hungary: budapest again

I really like Budapest. i love that i can walk all over the city. i love that it's always possible to find another sight to see.  i love that there are so many cafes with so much wonderful food. i love that the language of hungary is completely unrelated to the languages of the surrounding countries. i love all the ways i can use public transport.  i love that there are outdoor and indoor sights. Amazing city, i'm surprised it isn't more well known? I rediscovered the city in August 2014, though that visit was only 2 days. I was thrilled when I realized I could visit again this summer, and for a longer period of time.

My flight departed kyiv at 0620, then landed in Budapest at 0700. Not much in the budapest airport was open at that hour. I was able to use triposo to figure out a public transport way to get into the city. Not particularly fast, but at that hour, who cares. plus it was a lot cheaper to use public transport than to use the shuttle service.  a LOT cheaper.
i found my hostel, and though i was early, i was able to check in and drop my bag. it turned out that this hostel was mostly student housing during the school year, so there were interesting aspects to the hostel...there was a library!! of course, all the books were in hungarian, and i have no idea what the topics were, but THERE WAS A LIBRARY!!

my room was considered a double room, but it actually had six beds...three of the beds were lofted, 3 on the floor...i had my choice of any of them...each bed had a couple plugs nearby...there was also a large table that would've been good for studying if i was a student...im curious how much students pay for housing each semester, and how long the semesters last...
after resting up for a while, i went out in the city...i walked toward a sight close to my hostel, the tomb of gul baba...on the way to the tomb i walked past millenium park...it was small, filled with flowers, very pretty...
to get to the tomb, i went up some stairs...i was huffing and puffing when i got to the top, but there was a sense of silence that i loved...definitely a good place for contemplation...

after seeing the tomb, i walked down the hill toward the river running through the city...i walked across st margarets bridge, over the whole river...in the middle of the river, touched at one end by the bridge is st margarets island...on the island are places for various sports, as well as a fountain, and nice park...the fountain often plays in time with music...really fun to watch for a few minutes...
after crossing the entire river, i walked along for a while with no particular aim in mind...as i walked past one cafe i saw a giant piece of cake covered in cream...a GIANT piece of cake...even though it was only the middle of the morning, i figured hey, why not?

it was good, and very rich...so rich that i couldn't finish it...if you know me, you know that means it was really big, and really rich...i gave it my best effort, but failed :)
i found a church with open front doors, but the inner doors weren't open, so i couldn't really go in...i felt like i was peering in, doing something wrong...when are churches actually open for me to wander?
i figured out that i wanted to see heroes square, as i hadn't seen it last summer...on my way there, i walked through a rather long tunnel under train tracks, covered by graffiti the whole way...despite its length, it smelled normal, not like people relieving themselves...awesome!

i came to heroes square, and loved it...it's a big area, with a tall column in the middle...around the bottom of the column are some statues, they're probably telling a historical story...on the back side of the square (which isn't really a square) is a series of columns/gates...the ground has nice decor, almost like mosaics...if only i could've taken photos of the entire place without other people...
behind heroes square is a palace...i don't remember the name...in the palace complex was a small church, that didn't have an entrance fee but did request donations...not very impressive, but i'm glad i looked around...the best part of the palace area was the park surrounding the entire area...

it didn't look as though the entire thing was built at one time, as i could see different architecture in different parts...or i could be totally wrong...
after the palace, i walked on a major street called andrassy utca, back to the city centter...this street is a unesco sight, though i'm not entirely sure why...on one street corner is a place called house of terror...
the house of terror is a museum and commemorative place that shows different aspects of life under the soviets, and life under the nazis...it's the same type of place i've seen in other places that used to be part of the east bloc, and it's just as disturbing each time i see the evidence....

there were photos of people who disappeared during these years, there were photos of people who were tortured...(thank goodness there weren't picture of people after torture)...there were displays of what people had in their homes...it's a very intense place, you walk out feeling a sense of exhaustion; and relief that it didn't happen to you...
my next stop was the area around parliament...parliament is a gorgeous building, always stunning...it's the kind of place that always catches your attention, no matter how many times you see it...the museum of ethnography is across the street on the backside of parliament...i didn't go in this museum, but took a few moments to appreciate the architectural beauty from the outside...

not far from parliament on the river side is a permanent exhibition katie and i didn't get to see last summer...it's called shoes on the danube...very moving, heartbreaking...
my next sight was supposed to be the glass house, but i ended up getting there about 15 minutes after it closed...argh...
eventually i started making my way back to my hostel...it wasn't very late, but it had been a long-ish day of walking, on top of me waking up super early to catch my plane...
as i walked up the other side of the river, i passed the entrance gates to one of the many thermal baths in the city...absolutely gorgeous...if i get to come back to budapest a few more times i hope to spend time in each of the baths, to figure out which is my favorite...

as i got close to my hostel, i realized i was walking along the river at the same place where the stalls had been set up for st stephens day when katie and i visited the summer before...only this time, these sidewalks were under repair...i'm assuming everything was supposed to be finished in time for the holiday later in the summer?
the next day, after returning from esztergom, i went back to a place katie and i had visited last summer...a cafe called gerbaud...maybe it was because i visited by myself, or maybe there is another reason, but it wasn't nearly as awesome this time...the inside is still gorgeous, and the presentation of my apple studel was still lovely, but it just wasn't as nice...the service took longer, and seemed less than concerned with my experience...

i left the cafe and walked toward st stephens basilica...no matter how many times i see this place, i'm always stunned...the outside is nice, but the inside is awesome...this time, when i walked in i realized a service was taking place...the front section of seats was reserved for people attending the service, the back area was the only place for tourists during the service...
after the church i walked along a pedestrian zone and chose one of the many thai massage places...i wanted a foot massage...i ended up with an hour long foot massage, though it wasn't what i wanted...i wanted a 90 minute foot massage, and it was listed on their menu...

the manager guy first tried to get me to go for a full body massage, and when i said no, he tried to charge me more for the foot massage than what was on their menu! argh...eventually he said a 90 minute massage wasn't going to happen, even though it was on the menu and they had three massage therapists sitting around...
i walked home along a street called fo utca...lonely planet tells me it's a street with nice stores, but i didn't see much of note...i stopped at a spar market to pick up water for the next day, and of course spent more time in there than expected...i always get 'lost' in supermarkets :)

the next day, after returning from visegrad and szentendre, i made my way to a cafe in the city center called anna...i chose it because the previous day i'd seen someone eating a giant ice cream sundae...i ordered the same thing...it was huge...served in a glass that was taller than my guidebook!! four scoops of ice cream, plus whip cream and sauces...yum...not terribly good for my teeth, or waistline, but i didn't care :)
the next morning my first sight was the citadel...it's on top of a hill on one side of the river...it was hot and sunny, and humid, so i was sweating like mad when i got to the top...there were plenty of bugs too, i felt as though i was swatting them away nearly constantly...

there isn't one main way up the hill, just a bunch of paths that constantly branch off...if you constantly aim up, you'll get to the top...
the guidebook says the citadel is open 24 hours, but the doors were closed when i got up there...i don't know if i was too early, or it was monday, or what...oh well...i still enjoyed the views over the entire city...awesome...plus, there is a giant statue on one side...
i followed a path down the other side of the hill, equally lovely...it wasn't as covered, so there were fewer bugs, and more views...the bottom of this side brought me to the entrance to gellert baths, another of the city's baths...

i crossed the bridge over the river, taking me straight to the central market...when katie and i were here last summer, we walked by the market on the holiday, so it was closed...this time i was able to go in, which was nice...i was there pretty early in the morning, so there weren't too many others wandering around...
the central market is in a giant hall; it's filled with stalls selling produce, bread, meat, products made from red peppers, etc...i bought 620 grams of raspberries...YUM...my favourite fruit :)
the raspberries were my breakfast, and i ate them as i walked...i love raspberries so much that they were all gone in about 30 minutes...soooo good...

i walked, and walked and walked and walked...i think i walked at least 10km to get to a place called momento park...it's on the edge of the city, and it turned out to be a lot further out than i expected when i started walking...
momento park is full of soviet realist statues...they're really big...some of them were originally in this park, others were moved here over the years...it's not a big park, but there are plenty of statues to look at...the historical aspect of this park is awesome...totally awesome...i saw lenin, and other leaders well known during communist times...after i took photos of every statue, made my way out of the park...

the entry clerk told me the once daily tourist bus back to the city center was already full, even though it wasn't supposed to come for another hour...argh...fortunately, she told me where to catch a public bus back into the city, it wasn't far from the park entrance...
when i got on that public bus, i tried to pay for a ticket...but the bus driver wasn't selling tickets, he said i had to have a ticket already, or have a city pass...needless to say, i didn't have one of those...and there was no place at the stop to buy a ticket...how is that supposed to work? fortunately, the driver let me ride for free, he saw it wasn't my fault i couldn't get a ticket...

as i got back into the city i chose another cafe, tried another piece of chocolate cake...it wasn't nearly as good as what i'd had a couple days earlier...oh well, they cant all be amazing...
i went back to my hostel, stopping for a quesadilla along the way...after relaxing for a couple hours, i walked to szechenyi (sp?) baths...this is probably the most photographed of the thermal baths in the city, located kinda close to heroes square...
i chose the cheapest entrance fee, which got me a locker key...you can also choose a cabin, but that seemed ridiculous...i changed into a bikini, figured out the locker system, and locked everything else...

the outside area has three pools...the middle pool is a lap pool, you have to wear a swim cap to go in there...on either end are heated pools, one warmer than the other...one side pool is heated to 30-34C, the other to 37-38C...amazing to hang out in the pools...you can sit on the stairs, halfway in, which is what i chose to do...i went back and forth between these two pools for over an hour...
then i decided to explore the inside baths...there were saunas, as well as more baths...people wandering among all the pools...each pool had a different temperature, anywhere from the upper 20s to 38C...i was quite pickled and dehydrated when i finally left, but it was awesome...

the baths were full of tourists, but who cares...they're still totally awesome...i loved hearing all the languages, watching all the people...
is it bad that i had another giant sundae from anna's cafe on the way home? yum...
the next day, after returning from godollo, the first thing i did was get off the metro at the wrong stop...fortunately i'd gotten to know the city well enough by this point to know where i was, and not be worried about the additional walking...
i walked my way to a park with a jewish memorial to the holocaust/WW2 at one end...very moving, it probably always will be...
the glass house wasn't very easy to find, it wasn't at all what i expected...the glass house is called that because it used to be a glass factory...the owner sheltered many jews during the rough years of WW2...it's no longer a factory, but you can see examples of some of the paperwork arranged to help the jews flee the city and country...

you can see photos of some of those housed there...you can see the statistics, some of which are horrifying...i'm not sure why there aren't more people visiting...never forget...the volunteer working there spoke only hungarian and german, thankfully i was able to understand about half the german...nice guy...
the glass house is now just a small room in the building, all dedicated to carl lutz...
after the glass house i went back to st stephens basilica...no service was happening this time, so i was able to wander all over...stunning, as usual...there is no entrance fee, but next time i visit i think i will pay the extra fee to go up the bell tower...
dinner that night was at a vegetarian place right next to my hostel...it seemed like a cafeteria, i'm sure it was full of students during the school year...good food, i should've eaten there more often...

after dinner i walked through the big mall close to my hostel...one of the four floor monstrosities, full of shops that are just regular shops...nothing of interest to a tourist...
the next morning, i flew back to kyiv...i really want to see more of hungary :)