Chain Bridge behind the moving lights of the traffic
I was excited when we decided to have a short holiday in Budapest, as this will be my first time to go Central Europe and see the famous river Danube. But oops, ….I should not get too excited too soon, as Danube is grey, however, because of it’s famous bridge, the Chain Bridge and Margaret Island, River Danube are not too bad. In fact the rest of the city is better than the river.
What make Budapest interesting because it’s story of two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the river. Buda on the West side of the city has an interesting hilly landscape, and enable it to overlooking the other side of the city across the river, Pest. Although Pest has less interesting landscape but today, it has a more vibrant city life.
Looking toward the lower side of the city – Pest
Chain Bridge that connect the two cities, Buda and Pest
We stayed in a small hotel in the ‘down town’, well not quite down town as it is a way from the razzmatazz of Budapest’s night life, which for us maybe better as we are sort of ‘boring people’. However, as the taxi driver who picks us up from the hotel gave us a brief introduction of the city, he told us that our hotel is only down the road from the City Jail…. Hmm this is interesting, a jail in the middle of the city, and yet it keep a good record as a jail, no jail breaker as long as its history.
Like most of European cities, it’s old, rich of history, and it’s the biggest East-Central European capital. The history began with the Celtic settlement and became the Roman Capital of Lower Pannonia around 2nd century BC. It’s history reflects in the architecture of the city, where it represent several architectural style, from the roman period which represent the ruin of the Amphitheater in Aquincum to the Gothic Architecture (Buda Castle Hill) and from Renaissance Style (st. Stephan Cathedral) to Art Nouveau or even International Style modern architecture were also there.
Tourists taking picture of the lower part of the city across the river Danube
We were there last October, or it was supposed to be autumn, with pretty and colourful landscape, unfortunately the few days we were there, the weather was not friendly, it’s always rainy in the morning, and even when we do the city tour, we were forced to stay in the bus as outside was cold and raining. However, goulash soup is very nice to warm your throat.
Best Goulash I’ve tasted in Budapest
By the end of our short visit, I didn’t feel the enchanted Budapest that many people said only good things about Budapest. I wonder why, maybe because our visit was too short, or maybe we didn’t go to all the recommended and beautiful places that other’s have said. Yes, we didn’t go to the concert that they held on one of the churches almost every night, we didn’t go to any of so many Budapest’s Bath house.
Maybe that is a good reason to comeback to Budapest.
