25 June, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Since I had easy internet access in Budapest, I already wrote a bit about my visit (here and here and here). Still, there are a few more things to say.

Tomorrow I go to the London office of my Hungarian dentist to have my stitches removed. Overall, I was pleased with the dental care I received in Budapest, but this is a multi-part procedure that won’t be wrapped up until the autumn. I hope everything continues to go well. Dentistry is a big industry there — you see advertisements for hotels that say “get your teeth checked while you’re visiting” and things like that. The clinic I went to caters to Brits and it was full of patients. If anyone is thinking of going to Budapest for dental work, you can contact me for advice/referrals.

So back to Budapest. I was there for three whole days and two partial days. During this time I had dental work and was feeling generally unwell because of the antibiotics. Still, I really loved Budapest, so that’s saying something. I think it was my favorite stop on the trip. [Perhaps Amsterdam would be tied with Budapest if my accommodation there had been nicer]. I’m very picky about where I stay and the Hotel Erzsebet (Hungarian for Elizabeth) was fabulous. It’s a business hotel, so it’s not charming. Just judging from the hotel room, you could be in Miami or Manchester or anywhere else. But I wanted comfort and that’s what I got. Pay movies (which I didn’t watch), wi-fi (which I had to pay extra for, but at least it worked), a nice bathroom, a/c, a comfy bed and spacious room, a very central location and a full breakfast included each morning, all for less than $100/£50 per night. There are also two totally fabulous restaurants on this street, Károlyi Mihály, including the restaurant directly across from the hotel (can’t remember the name) and the one on the corner, Centrál Kávéház.

I think part of the reason I liked Budapest is because it offered a truly authentic experience. There was a clear tourist presence — most of the restaurant and hotel staff speak English to some degree, the most famous street, Váci Street, is filled with souvenir shops and restaurants with multi-lingual menus — but the city is not overrun with tourists. The residents of Budapest live their lives and the tourists simply mix in. I like that. This is the exact opposite of Prague, which I will write about in my next post. Compared to Prague, Budapest is scruffier, not as polished and nowhere near as chic. When dealing with people in shops and restaurants, I did not get the feeling (as I did in Prague and Amsterdam) that they were tourist fatigued and wished we would all go home. I think there are very few if any major cities left in Western or Central Europe that aren’t tainted by the tourist trade in a negative way, so I found Budapest charming in this regard. Perhaps others who’ve been there perceived things differently, but this was my experience.

I see Budapest as a city that’s still emerging. While parts of it are ultra-modern, other parts remain in a decaying time warp. This schism is visible in many places. Keleti Station, the main international train station in Budapest, is archaic. (Even worse than Paris Gare du Nord!) The station did not even offer electronic tickets. Because STA Travel lost my rail pass, I had to purchase point-to-point tickets along the way. The international ticket hall at Keleti has probably not changed much since 1900. The staff handwrote all the tickets, which took ages and resulted in people like me having to stand in the queue for 40 minutes. Luckily, I had the foresight to get my ticket a day in advance, so unlike the other tourists there, I didn’t miss my train. Even some of the metro lines in Budapest appear to be in their original state, without having been updated in ages (though I found these trains charming).

I didn’t visit a lot of museums and sights, but instead walked around and soaked in the city. I have to return in the autumn, so I didn’t really have an agenda for this trip. I visited St. Stephen’s Basilica (Szent István-bazilika). One of the most important sites in Budapest, this church contains the mummified right hand of St. Stephen. I saw this relic, but it was behind so much glass I couldn’t even make out a finger. How disappointing. I can be quite ghoulish, so I was very excited about this. The church, both inside and out (but particularly from the outside), is gorgeous and just unexpectedly massively huge. It seems to me it could eat St. Paul’s for lunch:

I also visited the Jewish Quarter, including the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe:

One-quarter of my ancestry is Jewish and some of them hail from “Austria-Hungary,” though as of yet we don’t know exactly where they came from. It’s quite possible I have ancestors who lived in this Jewish Quarter:

Walking around Budapest, there are grand old buildings everywhere (in various states of decay), but unfortunately, many of them have these signs on top:

Ugh.

As I’ve already written, the food in Budapest was outstanding. I thought if there was any good food here, I wouldn’t be able to eat it, given my food intolerances. Nope. While there is a lot of pork and beef on the menu, there were plenty of chicken and fish options (vegetarians may struggle). Everything I had was scrumptious. It’s like comfort food — bread and noodles and dumplings. I can’t remember the last time I had such good food. My one disappointment is that I couldn’t sample the goulash. It’s made with beef and I could not find a vegetarian option.

Speaking of food, one day I went to the marzipan museum. I had taken the funicular up to Castle Hill and there was one hour until all the museums closed. I had my choice between the Hungarian National Gallery and the Szabó Marcipán museum. To my everlasting shame, I chose the latter. I got to see exhibits like this one, Queen Elisabeth made out of marzipan:

Though the museum was, on the whole, pretty lame, it was still amazing to see all the people and famous sights they’d made using marzipan. The best part was the shop selling marzipan. I am a marzipan fanatic and this was by far, hands down, the best marzipan I have ever tasted. I have a serious craving just thinking about it.

So I think that’s about it. Interestingly, the real name of Hungary is Magyarország. I wonder who on earth came up with Hungary? That’s not even in the ballpark. To make matters worse, the similarity to the word hungry makes it ridiculous.

I feel bad that on this trip, I was the “ugly American.” I don’t know one word of Hungarian, not even the word for please or thank you or hello. That’s terrible. I just spoke to people in English. When I see people in France doing that, it pisses me off. I had a Hungarian phrasebook, but Hungarian is just too much for me. I mean, it might as well be Japanese. It’s like from another planet compared to what I’m used to. I couldn’t even pronounce the words when they were anglicized in the phrasebook, so I just didn’t even try. All the signs there are in Hungarian and English, so you can get by with just English very easily. Very bad Anglofille.

I will return to Budapest in October or November to complete my dental work. My sister might accompany me. I’m very excited to return and see it in the autumn. Maybe I’ll even visit a real museum, one without edible exhibits.

Next stop, Prague.

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1. SpliceGirl Says:

   June 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

   I naturally stood in line to see the mummified hand, one of my highlights. I think it was easier to see then because it was 2000, the Jubilee Year for Catholic pilgrims, and they put all the relics in easier to see cases and I got a really great picture of it. Unfortunately it was still to hard to steal. Mwa! Whenever I stop being a nomad I’ll send you my pic.

   Also, I LOVE the metro trains there. They are teeny and old and rickety and oh-so-anciently-charming.

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