budapest: big city = western keyboards
have had a fantastic time here; a big day of sightseeing (sometimes underwater due to storm) the major attractions including
- big palace
- big church
- big statues
- big bridges
- big river
- big baths
budapest is a fucking beautiful city, and i think it is do more to the fact that the destinations in croatia were so much smaller that everything here is overwhelmingly grandiose - sometimes to the point of absurdity but nevertheless breathtaking. particularly beautiful is the breadth of the river danube, and the view from the bridges in the north back toward the centre of the city was fantastic. the gothic (maybe neo) architecture of the parliament strikes out in contrast across the smooth, wide, pale grey water against the copper domes and "secession" (according to the touristy guide) style of the palace.
we managed a fully furnished apartment from a nice woman who grabbed us off the platform yesterday and so we are doing it cheap with 1 meal out and 2 meals in per day. when an apartment costs you 15euro each you're laughing so we probably should be living it up; must say that the hostel scene is great for meeting people but there will be plenty more of that to come when we go on to krakow. mind you it is hard to say no to sweet old women with little signs and floral print dresses, especially when you know that smelly toilets and noisy bunks await you at the closest hostel. a balance is probably a good thing; but in a big town like budapest its easy to become atomised and isolated by the sheer size of it. we could easily go in and out of several bars and have met no-one of any interest.
highlight of the day was walking in the rain around the castle-hill (no bible belt here thankfully) and then into the lukas baths where no-one speaks english and there is little signposting. lucy regrets her dad not learning hungarian and passing it on. i am sure i will be feeling similar in italy but hopefully my sparse lessons and hefty exposure will come through with the goods. failing that I'll just show them how hairy I am and we won't get ripped off. for now we had to rely on hand-signals and pointing to find our way through the small corridors of the hungarian baths, into sulfur/other smelly minerals (reminds me of new zealand) showers and into the heated pools. lucy loved the circular pool and I lounged around near the sauna and bubbles before walking into the streets 2 hours later utterly relaxed and incredibly wrinkly.
desperate for another beer right about now, i think every bit of freshwater was extracted reverse-osmosis style from me by the minerals in that pool... and the salty gulyas (goulash) soup leaves you gasping for water. so beer it is!
2 more nights here then an overnighter to krakow - may head out to gyor to see where lucy's grandmother was born before we jet
over
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