Guest Blog: Budapest

25 October 2021

October 25, 2021: Hello hello! This is Hisui, and Rachel kindly offered me to write a blog about the Budapest trip! Sara, Onelis, and I went to Budapest, Hungary last weekend for two and a half days. We arrived Thursday evening (Oct. 14) and came back to Prague at 2am on Monday, but still managed to attend class at 10am 😀

Thursday: We had to extend the stay at the apartment in Budapest because the sleeper train tickets sold out — we slept in a double Thursday night. With the manager’s permission, we took two big pillows from a couch in the common room so I could sleep on the ground. Only woke up thrice during the night tho woohoo ✌︎(‘ω’✌︎ )

budapest2 — Vibin’ in a small double with a ceiling taller than any royal palace we’ve been to

Friday: We visited the Fisherman’s Bastion, Matthias Church, and then the Buda Castle, which were all in the same general perimeter.

budapest3 — From the left: Hisui, Onelis, and Sara. Walked a decent amount of stairs up the Fisherman’s Bastion featuring the statue of St. Stephen (or Stephen I, who was the first king of Hungary).

The current Fisherman’s Bastion was built in the early 1900’s on the base of a stretch of the Buda Castle wall, and the name comes from how this part of the castle walls was protected by the fishermen’s guild.

budapest5 — Hungarian Parliament Building in the back.

budapest6 — Matthias Church in the back, which is located in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion at the heart of Buda’s Castle District. The church is named after Matthias Corvinus, who was another king of Hungary.

budapest7 — Matthias Church from the opposite angle of the previous picture

budapest8 — Find a Hisui in this picture with a heavily pixelated peace sign for reference on how big the place is (Fisherman’s Bastion on the left, Matthias Church on the right). Just so you know, I’m 4’11” (149cm).

budapest9 — At the Buda Castle with our guy Matthias again with his crew on a hunting party.

budapest10 — Taking a very collected picture of ourselves at the Hungarian National Gallery in the Buda Castle

budapest11 — The Buda Castle with the Matthias Fountain cut out of the picture.

budapest12 — Gellért Hill, taken from Buda Castle. The hill can be spotted by the liberty statue, which “commemorates those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary” (Wikipedia). The hill is named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill.

Sara and I went to see Carl Orf’s Carmina Burana at the Erkel Theatre, which was made part of the Hungarian State Opera House. For those of you who do not know, Budapest is known for folk and classical music. Ever heard of Franz Liszt? His busts and statues, and paintings of his busts were everywhere at the National Gallery.

Saturday: We all went to the Great Market Hall where we found our souvenirs!

budapest15 — The Great Market Hall, or the Central Market Hall, is the largest and oldest indoor market hall in Budapest, and it was the idea of Budapest’s first mayor to establish this market.

Early afternoon, I met up with Daisuke Yamada, one of the Japanese students at Carleton, who is in Budapest this term for a non-Carleton program.

budapest16 — Taken at the top of St. Stephen’s Basilica. And yes, he told me, “I don’t care if you put the picture on the blog lol” so it was consensual. He also told me it was his fifth time going to the basilica.

While I was hanging out with Daisuke, Sara and Onelis went to a cat café!

We quickly went to the famous Széchenyi Thermal Bath, which is one of the largest bath complexes in Europe. Just like the Czech Republic, Hungary is known for its thermal baths.

budapest21 — Széchenyi Thermal Bath taken on a different day because it was dark when we visited Saturday evening.

budapest22 — Sara and I left after an hour because we had a concert to catch. Yes, our hair remained wet even during the concert but the dress code was pretty lax, so we did not feel out of place.

The ABSOLUTE highlight of the Budapest trip for Sara and me was attending the Liszt Fest International Cultural Festival at Pesti Vigado Concert Hall. Barnabás Kelemen played the violin and Mihály Berecz played the piano, and they were absolutely mind-blowing in their musicality.

(Now I will ramble about music, so please skip over to the next section if you are not interested.) Liszt’s music is one of the hardest things to play, and some musicians focus so much on technique that it lacks expression. BUT Kelemn and Berecz were both technically and musically astonishing. They were also always in sync with each other even when they were not breathing or gesturing for cues. Their call and response, chords, and scale runs were all in sync. I teared up a few times and literally cried.

Okay, now for pictures. Thank you for reading through it.

budapest25 — Btw, I play the piano, and Sara plays the violin, so we talked about the concert for HOURS after it was over, mainly about our opinions on their technicality.

budapest26 — As the concert hall was very close to the Danube River, we went on an evening stroll alongside the river as we continued to talk about the concert. (The Buda Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, and Matthias Church in the back with low fidelity)

budapest27 — Buda Castle from the other side of the Danube River, with Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church to the right of the Castle.

While Sara and I were at the concert, Onelis went to a karaoke bar and other bar places where she made new friends!

Sunday: Sara and I woke up at 7am on Sunday so we could do our final sightseeing before our train left at 5:40pm. We first visited the House of Parliament to book a 1:15pm English tour. Since we had time before the tour, we walked over to “Shoes on the Danube Bank,” which was very close to the Parliament building. This composition honors the Jewish people who were ordered to take off their shoes and were shot at the edge of the river during the Second World War.

budapest29 — “Shoes on the Danube River”

budapest30 — Some people would leave candles and flowers for the sculpted shoes. There were also some candies left for little children’s shoes.

budapest31 — Little Princess Statue featuring the Buda Castle in the background. This statue was inspired by the artist’s daughter who would always dress herself up with a princess costume and a crown made out of newspaper.

Sara and I went back to the Matthias Church, and attended the 10:00am mass! The organ and choir were amazing. Sara knew every single title to all the songs sung because choral music is her speciality. “Ubi Caritas” by Ola Gjeilo slapped.

budapest32 — The church lady who started closing the doors thought we were mere tourists, but after we told her that we are actually here for the church service, she let us in, although she was surprised.

Since we were now on the Buda Castle side again, we took pictures of the House of Parliament. It is by far the most overwhelming and toughest-looking building I have ever seen.

budapest33 — Hungarian Parliament Building in the back.

budapest34 — Hungarian Parliament Building. Width: 123m (404ft); Length: 268m (879 ft); Height: 96m (315ft). This building is massive.

Now for the close-up pictures of the Parliament Building!

budapest37 — Inside of the Parliament Building featuring our tour guide.

budapest39 — A salon inside the Parliament Building.

budapest40 — Sara rarely wants a picture of just herself, so here’s me again. Hi.

budapest41 — Here is a wild Sara, peeping out her head from the House of Parliament.

After the tour, Sara and I went to Heroes’ Square, which is very close to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath. It is one of the major squares in Budapest, and you can see the Memorial Stone of Heroes and also the iconic Millennium Monument with statues of Seven chieftains of the Magyars (Hungarians), as well as other important Hungarian national leaders.

budapest42 — Me trying to look cool, aka the sun was really bright and I had no idea Sara was already taking pictures for me.

Lastly, Sara and I visited the Vajdahunyad Castle, which has a complicated history, so please refer to the Wikipedia page. It was a fairytale-esque castle, and it made us feel excited.

Note from Rachel: Huge thanks to Hisui for writing such an extensive blog post about Budapest. Stay tuned for information and pictures from our recent excursion to Poland!

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PragueBlog – Fall 2021

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