Ferenciak Tere

Just one of the many amazing buildings in the city.  This is right across from our metro and bus stop.

Szabadság Ter

This picture is taken in Szabadsag Ter or Freedom Square in downtown Budapest.  I think what makes this picture somewhat interesting is that I took it standing near the US Embassy, with a monument to the Soviet Union's liberation of Hungary at the end of World War II in the foreground.  On the other side of the monument, not visible here is a statue to Ronald Reagan and in the background is Parliament. I'll have to get a picture of Reagan looking at thee monument at some point.

St. Patrick's Day

So it wasn't the biggest celebration I've seen but Budapest had it's second annual St. Patrick's day parade.  I don't know that people exactly know what it is for, in fact one woman walking her dog asked us what it was, but as soon as they realize it's just an excuse to have a few pints I'm sure it will catch on.

More from Revolution Day

Normally our street is a very quiet street.  We are right downtown but our street is a narrow one way street until it gets to the end of our block, then it's one way the other way so you either turn right onto a dead end street or take a left and then a series of turns on many more narrow one way streets before you hit a major road.  Due to road closing for the holiday festivities our road some how became a major thorough  fair.  The picture below was taken out of our window, the cars on the right are parked, the cars on the left are just stopped.

Hungarian Revolution of 1848

 

Today Hungary has one of it's big holidays celebrating the Revolution of 1848 and even google is celebrating here!

Esztergom

Last weekend we went to Esztergom.  It's north of Budapest on the Danube bordering Slovakia (in the picture below, the town on the other side of the river is Sturovo, Slovakia) and was the capital at one time.  It's a beautiful town with a large Basilica and a castle.

 

Szent Istvan's Coronation

Anyone else confused?

Hungarian is only spoken by about 10 million people world wide and there is probably a good reason for that, it's really difficult to learn.  Knowing only very few basics I need to rely on signs a lot. But signs like the one below could use a little clarification.  Dog or no dog? Fire or no Fire? 

The check's in the mail

The check's in the mail isn't an excuse your going to hear in Hungary much. Not necessarily because people pay their bills here on time, but because there are no checks!  So what do you do when you need to pay a bill? You walk down to the Post Office (pictured above) and give them your bill and the money and that's it.  I thought it was a little strange at first but it is actually pretty easy and so far have had no issues.

Danube River

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the Danube River yet.  It's the second largest river in Europe origination in Germany and ending in the Black Sea and cuts right through Budapest.  This picture above was taken on Szabadsag hid (Freedom or Liberty Bridge) which is right next to the big Central Market that I've mentioned before.  The next bridge that you see is Erzebet hid (Elezibeth bridge) and that is right by the metro stop where Underworld was shot.  We live pretty much right in between these bridges about two or three blocks from the shore on the right hand side in Pest.  As you can probably guess the other side of the river, the hillier and a less urban side is Buda.

Kürtőskalács

On a street between one of the main squares in Budpaest and a metro stop they have set up stalls for the Spring Festival.  Which means one thing to me, Kürtősklácas or chimney cakes! Anytime there is a festival there is Kürtősklácas. Supposedly these are one of Hungary's oldest and as far as I'm concerned best pastries.  They actually originated in Transylvania which is now part of Romania but was a part of Hungary at the time.  They are basically a dough that is wrapped around a cylinder and rotated as the cook over an open fire.  Then they put walnuts, cocoa, vanilla or coconut on them.  They are sooo good.  They are crispy on the outside but kind of soft on the inside but don't leave your fingers sticky at all.  They taste kind of like a flavored pancake.

So far we've seen these at the Christmas Market, the Mangalica Festival (mangalica are a Hungarian curly haired pig, very tasty as well!), Mohacs Busojaras and the Christmas Market in Prague although there version was not nearly as good.  I can't believe these have not made it to the US yet or if they have I haven't found them!

Mangalica Festival

Budapest Christmas Market

Prague Christmas Market

Mohacs Busojaras

Serbian Church

At the end of our block sits this beautiful Serbian church.  I love the picture above showing St. George slaying the dragon.  The church dates back to the late 1600's and is just one of those cool buildings that I can't believe I walk by everyday.  I'm also very appreciative that they have a little driveway that we can pull in real quickly to unload stuff from our car because finding parking is impossible!

Wrecking Ball

So I'll take a brief break from all things Hungary because it's not everyday that Bruce Springsteen releases a new album and today is one of those days.  I guess this could technically be a preview of an upcoming post as we will be seeing Bruce and the E Street Band when they make there way over to Europe in support of Wrecking Ball and the title of my blog comes from a line in American Land a song they've been playing live for a while and is a bonus track on the album. 

Hearing Clarence Clemons' last sax solo on Land of Hope and Dreams is worth the price of the album alone but there are plenty of other good and different sounding songs that I can't wait to see live.  As an example I'll leave you with the recent performance of Death to My Hometown from the Jimmy Fallon show.  This clip and the album features guitarist Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.  I guess he didn't get the memo about dark shirt and pants. 

Enjoy

Underworld

You might be wondering what a picture of Kate Beckinsale from the opening scene of Underworld is doing in my blog.  The answer is she was in one of the buildings at the end of my street getting ready to follow some lycans into our Metro stop! It was pretty weird to be watching that movie a few weekends ago and think that looks an awful like Ferenciak Tere, but it was. Here are those buildings from our normal vantage point.

Apparently they shoot a lot of movies and things here because it's pretty cheap to film here and it looks like a lot of other places, even Buenos Aries for Evita.

Grocery Shopping

At the end of our street is Budapest's Central Market (Nagy Vasarcsarnok).  This beautiful buildings was built in the late 1800s and serves as our local grocery store. There are three floors for your shopping pleasure. The basement has a local grocery store chain, fish and pickling.  The main floor has butchers, produce and some baked goods.  The top floor has places to eat and local crafts and goods. 

 

It really is a remarkable place to shop, except that it is a tourist attraction so I try to avoid it during the weekend or if I see a tour bus pulling up front.  The produce and the butchers are amazing here.

I'm not the sure what the scariest part of this picture is: the animal skull with teeth, toungue and sunglasses on a stick; the dead pig to the right of the picture; or the crazy butcher behind the counter.

Mohacs Busojaras

The weekend before Ash Wednesday there is an annual festival in the city of Mohacs about an hour and 45 minutes south of Budapest.  This festival has been going on for hundreds of years featuring men dressed in some sort of sheep skin costume with crazy masks.

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the festival is.   One story I heard is that it is celebrating a time when the Turks had taken over the town and one stormy night the townspeople dressed up in crazy costumes and scared the Turks of for a little while.  Another reason I heard is that they are chasing winter away.  Whatever the reason is seems to be a reason for men to dress up and behave inappropriately!

It was a lot of fun and we'll have to go back to see the massive bonfire in the town center that we missed because we had to get back to let Midnight out.  

In the mean time these guys will be waiting!