Budapest, Hungary

August 5

At 3:30 in the morning we were woken up by overwhelming gas fumes.  We had to put the duvet over our head for an hour. Others in our group smelled it too.  Gabor the maitre'd told us that they probably refuelled and might have spilled.  Blech.

35C today, and it felt so much hotter!

We had a last breakfast with our group, and lots of hugs goodbye. They got put on a different city tour because theirs ends at the ship and ours ends at the hotel.  

We disembarked the boat in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The population is close to 2 million people. It used to be two cities separated by the Danube, Buda on the west bank and Pest on the east bank. They unified in 1873. Buda is more traditional and Pest is more modern. Budapest has the oldest metro system in Continental Europe; only the one in London, England is older.

Budapest is often called the “Paris of the East”. When we googled this to see why, we found about 20 cities that call themselves the same thing, including Bucharest! But Budapest also calls itself “Pearl of the Danube” which doesn't seem to be shared with anyone. Regardless, a large part of Budapest was bombed during World War II and the Communist regime only ended 25 years ago. Unfortunately, many historic buildings have been torn down and replaced with modern buildings.

We snagged a front seat on the bus right beside our friends Larry and Ginger (from Texas).  Then smelly guy came and sat right behind us and declared "Yes, I'm wearing cologne, and I'm not going to apologize!"  He is travelling with his mother and she must be SO proud of him.  Luckily, Larry and Ginger switched sides with us.  Still being protected by our friends!

We toured Castle Hill, which has a royal palace and a district around it. It is like a reconstructed medieval city. There are no cars, and lots of cobblestone streets. No high heels here.

The Royal Palace was first built in the 13th century, and taken over by the Turks in 1541. The palace was completely destoyed in 1686 in a battle with the Turks, when a single cannon shot fired by a friar hit the tower which stored gunpowder. As many as 1500 Turks were killed in the explosion, and there was a resulting tidal wave. The Hapsburgs moved in, the palace was rebuilt, destroyed by fire in 1810, and again in 1849 during the Hungarian revolt against the Habsburgs. Rebuilding was finished in 1904, just in time for it to be destroyed again at the end of WWII. This time, the castle was rebuilt on the original medieval remains.

Fishermen’s Bastion was built as a viewing platform in 1905 and named after the fishermen that defended this part of the city. They were actually “allowed” to sell their catch here if they defended the city.  This view of Fisherman's Bastion was taken from our hotel window.

Matthias Church was built in the 13th century and was the city's first parish church. During the Turkish occupation, the church was turned into a mosque for 150 years. The artwork has been restored several times, in 1686 and in the late 1800s. King Béla III who died in 1196 and his wife Agnes are buried in a medieval crypt here.

The throngs of tourists and tour buses was overwhelming.  Both on Castle Hill and on Gallert Hill, where we went for the view overlooking Budapest.

They gave us almost two hours for lunch on our own at the Market Hall. We actually didn't see much of the market because we decided to go to a restaurant with Ginger and Larry and Libby and Jim (from Australia).  All 3 of us couples have anniversaries this week.  It was an Argentine restaurant, slow service but good food.  It took them forever to get our bills ready and we had to dash to meet up with our tour group, JUST in time!

Heroes’ Square has a huge monument that commemorates the 1000th anniversary of Hungary. It's hard for us to conceive of a history that old. There are 14 statues representing the founders of Hungary, and a large column with the Archangel Gabriel on top dedicated to heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of their people.

There are several bridges linking the two sides across the Danube.

Széchenyi Bridge (Chain Bridge) is a suspension bridge that was the first permanent bridge to link Buda and Pest. Before it was built, storms would often prevent the residents of the 2 cities from crossing the river. This happened to Count István Széchenyi in 1820, causing him to be stuck on one side of the river and missing his father's funeral by a week. He advocated for a bridge, and it opened in 1849. There is a legend that the chief engineer was extremely proud of his bridge and challenged people to find any fault with it. It was found that the lions who guard the ends of the bridge did not have tongues, and the engineer was so ashamed that he committed suicide. In reality, the lions do have tongues but they are not visible from below.

When Chain Bridge opened, it was considered to be one of the wonders of the world. People had to pay a toll to cross it, including aristocracy. It was blown up during WWII, and rebuilt in 1949. There is a Bridge Master who is responsible for bridge safety and organizing photographers and film crews.

It used to be a long walk around Castle Hill to reach the bridge, so a tunnel through the hill was built in 1853. It is about the same length as the bridge itself, so there are jokes that during bad weather the bridge is tucked into the tunnel to protect it from rain.

Elizabeth Bridge was named after Empress Elizabeth and opened in October 1903. For 23 years, it was the longest suspension bridge of the world. Unfortunately, it was blown up by retreating German forces in January 1945. There is a plaque that in part reads, “this gem of the Hungarian bridge-building was blown up by the already defeated and pointlessly all-destroying fascists on 18 January 1945”. It was the only Budapest bridge that was not rebuilt. Instead, a new bridge was constructed in 1964 using the original pillars.

Our city tour ended at our hotel in mid afternoon, we will stay here for 2 nights. We are staying at the Hilton, built by the communists in the 70s.  Our room is about 3 times bigger than our room on the ship.  We have a gorgious view over Fisherman's Bastion.  The square building on the right is the Hilton.

As we sat in the room and worked on the blog before dinner, there was a very sudden rain and thunderstorm.  We had a good view of the tourists scurrying off Fisherman's Bastion.  Then the rain turned to hail, and it sounded like popcorn against our window.  It was very cool to watch the hail ping off our window and fling down below (probably onto more unsuspecting tourists).

An hour or so later the storm had passed, and we took a bus to the dinner cruise we had already paid for.  I guess we were going rain or shine!  Obviously we have not had enough of the Danube ha ha. The cruise started at 7:45 pm and last 2 ½ hours, which made for a late evening for us. Instead of paying for the full 4 courses, we opted for pay as you eat, which we figured would be cheaper for us. We also liked having a waiter rather than doing buffet, as some of the cruises were doing. The city was beautiful lit up at night, particularly the spectacular Parliament Building.  The city uses the same lightbulbs everywhere to light the city up at night, so Budapest turns golden after dark.

Do you see graffiti?  We didn't either.