Budapest, Hungary

Once again, I had another busy day! Many of the things I saw were from the outside, so they will reappear in further entries. (interesting facts are in bold)

As I had issues sleeping last night, my original plan of getting up at a reasonable hour and making it to the Buda tour was scrapped. Will have to do it tomorrow. Anyways, I decided that today would be spent on the Pest side (where I am staying). Turns out, my hostel is extremely close to the Opera house. While stuck in the airport yesterday, the older ladies I was talking to got the idea stuck in my head that I wanted to go to the Opera. When I got to the Opera House, they have all the Nutcracker ballet items out front! It would be so cool to see the Ballet here too!

The Opera House

Hmm. Just found out the ticket prices for the ballet, not going to happen. However, Carmen is playing tonight, and tickets are pretty cheap (plus I like the music from Carmen). I treated myself to a nice balcony seat, in a box (3 seat in front, 3 behind). It was 3600 Ft, which works out to around 15$ CAD. They were not doing the Opera house tours today, so I will have to come back again to actually see the inside (Carmen is playing at the Erkel Theatre). Before leaving, I got my picture taken on the Sleigh (prop) from Nutcracker.

I was aiming to get to the Oktagon station to catch the metro (not realizing there is a station directly outside the opera house…) but ended up going the wrong direction down Andrassy Way. Without realizing what I was passing, I ended up walking right past St. Stephen’s Basilica. Interesting thing: The Basilica and the Parliament building are the exact same height (96m) and the tallest buildings in Pest. The significance is that State and Church have equal power, and they are 96m based off the founding of Budapest in 896 AD.

I finally found a station, and made my way to the Hungarian National Museum (I am trying to get as much as possible from my Budapest City card). With the card, the museum is free. There was a lot to see, as it went through the history of different sieges, settlements, policies since St. Stephen in the year 1000. He was their first King, and is always represented by a double cross (I forget the significance though). After that, it was lunch time, so I passed another small market (they are basically set up with mulled wine, sweets, food, and gifts in any square around the city). I decided not to eat there, thinking it was a bit pricey, and went to the Central Market Hall. If you do not like crowds, come during the week. The place was empty! I found hot food upstairs (turns out it was more expensive, oh well). I had grilled sausage. So tasty! I ended up going back to the little market to get some mulled wine before going to Deak Ferenc Ter to meet the group going on the free Pest walking tour.

I got there just in time, and we headed out first to see the Great Synagogue (from the outside). From there, we took the metro up to Heroe’s square. It is interesting to see the different ends of Andrassy Way. By heroe’s square, it is like the Blvds in Paris, wide, treed, big houses. In the town centre, it is much smaller. There is so much history in this city! Heroe’s square showcases St. Stephen, with the 7 tribes that initially came here from Asia. On each side, there are 6 kings, with reliefs showing their most important moments. The last 3 kings are a recent addition, as they have now replaced the Russian figures that stood there during the Soviet Regime.

As you pass through Heroe’s square, on the other side is a large ice rink, with Vajdahunyad Castle overlooking it. The castle is really neat. It is not as old as it looks, and was built for an expo of sorts, but then never taken down. Each section of the Castle depicts a different architectural style, from Medieval, neo-gothic, Baroque (under the Austro-Hungarian dynasty), Transylvanian (turns out Dracula is actually Hungarian!) etc. I must say, I do like the Baroque style. It is very pretty. A quick trip to check out the Szechenyi Baths, and then we went back underground to get to the Opera house. Another interesting fact: Budapest has the oldest underground system in Continental Europe!(photos are in slideshow format, so don’t forget to scroll through!!)

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We finished up at the Basilica. More trivial facts: Many films are shot in Budapest, as it is cheaper than other European countries. One of the most recent was the latest Die Hard movie, set in Moscow. (They changed all the street signs to Russian).

I went back quickly to change and then headed off to the Erkel theatre by tram. The Erkel theatre is also not in a very well lit area, and the surroundings seem a bit run down… I walked along the main street, just so that there was light. Inside the theatre, I found my seat. The theatre is quite empty, and it turns out that my view would have been just fine even with the cheapest tickets. A Swedish lady was sat beside me, we were the only 2 in our box for 6. As she has seen the opera before, she was explaining some things to me (one disadvantage of seeing an opera in a foreign country is that the translations above are not comprehensible, as Candice and I discovered several years ago in Prague!) Even as I write this, I am singing the songs in my head and thinking of my siblings (particularly Beakers version http://youtu.be/UHphaS4aPX0) ! I must say, it was funny to see Carmen set in Spain, but sung in French…