Feeling quite at home in Budapest.
Stimulus overload for semester break for sure!! After 5 days in Prague we flew on to Budapest, Hungary for another 5 days. As with all of our other adventures, we arrived, found our hotel, checked in, then hit the streets.
Now, I must say that it was a bit difficult leaving our hotel each day. It was really an apartment and a beautiful one at that. It was off of Andrassy Street, which is a very nice boulevard with high-end shops and restaurants. Our apartment was on the third floor and overlooked a beautiful courtyard.
But Budapest called to us and off we went. Our first stop was the Basilica of St. Stephen (Szent Istvan). Behind the main alter is the Holy Right Chapel. It contains the Holy Right (also called the Holy Dexter), the mummified right hand of St. Stephen. If you are so inclined, you can deposit 100FT (about 50 cents) and the glass casket will light up to give you a good view. We passed on the showing, but feel complete. For those of you who have been reading our blog, you may recall we saw the left “holy dexter” of John Rila in Rila Monastery. We now have seen a full set. Next it was on to the, you guessed it, stairs to the top (only 370).
It was a beautiful fall day and we had a pretty nice view of the Danube and the Buda hills on the other side. While the picture is not as clear as it seemed to us, you can get an idea of the size (about 1km) of the castle complex on the other side of the river. The picture here only covers a fraction of the complex.
The most beautiful building in Budapest (at least we think so) is the Parliament. Completed in 1902, it has 700 rooms and a variety of architectural styles (neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque, and neobaroque). We were only allowed into three rooms. One was the main staircase and landing.
At the top of the steps we could see the Crown of St. Stephen, which is considered to be the nation’s most important national icon. Legend has it that the first abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Panonhalma in western Transdanubia presented a crown to Stephen as a gift from Pope Sylvester II around the year 1000. This legitimized the new king’s rule and assured his loyalty to Rome over Constantinople. Others say this crown dates more to about the 12th century, but still, it’s a pretty old crown and the stories are fun. While the crown has disappeared many times over the years, it was “liberated” by the Americans in 1945 and stored in Ft. Knox. In 1978 the crown was returned to Hungary with a big ceremony (I believe Cyrus Vance presented it.).
The crown is important specifically because power was to reside in the crown, not the person. Legal judgments were always handed down in the name of St. Stephen’s crown. Therefore, when it went missing, the record here shows that it was kidnapped. It was nice to see it “home.”
Another room we were able to see, but not enter, was Assembly Hall. This is the place where Members of Parliament sit (it was the House of Lords until 1944). Outside the hall were many insets in the wall with crescent shaped metal objects (picture included here). They are cigar holders.
The hall was a non-smoking room, so members of parliament must place their cigars here when they went in to hear arguments. It was said that the length of the ash on the cigars always indicated when a good argument was made. Heck, I’d be in listening to arguments good or bad just to be in a non-smoking environment!
The next day we headed up to Castle Hill. We decided to go on a walking tour with a guide. Since its past the tourist season it was the guide and three couples. This guide was a walking encyclopedia and we are convinced that he must pass out and sleep after each tour. The tour we paid for was 1.5 hours and we went almost 3. We began by walking up the “Royal Steps” as the funicular railway was being repaired. At the top we stopped to admired a statue of a mythical bird.
As many of you know, I really listen when it comes to stories of women in history. It’s not very often, so when it happens I’m all ears. There was a woman who had a dream. In this dream she saw a bird (this mythical bird). She said that this bird would be seen in the lands where her people would settle. She told this story to her son (Almos) who told the story to his son (Arpad). Arpad, who is the man to lead the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin, stopped his army in the area now known as Hungary because it is said this is where he saw this bird. I am sorry not to have this woman’s name but the guide spoke quickly and I did not take notes. The names of Almos and Arpad come from my internet search—no names of women were found (big sigh!).
Another highlight of the Castle hill area is Mathias Church. The church traces back to the time of the 15th century Renaissance king Matthias Corvinus. If you read our previous blog entry you know that our camera died on Castle hill. It was, in fact, at Mathias Church that the even occurred. So we have good outdoor pictures (taken with the new camera) but no indoor as we didn’t want to pay the fee again (cameras are expensive) to go inside on our second day up the hill.
Our good friend, colleague, and office mate, Deyan Kostov, met us while in Budapest. He is finishing his Ph.D. at the Central European University and came here over break to meet with his committee. Deyan took us on a walk to Heroes Square, then gave us a tour of the Budapest transit system. We took the metro, then a bus, to the Buda hills for a hike. The result of our hike was the most wide-reaching view of Budapest.
The pictures don’t do it justice. We returned to the city by first coming down a chairlift, then catching a bus and a trolley. As I’ve said before, public transportation is a really nice thing.
On another day Brent and I went for a walk around Margaret Island (Margit). The island is 2.5km long and rests in the middle of the Danube. It was a gorgeous fall day and the leaves were beginning to fall. The path was a running path made of the material you would find at a “Nike-built” track.
We walked the length of the island starting at a fountain that spouted in time to classical music, to the ruins of a Franciscan church and monastery. Near to this spot is the original burial site of St. Margit (1242-1271). As the story goes, her father (King Bela IV) promised God he would give one of his children to him if only the Mongols were driven from their land. When the Mongols left, Bela committed his nine year-old daughter to a life of devotion in a nunnery on this island. St. Margit was canonized in 1943.
There is so much more to say about Budapest. More pictures will just have to wait for another day/venue. I’ve left out some of the history of bridges. My father would have loved the stories of the bridges built across the Danube and the engineering that went into them (he helped me write my report on bridges across the Willamette in 3rd grade). So I leave you with a picture of me, standing on the Chain Bride (originally built in 1849 and the first to connect Buda and Pest) with Mathias Church in the background. We are thinking of families and friends and missing you all. See you in a week or so—next up is Istanbul.
Stimulus overload for semester break for sure!! After 5 days in Prague we flew on to Budapest, Hungary for another 5 days. As with all of our other adventures, we arrived, found our hotel, checked in, then hit the streets.
Now, I must say that it was a bit difficult leaving our hotel each day. It was really an apartment and a beautiful one at that. It was off of Andrassy Street, which is a very nice boulevard with high-end shops and restaurants. Our apartment was on the third floor and overlooked a beautiful courtyard.
But Budapest called to us and off we went. Our first stop was the Basilica of St. Stephen (Szent Istvan). Behind the main alter is the Holy Right Chapel. It contains the Holy Right (also called the Holy Dexter), the mummified right hand of St. Stephen. If you are so inclined, you can deposit 100FT (about 50 cents) and the glass casket will light up to give you a good view. We passed on the showing, but feel complete. For those of you who have been reading our blog, you may recall we saw the left “holy dexter” of John Rila in Rila Monastery. We now have seen a full set. Next it was on to the, you guessed it, stairs to the top (only 370).
It was a beautiful fall day and we had a pretty nice view of the Danube and the Buda hills on the other side. While the picture is not as clear as it seemed to us, you can get an idea of the size (about 1km) of the castle complex on the other side of the river. The picture here only covers a fraction of the complex.
The most beautiful building in Budapest (at least we think so) is the Parliament. Completed in 1902, it has 700 rooms and a variety of architectural styles (neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque, and neobaroque). We were only allowed into three rooms. One was the main staircase and landing.
At the top of the steps we could see the Crown of St. Stephen, which is considered to be the nation’s most important national icon. Legend has it that the first abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Panonhalma in western Transdanubia presented a crown to Stephen as a gift from Pope Sylvester II around the year 1000. This legitimized the new king’s rule and assured his loyalty to Rome over Constantinople. Others say this crown dates more to about the 12th century, but still, it’s a pretty old crown and the stories are fun. While the crown has disappeared many times over the years, it was “liberated” by the Americans in 1945 and stored in Ft. Knox. In 1978 the crown was returned to Hungary with a big ceremony (I believe Cyrus Vance presented it.).
The crown is important specifically because power was to reside in the crown, not the person. Legal judgments were always handed down in the name of St. Stephen’s crown. Therefore, when it went missing, the record here shows that it was kidnapped. It was nice to see it “home.”
Another room we were able to see, but not enter, was Assembly Hall. This is the place where Members of Parliament sit (it was the House of Lords until 1944). Outside the hall were many insets in the wall with crescent shaped metal objects (picture included here). They are cigar holders.
The hall was a non-smoking room, so members of parliament must place their cigars here when they went in to hear arguments. It was said that the length of the ash on the cigars always indicated when a good argument was made. Heck, I’d be in listening to arguments good or bad just to be in a non-smoking environment!The next day we headed up to Castle Hill. We decided to go on a walking tour with a guide. Since its past the tourist season it was the guide and three couples. This guide was a walking encyclopedia and we are convinced that he must pass out and sleep after each tour. The tour we paid for was 1.5 hours and we went almost 3. We began by walking up the “Royal Steps” as the funicular railway was being repaired. At the top we stopped to admired a statue of a mythical bird.
As many of you know, I really listen when it comes to stories of women in history. It’s not very often, so when it happens I’m all ears. There was a woman who had a dream. In this dream she saw a bird (this mythical bird). She said that this bird would be seen in the lands where her people would settle. She told this story to her son (Almos) who told the story to his son (Arpad). Arpad, who is the man to lead the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin, stopped his army in the area now known as Hungary because it is said this is where he saw this bird. I am sorry not to have this woman’s name but the guide spoke quickly and I did not take notes. The names of Almos and Arpad come from my internet search—no names of women were found (big sigh!).
Another highlight of the Castle hill area is Mathias Church. The church traces back to the time of the 15th century Renaissance king Matthias Corvinus. If you read our previous blog entry you know that our camera died on Castle hill. It was, in fact, at Mathias Church that the even occurred. So we have good outdoor pictures (taken with the new camera) but no indoor as we didn’t want to pay the fee again (cameras are expensive) to go inside on our second day up the hill.
Our good friend, colleague, and office mate, Deyan Kostov, met us while in Budapest. He is finishing his Ph.D. at the Central European University and came here over break to meet with his committee. Deyan took us on a walk to Heroes Square, then gave us a tour of the Budapest transit system. We took the metro, then a bus, to the Buda hills for a hike. The result of our hike was the most wide-reaching view of Budapest.
The pictures don’t do it justice. We returned to the city by first coming down a chairlift, then catching a bus and a trolley. As I’ve said before, public transportation is a really nice thing.On another day Brent and I went for a walk around Margaret Island (Margit). The island is 2.5km long and rests in the middle of the Danube. It was a gorgeous fall day and the leaves were beginning to fall. The path was a running path made of the material you would find at a “Nike-built” track.
We walked the length of the island starting at a fountain that spouted in time to classical music, to the ruins of a Franciscan church and monastery. Near to this spot is the original burial site of St. Margit (1242-1271). As the story goes, her father (King Bela IV) promised God he would give one of his children to him if only the Mongols were driven from their land. When the Mongols left, Bela committed his nine year-old daughter to a life of devotion in a nunnery on this island. St. Margit was canonized in 1943.
There is so much more to say about Budapest. More pictures will just have to wait for another day/venue. I’ve left out some of the history of bridges. My father would have loved the stories of the bridges built across the Danube and the engineering that went into them (he helped me write my report on bridges across the Willamette in 3rd grade). So I leave you with a picture of me, standing on the Chain Bride (originally built in 1849 and the first to connect Buda and Pest) with Mathias Church in the background. We are thinking of families and friends and missing you all. See you in a week or so—next up is Istanbul.
posted by WarnerSteel at 9:52 AM
