Hungary Travel

My first East Europe trip ended with a few days in Hungary's capital of Budapest. While traveling here I felt more in western Europe than eastern Europe for sure, and the number of tourists and traveling infrastructure made this an easy place to explore and meet new people. The rest of my countries on this trip where farther east, and even though they were without problems few tourists seemed to visit them and I found myself in the usual situation of trying to get past language barriers, ask for help, and getting lost. In Hungary, it was like traveling in any other major tourist destination, and I forgot how carefree and fun trips like this can be!

Hungary Links
	I found Budapest to be a very beautiful city, nothing beats walking around the river at night in the late Spring with perfect weather. The building on the left is one of the most famous in the country, the Royal Palace also known as the Buda Castle. Kings have ruled from this castle since the 14th century, and today part of it is home to several museums and institutions. Below is Hero's square and another museum on the lower right. Hero's square has the site of dozens of important historical and political moments in its time, and is usually the used for national rallies and speeches today.


Something I never knew until I visited Hungary, is that the capital Budapest is technically two cities split by the Danube River. On one side you have "Buda" and on the other is "Pest", obviously called Budapest together. I crossed the river so many times I forget which side is which, but I'm pretty confident that the above picture shows Pest from the Buda side. On the right is one of the most beautiful bridges crossing the river.

If you don't mind walking long distances, you can see lots of things on foot in Budapest. I took Hungary's subway a few times while staying in Budapest. The trains and tracks weren't too well maintained as you can see, but the worse part for me was the police! In Washington DC where I use the metro or subway a lot, if your ticket doesn't have enough money on it to meet the fare, you can simply add to it before exiting. When I first arrived to Budapest the train I needed to get on was about to depart, and not having time to look for a kiosk or place to get a ticket I jumped on assuming I could buy a ticket on board or when I got off like I do in most countries. Wrong! When I got off the police were waiting and checked everyone's tickets and slapped me with a $40 fine. They gave me a card in English that said I had been stealing the city's services and it showed the total fine amount. I tried to argue my way out of it but these guys didn't speak any English and it was obvious the city was taking advantage of this situation so I accepted my loss and moved on.

Above are two photos of St Stephens Basilica in Budapest named after the first King of Hungary. While I visited it a couple was getting married here and most of the church was blocked off, they must have been some politicians or very wealthy!
St. Stephen's cathedral is considered the most important church in the entire nation, and is actually the third tallest structure in Budapest. King Stephen's fist is supposedly mummified and kept inside the cathedral's Reliquary, but I wasn't able to see it and actually didn't know about this until after I left.

A smaller but more unique place of worship in Hungary is the Gellért Hill Cave, also called Saint Ivan's Cave. The cave monastery here is relatively new and was only built in the late 19th century, but has an interesting past starting as a home for poorer peasants to becoming a place of worship built by Pauline monks. Later this was captured by the Soviet Red Army and was sealed until the cave was reopened only in 1989. Above is the entrance to the cave on the left, and on the right a monument to Saint Ivan found right outside.

These surrounding four pictures are from the inside of the Cave Monastery. On the left is a statue of the Virgin Mary, with rooms of prayer above. Since the cave is built into the side of a large hill, the stained glass window actually does open up to the outside and lets natural sunlight in. Another part of the monastery actually went outside to a deck, but it was blocked off for tourists.


Jews have lived in Hungary for nearly 1,000 years, and had several times of discrimination, especially in the middle ages. Before World War II, the population of Hungary's capital Budapest was nearly 25% Jewish, but these numbers dwindled during the war and after when Hungary became under communist rule. Today, Hungary still is home to a large number of Jews and is even home to the largest Synagogue in Eurasia, the Dohany Street Synagogue seen above and below. It was constructed in 1859 and remains active today with a capacity of almost 3,000 people. When I visited I was actually backpacking with a friend I met from Israel, but we weren't allowed inside because it was a holiday. These photos were all taken from the outside, with the exterior of the Synagogue and their Holocaust Memorial's weeping willow above.

Some random photos of the architecture of Budapest. I'm not sure what the building on the left is, but I believe it's just a bank, but could be something political. On the right are some businesses or apartment buildings located along the Danube River. Below are two photos from inside the city market which is also located near the Danube River, in fact right across the street from the upper right photo. There were two floors inside here and lots of fresh produce for sale, souvenirs, a few restaurants and some other stores.



One of my favorite places in Hungary was Vajdahunyad Castle. This beautiful castle was built at the end of the 19th century, and when I visited there were tons of festivals going on with music, food and beer stands, and people playing sports, going on picnics or renting boats in this uniquely decorated lake. Throughout all of Budapest I was constantly coming across live music and free concerts like the one below. There was some live music here at Castle Vajdahunyad, but closer to the city center I found some much larger gatherings.


These people above where doing what I assume to be some type of traditional Hungarian dance. This was also part of a free concert and many plain clothed locals jumped and and began to dance together. I've yet to find out the story behind this dance or tradition, but it's one of many things for me to find out when I return to Hungary.

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