Archives by Subject: Hungary
Travelogue: Reflections on Hungarian Culture
The instant we arrived in Budapest's airport, two people came up to our group and asked if we needed a cab. They were pretty good salespeople, armed with tons selling points: cabs were cheaper than the airport buses for large groups, cabs were quicker, cabs took you directly to your place, these were especially cheap cabs, you can pay in Euros instead of the Hungarian Forints, etc.
Yet the cab ride proved interesting. Our cab driver, fluent in English, was very honest and open. Though I assumed it was obvious, he asked if we were American, and had a lot to say. He didn't like the globalization of America. He didn't like American films, American politics, American food, or American cars.
"You go to a movie theatre and there are 10 films, and 8 of them are American." He was adamant: Hungary has its own private market, and doesn't need American products.
Throughout all this, he was weaving the cab through traffic like a madmen. European traffic lights seem to flash the yellow light when the light is red to indicate that it's about to turn green, allowing the drivers to prepare to take off at full speed. If he hadn't had us as passengers, he told us, "there is only one rule... no crossing the cars." Or, in other words, no car accidents.
Posted in on November 08, 2005, 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Travelogue: Budapest, Hungary
Having spent any time in Europe up until a few months ago, I had no idea to expect out of Budapest. But I love it!
Budapest is the first step on my three city Fall Break all this week. I wish I had more time to spend here! It's a beautiful city rich in history and with plenty of things to see, do, and look at.
We arrived last night on WizzAir (actually a suprisingly good airline) from Rome. We checked into our hostel around 8:30pm and then went off to get dinner. My first observation: it was cold. For some reason, Italy has been blessed with weather almost consistently in the 70s. And somehow I managed to leave the jacket I brought for this trip on the bus in Rome, making me one very cold traveler. Yet I persevered, as we were all pretty tired anyway and it was pretty clear last night would not be a late night. After some delicious Hungarian food (salty!), we walked along the river and went to bed.
We rose this morning at 9:30am and spent a few hours doing... nothing. It takes a group of six longer to get ready than we thought. After a late breakfast, we began our walk across a bridge into Pest (you may not know that Budapest actually used to be two separate cities: Buda and Pest) and began to climb to the Citadel, or the highest point in the city with certainly the most beautiful view. I managed to hurt my ankle (again!), so that slowed me down briefly, but we eventually made our way down and all around the city.
It should be noted that geniuses that we are, we managed to schedule our trip to Hungary during a national holiday. Today and tomorrow all museums are closed, and I'm told many of the locals have left the city entirely. But that's okay, there's still lots to see! This city is huge -- the fifth largest in the European Union.
We came back here and went to one of the city's famous baths. After testing our Hungarian trying to read all the signage, we made our way outside to the warm pools. They were packed, and while we dashed from pool to pool trying not to freeze, the Europeans casually strode to wherever they were going. "Silly Americans," I'm sure they were thinking. The warm water was incredibly relaxing -- perhaps too relaxing -- but after a few hours we headed back to our Hostel.
We got a late dinner and, as seems to happen often here, were pretty tired when we finally got back here, about an hour ago.
Tomorrow: Vienna!
· Photos from Budapest [Flickr]
Posted in on October 31, 2005, 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
