Eurotreat

The following is an excerpt from a journal I kept while I was backpacking across Europe

Here are links to the other days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

Day 9
I love Budapest. I sleep in, entire room to myself. Pick myself out of bed and have no idea what time it is. Maybe I should get that watch today? I took a shower and then dined on my free breakfast, compliments of the hostel (it was toast) and used my free internet to check my email. Good way to start the day.

So it's about 930am when I begin my adventure. I hit the street and start walking to the northern bridge. Budapest is 2 different cities, Buda and Pest, seperated by the Danube River. I was staying in Pest so I wanted to cross one of the bridges and go see Buda. As I made my way to the northern bridge, I was struck by the beauty of the city. I crossed into Buda and just wandered around. It was really bizarre. I'd just be walking down the same street that appears to be going straight and then wind up walking in the direction you were just coming from because every street is so curvy and twisted. I checked out a bath and it looked pretty nice but I didnt come here to relax. I came here to win.

Before I got lost, I just decided to use the river to guide me through Buda. As I walked, there were some pretty breathtaking views of Pest. Nonetheless, there were some sights that caught my eye inland so I made my way back into downtown Buda. Before I knew it, I was in this residential neighborhood. I walked by a school, and this area was very hilly. I imagine San Francisco is something like this with all of these inclined roads. Next thing I know, I turn a couple of corners and this massive palace is in front of me. Literally appeared out of nowhere. No tourists to warn me...nothing. Well apparently, most toursits use a different route to get to the palace, in fact, they usually take a car or bus. I have yet to realize that Budapest is not a walking city due to its massive size.

Turns out the palace is called the Fisherman's Bastien. At the top, I realized it was actually part of this massive complex/village of museums and landmarks. All of it was extremely impressive. Plenty of tourists everywhere but I could deal with them considering they were all in groups. I explored the village for a bit, it felt like I was in Epcot, before making my way to the actual palace. Beautiful architecture on these buildings. rivals paris but blows prague out of the water as far as I'm concerned.

As I took numerous pictures and video (I uploaded all of my videos to youtube) I realized I was running out of camera memory. Not good. I deleted some pictures that I figured were too redundant in order to make some room. So as I stood atop the palace overlooking the city, I couldn't help but notice "The Citadel" to my right. The Citadel was off in the distance, high atop a green hill. On the Buda side of the river, but quite a distance from where I stood. The problem was, there were two different spots that could be the Citadel. There was a red castle, a philosopher statue, and a leaf statue. All 3 are different things on top of this hill, only one of them was the Citadel. Well, there's only one way to find this out (not true, I could have asked someone) LETS GO FOR A HIKE.

I tried to stay uphill for as long as I could to give myself an advantage as I trekked over to this hill but it was useless. The Palace was on a seperate hill so I basically had to descend all the way down to the river before I could climb again. So into another section of Buda I went, slightly more urban but still clean and cultured. I couldnt really find a path to take me up this hill so I just decided to make my own.
(Sidenote: as it turned out, there were plenty of paths to go up the hill, they happened to be on the OPPOSITE side of where I was)

Making my own path turned out to be pretty interesting. I had to cross a highway. 3 lanes on each side...ummm...ya. i was more embarassed for myself than I was scared. Pretty ridiculous though. It actually took a good few minutes too, as the highway was pretty busy. I probably looked pretty dumb standing in the middle for awhile waiting to cross the second half. As I continued my ascent, I stumbled upon the coolest statue. There were no tourists to be found. Awesome. I keep hiking up the mountain through trees, still making my own path and I come across this narrow road. not entirely sure where it would take me, I decided to walk on some pavement for a bit to give my body a rest from cutting through trees and shrubbery.

I walk down the road and there are no cars, but there are definitely people giving me weird looks. Where the hell am I? Did I across into a parallel dimension? So I see the end of the road and start to wonder what I'll do next when suddenly the red castle appears out of nowhere. Why do I keep sneaking up on cool stuff in this city?

Well to be honest, the red castle was far more impressive from afar than it was up close. This was definitely not the Citadel. I only stopped briefly as I knew I had to find the actual Citadel. It was either the leaf statue or the philosopher. The bright side of the castle discovery as now I spotted two different paths to take me uphill. One was clear and straight, the other was steep and narrow and clearly "less traveled by" so as a true Robert Frost fan, I took the steep path. Will it make all the difference?

Not really. I'm sure both would have taken me to the top of the hill. This was one hell of a hike though. Gasping and panting, and on all fours for stability (it was that steep), I finally made it to the top. I knew I was at the top because I saw all the buses and tourists walking around. My God, you should have seen their faces when I appeared from the depths of the forest, rising from the steep ledge, drenched in sweat, panting like a dog in texas. Everyone who was my age felt like a pussy thats for sure.

Turns out the Citadel is actually a fortress on top of the hill and the leaf statue was in the back. As I walk around and check out the cannons, I begin to discover all of the paths that normal people would have taken. So really, if I had just took a better approach at the bottom of the hill, I woulda had an easier hike up the mountain. My descent was much easier and it actually included some great views of the city. Being that high up, it was pretty incredible.

You're probably wondering about the Philosopher's statue and what became of it. Well, as I descended, I walked right up to it. At this point I just became so overwhelmed that I had seen so many awesome things in Buda and I hadnt even explored Pest yet. I finally reached the bottom and gazed back up at the mountain. Beneath the Philosopher statue was this large waterfall which added to the moment. It was time to head to Pest so I crossed the White bridge. hoping I return to Buda again someday.

I am officially in camera crisis mode. I enter Pest and it is already overflowing with urbanization, traffic, and dirty. Reminded me of Nove Mesto in Prague, but at least this wasn't an eyesore. Beautiful buildings that remained authentic to the city despite the clear moderinization of the commercial stores it contained. I found then earest internet cafe. IMy feet were pretty tired so it was good to take a load off. I uploaded my entire camera for about a half hour. The two croissants leftover from PARIS that I found in m backpack were devoured on my hike and I was starting to get a bit hungry.

In a rare move, I decided to hold off eating for now so I could continue to explore Pest. It was a lot like Prague in terms of old architecture, but better cuz there are less tourists. Central Market was almost exactly like Downtown Crossing in Boston, take that for what it's worth, and pretty similar to a strip I walked down in Brussells. After vigorous exploring, I went to Parliament. I decided to wait until now to discuss Parliament because, well, you know what, it really can't be described.

I couldnt even fit all of it in one picture. It's so epic, grand, massive. probably the best building i have ever seen in my life. The fact that I could blow my load over a building should be enough to demonstrate how impressive this thing is.

So now, I really have to piss AND I am really hungry so I can't think of a better reason to go get some fine Budapest dining. I got this crazy cheese sandwich with a hummus spread and a liter of soprani, Hungarian beer. Total cost? 4 american dollars. HAHAHAHA. Everyone was really friendly but I could tell this was an authentic place. How? Everyone was staring at me while I ate. Not to make me feel uncomfortable, but the way you'd stare at a midget with an eyepatch in a wheelchair. A group of high school kids playing a card game and drinking to my left, 2 elder Hungarian men smoking and playing chess to my right.

After eats I decided to head behind Parliament and get right up to the river to take some pictures of Buda from across the river. It was pretty cool. I also made my way over to the Chain Bridge, which apparently was a landmark I couldnt miss. It was about 6pm and I had already walked about 7 miles. The next item on my agenda was to head back to the first bridge and go to the island. The island was Budapest's answer to Boston Common and Central Park. Except it's an island in the middle of the river and way better. There was no hint of urbanization. As soon as I was on the island, I felt like I was in an entirely different place. Soccerfields, a running track, fountains, statues, green grass, flowers, gardens. I walked about a mile down and I turned around because it was starting to get dark. The significance of this park cannot be understated. Budapest had been great up tl now, but seeing no tourists and only the city residents using this park to walk, bike, run, play sports and simply socializing, it was just really refreshing. A place I wouldnt mind living. I'm sure it'll get corrupted by tourists someday, but it was sure nice the way it is now.

I made my way back to the hostel and uploaded more pictures. It was about 830 now so I decided to go get dinner and take one more walk around the city. I found this Hungarian place that served up food with an Asian flair. I got a pound of steamed veggies, a beef and pasta/noodle like platter with a thick sauce, a plate of noodles and these 5 huge sugar dumplings. All for 8 dollars. Hey, I walked about 10 miles today, I feel no shame. I devoured the entire meal

Next on the agenda was the supermarket. Hey if the currency exchange was going to benefit me, then damn right i am going to take advantage. Well, it was a huge mistake. hungarian bottled water was vomit inducing. I had to force it down. Disgusting. I walked around the city a bit. took some pictures by the bridge, trying to get a good one with everything in the background.

I was pretty exhausted and my body hated me. My feet were throbbing and begging for mercy. So I rewarded them by heading to bed after my walk. What a day...

-- Boosh