Budapest Day 4

The plan from the beginning was always to have just the faintest of a plan for the trip. The places and dates were set in stone not too long before I left for practical and logistical reasons, but what I did while I was in those places was always supposed to remain fluid. As Budapest was first on the list, I did have a few things on the list before I left that I did not end up getting around to (as mentioned in my post about the Wine and Cheese Festival that never was). One of those outings was supposed to be today, a trip to Memento Park. However, after discussing with the staff and my wonderful Bed and Breakfast, I called an audible - but I did want to take a moment to talk about Memento Park, because I think it is pretty neat still. Memento Park is a Park/Museum where the Hungarians decided to house all of the Soviet monuments from all over the city after they gained their independence from the Soviet Union. There are statues of Stalin, Workers monuments, Red Stars ect. My decision not to go was based on the staff, and several online reviews saying that for the hassle, you don’t get to see much more than you would in pictures online, and it opened me up to see a few sights closer in to Budapest that I hadn’t gotten around to yet. However, the concept of not discarding history by taking it to a specialized museum area, but not continuing to promote their hateful ideals and hurtful rhetoric by leaving them up around the city seems like a pretty simple solution to a complex problem that we seem to have trouble solving back home. Anyways, I’ll get off that soapbox for now.

Instead of visiting Memento Park, I decided to head to Fisherman’s Bastion and explore the Castle District - which I had very sillily thought I had done on Day 2 when I first visited Buda Castle. Feeling like I had let myself off easy the day before with all that thermal bath luxury and public transportation, I decided to make my way on foot (In reality, it was so cold that all of the transit was packed to the gills and chaboi would rather walk 2 miles up a hill in freezing weather than get my personal space invaded by a bunch of smelly strangers). Either way, wooooff. That hill (the one I took the funicular up previously) had me sweating through my 4 layers even in the below freezing temperatures, although still pretty happy I did it that way. The Bastion is really neat, with highly unique architecture and reminded me very much of a fairy tale castle of sorts. [Side note here, after exploring all week with minimal crowds and spoiling myself, I felt like an entitled local rolling my eyes and getting frustrated at the lost and confused tourists. I’m such a poser.] The Bastion backs up into the Castle district of Buda, which is a really cool, picturesque old European area. After walking in and around the Bastion, I started to wander the streets of the Castle district people watching both tourists and locals (my favorite of which was an old man with an extremely old Frenchie that looked like they belonged in a cute Pixar short). In my wandering, I ended up behind Buda Castle, very close to where I had been a few days prior, but in a completely different area of activities. The museum on this side of the Castle was more historical in nature than the art museum I had visited previously, and was essentially a chronicle of the castle and its various forms and inhabitants over the centuries. It’s really remarkable how many different types of people have lived in Budapest over the past 1500 years, pretty much any combination of European empire, religion or creed has left its mark on the area. There were also portions of the excavated or restored castle that you were able to walk through, my favorite of which was the chapel I took the picture of below. Don’t tell anyone though, it cost an extra 1000 Forint (Hungarian money, about $3.50) to get picture taking privileges with your ticket to the museum. I opted not, but this was too good to pass up, and I was the only one in there. So shhh. Below are a bunch of pictures of the Bastion, Castle District and the Chapel in the Museum.

Bittersweetly, tomorrow is my last day in Budapest, although, in reality, today was. Tomorrow I’ll be making a trek out to one of the oldest train stations in Hungary (not the main one apparently) where one of the online comments was basically “there is nothing here and good luck with anyone speaking English”. So thats all good and well. Off to Vienna, Austria next!