Budapest I: City Introduction

I got to Budapest, as previously indicated, on the night train from Belgrade and thus got in really early. After a much-needed nap in my new hostel, I set out with some other travelers from my place on a walking tour of the city. I'd done a lot of research, so I was more than well-prepared to plow out on my own, but the hostel guy was insistent that it was the best walking tour of all time. I ended up regretting doing it, unfortunately, just because it used up 3 hours of solid tourist time and made me climb the big hill on the Buda side of the river that I was planning on doing in more detail the following day. Usually I take those walking tours for the little fun tidbits and stories about the city but they didn't do a whole lot of that. But oh well.

As soon as I ventured out on my own, I realized just how massive Budapest is, and probably why the walking tour covered so little even in 3 hours. Budapest is relatively new, per se, in that the combined city was only formed in 1872. Before that, it used to be three separate entities of Buda (the west side), Pest (the east side), and Obuda ("Old Buda" on the NW side). After the walking tour, I was set on going to take a 2:00 tour of Parliament. Around 1:25 I set off on what I thought was a little walk up the Danube. I was convinced that in 30 minutes, I could get up the Danube, across the St. Margaret Island bridge, and back down the Danube (I was inconveniently placed in the direct middle point between two bridges) to Parliament. Wrong. Budapest is absolutely massive. Come 2:00, I'm still hustling across the bridge. Luckily, however, when I arrived at Parliament at 2:15 there was a delayed English-speaking guided tour leaving precisely then. The Parliament tour was short but sweet, and although we didn't go through much of the huge building (2nd largest in the world only after Westminster) we saw the parliamentary meeting chamber and some of the grand entrance halls. There was also a huge octagonal hall that is the center of the symmetrical building, where surrounded by busts of the past Hungarian kings, the coronation jewels are kept. Hungary boasts the oldest coronation jewels still used today, with parts of the crown as old as 1031 (within 40 years of Hungary even coming to Europe). So that was pretty neat. Afterward, I couldn't really walk around the grounds taking pictures because of the security "threat" that would've created, but I nabbed a few. It looks very similar to Westminster in its Neo-Gothic architecture. Only, instead of gold, it's all white with red roofs.

By now, I was pretty hungry so I walked back south to the plaza in front of the St. Stephan's basilica, where we'd gone on the walking tour and where I noticed there were a whole lot of cafes and restaurants. I settled on this one place based on their prices and was pleasantly surprised; I got as my main dish what were described as "meat-filled pancakes," but in reality it was like a non-sweet crepe/enchilada material that was stuffed with goodness inside with a sour cream sour layered on top. Looked kind of nasty but tasted delicious. Apparently the Hungarian cuisine is just meat, sour cream, and paprika - but I like it so far.

Nothing is open, tourist-wise, in Budapest past 6, and already it was 4 o'clock and I was by St. Stephan's with no tourist destination within a reasonable walking distance. Thus, I opted to just check out the basilica, which took 30 or 45 minutes, and then find a cafe and read for a bit. At Frommer's suggestion, I walked down Vaci utca, one of the main shopping and people-watching streets, until I found a suitable place. I had dessert and coffee there but after an hour this cold wind from the Danube kicked in and I was scrambling for the bill to get moving again. After getting back to the hostel, I was pretty tired from the whole night train experience (even after a short nap) so I just unpacked and went to bed after watching parts of a movie in the common room. Good first day in Budapest, and I learned the lesson of how long it takes to get from A to B in this massive city.