Buda

Budapest is a grittier, less self-satisfied version of Prague. The city center does not look like a jewel box. It's all about the river and 9 out of every 10 buildings, should you take a moment to look at them, will take your breath away with their ornate art nouveau detail. The trams are adorable (sort of like SF's F-train, except these old cars are the original old cars -- they're not about being old tram cars). The buildings line the river and remind me sort of of Tel Aviv and sort of of, well, Prague. At the same time, they have this soviet architecture and bombed-out buildings that have been converted to beer gardens with a very hip scene. This one place we went to a couple times was between 2 uninhabited buildings. Their windows were broken. Their facades of crumbling cement. One had a basement space where djs played and women customers danced to an audience. Outside, there were shapes painted on the walls -- a big bulls eye off center, and every window in the adjacent 8-story building not only was broken but also had a different colored light in it. This aspect of the city reminded me most of Berlin.

I don't remember what we did when we were here 10 years ago, but I think we probably missed the hole point. I remember walking along the river in the freezing air and drinking beer in a basement pub that seemed to only cater to people who they knew (they knew the guy we were staying with who picked us up at the train station). I don't remember the beautiful buildings (did I not look up?) and I know we never went to any of the baths (what were we thinking?).

Today was a moderate failure. I wanted to see the castle, to visit a 15th Century Turkish bath, and to see the statue park of all the old communist statues that had been removed from thruout the city. Not necessarily in that order. I started with a church in a cave in the first hill north of here on the Buda side (where the hostel is). It was just that, with low ceilings and multiple cavernous spaces. Then I climbed to the top of the citadel, which is the highest point in the city. There I ate my first lunch in a shady spot away from the view bc the sun was hot and the air humid. The city looks more like every other European city from up there, gray and big with ugly highrise apartment buildings around its sprawling perimeter.

I only got a little lost on my way down from the hill, thru parks, and negotiating my route between highways with ped and bikeways that don't quite compensate for the fact that you are crossing a highway between park spaces. After walking past the dilapidated buildings that must have been the entry to the castle, I took the funicular railway up to the castle. I think I have been there before. It was pretty with an interesting mix of pretty old things and pretty, but clearly not quite in place, new things. I walked around up there for a while -- its like there's a whole little city up there, and I got tired and started wanting a coffee. But the tourist prices were more than I could take. So I walked back down the hill and found a pizza place (sorry) where I had an overpriced coffee and pizza. Yeah, it was pretty good.

That about did me in -- I had been walking off and on for 4 hours. So, I took a tram back to the hostel to regroup. Instead I slept for the rest of the afternoon. It's dark out now and people are waiting to use this computer, so I might do another blog entry from a cafe or I might not....