Good morning, documents please.
Here you are officer (handing over passport, driving license and vehicle log book)
Okay, this all seems to be in order. Where is your vignette?
Vig-what?
Your vignette pass required to use the Slovakian roads.
Erm....
Without a vignette, I am obliged to give you a €140 roadside fine to be paid in cash only.
(scrabbling around for money).... Erm, I only have €12.52 in cash, what if I don't have that much money on me?
If you are unable to pay the roadside fine in cash, your van will be impounded and your documents and license confiscated. You will be detained and taken to the police station where you will spend the night and charged an additional €700 on top of the roadside fine with other fees to redeem your documents and impounded vehicle.
After a long pause and my face getting considerably paler, what followed was some in-depth explaining that I am a stupid Brittish tourist who didn't understand that a vignette was required to enter their country and that I had to be in Budapest in 2 hours to collect my mother and sister who would be waiting at the airport.
After much deliberation between the border guards (out of my hearing range), I was left to go on my way with a formal warning and nothing to pay except a laundry bill to clear up the stain in my pants. Catastrophe avoided, just. I should also say "thank you" to the kind border police of Slovakia who were clearly in a good mood that morning, or couldn't be bothered with the paperwork. Either way, I am one relieved traveller and immediately pulled over to get my vignette for Hungary (which luckily cost €12.50). It's not a mistake I plan to make twice!
I picked up my Mum and sister Joanna from the airport and we headed into the city to Haller Camping. The city is split in two by the Danube River with "Buda" to the west and "Pest" to the east. We were camped in the south of Pest but not far from the city centre. It is a nice campsite and not far from a supermarket and metro station.
I quickly found out that it's cheap for three people but expensive for just one.
Our exploration of the city started at St Stephens Basilica, a big church in the middle of town. As well as climbing the exhausting number of stairs up to the top of the dome for a great view, you can also go inside and look around the stunning interior. In a little chapel off the side of the church you can find the mummified hand of St Stephen himself, kindly put on display in a glass box. I was determined not to leave until we had found it.
Nearby the Basilica are the beautiful old Opera House and No 60 Andrassy Utca, otherwise known as the less-than-subtle Museum Of Terror which used to be the head-quarters of various different incarnations of the Secret Police. In the museum, three floors of exhibits surround an inner wall filled with the faces of victims while a tank stands in the water below. The exhibition is educational, if a little vague and confusing, but the most interesting part is the basement of the building where the "prison" is built in a maze of tunnels (much in the same mould as the KGB head-quarters in Vilnius).
Also in central Pest and along the river is the colossal Parliament building. A mix of towering white, erm, towers and dark red domes makes the building "unmissable" in both senses of the word.
A "standing" cell, presumably only for thin prisoners?
In the middle of the river, neither part of Buda nor Pest, is Margaret Island. This is Budapest's parkland area and is full of picnickers and joggers in equal measure - we were in the former catagory and sat to eat our lunch in front of a fountain which projects water in patterns along to the classical music which is playing. There is no traffic on the island but the peace and tranquility is somewhat spoilt by the bars and hotels which have started to spring up, maybe they should have kept those off the island too. Still, it means I got a beer and an ice cream.
Later that evening we took a walk along the river towards the town centre. Budapest has to go down as one of the best city centres to view at night while the lights shine down from the grand old buildings on the hilltops and overlooking the river. The bridges are lit up and cars and trains pass over them and all of these lights are reflected back in the water.
The Chain Bridge is one of several bridges linking Buda and Pest together and is guarded at both ends by a pair of huge stonework lions. Similar lions are in place to symbolically protect several of Budapest's other major buildings. Crossing the bridge to the Buda side brings you to the Castle complex. A big stone-walled area on top of the hill where inside the walls it is pretty much the same as outside the walls except for two key buildings.
Firstly, and right in the centre, is Matthias church. The tower and patterned tile roof is pretty typical of the region but the inside has been painted with different patterned murals all over the walls like some kind of tribal disco church. Secondly, in the southern area of the castle is the Royal Palace. The big baroque building now houses an art gallery and an all-too-dull museum but the Palace itself is spectacular with a great view out over the river from the eagle statue.
South of the castle is Gellert Hill where a steep climb bring you to the Statue Of Liberty (no, not that one) at the top - a woman holding a fern leaf above her head as she watches over the city. Also at the top is the Citadella, complete with a German WW2 bunker in the middle which is now a museum to Hungary's involvement in the war. Budapest was the scene of a bloody battle and many of the Hungarians changed sides when the Soviets arrived and fought against their old Nazi comrades. A number of grizzly photos mean this is not a place for the squeemish.
Out to the west of town is City Park and we spent most of the afternoon in the centre at the big Szechenyi Spa Baths. The spa dates from around 100 years ago and is the oldest in Europe. Among the 27 thermal pools are ones as low as 20 degrees and as high as 40. There are also saunas and opportunities for a massage.
To swim in the main outdoor pool requires a swimming cap which can be bought from reception. What you actually get is a giant transparent shower cap. Also, having forgotten my swimming shorts, I had to get some from the Spa too, a nice pair of white ones. I had forgotten that white swimming shorts go rather see-through when they get wet so my new look of revealing shorts and mushroom-like clear plastic shower cap were not exactly the look I was going for. Still, I enjoyed the Spa.
After the spa trip which left me feeling, well, exactly the way I had gone in, we explored the rest of City Park. In the centre is a lake filled with modern art sculptures including a portaloo on stlits, four Volkswagens and a sinking shed which rowing boats constantly crashed into. In the centre stands Vajdahunyad Castle, a big mix-and-match structure of different styles and eras plus a port cullis tagged on the end for good measure - like a sort of build-your-own-fortification.
On the edge of the park is Hosok Tere (Heroes Square), with the Millennial Anniversary Column sat in the middle and surrounded by statues of various old moustachioed leaders.
After a relaxing day at the Spa, we went hiking the next day and took numerous different transportation methods to the Buda Hills in the north-west. After the metro and a short walk we took the old Cog Railway up the hill to where you can catch the Childrens Railway. It is a bizzare Narnia-type place which is run entirely by children between 10 and 14. They sell the tickets, signal the trains, drive them etc. I was expecting the trains to be miniture and run around a little garden while adults say things like "Aww, aren't they cute" but it is a smoothly organised, full-scale operation of about 10 stations and run much better than our UK train service. The children even wear uniforms and leather satchels and salute the trains as they pass.
We got off about halfway along the line and began hiking and climbing the steep slope to the peak (Janos-Hegy) where a tower marks the spot with a stunning view.
After another refreshing beer and an ice cream, we took the chairlift down to the bottom of the hill. Almost immediately after getting on the 15 minute chairlift (which cuts through a number of back gardens on the way) I dropped my camera while pratting around on the seat and spent the whole descent and then another ascent feeling like a complete fool.
Miraculously, on reaching the top again we found the camera in the long grass, still working, and decided to walk down the path below the chairlift this time. It's much steeper than it looks and left my mum sliding down the slope on her bum and unable to stop - I could only chuckle instead of help. A bus ride (are you keeping count of transport?) returned us to the city centre again.
On the last day, having dropped my family back at the airport, I biked down to Momento Park deep in the south of Budapest. The park was essentially a storage place for all the Soviet statues which have been torn down in the 80's and 90's following the Hungarian Uprising against communism and they wanted somewhere to shore them out of the way. It has now become something of an attraction in it's own right and is a stark reminder of Hungary's past under the iron fist.
I have now spent a relative lifetime in Budapest, 8 days infact, and actually plan to return for another week shortly for Sziget Music Festival. In between, let's see what the rest of the country has to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment