Wednesday, December 22, 2004

budapest

17-19. december

budapest is almost as beautiful as prague. though, when considering the weather, you'd have to admit a pitched battle; warm summer nights in prague vs. near constant snow/rain and -10ºC nights in budapest - better put, july vs. december. noteworthy among the things not pictured are the Vasarely museum, which is free for students (bonus), and the Gellért bathhouse built almost entirely in jugendstil, which i visited on sunday afternoon to thaw after three days of walking in the cold.




várpalota, the palace over looking the city. in the foreground is the széchenyi láncíd (chain bridge).




following pictures are all of the várpalota




















központi vásárcsarnok (large market hall). the bread, cheese, hungarian sausage, and ham i bought here fed me nearly all weekend.




lots of locals and more meat for sale than you can shake a stick at




across from my hostel




postwar construction




if you look carefully, it seems as though a set of apartment buildings was torn down in order to build a power substation in the middle of a residential area.




largest synagogue in budapest and the only i've been allowed to take pictures in in europe.




synagogue altar




across the river from pest is the large hill upon which buda lies (budapest is actually 3 cities, buda, pest and óbuda). buda consists of the várpalota and several other building which make up some a sort of castle (the walls have been partially removed now) very much like the castle in prague. what you see here is part of the halászbástya, the portion of the old wall left to the fisherman's guild to defend, appropriatly called the fisherman's bastion, and behind it, the mátyás templon or matthias church.




mátyás templon




inside the mátyás templon. coincidentally there was a free organ concert held in the church, which i listened to before taking pictures inside. there were barely more people attending than those you see in this picture.




halászbástya. note snow and ice




halászbástya




halászbástya. this picture is very crooked but my fingers were so cold at this point i didnt try to take another picture.




all the trees and plants had a layer of ice coating them.




on the way back down the hill to pest








széchenyi láncíd (chain bridge) behind it Gresham palota (palast) and then further is szent istván bazilika (st. stephan's basilika)




széchenyi láncíd




széchenyi láncíd and országhaz (parliament) off to the left




parliament up closer




the other side of parliament by day




both this broze and the next one are right next to the parliament building







there is no particularly good place to put this picture. its taken from the sleeping car in which i arrived on friday morning. i included it because, while there are some blue sky pictures of budapest, the first two days were about as gray and cold as this picture looks.




self portraits with mirrors. that's yours truly in the reflection on the door of magdolna templon (chruch of maria-magdalen)




thats freedom square behind me. taken in the glass of a coffee shop in the center of the square



a tree on freedom square




on hold utca (hold street). since there are already 36 pictures here i decided to leave off my extensive collection of pictures of small, funny looking eastern european cars. the one pictured here appeared to be some sort of ambulance.




szent istván bazilika