Travel Log: Budapest

Well I finally have some pictures from Budapest. I really really really liked Budapest. And I really quite think I need to go back. I found it to be a lovely, clean, international, beautiful city. It was helpful that I knew a friend of a friend who happened to also have really cool friends. Because of this we actually ended up doing NONE of the "you should do this when you go to Budapest" touristy kinds of things (Great Market, Bath Houses, House of Terror, etc), and a lot of the "this is what is going on this weekend that people who live here do" kind of things. Like film festivals and folk dancing and random cool restaurants.

Further, it just so happened that the Saturday we were there was 20 years to the day since the fall of communism in Hungary. As you can probably imagine, there was quite a bit going on in the city. Including a huge free concert with some Hungarian pop band. Didn't so much stay at that very long, because it was shortly after my run-in with a street light pole when I was looking across the street while simultaneously walking. Not a wise idea. Just now, three weeks later, I can open my jaw fully again. Anyways.

But since now I know a few people in the city and since I didn't do any of those touristy things, it looks like I'll just need to go back. And it's really quite close and cheap to get to, so that should be doable. Budapest is totally a city in which I could see myself living. If only the Hungarian language weren't so dang hard. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Pulling. Really. Hard.

Budapest actually used to be two cities- Buda and Pesth- split by a river, and while I don't have a clue about the history of becoming one, there are lots of bridges connecting the two sides. Look at the wikipedia article for more really cool pictures. It's BEAUTIFUL at night

Loads of cool markets

Hungarian Parliament

St. Stephen's Basilica. Named after Stephen, the first king of Hungary. Inside are the mummified bones of his hand. Yea

One of dozens of panels of an exhibit of events around the world from 1989 in pictures. Really awesome

Yea, this totally has a name, but I'm not remembering and too lazy to look it up. But it's right at the entrance to the park where some of the Bath Houses are, and this was near where the concert was held

More cool castle-like buildings. I don't have a good picture of the Buda Castle, partially because a lot of it was under construction, so it wasn't so excellent to photograph

Yeaaaa, so this was a random little adventure we got ourselves into with our new friends. Never a dull moment