Budapest, Hungary Part 1: Overview

A few weeks ago I traveled to Budapest with YAGs friends Darryl, Nathan, and Katie & Troy (just back from their honeymoon). We had a great trip and saw quite a bit, despite the occasional airport strike. Even though I was a bit outmatched in terms of camera equipment and skill, I took plenty of photos so I’ll share them over the course of a few posts.

Arrival

We arrived on a Friday night and were quite perplexed when our driver from the airport kept asking if our hotel was “sheep” (cheap?) and “baught” (bought?). We kept inisisting that, yes, we had booked a room, and yes, it was quite reasonable. Finally, he got through to us... Was our hotel a ship? Was it a boat? Now, it wasn’t that his accent was that thick or terrible that these words didn’t make any sense—we just had absolutely no context for what he was asking. As far as we knew, we were staying in a cheap little hotel in a decent location recommended by Hostel World. Turns out, unbeknownst to us, that we had booked a “boatel.” That is, a hotel on a boat.

Certainly unexpected, but not too shabby, and how many people can say they stayed on the Danube?



Our first night, upon arrival, we went out in search of food. It was sort of late (9-ish) and rainy, so we didn’t wander too far and we happened upon this:

I was a little skeptical; after all, the chef seemed to imply Italy, the name seemed to imply Asian Fusion, and the menu appeared to be fairly traditional Hungarian. Turns out, the food was fantastic — and cheap! (And the name was pretty accurate too: lots of pepper and paprika in Hungarian dishes.)

Photo-A-Go-Go

Darryl (below right) and Nathan (below left) are both quite good with photography, and while I dabble, I don’t have any fancy lenses and didn’t even have an SLR on this trip. Therefore, I left it to the pros.


One of Nathan’s shots of us all standing around and looking the tourist part quite well:


One of the prettiest floral pictures I’ve ever taken:



Some Sites to See

On Saturday, we wandered around for most of the morning and then Nathan, Darryl and I took a 4-hour walking tour (see our guide, Blanca, below). It was very informative and allowed us to pack most of the touristy stuff into one afternoon. I’m going to post all the statue photos at the same time, so look for those at a later date.



The Parliament building—Europe’s second largest after England


St Stephen’s Cathedral


The pediment (thanks Paige) above


The Opera House


Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe and second-largest in the world


one of the fences on the grounds


the strikingly beautiful Holocaust Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs


Buda Castle


a view of the chain bridge over the Danube


exterior of a large marketplace with really funky architecture


a musical fountain on beautiful Margaret Island, right behind our boatel


That’s all for now. More soon.

New Music Tuesday

While my old blog was practically filled with lists of music, movies and books I was enjoying, I’ve pretty much refrained on this one, keeping it pretty much a travelogue. However, today marks the release of a new album by one of my favorite bands that deserves a wider audience, so I figured I’d spread the word however I can.

Eisley has returned with sophomore album Combinations, a beautiful set of melodic rock. The band is comprised of 3 sisters, a brother and a cousin and create gorgeous soundscapes befitting Narnia, Wonderland, Hogwarts and many other fantastic locations. While I’ve been a fan for awhile and enjoyed their first full-length album, 2004’s Room Noises, I have to admit that it didn’t quite meet my expectations. The new CD, however, is fantastic, taking the band to new heights and expanding their emotional and musical range. You can listen to Combinations in its entirety on their myspace page and support them by picking up the album or catching their (highly recommended) fall tour with Mute Math.

Athens, Greece

Two weekends ago, Natalie and I headed to Athens to visit our friend Kara who had been aupairing in Geneva earlier this year and is spending the summer in a similar capacity with a family about an hour outside the city. Knowing someone there seemed to be a perfectly logical reason to visit a country I’ve heard nothing but positive things about and we had a great time. The family she’s staying with even has a small apartment in the city so we were able to crash there rather than a hostel.

Though we did quite a few touristy things (eating at Hard Rock Café, visiting the Acropolis), we also got an authentic taste of the city from some friends Kara has made since arriving. They took us out a couple nights and we were able to see a side of Athens we otherwise wouldn’t have. Here are some of the trip highlights:

Ruins

There are ruins all over Athens, the most famous being, of course, the Acropolis featuring the Parthenon. Everything was quite impressive (how they engineered such massive columns is beyond me) even if I don’t know what everything we saw was…


Kara, myself and Natalie atop the Acropolis. We did it early to avoid crowds and heat. A wise move.


Acropolis from a distance


You may remember this ampitheater from such PBS specials as Yanni: Live at the Acropolis


Kara and I in front of some impressive columns


The Parthenon, complete with bonus scaffolding!






Hadrian’s Arch


The temple of Olympian Zeus




The Ancient Agora

Culture

I’m not going to claim to have a full understanding of Greek culture after only 4 days. However, I will say that the pace of life is noticably slower. This has a great deal to do with the Mediterranean climate — of course we picked just about the hottest time of year to go. I feel like we probably did as much in 3 days in the city as I’ve in 1 in other places, but it’s simply not physically possible to move as fast in such blazing heat and bright sun. Instead, you walk a bit and see some sights, then find a café and sit down for an iced coffee or afternoon frappé (which is apparently becoming an Athens staple). Then you do a bit more before finding some shade or an air-conditioned restaurant. I loved the pace of the trip. Though it was hot and I didn’t get all that much sleep, it was definitely one of the more relaxing journeys I’ve had of late.


The Greek flag. Yes, Greeks are very proud of their heritage, but a lot of the younger Athenians we talked to weren’t that thrilled with Athens itself or their perceived lack of organization in the government, etc.


This is the park at Syntagma Square in front of Parliament. Our plane arrived at 2am and Kara couldn’t meet us until the next morning so here is where we spent the first night. It was actually great — well lit, plenty of other people around and nearby lots of taxis and buses, plus we actually got a few hours of sleep!




A couple of tasty examples of grafitti. There is a lot of grafitti in Athens.


Also tasty? Food. Here, some cheese pie, Greek salad and a frappé. I’m not a big coffee fan but I quite enjoyed these concoctions. I also enjoyed several other good meals including a fair amount of gyros, pork and even some pastitsio

Hydra Island

Everyone – seriously everyone I talked to before the trip told me I had to go to an island while I was in Greece. So on Sunday we took a day trip to nearby Hydra Island, which may not be as famous as, say, Santorini but was nonetheless gorgeous. We spent most of the day on the beach and browsing the small shops and cafés near the docks. The water was absolutely beautiful and it was great to get some beach in for the first time in over a year. I will definitely be going back to the country to do an island tour at some point.




Our boat, the “Eurofast 1.” For some reason, I thought the name was hilarious. The ride back was the choppiest water I’ve ever experienced and people were getting sick all over the place. I kept my cool, but didn’t exactly have fun…








This was the beach that we hung out at. If you look closely at the tree on the right, you’ll see a donkey underneath




There were a lot of donkey ride options around the island. We passed, but I felt really sorry for the donkeys waiting around that pretty much had to stand in direct sunlight the whole day.

The Olympics

At this point, it’s pretty much beating a dead horse to talk about how much I like the Olympics. However, Athens obviously has a pretty important history in the subject as the site of the first 1896 modern games and the most recent summer games in 2004. We headed out to the latter Olympic Complex on Monday and nearly melted in the midday sun (especially considering the place is now pretty much a concrete plaza, used for some local sports events but seemingly not much else). The architecture was still quite impressive though, even if we sought respite afterwards in the nearby air-conditioned mall (complete with food court!). The following day Kara had to return to work, but Natalie and I did a few more things including a visit to the original 1896 stadium. Can’t wait for next summer (though I hope China gets improves on its human rights record…)


Part of the large walkway surrounding the 2004 complex


the entrance to Olympic Stadium


The outdoor pool (we also saw the indoor one, as it was actually open, though several of the stadiums weren’t)


Commemorative stones at the 1896 stadium


Me in front of Panathinaikon Stadium (the 1896 venue)

Just Watch the Fireworks

Yesterday marked my one-year anniversary in Geneva. While I actually arrived on August 12th (today), it was a Saturday and the day of the huge fireworks extravaganza marking the end of the Féte de Geneve. This year was quite a bit nicer (no rain or cold which is what greeted me upon my arrival) and the city was definitely more alive than I’ve seen it since, well, ever.



I met up with Chris, our summer Shema intern, in the afternoon and wandered around by the lake for a little while checking out the flurry of activity. For the most part, it was all food vendors, including this amazing cocktail set-up:



We then headed to Josh and Laura’s for a good-bye dinner for Chris—as he heads back to the OC (for real, bitch) today. It was a great evening of fellowship, fun and fireworks, which we watched from a field in Bellevue, a few miles down the lake from the city. While not quite as impressive (or photogenic) from such a distance, it was still an impressive display (save for the stange section scored to a Christmas medley). The finale (coming at about the 45 minute mark) was amazing, as the until-then dormant Jet d’Eau was brought to life amid a flurry of explosions:



Strange to think that it’s already been a full year since my arrival, yet thankfully not disconcerting. In two weeks I’ll be making my way back to the states for a month-long “sabbatical” before my second year here. I cannot wait for that trip, but I’m quite glad I had the chance last night to sit back and, to quote a Jimmy Eat World song title, “just watch the fireworks.”