Budapest Pics
posted by Kristine at
7:22 PM
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2 Comments
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Land of Frigid Paradoxes
Stay tuned for pics. Coming soon!
Zsolt, the host of my Budapest trip loves Budapest because “it is full of paradoxes.” And he is right. Bleary Soviet buildings of hard angles and drab colors squeeze between the curved, ornate decoration of Renaissance buildings. Then there are the sections of town that were re-built after being leveled in WWI. But graffiti marks ugly and beautiful buildings alike, and can be found everywhere.
The churches are Byzantine, Christian and Orthodox. The biggest synagogue in Europe is here.
Buda on the west of the Danube is steep hills of history and wealth. Pest, the flat Eastern area of the Danube is politics, commerce and business. The rich, in their gorgeous homes on the west, overlook the ugly Soviet-built apartments that house the poor.
But these paradoxes don’t make Budapest ugly. Instead they make it culturally vibrant, diverse, and lively. Budapest is quintessentially European, yet nothing like its Western neighbors.
Budapest has incorporated all the cultures that have come to it, and its history is centuries of invasion. The abridged overview took 30 minutes for Zsolt to tell. Most recently there were the Soviet tanks that arrived after WWII. Before that was Germany Nazis. Before that there were Austrians, Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Turks, and even Romans.
Enough of me waxing poetically about Budapest’s history. Hundreds have written before me, and much better at that.
Let’s talk about the weather. Many people travel to Budapest and rave how it’s their favorite city in Europe. These people must not come in January. I’ve learned that hell isn’t full of brimstone and fire. It’s frigid and cold, with biting wind that can turn looking at even the most beautiful surroundings into a feat.
Like any diligent tourist, I drank and ate my way through the city. Hungary makes some very good wines, and of course, beer. I had bread made from a recipe unchanged for 200 years. There was goulash, chicken soup, and a variety of meats in stews or creams. There was duck liver (man do these people like their duck) black sausage, paprika, and dill. There were a copious number of crepes, desserts and coffee.
There was a trip to the famous chocolatier shop for cake and coffee. Gerbeaud “invented” liqueur-filled chocolates.
Meals were cheap, but conversion was challenging. 200 forints to a dollar does not make for easy shopping.
In my short time here I managed to see a lot of the city. My old building-cum modern Art Hotel is right on the Danube in Buda across from Parliament. There were the requisite church visits, one which was built into a cave.
There was a somewhat awkward trip to one of the many thermal baths in town. I’ll give it to the locals; they know how to deal with winter. Inside. In very pretty pools.
I forgot a bathing suit and had to rent one from the Gellert baths. To say it was ill-fitting is a kindness. But at least I was covered, and allowed into the baths.
While the pools were gorgeous, I was a little too concerned about my stuff going MIA (justifiably so –someone took my rented towel 5 minutes after I put it down), so I couldn’t really relax as much as very hot thermal pools with healing waters really warranted. I admired the experience, the intricate beauty of the building, and the smallness of some bathing suits for a bit, and then headed out. It was not the 2-hour soak I envisioned, but it was still quite nice. Most importantly, my shit wasn’t stolen.
Sadly, I’ve learned not one Hungarian word. I dislike being the American tourist who doesn’t even attempt to butcher their language. But I didn’t have a cheat sheet of words, and Hungarian (called Maygar) doesn’t really map to anything familiar. Its closest relatives are Icelandic and Japanese!
Overall, my time in Budapest was great. The biting cold didn’t dissuade me from liking the city. Next time, though I’ll come in summer, bathing suit and cheat sheet of words in hand.
Now, I am in Chicago, where the 9 degree weather and biting wind make Budapest feel like the tropics. I can’t wait to get back to Austin, and after this real winter adventure, I may never leave!
Zsolt, the host of my Budapest trip loves Budapest because “it is full of paradoxes.” And he is right. Bleary Soviet buildings of hard angles and drab colors squeeze between the curved, ornate decoration of Renaissance buildings. Then there are the sections of town that were re-built after being leveled in WWI. But graffiti marks ugly and beautiful buildings alike, and can be found everywhere.
The churches are Byzantine, Christian and Orthodox. The biggest synagogue in Europe is here.
Buda on the west of the Danube is steep hills of history and wealth. Pest, the flat Eastern area of the Danube is politics, commerce and business. The rich, in their gorgeous homes on the west, overlook the ugly Soviet-built apartments that house the poor.
But these paradoxes don’t make Budapest ugly. Instead they make it culturally vibrant, diverse, and lively. Budapest is quintessentially European, yet nothing like its Western neighbors.
Budapest has incorporated all the cultures that have come to it, and its history is centuries of invasion. The abridged overview took 30 minutes for Zsolt to tell. Most recently there were the Soviet tanks that arrived after WWII. Before that was Germany Nazis. Before that there were Austrians, Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Turks, and even Romans.
Enough of me waxing poetically about Budapest’s history. Hundreds have written before me, and much better at that.
Let’s talk about the weather. Many people travel to Budapest and rave how it’s their favorite city in Europe. These people must not come in January. I’ve learned that hell isn’t full of brimstone and fire. It’s frigid and cold, with biting wind that can turn looking at even the most beautiful surroundings into a feat.
Like any diligent tourist, I drank and ate my way through the city. Hungary makes some very good wines, and of course, beer. I had bread made from a recipe unchanged for 200 years. There was goulash, chicken soup, and a variety of meats in stews or creams. There was duck liver (man do these people like their duck) black sausage, paprika, and dill. There were a copious number of crepes, desserts and coffee.
There was a trip to the famous chocolatier shop for cake and coffee. Gerbeaud “invented” liqueur-filled chocolates.
Meals were cheap, but conversion was challenging. 200 forints to a dollar does not make for easy shopping.
In my short time here I managed to see a lot of the city. My old building-cum modern Art Hotel is right on the Danube in Buda across from Parliament. There were the requisite church visits, one which was built into a cave.
There was a somewhat awkward trip to one of the many thermal baths in town. I’ll give it to the locals; they know how to deal with winter. Inside. In very pretty pools.
I forgot a bathing suit and had to rent one from the Gellert baths. To say it was ill-fitting is a kindness. But at least I was covered, and allowed into the baths.
While the pools were gorgeous, I was a little too concerned about my stuff going MIA (justifiably so –someone took my rented towel 5 minutes after I put it down), so I couldn’t really relax as much as very hot thermal pools with healing waters really warranted. I admired the experience, the intricate beauty of the building, and the smallness of some bathing suits for a bit, and then headed out. It was not the 2-hour soak I envisioned, but it was still quite nice. Most importantly, my shit wasn’t stolen.
Sadly, I’ve learned not one Hungarian word. I dislike being the American tourist who doesn’t even attempt to butcher their language. But I didn’t have a cheat sheet of words, and Hungarian (called Maygar) doesn’t really map to anything familiar. Its closest relatives are Icelandic and Japanese!
Overall, my time in Budapest was great. The biting cold didn’t dissuade me from liking the city. Next time, though I’ll come in summer, bathing suit and cheat sheet of words in hand.
Now, I am in Chicago, where the 9 degree weather and biting wind make Budapest feel like the tropics. I can’t wait to get back to Austin, and after this real winter adventure, I may never leave!
posted by Kristine at
4:10 PM
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0 Comments
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Snow day
Yesterday and today the office has been closed due to weather. I had a snow day for my birthday!
On Sunday, I took Kristen and Becca - both visiting for my birthday - on a driving tour of Austin. A lot of sentences started with "If it were nice, we'd get out and....."
They came to see me and Austin's glorious winter weather. Too bad Austin has a personality disorder and thinks it's Detroit. On Sunday, I thought the furor over the upcoming weather was a bit much. But man, it's nasty out there. AND COLD!
On Sunday, I took Kristen and Becca - both visiting for my birthday - on a driving tour of Austin. A lot of sentences started with "If it were nice, we'd get out and....."
They came to see me and Austin's glorious winter weather. Too bad Austin has a personality disorder and thinks it's Detroit. On Sunday, I thought the furor over the upcoming weather was a bit much. But man, it's nasty out there. AND COLD!
posted by Kristine at
4:11 PM
|
1 Comments
Saturday, January 06, 2007
I'm finished!
See more pics of the finished kitchen and the whole remodeling process on my flickr!
And don't forget what my kitchen used to look like!
posted by Kristine at
1:57 PM
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2 Comments
