Posts Tagged ‘Hungary’

I grabbed a few other Hostel goers and headed out to see the Pest side of Budapest. We walked down the central street toward the chain bridge and stopped off at the beautiful and ornate opera house complete with drama faces and sphinx. from the opera house we turned and visited St. Stephens:

and wandered inside to view the splendor of the edifice: From its gate

To the central altar:

and even its courtyard:

I saw St. Stephens Mummified hand, encrusted in rubies, diamonds and precious metals, and then we headed on from the Church to find the Chain bridge and make our way to the Palace atop Castle hill in Pest.

From the Chain Bridge:

With its growling and gruesom protectors

We made our way across and up next to the funicular towards the palace which sits overlooking Buda. The castle which held the last german resistance to soviet invasion in world war two and houses budapests underground nuclear bunkers and hospitals.

the view of parliament from Pest Castle:

The Palace grounds which now house galleries and museums as well as the state library are decorated with beautiful fountains the like of which I have not seen before. Each fountain shows a different scene from life.

Fishing:

Hunting:

and then there were the fishing monuments and castle walls:

From the walls we headed down into Pest and found the Underground entrance to the underground hospital and once top secret nuclean bunkers built into the natural caves under Pest palace and castle.

The tour was eerie climbing through wax museum dummies of doctors, suffering world war II patients and the 60’s era hungarian defense propaganda. we finished after an hour and made our way back to the Hostel. The next morning I headed out to the bus station and caught a bus to Krakow Poland.

I pulled into Budapest around that night. Wandered my way through the metro and found myself along with a fellow Kiwi to Tiger Tim’s Hostel. We dropped our gear and rested up before heading out on the town. Grabbing dinner with the crew and then headed out into Budapest’s nightlife. Decent, not thriving but still pretty hard hitting. We went out together as a hostel, so as a group we were about 20-25 and we mixed and had a decent time at a few clubs and House bars. We came in around 4 am and crashed. Not too bad of a welcome to Budapest.

I woke up the next morning bright and early at 9 am, stumbled about the hostel sleep deprived until I managed to connive some norwegian girls to make me coffee and tea and then grabbed my camera, a cold douse of water over my face and began to walk the city.

I passed some great signs:

and then started into the city architecture:

\

An Archer in the park: Surprise!!

and then found myself facing a giant memorial which dominated the northern half of the city of Buda. The memorial built in commemoration of the Hungarian empire documents its great kings and leaders and is dominated by an angel lead by what I presume is a statue of the first kings of Hungary. the Orthodox cross raised high.
Chariot Horses:

First kings:

Angel:

After the monument I headed into the park and found the Buda castle an amazing structure which now houses the Budapest Natural History Museum.

and the statue of Anonymous:

Complete with beautiful women crawling on it:

I wandered around the park to the Bath’s and watched Hungarians and tourists play in the waters before taking a shot of the entry way

After the park I called it an afternoon and headed back to the hostel. But only for a short while, I took myself a nap and then headed out to see Pest!

After another long ride on the bus of death I arrived in Sarajevo Bosnia at 11:30pm. I grabbed the last trolly of the night and headed to Old town. There I wandered about the small district until I found my Hostel nestled into a dark corner street just at the edge of the Old town. I checked in, discovered my booking had been lost and that the hostel was full, dropped my bags on my cushy Airbed stuffed under the staircase used in emergencys to the upper dorms and promptly passed out. I awoke at 2 am, 3:15 am, and 4:45 am to the sound of drunk Irish, Austrailian and dreaded Canadians respectivley. I then returned to sleep to be woken at 6:15 by the hostel staff, who apparently used the closet under the staircase (blocked by my bed) as storage for breakfast.

I made sure to book a bed for the next night and took a long hot shower to wake up. Then I called my friend Matthew Jacobs and left the hostel around 10am to meet up with him. I missed him and decided to go to the tunnel museum which showed the city during the serbian siege and the tunnel which meant life or death to those trapped within sarajevo during the 90’s war.

The tunnel museum was more than just the simple, narrow, tunnel which ran from bosnian free territory to sarajevo, it was a tour of the sieged city, pictures of what it looked like less than 15 years ago, and footage of War tourism (the act of buying time on a sniper rifle gunning down civilians within the city). Pretty heavy stuff.

I met Matt later that night for some nibbles before we got ready to go out.

After a filling and heavy Lasagna at Barhana in oldtown we headed back our separate ways to get ready for the night. We met up and headed to the park to relax and wait for Bosnians to get ready and head out for the evening. from the park we went to Sloga a salsa/mix club 5 minutes from my Hostel. We danced until 3 am before calling it a night and heading back.

The next morning we headed around the city for a nice walk of old town and the city. we ended up napping in a park by the latin bridge (where Ferdinand got shot)

Napping in the Park:

and then headed over to the brewery for some good nibbles. We arrived in the very Upscale brewery and ordered a decent meal before settling in to talk.

after eating we hiked up to the overlook over sarajevo and watched the sunset. I did some human javelin throwing :

Watched the sunset

then prepared for another night out at the pub and a 7am bus to Budapest!

Pulling in to the train station from our grueling cross mountain trip, we arrived exausted and sore in Belgrade. Beograd, Serbia is a beautiful mixture of Old city, sitting atop its hilltop fortress, newer city edging its ancient streets away from the fortress and the newest communistic residential blocks across the river staring bluntly into the sunset.

Belgrade is Eastern Europes Berlin. The Nightlife there is startling. The culture is Party all night, drink coffee and enjoy the pedestrian only districts during the day. Spectacular. I wandered to Green Studio Apartment Hostel on the 6th floor of a building just a few blocks from the Railstation, dropped my gear, checked my mail, grabbed my camera and ran out the door. Wandering the streets of Belgrade I made my way to the Fortress, and inside it to the Military museum showcasing rows of tanks, artillery and weapons for seige and assault throughout serbski history.

Fortress’s walls and impressive battlements completed I made my perilous journey in search of Serbian food. I was delighted to find a serbian shop which, named after the norse god of mischief provided me with suitable food and drink. I got a sandwitch like meal with a huge sausage patty folded over and stuffed with katchup, mustard, coleslaw, sauercraut, spices, and chili.

Full and satisfied I started my march back up the narrow streets toward the pedestrain district, I meandered through the universities student square and grabbed a few shots of some really impressive graffiti before making it to the main pedestrain way. There I found myself a hot coffee and muched bread while watching the beautiful serbian women pass by.

As night rolled in I made my way back to the hostel, took a quick shower and hurried out to do some dancing. I was stoked and ready for a good time. I found a club called Anderground which was built into the cave systems under the fortress. They had salsa EVERYNIGHT. I started dancing and quickly made friends with the salsa crew who were dancing there. they brought me in and started me to teach the Rueda calls in Serbian (haha awesome) and then showed me rueda style salsa on my own. I threw in a little LA to keep it new for the girls and had a wonderful night dancing. I repeated my dancing Saturday and Sunday night I headed on from Belgrade to Sarajevo.

Saturday during the day I walked the new city (spreading down the hill from the old jewish quarter) and found the closed (sucky) Nikolai Tesla Museum. I’ll have to go back to find that museum when its open. It looked amazing.

I Arrived in Brasov at 2pm found my hostel by 2:30 and then headed out to walk the city and explore. Romanian architecture is mostly German. When it was unified to become the Romanian Kingdom, a German man was chosen as king and the German influences abound. Romanian language doesn’t use the cyrillic alphabet, and better yet, it is based on latin. Being able to read the signs and understand large portions of the language made Romania a lot of fun.

The city of Brasov is beautiful, quaint, but also jumping. The people are clear eyed – mostly blue and green – with brown to dark blond hair. I bought a replacement earring (my earring from Venice had broken and I had to replace it) and looked in vain for a place to go dancing. Satisfied with a quiet night I hit the hostel, watched the movie Taken (brilliantly retarded) with five girls from the hostel, had a nightcap and hit the sack. Showering early in the morning I hopped on a guided tour of Peles Palace (SPECTACULAR) Bran Castle (weak) and Rasov Fortress.

Peles is an example of wealth beyond wealth. Built from 1873 to 1918 the palace is decorated in intricate inlays of wood. There are no paintings. Instead, each portrait and work of art is made of between 10 and 20 kinds of inlaid woods, done in unbelievably intricate work. There are life sized detailed wood carved statues – the men are in decorated platemai. The wood is meticulously carved including the embroidery and embossing of the would-be steel. The intricate lacework of the wood continues down to the chain mail undergarments, each ring distinct and clearly carved. Outside of the entry hall there are long rectangular rooms, each representing a different culture from Italian, German, Swiss, Venetian, Spanish and French. Each room is made of materials imported from that area mimicking its greatest and most beautiful treasures. The Turkish room for example is a full room with every square inch covered in silk carpets including the floors, walls, ceilings, tables, chairs…everything in the room is embroidered intricate silk… Stunning.

In shock from the display and deeply saddened that I hadn’t paid the 20 euro to take pictures I wandered through the extensive gardens before being collected by our guide and lead on to the very disappointing Bran castle – nothing more than a weak, small, bare hill fort protecting a small unessential pass.

We made it to Rasov Castle and enjoyed the view as an afternoon storm rushed over the castle walls and covered everything in rain and storm. I had the driver drop me at the train station and started to Beograd.