Sightseeing in Budapest

As time, money, and health allows (I have been sick 3 times and Susan once in the 4 weeks we have been here), Susan & I have tried to make some short sight-seeing trips to various places of interest in Budapest.

2 weeks ago we visited City Park, one of the largest parks in the city. We arrived just in time to watch the finish of the half-marathon. We pitied the runners staggering to the finish as it was quite hot.


men's winner

women's winner

Susan in City Park

Jeremy - trying to figure out what the stone horsemen are looking at

Heroes Square at the entrance to City Park (Europeans sure seem to glorify the past a lot more than Americans)

This guy found a revolutionary way to keep track of his small dog in large crowds: tie a balloon to the dog. The balloon is labelled "GPS."

Budapest weather is a lot like the Midwest - highly varied and unpredictable. The weekend of the marathon the temperature reached the high 90's. It also was the high season for weeds in Hungary. So add the weeds, the heat, and the smog, and I suffered from allergies more so than I ever have before. Making it seem worse is the fact that my allergies were almost non-existent in the arid climate of New Mexico. But, back to sight-seeing....

That same weekend we climbed to Castle Hill and visited "The Labyrinth" which was a series of caves found underneath Castle Hill that now serve as a spooky art gallery. I thought it was going to be hokey, but it actually still is one of my favorite stops in Budapest so far. It also was a perfect place to be on that hot weekend - cool and no allergies.

Susan at the entrance to "The Labyrinth"

Watch your head (not you Susan...)

Since that weekend, the temperature has plummeted to the 50's (40's at night - fahrenheit of course). I think we skipped fall altogether.

Last weekend - no sightseeing. I was sick. Again.

But, this weekend I feel good (Susan is sick).

Yesterday, we finally found some real trails. Previously we had tried running to the Buda Hills, but by the time we reached the trails and got off the pavement we had to turn around and head back home. This time we took a bus 3/4 of the way there and then ran in the hills for about an hour and a half before making the 45 minute run back to the city (2 hr 15 min - longest run in Europe so far).

At the height of our run we reached Janos Peak which is the highest point in Budapest at 527 m (1750 ft?). Snapped a few pictures at the top of Janos Tower amongst a hoard of kids before vertigo, claustrophobia, and the bitter cold winds drove us back down the stairs.

At Janos Peak

Running down the hill from Janos Peak.

Other Pics:


St. Matthias Church





Night-time Race (6.5km) - Susan & I signed up for this race. I got sick that weekend, but we showed up anyway and just jogged it. If I wasn't sick and we were in shape this would have been a very fun race to compete in.

Field Trip to Szeged

During the first week of school, the Medieval Studies Department at my school took all of the students on a two-day field trip.

After a one-hour bus ride we arrived at our first stop, the town of Ocsa.

At Ocsa we toured this medieval church where we could see the remnants of a mural depicting St. Ladislav in battle. Ladislav was a warrior king of the late eleventh century. Apparently Hungary has a history of elevating ancient warriors and kings to saint status.

Then, back on the bus. Next stop: Kalocsa. Here we began a pattern that would continue for the next 24 hours. We visited ancient cathedrals, historic libraries and archives, and local museums in Kalocsa and likewise in other towns. Unfortunatey - you will have to forgive me - I no longer remember most of the details.


The Cathedral in Kalocsa, Hungary

Later that evening we arrived for the night in Szeged, Hungary. Unlike the other two smaller towns, I was surprised to see that Szeged was so big. I guess Budapest isn't the only city in Hungary. Szeged is like a mini-Budapest except cleaner and more colorful (or more "Mediterranean" as one of my professor's described it).

Our first night in Szeged we had dinner at a historic restaurant renowned for their "feeesh soup" as they say it. It actually was excellent. I'm just glad I didn't find out until after dinner that the "feeesh" in the soup was actually carp.

I ended up at a table with 2 Romanians and since the whole process of dinner took 3 hours I had a chance to get to know them a little. You should be proud of my restraint. I made polite conversation for over an hour before broaching the subject of vampires ever so delicately. Rest assured, neither my classmates were or knew any vampires (allegedly).

The following day, we visited several more churches, libraries, and small church museums. They all blurred together. However, we did visit a museum directed at the more recent past - the commmunist era:

Some of you may be curious how people in Eastern Europe remember communism. Not so fondly (not a big surprise huh?). The communism museum in Budapest is called the "House of Terror," while this one in Szeged had a similarly terrifying theme.

I found this museum to be the second most interesting stop of the day. The most interesting stop, to me, was at an archaeology museum in the small town of Hodmezovasarhely (I had to lookup the spelling on this one). After endless small church museums with gold trinkets from the various bishops of the past, this archaeology museum detailing the prehistory of the region really seemed so much more interesting. Perhaps that's a hint that I should continue to pursue the archaeological side of medieval history. Yes, I'm nearing 30 and still trying to figure our what I am going to do when I grow up. Oh well, I have until I am 35 to grow up (the age when I expect to receive my PHD and get a real job again).

Taste of Hungary – coffee houses:

As many of you know, Jeremy calls me a “coffee snob” because of my picky taste in coffee. I, personally, just like a good cup of strong and fresh coffee – none of that water-down stale Forgers coffee they sell at the grocery stores. So, to my surprise, Budapest has really good coffee and apparently also a history of it.

Did you know that coffee houses appeared in Budapest long before they appeared in Vienna or Paris? Well, at the turn of the century Budapest had about 500 coffee shops. Although many of them have disappeared by now, you can still find coffee houses everywhere you go in the city. Just to get an idea, we have at least 10 coffee houses within a quarter mile radius of where we live!

Back then, coffee houses were an integral part of social and cultural life. Because many artists and writers could not afford to heat their small flats, they spent most of the day in their favorite coffee houses and these regular guests were provided with paper and pencil to create their novels and poems.

However, communist party leaders considered coffee houses breeding ground for underground communication and secret meetings so they had every coffee house in Budapest closed down in 1948. Since then, many Budapest coffee houses have been restored.

Last Saturday, Jeremy and I made a stop at Ruszwurm – the oldest coffee house in Budapest. Ruszwurm is a small and charming Baroque style coffee house that has been in operation since 1824. The story goes that the pastries were so tasty that the Austrian Empress and Queen of Hungary, Elizabeth, would send couriers to get her cakes from Ruszwurm for breakfast. So, after a long walk up on Castle Hill, Jeremy and I made a pit stop there to enjoy some nice cold drinks and yummy desserts. Jeremy had a chocolate/caramel cake and the Hungarian version of iced coffee - espresso with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and I had a raspberry cream cake and Hungarian lemonade - lemon juice with a touch of lime juice and mint leaves- yum!





On Sunday, we ended up stopping at another coffee house and tasted the famous Dobos Torta. The Dobos Torta is a famous Hungarian cake invented by the well-known Hungarian confectioner, Jósef C. Dobos in 1884. It’s a 5-layer sponge cake layered with chocolate butter cream and topped with thin caramel slices. Dobos’ goal was to make a cake that would last longer than other pastries. Because cooling techniques were limited at that time, food could not be preserved for very long. Dobos accomplished this goal because the caramel topping on the cake helps keep the cake from drying out.



Jeremy and I had adapted easily to the Hungarian culture of relaxing at coffeehouses. We both like to do this after a long day of walking and sightseeing or just as a good excuse to get out of the house in the evenings for a good cup of coffee and cake after a nice walk around our neighborhood.