Beyond Copenhagen Part 1

Week 6 (02/03/16) – Cultural

Szia!

This week, our most daring adventure entailed a 3-night trip to what is considered by Steves and Hewitt (2015, p. 8) to be “Europe’s most underrated big city…”. Straddling the Danube River with the Buda Hills on one side and the Great Plain on the other, the city of Budapest is a remarkably beautiful place, steeped in the history of communism and boasting radiant twilight views that make those offered by Cave Hill seem dull in comparison.

View from Gellert Hill

Parliament buildings

It wouldn’t be normal for the four of us not to have some sort of disaster whilst trying to negotiate the transportation system in a foreign country. After touching down on Hungarian soil at approximately twenty past eleven on Friday night, getting off the bus at the wrong stop, wandering aimlessly around a desolate metro station and eventually finding a taxi on the side of the road that could take us to our hostel, we laid our heads on our pillows at two o’clock on Saturday morning; these were quite an eventful first few hours to say the least. Re-energised the next day, we ‘enjoyed’ breakfast at the hostel, packed our bags and began exploring the hills on the western side of the Danube. Lust for the World (2016, np.) note that “Budapest is the world’s melting pot of Architectural styles. From Roman amphitheatres and Gothic-styled cathedrals to traditional Turkish baths, Budapest has it all.” We can certainly identify with this statement for as we walked around the cobbled streets surrounding Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion, we were blown away by the buildings themselves as well as the views overlooking Parliament on the eastern side of the river. Other iconic buildings including St Stephen’s Basilica and Dohány Street Synagogue also enabled us to immerse ourselves in Hungarian culture and made for some excellent photographs. Our long weekend was topped off on Sunday evening by a trip to the thermal baths, where we were surrounded by opulent Baroque domes as we relaxed in 38⁰C water and sat watching the world go by; this was definitely one of my favourite activities!

Fisherman's Bastion

Hungarian baths

Views overlooking the Danube

I think the four of us would agree, however, that the highlight of our entire trip was having the opportunity to catch up with friends from home who are currently studying in Hungary. We agreed to meet for tea on Saturday evening and hearing the all too familiar roars of Jason as he ran up the street from behind to greet us simply made my day. Dickens (1843, p. 42) notes that “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour…” and as we were shown around different tourist attractions by Jason and Peter, we found that we simply could not help ourselves from laughing so much to the extent that we were crying. Two of my friends from primary school, Emily and Amy, were also visiting Peter and Jason at the same time and having the opportunity to catch up with them was another highlight of the trip; who would have thought that as we sat together in Primary 1 all those years ago we would one day be reminiscing about our schooldays in Budapest?

Hardy Memorial Primary School reunion!

Sampling traditional Hungarian 'Kedvezmény'

Despite being evidently different to Copenhagen, in terms of its history, culture and a range of other aspects, I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Budapest. It is a very unique city and one that I would certainly love to visit again in the future. But, for now, viszontlátásra!

Reference List

Dickens, C. (1843) A Christmas Carol, London, Chapman and Hall.

Lust for the World (2016) available at http://www.lustfortheworld.com/budapest-quotes-the-best-quotes-about-budapest/ (accessed 02/03/16).

Steves, R. and Hewitt, C. (2015) Budapest (4^th edn), Berkeley, Avalon Travel Publishing.