Tour of Capitals: Budapest

Budapest, the capital of present day Hungary, has a long and colourful history from its humble origins of a Celtic settlement from eons ago to one of the most beautiful capital cities of Europe. It is not a joke that Budapest is made up of two cities, Buda and Pest. Honest.

Anyway, we attended this free tour that was held by this really cool guide. A great tip for those travelling on a budget like us students: Look for free tours and attend them! Its a really cool way of getting to know a city well. One thing that I pretty much dislike about travelling is the fact that I can look at a building and not know its significance. For all I know, I could be standing on some historical noteworthy place and wouldn't know! Its like finding gold but thinking it was lead and throw it away!

But I digress. The free tour was really VERY informative. The tour guide was very helpful and very knowledgeable about the subject. Being a history graduate and had studied english at a local university, she should be! She spent like 30 minutes explaining the origins of Budapest, the language and the many dynasties that came to rule. For brevity, I shall omit much of the history here, but it makes the tour of the place more significant when one realises the history behind major monuments and appreciate the city more. For example, when we first arrived, we found the people here to be pretty gloomy, as in general sales people and those on the streets.

There wasn't any buskers around and the people seemed to be unwilling to help strangers (e.g. us) and sometimes they are just outright unfriendly. Even the service quality left much to be desired. But the tour guide explained that after the second world war, things were generally very bad for the hungarian economy. Hungary had amassed huge national debts and the economy is not faring well, and the people are shouldering the brunt of the damage. Many people are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet. The tour guide herself is also holding multiple jobs, this tour job being one of them (we give tips...). From the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to the economy crisis, the Hungarians were just hit with wave after wave of bad news. No wonder they have such dour dispositions. Made me glad that Singapore has such a stable government that has means to adapt to most financial crisis.

Anyway, on to more happy thought, the views of Budapest is not too bad. The architecture is european but has a disticnt flavour from Switzerland or France. Instead, if I have to describe, I would say it is mainly european, but with a hungarian twist. It has its fair share of Gothic and Baroque styled magnificent buildings, just like France and the other european capitals. But there is a kind of touch that reminded me of Turkey.

For example, there are buildings there that have roofs of coloured tiles and rounded domes, not those onion domes of Islamic structures, but more like those absurd old french style parasols that are streched length-wards, like a mushroom. This was probably a reflection of the Turks' rule during their period of conquests and expansion.

Buildings like the Musuem of Applied Arts shows one of the many buildings that were built in this style.
From Wikipedia.

I won't bother you with the details on what I did step by step like I did in the France Chronicles, so I'll highlight the notable ones.

Lets see... We went to the Great Market Hall that was much featured in many books and guides. Pretty interesting, especially on the upper level where the cooked food stalls and the touristy trinkets could be found. I had my first taste of Hungarian cuisine there, where I tried their Hungarian sausage and a cabbage roll. Totally did not know that Hungarians eat lard like meat till a friend mentioned. The sausage had chunks of lard that were visible. If I don't think about the lard, the sausage actually tastes pretty bland. The sausage that my friend had was better. Slightly spiced with much lesser lard. I loved the way the people here do their cabbages. They have it sour here. I tried some cabbage that were stewed in vinegar, sour cabbage soup that my friend said bore a resemblance to kimchi and the aforementioned cabbage roll was just delectable. It was just noodles wrapped in cabbage but the whole combination was really good. Made me wonder how they did it. I could have asked the lady behind the counters, but I had this feeling that she might bite my head off...
The round thing on the top left is the cabbage roll, beside it is the sausage. Check out those pieces of fat in them (blow them up)!
It was in Hungary that I became a Thousandaire. The exchange rates were like 1 euro to 242 HUF. I had changed 100 euros, so that made me an instant thousandaire. I could finally say that I had thousands to spare!

The prices in Hungary are great for meat deprived people like me. I ate a very nice Filet Mignon in a cafe like place for 2790 HUF. For the uninitiated, filet mignon is probably one of the most expensive cuts you can find in a cow because it is the tenderest part and each cow only has a small portion of it. It could easily cost above SGD 50 at a restaurant but if you don't let the 4-figure sum deceive you, it set me back at about SGD 20 or 10 Euros. Not too bad a deal at all!! It was great and I felt so satisfied after that that I probably went to sleep with a smile. :-D Jealous? Too bad! Haha. In short, it was a splurge well spent although that meant I had to be prudent for the remaining leg of Budapest.

Besides the meat, I had also tried the pastries there. We went to a place called Retesvar that was near the castle and tried a hungarian pastry named Rete. Its a studel with sweet or savory. It wasn't too bad, but the prices were probably a rip off due to its touristy location. But I read from another blog that the Great Market Hall has a stall that has great Rete. Should have tried it there. But anyway, I also bought several other types of hungarian pastries from a bakery near our hostel. Not too bad. Nothing fancy, just normal stuff that is good for tea.

Budapest is also known for its many thermal baths and spas. Baths and spas were brought in from the Romans, who had found and built many of the baths that are present today.So, being set to try anything Hungarian, we went to a bath! Just nice, our guided tour led us to one of the biggest thermal baths in Budapest, the Széchenyi Spa. (I won't even bother trying to pronounce the name. We just called it the S bath...)

The bath was... an experience. The main outdoor pool is really just a heated pool with jets of water around and a cool whirlpool place in the middle of it. Great to just sit at a fet and let the pulse massage your body. The pools in the interior of the building are just heated swimming pools. Like a huge pot of water where people come in to stew in. The place would have been paradise if it were private and I could stay in it all day long. Unfortunately, it wasn't private and we had to get out sooner or later. When we got out, the sun had set and so it was ass-bitingly cold. We had to scurry into the toilets like a bunch of soaked mices to get warm because they don't provide towels beside the pool, but near the toilets down below. It was a great experience, getting to soak in the warmth of the pool while admiring the moon behind the domed roof ot the bath. Where is that glass of champagne when you need one?! ;-D

Well, that was the more interesting aspect of the tour. For other interesting aspects, lets look at the pictures to jog my memory...

During our tour, the tour guide pionted out that this statue of a king (can't remember his name) is really famous locally due to a legend that a bunch of university kids started. That bunch of university kids had a tradition that was passed down from seniors to juniors that if one touches the horse's balls, one would have a great love life. We met this american guy in the tour. Being american AND a guy, he dared my friends to touch the balls just for fun. So, much to our amusement, and to a group of german tourists, these crazy kids (not boring ol' me though) went ahead to touch the horse's balls. Of course the crowed cheered. One of them even filmed the entire process! Haha, it was really crazy fun. The horse's testicles are all golden from the many such escapades in the past. The horse had literal golden balls!

Oh, before I forgot, I had a new companion on this travel. Joining me, Jessica and Esther, we have another person from NTU, Nicole! She provides much wacky antics and lame jokes to fill the gaps of our travels. :-D

Left to right: Nicole, Jessica and Esther.

I've left out some historical stuff and instead focused on the fun aspects. Of course I visited many historical sites and places, like the many churches and cathedrales, the famous Hero's square, the ironically named Freedom monument (statue of Liberty) and many others. However, as I didn't take many pictures on this trip (I was a little lazy...) I would have to wait till my friends upload their photos on facebook before I can post them here.
Overview of the Pest side of the Danube.