[27 May 05 - 27 August 05]
Finally i was not only old enough but had the money i needed to travel semi-alone, with the safety-net of family and slight familiarity of past encounters i headed to Hungary to not just see the sights but absorb the culture.
Seeing the family once more i really got to realise how tough they got it over there. I earn approx AU$500 after tax weekly, they get the same, only monthly. Now some might say; "But living expenses are lower over there so it equals out", well yes, but an even bigger NO. Fresh produce from local areas, and everyday goods are ratio-wise resonable, but luxury items are only about half price there, (equal to paying double normal price here) and i heard about how someone who is single on a normal wage can't move out of home alone. It's something most save till after marriage. But on the plus side, it makes my money stretch much futher.
Anyway, about travels, i spent most my time going between the two families; my grandmas unit in Szekesfehervar (the old capital) was only 15 mins fast walk from the city centre. Train station in city centre had trains that took only an hour to get to Budapest Southern Station, with had direct links to the 'great circe' tram lines & metro system. So ideal place for most of the trip. But spent some time in Zamoly, about 20 mins north of Szekesfehervar, with the other side of the family; my grandma, aunt, uncle, 2 nephews (one with a wife) & 2 dogs, oh and about a dozen chickens. And yes, as you probably guessed it, they live on a farm, a small, no, tiny farm, but a farm none the less. They grew enough grapes to make their own wine & enough produce to reduce costs a reasonable amount, they also had one cherry tree for fun.
But enough of that, what about where i traveled, well, this will not be in exact cronological order, but here goes:
Castles i visited include SUMEG, VISEGRAD, & SZIGLIGET. I also visited BORIVAR, but this is not really technically a castle. SUMEG was pretty good, as far as basic castles go, but it had a section at the bottom of the hill not part of the castle that looked like it held medieval festivals, could have been pretty good, none on at the time. VISEGRAD was great, high up on a hill, it had quite the view, with mock wax displays, falcon handlers & fully equipped torture chamber, it was this trips castle highlight. SZIGLIGET was not much more than well restored ruins, but ruins none the less. However the view over the Balaton (Hungarys huge lake) & sourrounding country side was great. From what i understand it would have been a great defensive location, was it not for the equaly high hill not far enough away that was used to catapolt it to the ground. BORIVAR (or perhaps BORI VAR?) is no real var, it is in the style of a castle, but it was a family home, built by a man as his token of love to a woman (whom he perhaps cut his ear of and sent to). It contains a bunch of art in the form of paintings & sculptures, and a nice little garden in the middle. But though i did not see it this trip, if you want to see a famous & very good castle go to EGER.
To those of you who have never swam in Lake Balaton, don't get your hopes up, to those of you who are used to the ocean, especially waves, keep them down even more so. The water of Balaton, no matter how nice from satallite shots, is well, not so nice. It is brown for one thing, from all the silt (like dust, but in the water), even though the water moves slow. It is, at least in summer, warm, you know, the kind of warm you get when people look a little more relaxed in the water all of a sudden, yuk(you know who you are). And back to that silt, alot of it settles, causing a not so solid lake floor, which is gluggy, you can feel the gunk slide through the gap between your toes. At least its easy to swim in, most of it is no deeper than 1.5m.
However do not be put off from seeing it, there are many great vineyards, towns & a big city (north side) along its shores & a place called FURED (east), which is famous for its thermal baths. Thermal baths are plentyful in Hungary & are not to be missed by travellers. There are at least 5 in the city centre of Budapest, 3 of which are very old & famous, i only remember the name of one, Saint Gellert Baths (slightly south west of the citadel).
Other great places along Lake Balaton are; SIOFOK, specially if your into clubbing, as it has huge parties during summer, one called 'Coca Cola Beach House'. VISZHANG, which im not totally sure if thats the actual name for the place or just a nickname, as viszhang means echo in hungarian. There is a nice little white church there, which if you walk along the cliff like are you can hear your echo, if you yell. There are also nice hillside vineyards around that area if i remember correctly. And the before mentioned SZIGLIGET ruins.
Hungary has some cool caves, i never really ever heard them mentioned much, but a few are world famous i believe, can't wait to check them out next time i come back.
If your into rally then keep your ears open & eyes peeled for races in July. You get a good view of the pit repairs and such if you make the effort to check it out, definetly worth it, and that mud really does get everywhere! Don't know exactly where they are held, but maybe this word will help you, 'Jutaspuszta', i dunno if its the name of the place or what, but it was on my ticket, it cost 1500 forint (AU$10). suzuki-iris.hu
ESZTERGOM, north-west of Budapest, directly to the border lies a huge basilica. I kid you not, it is for sure the biggest in Hungary, but im not sure beyond that. There are huge spiralling staircases which you can climb to get to the rim of the large dome. The view from the dome is spectacular & you can go right round it. Just over the river you see not far off is another country. In the courtyard to one side is a space, i would liken to a bell graveyard, it contains over a dozen bells that never came to use, due to forging problems, and some broken ones. Intended use & dates supplied. Also in the city is another tiny basilica like church, though i don't know how old is probably worth at least 1 photo.
Address: 8360 Keszthely, Kastely u 1, is the Helikon Kastelymuzeum. Now heres an interesting fact, in Hungarian, var = castle, & kastely = palace, which any english speaking person could easily mistake for meaning castle. Oh and varos = city, don't mix it up with var. Anyway about the Helikon; it is a palace converted into a museum of palace artifacts & the like; extravagant furniture, delicate clocks, dusty portraits, fine pottery, 1 piece cast metal 2 story staircase rail in the style of grape bushes, and a huge garden out the back to boot (and a somewhat interesting carrage museum too). Its all really quite nice, but the library is fantastic, it was quite large and i just loved the look and feel of it. Also for hunting fans, there is a trophy section, animal sympathisers beware! Pretty much every animal big enough to shoot from every continent & more. Its an impressive, if not somewhat excessive and gruesome collection.
BUDAPEST, so much to see, so little time. Im just gonna rattle off the names of places i saw and whats there. The Citadel (D7 Eastside), is a castle on top St Gellert hill that offers a fantastic view, along with historic insight. The Freedom Statue (a lady holding high a fern leaf) is just beside it, south-east offering perhaps the best view in Budapest, i made a panarama that took up 8 photos longways. North-west of there on another hill is the Budapest Castle (D6-C5), which has loads to offer, museums galore, art galleries, and a labyrinth. HALASZ BASZTYA (D6)(fishermans defense) is a famous section of the castle wall, it's very decorative. And in that curved section is a very famous, beautifully tiled church, called Matyas Teplom.
Although i have not got the opportunity yet, i would love to go on a tour into the Parliment House (D5 Eastside). Sources tell me that if you wanna save a lot of hassle, be sure to take your passport & go early in the morning to purchase a pre-paid ticket for the tour, as in the afternoon the line will be huge for tickets. Parliment was being cleaned up on the outside, so when you see it, it should be nice & bright. Margit Island (D3-E2), has an old nunnery on it, if your interested. Section VI of the city is filled with museums & the like, the main street runs right above Metro 1, so you can walk till your tired then metro the rest. I suggest the section between the numbers 15 & 18 on the map above, its about 2km. There is even a octagonal roundabout along the way. It ends at Hosok Tere (G4), which stands for Heroes Square, ive been warned this is a hotspot for pick pockets so be aware. The marvelous (bronze?) statues are well worth a look, the semi circle at the back are all the old kings of Hungary, and the centre piece of men on horses, are the founding tribe chiefs that united to form Hungary, choosing Arpad as their Head Chief. The original capital at that time became Szekesfehervar, which very roughly translated means 'White Castle of the Chair' or possibly 'Castle of the White Chair', literal translation 'Chairish-White-Castle'. After Szekesfehervar, Visegrad became capital for a time (a fore mentioned castle), then Buda, and i say Buda not Budapest because it became the capital before the neighbouring agricultural city of Pest on the flat lands combined with Buda. Behind Hosok Tere is Varosliget (G4), which is the largest park in the city centre. It contains in its northern section the Budapest Zoo, which is quite good, and has a few nicely decorated animal houses such as the Secessionist Elephant House with pachyderm heads in bettle-green Zsolnay ceramic. In the middle of the park is a smaller but built to scale castle replica of a famous castle in Transilvania (i believe). With planty of space to walk to the south, and a small museum or two. The metro system (espesially) & tram system i have found to be quite good, of course beware pick pockets. Some of the bridges along the river dividing Budapest are also famous for their design. Such as the Szechenyi Lanchid (Szenchenyi Chain Bridge), under number 7 on map.
Though i warn about pick pockets, know that in my 3 month stay in Hungary not once was i or any person i knew pick pocketed. So don't let it put you off, but keep one eye open so it doesn't ruin your day. Keep your wallet in a front pocket, even better if it has a zip. You may if you wish have a decoy wallet in the back, or accessable front pocket, which you fill with old unusable cards that can't be traced back to you, or business cards, so as to imitate much use.
As you see Budapest has much to offer, there are statues scattered all around thoughout the city centre, even the main train stations are worth a look, to check out the old electric trains. Many residential unit blocks have statues on top or carvings along the sides in the city centre. The city centre is somewhat defined by a ring road that encompasses all of area I & V, though it stretches through all of area VI, and a few corners of other surrounding ones. In my photo archives is a folder called Hungary Info, in which you'll find metro, train, tram maps (alas the best i could find on the net), i hope they are of help.
Szekesfehervar is also a nice place to visit. No where near the hustle & bustle of Budapest, you find it easier to just sit & sip your coffee. The city centre itself is quite small, but has a few things to show you. There is a Romkert (Ruins Garden), which has the graves of some Hungarian Kings i believe. Also in there somewhere is a huge stone version of a ball with a cross sticking out the top that the king would hold in his hand. A section of an old church can be seen petruding into the street, with the statue of a king, and a small drinking fountain to the side. Also near the centre are carvings on a wall from which water shoots out to drink. Somewhere, im not quite sure where is a fully legit natural spring that has been tapped to shoot water out of a fountain, it has its own little terrace and people come from all round Szekesfehervar (specialy the elderly), to collect water to drink. The water is said to have beneficial health properties, but it just tastes very metallic to me. There are some nice churches and lovely little courtyards in the city centre to keep an eye out for. And anually (in Summer) they hold an open air theatre right in the middle of the city. There are also a fair few statues scattered about.
Near the main bus station is a shopping centre called 'Alba Plaza', which has a cinema, if you want to experiance a film in hungarian, or just can't bear to miss a movie on the big screen. The supermarkets good to keep costs down if your on a budget. If your into the night life here are the places i checked out. The best was 'Fregatt Pub', it is a restaurant during the day, and disco at night, the music was dance & euro techno. 'West Side' was good, it was R&B music, plus has a 4 lane bowling alley up top & pool tables. 'Dodge City, Western Club' was more for the older crowd 25-30 and had funk & folk like music. Though you could wear what you like, up to 20 year old tended to wear t-shirts & jeans, while 25 & up wore short sleeve button up shirts. Near the end of my trip some mates invited me to play a game of paintball, little did i know it would be in an old abandoned (small) russian palace, very cool.
I hope that this has been informative & at least somewhat interesting for you to read. Best luck on all your travelling adventures in the future.
(Alas i won't be uploading any photos as they were taken on film, and i have not that much money to spare. The paintball pics were courtesy of the mates girlfriend, thanks.)
