Final Week in Budapest

It’s Friday evening. Almost 10 p.m.

I’m listening to The Four Seasons performed by Gil Shaham & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra . Every time I hear it I am immediately transferred back to high school days when I would listen to a cd of this with my headphones on while trying to write a paper.

I’ve started this post a few times today and nothing has felt right enough to stay just yet. I don’t know if this one will or not.

Sure, let’s go with it. I don’t want to be here all night. 🙂

Well, the time is almost here… Monday I make the “rewind trip” from Budapest back to Virginia.

It’s definitely time. I’ve enjoyed my time here, seen a lot of interesting things, and eaten some good food, but I am also looking forward to getting back to “real life.”

No matter where I am in the world, there are things that have to be put on pause until I get home, or things that just don’t work as well from a half a world away. It’s time to get back to those things.

But first, let’s talk a bit about this past week in Budapest!

Where I’ve Been This Past Week

As you all may have started to notice by now, I like to get my “stuff” done Saturday morning and then head out to explore in the afternoon. Last weekend that was the way I approached things again.

When I did eventually head out I walked east towards the train station. I hadn’t been to the train station yet, so I was curious to see exactly what that looked like. Along the way I wandered into a mall and somehow ended up on the top floor of the mall parking lot, which just so happened to overlook the train station! After a few minutes a security guard started walking my way. So I exited the premises fairly quickly.

I did walk around by the road and into the train station. It is a fascinatingly simple, old building. According to my research (Wikipedia) it was built in the early 1880’s. The old buildings is definitely one of the super appealing things about traveling to old cities for me!

From the train station I headed North East towards Park Városliget (City Park). Along the way I stopped at Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet Plébániatemplom (St. Elisabeth Parish Church of Árpád a Catholic church). I’ve seen a number of really beautiful churches, this one is definitely pretty high on the list. I also was the only one in the large auditorium at one point and the silence, in the middle of a fairly noisy city, was astounding.

When I reached the City Park I arrived at the southern tip of it. There were “construction fences” around the park everywhere that I could see. I assumed that the park was closed for some reason or other, so I got a taxi home. Our route led us past the park a little farther on and I realized that I had missed out on the Hero’s Square and the Millennium Monument along with a number of other things around there. I had already hiked a long ways, so I decided I would come back in the morning.

Sunday morning I did get up a bit early (still not as early as I wanted to) and headed back over to the Hero’s Square. If you’re interested in that little jaunt you can watch a video I created around that.

Sunday evening I headed out and took some pictures at the Pozsonyi úti Református Egyházközség Hálaadás temploma (Church of the Reformed Church of Pozsonyi on Thanksgiving).

Monday evening I headed out after dark. A lot of places I’ve seen are somehow more beautiful at night. Something about the lights I think. 🙂 First stop was at the Hungarian Parliament building on the side away from the river.

From there I got turned around in Liberty Square before figuring out that I had made a circle and continuing on to the actual place I was heading originally, St. Stephen’s Basilica. I had walked past here a few weeks ago at night, but without my big camera with me. It was beautiful! However, this evening they had installed a huge information/photo installation in front of it. I checked back again yesterday and it was still there… Oh well. 🙂

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, I headed out a few evenings and mornings, but nothing too ridiculous showed up. Well, I guess that doesn’t include Friday morning… I’ll tell you about that next week.