or so, but after that, there seemed to be no purpose to this place. There were no panels giving us historical information, but just random statues with no explanations.

Random Horse statue

Maybe it is interesting that this stuff has prevailed over the years, but with no history, we just could not appreciate it. There was also this really random statue with a wine fountain. It really stank. After some time, we ran into Neela who was exploring ON HER OWN omg. And the three of us left, pretty disappointed as we thought this would be the highlight of the day.

Anyway, it wasn't all bad as we crossed the Chain Bridge back to Pest watching a gorgeous sunset. And since we didn't have anything else planned, we just leisurely strolled back to our hostel, making many stops. Like a still-open-at-9pm clothes shop! We needed some retail therapy to raise our spirits!

Looks like a kaleidoscope!

Neela bought the purple pair of pumps :) And yes, we did feel better after that quick spree. We had to get dinner on our way back and found a Burger King open along Vaci Ut, near our hostel. And they were showing a Euro match! Nederlands vs Italy. It was awesome to watch, with a whole bunch of locals cheering and jeering at the TV screens :D We just cannot wait to catch the other matches, especially after tomorrow when we will be in Austria and Switzerland after that!

Anyway, on our way back, we were taking photos and the male half of a couple offered to take a group shot of us (obviously to impress his gal, concluded Neels and Krups :D).

The Orchard-Road-like Vaci Ut, on our way back to the hostel

I was more worried about him running off with my camera heh. But anyway, it turned out to be a nice atmospheric shot. Unfortunately, we reached our hostel only after 10pm, and Matt had already slept off by then, leaving us a really sweet note saying goodbye. We were really sad, as we'd missed the chance of taking a photo with the nicest hostel owner we've seen so far, and the nicest hostel we have stayed in :( But oh well, there is no choice. We have to leave for Salzburg by 6am tomorrow so there's no way we'll ever see him again.

Anyway, sad stuff aside, Salzburg looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL from what I've seen in the guidebooks and websites. And Sound of Music sites! I'd watched the whole movie in Singapore so that everything will be fresh in my head, so just cannot wait to go there! And from the little preview of Euro 2008 that we saw earlier, I think watching an actual match amidst all the fans would be an incredible experience, and there's a chance for that coming up! So goodbye Hungary and Eastern Europe, and hellooo again Austria! Goodnight.

Szentendre and Budapest, Day 2

Location: Our room in 2night Home Hostel

Heyy! We had such a lovely day at Szentendre today. It's on the outskirts of Budapest, as I'd mentioned yesterday. Left the hostel only around 9.30am, as Matt got us breakfast at 9. Unlike Neela's wistful dreams, we only got a cheese spread and some bread :P Oh and some fruits. But it was better than nothing and it was free! We also met the other 2 hostelites, a couple staying in the private room upstairs. Matt's super super nice and I'm so glad we picked this hostel!

So anyway, we took the Szentendrei HÉV, the Suburban Railway to Szentendre for roughly an hour. There was a station we passed by called Aquincum. It's basically a 1900-year-old suburban city with a museum showcasing Roman ruins from the then-camp settlement. When we stopped at the station, just looking at the architecture reminded me so much of Asterix comics, but unfortunately we didn't have time to go there and I doubt we'll get the time tomorrow.

So we finally reached Szentendre (Saint Andrew) and tried to find our way to Skanzen, the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum. This museum wasn't actually in any of our guide books but I'd seen people raving about it on trip-advisor so thought we should go for it. However, the bus was only gonna leave at 12.30pm and it was only 11 so we had to kill about an hour, and decided to visit the Marzipan Museum in downtown Szentendre (Centrum).

Sooo pretty! Everything there was made with marzipan and looked absolutely beautifully delicious :D We got to see a glass room where people were moulding the artifacts for the museum. They're very talented! Check this out - one of my favourite items.

Needlework/Crochet all in marzipan!

There were different themes. General stuff, and then it went on to Hungarian artifacts and portraits of people - I'm still figuring out how they managed to do that - oh and a whole room with fairytale scenes. Lots of Disney movie scenes, and fables.

A revolving Sleeping Beauty piece

Yes, we badly wanted to eat all of it. The arty intricacies only made the sculptures more attractive to our stomachs :P There was a marzipan shop which we visited after the museum, and got ourselves some snacks for the next museum.

The open-air museum was totally worth it! We only hoped that it wouldn't rain as it did yesterday, as this place involved about 3-4 hours of walking. When we entered, we were greeted by a huge expanse of land with houses lining the path, houses which we learnt contained the exhibits.

Skanzen - Open-air ethnographic museum

The place was divided into 10 regions of Hungary, with a total of nearly 350 buildings containing various exhibits - including art, folk stuff, tribal stuff, games, model rooms, etc. I'll only talk about the highlights here. We found a room where this oldish friendly-looking guy taught everyone to make a traditional Hungarian musical instrument with just bits of wood, cord and paper. He didn't know a word of English but all three of us managed to make one each and play it too. Krups was the best, Neela and I though musically inclined, just couldn't make the sound properly :P

Hard at work. Mine was completed and I was figuring it out.

Next we walked down and saw a lovely windmill which we took photos with of course. And a pig pen and a sheep pen. Stinky. The next most interesting site was the one with the traditional games.

Krups and I playing traditional Hungarian games

Here, we had to hit the balloon-like object into the basket with the bat. Seems simple enough but it actually took many tries and aiming! Everything was made of organic stuff. Like the bat was made using a wooden frame and what seemed like animal skin. And the balloon thing? It somehow reminded me of an animal's stomach so I refused to touch it heh. There were other games too but we were running out of time so went off to the next place.

We found a nice big patch of green green grass with a lovely backdrop, including the windmill and got some charming Frenchmen to take a group picture for us. They took plenty of pictures and kept commenting on how 'magnifique' we were :D 3 girls travelling together can sure have its benefits! I love this photo so much.

Group shot at Skanzen

Not sure if you can see in this, but the ominous rain clouds started rolling in. So we found some shelter at one of the houses and stayed till it stopped pouring. It was still drizzling for a while but we didn't want to waste anymore time so continued walking. There was no way we could finish all the settlements so just did what we could before heading towards the Danube River as we hadn't seen it properly yet. Before that, we got distracted by some cherry trees and plucked cherries right out of them! Lots of others were doing it too so guess it wasn't illegal or anything. It was so fun! We washed them in the rainwater and ate them there and then! Delicious stuff, and red and ripe :) I wish we'd get stuff like that in Singapore too. Plucked a whole bunch of them to eat for supper too.

So then we took the bus back to Szentendre and walked towards the Danube River.

Neela and I with the Blue Danube

The river looked so peaceful. We'd have sat there for a longer time if it wasn't drizzling and on the verge of a downpour. Right next to this spot was a little cafe selling Hungarian snacks. It was pretty crowded and people were buying what looked like some fried 'naan' with a whole lot of CHEESE topping it. Naturally we just HAD to try it out! Only thing is, the whole menu was in Magyar and the people at the counter didn't seem to know English, and we needed to check if the stuff was vegetarian. So we got the help of a very nice local guy who told us that the food they were eating was Lángos, a fried pancake-like bread to be eaten with cheese and sour cream. It was really good and very filling!

Us three with Yann, a Szentendre resident

We chatted with Yann for a while about Szentendre and Hungary, and then decided to try out another dish which he recommended. Can't remember the name (aah I should've written it down)! It was something like a soft crepe/dosai rolled into a burrito and topped with castor sugar, cinnamon powder and whatever you asked for. Very tasty too. And we ended up spending a good 45 minutes there! So had to rush to catch the HEV back to Budapest.

We skipped dinner as we were really full, so returned to the hostel around 9-ish. And now these two nuts want to do a makeover on me!! Sigh I shall go get prepared to look like a ghost. Till tomorrow, g'night!

Budapest, Hungary - Day 1

Location: Our room in 2night Home hostel.

Hii! I LOVE this hostel! We all do. It's so cozy. And extremely private. There are just 2 rooms in this little place and we get very personalized attention. Right now, we're sharing a 4-bed room with an Australian girl. :) :) But more about it later.

So we started our day at 4.30am! Had to wake up then and leave really early to catch the bus to Budapest at 6.30am. Of course we didn't get breakfast, but the receptionist gave us a bottled drink each. I got myself some Mirinda for the 7 hour journey and we've all loaded up on Milo and Oreos! Oh but this morning, we gave off some more Milo to our new roommate, this Sri Lankan dude from Canada. Lots of Canadian backpackers eh! And we also used the free computer to book tickets for the Salzburg Ice Caves. So had a very busy morning. We thankfully reached the Florenc bus station on time :) and said our goodbyes to Prague!

The journey was spent mostly sleeping and watching TV. I was sitting with a stranger this time and the other two were a few seats in front. Bus was pretty packed! They played some hilarious Czech movies (they weren't intentionally funny, but the acting and expressions were too comical!) so I spent my time watching that. Totally forgot to try the free beverages again, and sadly won't get the chance to anymore since this is our last Student Agency bus. Oh well.

Anyway, we reached Nepliget bus station around 2. Where we stopped seemed to be right in the middle of nowhere and everyone was just walking off in different directions. So we asked the bus driver and assistant who gave us vague directions to the actual station. The trip there was scary! Traffic here is CRAZY! Kinda like India :/ Nobody waits for us poor pedestrians man. Sigh. Anyway, we reached the station and that, thankfully, was a proper station. It kinda reminded me of the Greyhound stations in Canada. A nice busy place. We had to go collect our bus ticket for the Budapest-Vienna journey so had to go to the station. And decided to change our money here too, since the bus station at Prague had a very decent rate. But oh, what a rip-off! We found out much later that we lost about 800 Forints (about 7 SGD) due to the poor exchange rate we were given! Grr. And the toilets here charge about 100 Ft. Awful. I can't wait for free toilets again.

From Nepliget, we took the metro down to Ferenciek Tere which is where our hostel is. There is NO WAY we can cheat on metro tickets here! The wardens at the station make sure we have the right ticket both before and after the train ride!! They actually ambushed us today. And the tickets aren't even that cheap. Worst part is, we have to buy 2 tickets if we need to change lines! And there is only one line that comes to Ferenciek Tere which doesn't even go to most of the places we need to go to. Sigh. This means a lot of walking from the interchange which is thankfully only one stop away. And the road down to the hostel is kinda like Orchard Road. It's actually a touristy area. I'm so thankful for that! Especially after that deserted area we were at in Prague.

So we walked and walked and walked with our heavy backpacks, down to the hostel. We nearly missed it! It's a really tiny place. And it's part of a group of apartments. We were greeted by a Dutch guy called Jimmy. He pointed us to a very cozy room complete with bedside lamps and told us that's where we would be staying. A really welcome change from the previous dorm experience! And we were even happier to learn that after tonight, the room would be fully ours for 2 nights! The bathroom's incredibly clean too. I love it here. And Jimmy was very helpful and told us the various places we could check out, and recommended a restaurant with veg food for dinner. Really warm and hospitable. And he told us that the owner, Matt would be providing breakfast, and we even have a computer with free internet! Neela's now dreaming of home-made breakfast like pancakes and stuff hehehe. I wish!

The weather wasn't too good. So we decided to take it easy and walk along Andrassy ut. Only now we started taking photos! First, we walked down to the interchange Deak Ter, to see St. Stephen's Basilica. Didn't wanna go in as we'd seen enough churches!

Krups and I with our umbrellas outside the basilica

Neela looking v v cute in teenu's oversized jacket! And krups nut wanting to get wet in the rain

Thankfully it went down to a drizzle. I am now the guide for this part of the journey so the book's in my hand

As we walked along Andrassy ut, we came upon the Hungarian State Opera House

After lots of strolling and not much phototaking, we stopped at the House of Terror which is a pretty recommended place here. It was SO depressing. It's basically a history museum depicting the dark days of communist repression in Hungary. There were many rooms with realistic exhibits, and even spooky background music. We learnt quite a bit, despite feeling out of sorts after the tour. As we exited, the sun started coming out, and I realised that the word terror was spelt on the ground beside the building, and this was a shadow formed by the awning of the building. It gave me the chills.

We decided to treat ourselves for dinner. Checked out a coupla places, including an Indian restaurant! Forgot its name, but it reminded me of Bombay Cafe. It didn't seem worth the prices. Finally we went to the restaurant recommended by Jimmy and it was a great choice. With watering mouths, we ordered a plate of pasta each. And I asked the waiter if I could have a non-veg dish without the meat, and he offered to get it for me, at a cheaper price even!! I love the Hungarians' hospitality! The restaurant had excellent ambience too, and it was such a satisfying dinner.

After stuffing our stomachs, we walked down the street and ended up at Vorosmarty Ter, some millenium underground metro station. Honestly it didn't seem all that great. Decor was just slightly different from the rest of the stations. Anyway, we walked back (more walking!) and it started raining pretty heavily. Our jeans got thoroughly soaked and this is why I hate rain sigh. But having an umbrella soon became pointless. Krups LOVES the rain, and her enthusiasm was infectious. So we started doing crazy things..

Krups going nuts.

Neela and I going nuts.

So after taking nutty photos, we slowly walked back and here we are! Had a lovely warm shower with no water problems, no light problems, and no cleanliness problems! This place is great. I'm looking forward to our next few days here! Off to Szentendre tomorrow. It's outside the city. Goodnight!