Budapest
St. Stephen Matthias Church
March 17, 2005
Some say it takes a week to see Budapest, I think I saw more than more than them
in one day. At 6:00am I went to Gellert Baths to catch them as they opened. I was
a little unsure of what I was supposed to do, so just followed. I only paid for
the thermal baths since I had no interest in a massage, jet stream bath, or mud
bath. I went in, found myself a changing room, put my swimming suit on (as is required
now, although not followed), locked my stuff away and went downstairs.
The first bath was 38 C and I found it too hot, so moved to the 36 C bath, which
was surprisingly much better. I sat on the edge and stretched like the others, basically
just relaxing and looking at the building, which contains tiles designed without
taste considered and more than a few naked guys. They say this is more of a Hungarian
bath as opposed to a Turkish bath, but I was in Budapest, so that’s what I was going
for.
I was the only foreigner in there at 6am, in fact there were very few people there
at all. After 45 minutes I moved over to the 38 C bath and again that was stupid;
I began sweating while I sat on the edge, felt like I was suffocating as sweat dripped
down my face. It was odd and mysteriously hotter than the other bath, so after about
2 minutes I moved back to the first bath until I had cooled down. At this point
I left: first I showered then dried and finally dressed. I was feeling great and
relaxed, but as soon as I got outside I faced the hill back up to my hostel. I decided
to stay at a hostel on top of castle hill for the views, which I realized was a
bad idea when I arrived and had to climb the steps and re-realized that again today.
After checking out of my hostel, I headed to the next door castle. The castle was
at first only okay upon entrance, but soon realized I had not entered the bulk of
the castle, whose complex is that of a fortress. The entrance gate leading from
the walkway to the courtyard was guarded by two extremely impressive lions on each
side; the two on the entry quite at peace and strong, whereas the other two, heading
out were active and fierce.
The entrance to the National Gallery was also impressive, but was overshadowed by
the nearby Matthias Church and Fishermen’s Bastion. This small square overlooks
the Danube River and Parliament on the opposite bank. The views from here were perfect
although the air in Pest appears to be more smog than oxygen. Through this smog
the Parliament building reflected in the Danube and the contrast of Pest’s flatness
was emphasized on castle hill in Buda. The entire castle area is nothing more than
a fortress including the palace, church, statues, etc. At the far northern part
of this fortress I reached the National Archives with a roof similar to that of
Matthias Church in its Art Nouveau tiled roof.
After exiting through neighboring Vienna Gate and on to Moszkva ter, I caught a
subway to Keleti Station and Pest. North-east stands the Geological Institute just
south of Varosliget. The building is a mandatory stop on my tour of Budapest since
I'm writing a report on the architecture that dominates that building for my
art history class. It wears a blue tiled roof adorned with a globe; I took a couple
pictures and left to the next stop on my educational-paper requirement tour: Varosliget
to see Vajdahunyad Palace, then to nearby Hero’s Square. The square was built in
1896 to celebrate the Magyars 1,000th anniversary in the area that is now Hungary
and Transylvania. The square was lively and active, but with little to do other
than people watch, which I did just long enough to catch my breathe and move on.
I grabbed the subway to the Museum of Terror, the city’s newest museum. The Museum
of Terror was incredibly educational and very well put together. The exhibits were
great and extremely unique. One section was just wax bars placed together like bricks,
not quite knowing where or when it was going to end. Another room had the floor
boards torn up and you could see the layer beneath the wood to the dirt where a
huge cross lies in the ground, as if buried and re-found. Another room was only
metal, the ceiling, floors, and walls with a circle in the middle of red debris.
I learned more at this museum than I've learned in classes or most other museums.
The museum was more than the simple “terror” that one thinks of at Halloween time,
but is quite real and so well put together.
After the museum I headed down Andrassy ut and soon found a Burger King, as if God
were watching down on me; I was led to it by a single beam of light breaking through
the clouds showing me my destination. I kept telling myself one would appear and
sure enough it stood there on the corner like an angel, however my wallet had run
dry so I frantically sought an exchange booth and for my efforts was rewarded with
two whoppers with cheese. It was heavenly and I was re-energized to continue my
day (I've been living abroad for two years, I don't have fast food anymore). By
this point it was noon and the 15 minute stop was my first extended stop of the
day.
This tree-lined street is also home to the Budapest Operetta Theater, Opera House,
and St. Stephen’s Basilica, which seemed nice, but time was ticking and I had to
get to the Postal Savings Bank for my report. This was a pain, since the building
is in the middle of a block so nearly impossible to take a good picture of the roof,
which is what my report's on so the time-consuming journey was disappointing
to say the least.
Parliament looked better from across the river as it reflected in the Danube. Time's
ticking... subway to Ferenc korut (stopping at Europe’s largest synagogue on the
way) to see the Museum of Applied Arts. Again my luck has continued and the museum
was closed. It only housed temporary exhibits and there was one opening the next
week so I turned out to be 0 for 5 for building interiors.
Next stop: Statue Park just outside of Budapest, west of Buda so back on the subway,
Etele ter and Kelenfold Station, then a bus to the park. There were a number of
other foreigners on the bus and we all got off at the park. Most of the statue descriptions
were vague and there was little to talk extensively about. Most of it was plaques
or poor busts of Hungarian communist heroes no one's ever heard of. There were
a lot of Bela Kun and about two of Lenin. There was none of Stalin, which was my
main motivation for going, since I’ve never seen a full and complete statue of Stalin.
I felt I saw enough in only about 15 minutes, turned around, and followed my path
back.
Three hours left: the National Museum and Burger King won. I spent most of the rest
of the day at the museum which was easy time to fill as I was occupied with Roman
ruins and the most incredible complete mosaic I’ve ever seen. The entrance to a
Roman villa transported me to that time as it stood about 30 feet tall and about
15 or so wide. After seeing I had spent over an hour and a half there I quickly
ran through the last bits of the last exhibit and took off to Burger King for a
last meal of bliss before returning to the Burger King-less country of Poland.
This time at Burger King I went with the Western Whopper combo meal; it was odd,
but still good. Near the train station, I stopped to blow through all the Hungarian
money I had left: two Kit-Kats, a Mars bar, a chocolate bar, a liter of water, a
litter of juice, and another local candy bar.
By the time I reached the station I sat for about 15 minutes at which point the
platform for the Krakow train appeared and I got on board.
Fisherman's Bastion
National Gallery
Parliament & the Danube