2008 Dan in Budapest (Third Time There)

Long Walk
Budapest was dark and dreary for my first few days there in January, 2008. The buildings are mostly colorless dark grey anyway, but if you add in the fog, the dirty snow (they may use cinders or sand to fight it) and general gloominess, it’s not very pretty. Contrast this with the spectacular beauty in the spring and summer, when the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, the trees are green, and everything’s clear. Of course I’m making the best of it; I always do.

The first time I had a moment to myself was late Friday afternoon. I took a very long walk – this, after a 12-mile run on Margaret Island, a long walk between offices and a long walk from the office back to the hotel. Today’s latest walk, however, was to a place I hadn’t been before: Andrassy Ut. It’s the main drag through Pest and is a couple miles long. There is a lot of upscale shopping, an opera house, several squares, the house of terror and other sights. I didn’t stop much – I just observed, and moved forward until I finally reached Varosloget, home of Heroes Square and Vajdahunyard Castle, amongst other attractions. I’ll bet nobody even looks “Vajdahunyard” up to make sure I spelled it correctly.

It was just beginning to get dark, and the Square and Castle were being lit up – spectacularly so. I wish my pictures could do them justice. I also saw bunches of ice skaters at the Secession Pavilion. After all this excitement, I took the metro back to the river area.

Danube Bend
With some apprehension about possible rain and snow, I signed on for an all-day tour of the Danube Bend area – several villages north of Budapest where the Danube changes from flowing east to south. The weather turned out just fine with hazy sun, although it was still cold. There were only 15 of us tourists in the van: Aussies, Spaniards, Greeks, Brazilians, and me, the only American.

Our first stop was at a cathedral – the largest, and center of the Catholic Church in Hungary – in the village of Esztergom. From the rear side of the cathedral we had a panoramic view of the Danube. We could see how the river changes course, turning to the south. At this point Slovakia was just on the opposite side. Lunch was in a wine cellar underneath the cathedral.

The second stop was Visigrad, an eleventh century fortress 900 meters above the Danube. The fort itself was in ruins, but here the views were even more spectacular than those of Esztergom. There was much more snow and cold at this elevation, but we somehow survived.

Our final stop was the village of Szentendre, which is almost all the way back to Budapest. The village appears semi-medieval, and quite colorful in contrast with the muted colors of Budapest. I learned that it was settled by Greeks, and this explains some of the differences. We had some time there, so I explored quite a bit.

Exploring On Foot
When I’m in a new place, I usually explore a great deal by running, often returning to interesting areas later to explore more fully. I was clued into the good place to run in Budapest (Margaret Island) right from the start, and I’ve hardly run anywhere else. It’s great for running, and the other areas pale by comparison. But on low-traffic Sunday I decided to explore more, and I managed to see some areas that were new to me. The most important of these is Obudai Island. It’s north of Margaret Island, and tougher to get to. Much of it was deserted, and there was ice on the paths and even the roads. I turned back but then found a second bridge onto the island and found a small village at that part. I hadn’t heard of this island until the previous day, but I think it will be more important to Budapest in the future as it will be developed much more. 70% will be left as a park however.

Later on that Sunday I did more exploring by walking. I walked mostly to places I’d been to before; but even so it was good to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace once again.

Other than a lot more running and walking, that was pretty much it for this trip. My walks back from the office often took me through the central market, which is always interesting. I also walked into some extremely old churches - also always interesting. One other thing: the wishing tree. At least that's what I call it. Lori told me about a tree on Margaret Island where if you place your hands on it and make a wish, it'll come true. There are lots of trees on that huge island, but I did find one that sort of matched her description (it's near a convent), so I put my hands on it. We'll see if it all comes true.