Budapest was almost exactly as I expected it to be, which was actually rather startling after 6 months of surprises. Fortunately I had expected it to be interesting with hot, satisfying, wintery food and grand architecture so it worked out okay. (Even better than okay – there was mulled wine!).
The city bulges with museums, art, theatres, cafes, bars, statues, gothic spires and generally magnificent buildings. We wore down the soles of our shoes exploring and learnt about the scandalous love lives of the Habsburgs, that Hungarians have more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country and that the ‘Pest’ in Budapest is pronounced ‘Pesht’.
It was the best of times and the worst of times as we both had the shortest of fuses during our time there. I’m still not sure why but I suspect being tired due to difficulties sleeping in dorm rooms, undertaking 12 hours multi-modal transit every 4-5 days for several months and the novelty of travelling starting to pall would have all been contributing factors. (I know, I know, it’s not easy being a world traveller who hasn’t had to work for six months). Thankfully the disharmony faded away towards the end of our visit and has not been back since.
Budapest is where I first started looking forward to reaching Edinburgh, where a lot of uncertainty awaited us but so did a home.
View of Buda from Pest, such a classically beautiful city
With lots of quirky art, graffiti and interesting exhibitions splattered throughout
This exhibition had some cool modern design ideas from all over Europe, the designers were supposed to draw ideas from traditional creations of their native countries. The plates on the right are commemorative plates for Kate & William's wedding... not the usual 'royal face on a plate' style!
As usual we jumped on a free local walking tour, and headed over the bridge to Pest...
...where they worship eagles and trees grow perpendicular to the ground instead of straight up... strange place
Another of our wanderings took us to the Jewish quarter, where there was also cool graffiti
The city bulges with museums, art, theatres, cafes, bars, statues, gothic spires and generally magnificent buildings. We wore down the soles of our shoes exploring and learnt about the scandalous love lives of the Habsburgs, that Hungarians have more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country and that the ‘Pest’ in Budapest is pronounced ‘Pesht’.
It was the best of times and the worst of times as we both had the shortest of fuses during our time there. I’m still not sure why but I suspect being tired due to difficulties sleeping in dorm rooms, undertaking 12 hours multi-modal transit every 4-5 days for several months and the novelty of travelling starting to pall would have all been contributing factors. (I know, I know, it’s not easy being a world traveller who hasn’t had to work for six months). Thankfully the disharmony faded away towards the end of our visit and has not been back since.
Budapest is where I first started looking forward to reaching Edinburgh, where a lot of uncertainty awaited us but so did a home.
View of Buda from Pest, such a classically beautiful city
With lots of quirky art, graffiti and interesting exhibitions splattered throughout
This exhibition had some cool modern design ideas from all over Europe, the designers were supposed to draw ideas from traditional creations of their native countries. The plates on the right are commemorative plates for Kate & William's wedding... not the usual 'royal face on a plate' style!
As usual we jumped on a free local walking tour, and headed over the bridge to Pest...
...where they worship eagles and trees grow perpendicular to the ground instead of straight up... strange place
Another of our wanderings took us to the Jewish quarter, where there was also cool graffiti
The baths were a luxury we couldn't pass up!
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