Unfortunately for me, it was raining when I arrived and that depressed me to no end. When I left Tirana, it was hot! But there's nothing I can do about the weather so settled down and hoped that it would stop raining. But it was still raining the next day. Pants. Having spent all this money, I was determined there should be value for money so went around anyways. Unlike Tirana however, there will be less amusing anecdotes and more beautiful buildings in a fairy-tale city by the Danube.
A random art installation on my walk, shoes pointing towards the Danube like everyone had just jumped into the river.
St Stephen's Basilica, where the preserved right hand of St Stephen is still displayed.
Detail of the basilica wall, it's pretty amazing.
Just a random building in Budapest, how nice it is to live in a city surrounded by so many pretty buildings!
Me outside the opera house with one of the lions that guard it. Took a tour of the Opera House but couldn't take pictures inside.
One of the trams of Budapest.Shame I couldn't find an excuse to ride one while I was there, I walked or took the metro (subway, underground).
An aquaduct, like ones in Rome!
My fairy-tale impression of Buda Castle. All the castles in Budapest have been converted to museums.
Inside the parliment, where I took a tour. It's beautiful, I could spend time describing it all but you would find better expressions on the Internet or just by reading a guide book.
My cheesy tourist pic in front of the Parliment buildings on the other side of the river. *heh* *heh* *heh*
Now, time for some exercise. Tilt your head and you can see one part of Fisherman's Bastion, which is on top of a hill. I was very tired after climbing all the way up there.
A postbox! It's different from what I had seen before and it's something unusual since I didn't see any the whole time in Tirana.
Some of the buildings on Castle Hill, it's a nice place to wander around. In fact, most of Budapest is nice for wandering around, having lazy meals and sitting down having coffees.
In the labyrinths on Castle Hill, this is in the prehistoric cave bit.
This shouldn't have justified space in my blog if it weren't for the fact that wine was coming of out the spout instead of water. Nectar of the gods and all that.
Buda Castle at night.
The Dohany Jewish Synagogue, it's features are Moorish-influenced and when I first got there, I thought it was a mosque. I like it. It's different.
The Tree of Life at the back of the synagogue. One in the day and the other at night. The tree is made of metal and each leaf has the name of a Budapest Jew who perished during the Holocaust. They also have a Jewish museum adjoining it and while I was there, there was an exhibition called Conviction and Doubt, which I thoroughly enjoyed, that's a seperate post!
The elevator at the place where I stayed. Open frame, wooden doors, but it still works. Good old Soviet engineering....*fingers crossed*
Heroes Square, the archangel Gabriel stands at the top of the pillar, the seven Magyar tribes surrounding it.
Statue of the Annonymous. It's dark but not depressing to have this figure shrouded in a cloak and hood.
Vajdahunyad Castle in the City Park, it's now the Hungarian Agricultural Museum, which didn't interest me enough to visit inside.
St Gellert's Hill. Apparently this was the spot where they put St Gellert into a barrel and rolled him down the hill. By this point in time, I was slightly done with monuments and memorial type things...
The Freedom Monument, a statue of a woman holding a palm leaf in victory. The Soviets put it there and the Hungarians erased the Cyrillic of the base when they were kicked out, to remember the prosperity of the Hungarian peoples. Behind this monument is the Citadel which is the fort . They had a pretty good museum in there, a converted underground bunker to depict the tumultumous times in Hungary from just before WWII to the Soviet occupation.
The City viewed through the trees on Gellert Hill. It's peaceful and nice to know that the city can be so close yet far away enough.
Buda on the left and Pest on the right.
And basically, this is the reason why I went to Budapest, I just wanted to see a city that was united and seperated by the Danube. Buda and Pest. :-)
1 comment:
Hey, Alice! You really described Budapest like a professional tour guide. Those pix brings back lotsa of memories of Budapest from my childhood and not so long ago. The Buda castle, parliament house by the river, the view from the Citadella, etc. But there are also still many places in Budapest you have described which i haven't been. Makes me want to go back there to visit again. I'm taking back my words that 'I was bored with Budapest already' uttered by me to a surgeon-colleague few weeks ago. ;)
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