Jen & Angel in Europe: Budapest Day 3 - Part 1, Hungarian Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, Buda Castle

10/12/2014

Our second full day in started out with a delicious breakfast of assorted croissants, bread, cheese, ham, sausage, eggs, and grapes:

After fueling up, we went out for a day of sightseeing. Along the way, we saw Angel's favorite:

And what's up with European cities and Ferris wheels?

We stopped by St. Stephen's Basilica on the way to Buda Castle. It's right in front of the street leading up to the Chain Bridge, which takes you up the castle. It was a gorgeous day (though too hot by Angel's Bubble Girl 65-70 degree/no humidity standards). I believe St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary, and so many of the old, old monuments are all attributed to him, even though he didn't commission the buildings.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Behind St. Stephen's is a well-tended, quaint little street that is very much reminiscent of the cobble-stoned lane leading up to the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Royalty used to travel via carriage through that particular lane to get to the Hofburg. There was a shop selling traditional Hungarian clothing:

And a statue of a general (I assume):

View of Buda Castle on Chain Bridge

There's a trolley that takes you up to Castle Hill for 1000 florints up, 1700 florints round-trip. It's a steep hill, and looks pretty intimidating from the bottom of the hill, as you can see on the right-hand side of the picture below. But we're cheap, and I like to take pictures of scenery, so we climbed the hill. Turns out, there's a sign for a short-cut that makes the climb not bad at all. 10 minutes, tops. And the steps are flat and elongated--my favorite kind. :)

Trolley ascending

The view you'd miss if you'd taken the trolley

Looks steep, hunh?

There's a wrought-iron bridge where you can stand to take pictures of the trolleys coming up and down, which is how I got the shot of the above picture. No, I'm not standing in the middle of the rail tracks!

Actually, there's 2 bridges. This one I took looking up, the previous, looking down.

View on the bridge

So we finally made it up to Buda Castle. The dome was recently reopened after undergoing refurbishment. This building houses the Hungarian National Gallery, which has some of the finest Hungarian art on display. It will take you through the history and development of art in Budapest. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time, so we skipped this museum. But I'm definitely going to make it on my to-do list for next time. Oh yes, there is SO going to be a next time. I'm loving Budapest!

Buda Castle Dome

Breathtaking views of the Danube on Castle hill

Steep climb down

So the main reason I wanted to come up here was for the Budapest History Museum. I'm not sure if it's not a popular tourist attraction, as it's housed in a remote corner building of the complex--and the signs don't make it easy to find. We went through some fortresses:

Bad Daddy. This is what I want to do to him when he doesn't behave--lock him up. Muahaha

Look! It's the trolls from Frozen! Oh yeah, one's already awake and walking!

So we finally make it up to the Budapest History Museum, after climbing yet more stairs. Turns out, Mom and Angel took one look at the admission prices (1800 HUF + 1200 for audioguide) and they decided it wasn't worth it for them to go in, as they have zero interest in museums and history. Zilch. Nada. So Dad and I paid to go in, I gave Angel the camera to take pictures of what she wanted...and I came to regret that decision ten minutes later. The museum is freakin' awesome. Damn, I wish I had my camera! It costs 800 HUF for a photography permit, but I think it's well worth it. Next time, I'm spending the whole freakin day in the museum. As it was, we agreed to meet up with Mom and Angel at 1pm, so I had to rush through the upper two floors (oh, and I made Dad go downstairs to tell them to meet up at 2pm instead--I just couldn't finish everything in time. Angel wasn't very happy about that). Budapest was first settled by Neanderthals, and through the centuries, has been invaded and conquered by the Mongols, the Turks, various nomadic tribes. The Mongols invaded in the 1200s, pillaging everything and after they were done with that, slaughtering any remaining citizen who hadn't thought to flee the city. The Turks came in the 1500s, first with only the aim to pillage and plunder. They left the city to its own devices (as their policy at the time was not to conquer lands), and under some vague hereditary laws, two kings decided that Budapest was under their domain, so they spent another decade fighting each other for rights to the land. The Ottoman Empire had enough, so they decided to come back and just conquer the darn city. The history tells the tale from the kings of Hungary all the way up to now, so it goes through what happened during WWII (the Germans bombed all the bridges along the Danube, the Arrow Cross faction that gained prominence with the Germans--see Shoes on the Danube).

Underneath Buda Castle are archaeological remains from centuries and centuries ago. They found a 10th century skeleton of a fighter, buried with his saber, arrows and weapons. His face was turned toward the east, which was a traditional symbolic gesture for the time. The saber was so small and...tinny, I guess is the apt word. They must have been very tiny people at the time. There were seals discovered of high-ranking officials from the medieval ages, and the monks' wine cellars and royal chapel was also discovered in the archaeological digs. There were dozens of sculptures found, a very fine medieval tapestry was found in the bottom of a well 10km down, encased in mud. The mud actually helped preserve the fabric, so they were able to piece it back together. The sewing was so delicate and fine.

While I was absorbed in all this fascinating history, Angel went around Castle Hill with Mom taking pictures: