Budapest

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Monday August 9th

Ok, here we just walked out of the hotel Platánus, beside the Népliget park, ready to have a tour around the city.

Some background info about Budapest, the capital of Hungary: 1.8 million inhabitants, divided by the Danube-river (Duna in Hungarian, Tonava in Finnish) into Buda (where the castles are) and Pest (where the modern city centre is). Rather modern western city, I think, with some rather few remains from the communist/sosialistic period.

First we went to the Great Market Hall by the Danube with local subway. The subway was 90 florents (0.40 EUR). The market hall was huge, with lots of cheap food in the ground floor and tourist stuff in the upstairs.

After that, we went to a park in northeast Pest.

There were lots of fiddlers in Budapest. Most of them were really horrible; they played just one simple, repeating tune, and totally wrong. However, it sounded exotic enough to get people to toss coins.

There were also some beggars, etc. in Budapest.

Budapestin sillat
(Bridges of Budapest)
Kun viulun laulun kuulla saan,
käy aina aatos Tonavaan,
taas elän muistot kauneimmat
ja näen silmät rakkaimmat.
Taas Budapestin sillat nään,
ja kanssas kaiteen ääreen jään.
Taas sävel pustan helähtää
taas käsi käteen viipyin jää.
Kun nykyisyys mun herättää,
en enää siltaa luokses nää,
sun siellä tiedän kulkevan
ja jonkun syliin sulkevan.
Vaan sillat Budapestin nuo
haaveiden sillan luokses luo
ja sydän luonas olla saa
vaikk kättäs en voi koskettaa.
Some bridges of Danube.

The beggar girl on the bridge had obviously tried to dress herself like an old and miserable woman. She played her act rather badly, in my opinion. A very funny example of people doing like the one man in one of Sherlock Holmes stories.

Vár hill

I went to see the Vár (or whatever) fortress in Buda, overlooking Danube and the center of Budapest. There was this railway up to the hill, but I decided to walk.

The two fiddlers below were the first very good players I heard in Budapest. The old man played... "badly".

Night cruise

I went to a cruise in the Danube river with some Ursa people. The one-hour cruise costed about 15 EUR, which was quite a lot. Well, it was rather nice, with tv monitors and a Finnish commentary from headphones.

Below is first the Vár citadel. After that is the parliament building, which was a rather beautiful, with gothic-styled towers.

Next day, tuesday August 10th

The day before the eclipse.

In the morning, some of us went to a planetarium in the Népliget park. Unfortunately, the presentation was in Hungarian, and quite strongly targeted to children.

I went for a walk around Budapest again; this time alone.

There was a water faucet with a statue of Hermes in one street. It was somewhat funny to see people putting their hands together as in a prayer and bowing in front of this very fine pagan god. Nice and tasty sacred water...

There was also a fountain of the Worshippers of Agony up one of the hills. Looking from below, the water coming from the fountain was rather pretty. The actual ''fountain'', which was located beneath the massive statue (covered by bird droppings) blessing the city with his unholy symbol, was really just a hole in a dirty concrete floor. It looked very much like a public toilet, with the seat ripped off the floor... (...or maybe not: maybe it was just a turkish toilet, which are basicly just holes in the ground...)

There was also a church of the Worshippers of Agony inside the hill. It was a stone labyrinth with very good acoustics. Many torture statues there, but apparently also one statue of the nice goddess Isis.

The wall of the hill where the above fountain and church, and the statue of liberty below were located, was rather interesting looking. It was very steep; almost vertical, and full of strange caves and structures.

Then I went to top of the very steep hill, where the ''statue of liberty'' stood besides the fortress Citadella Sétany. I utilized my newly acquired solar-powered fan-hat, which I bought from the market hall (1400fl, about 5.8 EUR).

So, there was the statue of liberty, or whatever. The first picture here is taken from the nearby Vár hill. There was also this brutally tragical statue of a sadistic barbarian (probably a Worshipper of Agony) slaughtering an innocent, helpless, and beautiful little animal.

I bought a "Berg Art" thingie from a huckster. There is some sort of oil inside, with two kinds of sand, and air bubbles. It is rather interesting chaotic system.

HORRIBLE PORN IN THE STREETS!

Leaving to Székesfehérvár

In the evening, we left by a bus to Székesfehérvár, a city located some 50 km south-west from Budapest. The "highway" was in really bad shape; the whole bus shook like...something. I think it was a concrete road, made of really badly fitted concrete slabs.

Last modified: Mon Aug 16 18:23:49 EDT 1999