Two Days in Budapest
Buda Castle at night, viewed from the Danube
When I take a trip I like to know at least a little about where I’m going. For our short excursion to Budapest, I didn’t. Maria let her students pick the destination for a weekend trip, and they picked Budapest. Before I left Philadelphia, I was so busy with the kitchen remodel work that I only had a little time to read up on Prague, and didn’t have a chance to find out anything about Budapest. After two fun, busy days seeing Prague, I got on an overnight train with Maria, the boys, and the four students.
We got off to a rough start on the train – the couchette we thought was ours was already occupied, and the conductor made a point of being as unhelpful as he could. Stuck standing in the train car’s narrow aisle, we eventually persuaded him to take our tickets out of his pocket and look at them again, and then he grudgingly admitted he had brought us onto the wrong car. Everything went smoothly after that, except for the train itself – the boys liked the triple bunks, and they went right to sleep along with Maria, but I couldn’t sleep at all. Each time I almost drifted off to sleep, the train would screech to a halt at its next stop. Also, I was on the top bunk, and it took me a while to get comfortable enough with the situation to stop worrying I’d get thrown to the floor if we stopped too quickly.
After getting my first glimpse of the city as we walked out of Keleti station, I began to worry how the weekend would go. Viewed from the steps of the station, the city looked grim, poor, and unwelcoming. But I’m happy to say my first impression was wrong. While not as evidently wealthy as Prague, Budapest is a beautiful city and rich in history.
We spent our first day in Buda – the side of the city west of the Danube (the eastern side is Pest). Budapest is south of Prague, and at 90 degrees it was considerably hotter. The students went off on their own, and Maria and I set out with the boys to explore. A city map acquired at the hotel, and less than an hour of internet research were our guides. We had a good time exploring. Maria and I make a good team when traveling – I bring the maps and the planning, and she brings the intuition and street smarts. Too much of the former can lead to missing unexpected opportunities, and too much of the latter can lead to chaos. A good mix of both made for a successful day. We spent most of the day in the area surrounding Buda Castle, home to Hungarian royalty since the 13th century. Since it was so hot, we also spent some time in the very silly but considerably cooler, underground Buda Castle Labyrinth. It’s filled with fake historical artifacts, such as fossilized remains of ancient computers, complete with keyboards and monitors. In the evening we took a one hour cruise on the Danube. While many of Budapest’s historical buildings suffer from graffiti and inadequate maintenance, all of that disappears at night – the city looked absolutely gorgeous from the river.
The next day we visited Pest. Our hotel (the Charles Hotel – reasonably priced and clean) was in Buda, but by this time we had figured out the buses, and their routes were well marked on our map, so we didn’t have trouble getting around. We started the day at the enormous St. Stephen’s Basilica, and then took our time wandering up Andrássy Avenue, which “…is an iconic boulevard… dating back to 1872… Flanked by Eclectic Neo-renaissance palaces and houses featuring fine facades, staircases and interiors, it was recognised as a World Heritage Site in 2002.” The avenue ends at City Park. By the time we arrived there, Eidan had fallen asleep in his stroller, so Kai and I had some fun exploring the grounds of Vajdahunyad Castle, while Maria took a break in a shady spot with Eidan. We ended the day at the Szechenyi Baths. Although I didn’t know this before we arrived in Budapest, the city is famous for its hot spring baths. After a day and half of walking around, the boys needed something that was fun for them. Szechenyi has 3 large baths – one hot, one lukewarm, and one cold. The cold one is intended mainly for lap swimming, the lukewarm one for kids to play in, and the hot one for adults to relax in. The boys had a great time there, and the natural spring water feels great on your skin, so we arrived at the train station feeling refreshed and ready for our overnight trip back to Prague. There was some anxiety for a while since the students arrived at the last minute, but our train ended up leaving late anyway, so fortunately our departure worked out fine. And this time I managed to get at least a few hours of sleep.
I took almost 200 pictures, but I narrowed it down to 21 in order to preserve the sanity of my blog readers 
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