It has become quite a habit of mine to break my own rule in keeping this blog entirely devoted to my stay in London. However, my recent week-long trip in the city of Budapest surely deserves some mention and, in fairness, it is indirectly an extension of my London work; the whole idea started off with my interest in attending a conference related to my Ph.D. in the Hungarian capital. I will try to be as brief as possible but not fail to portray my impression of the Magyar culture...
I am not sure where to begin for I have loads to write, but I think I will follow an approximate chronological order. The adventure kicked off on the first Sunday of June with a direct flight from Gatwick to Budapest which was all smooth. Upon landing for the first time in eastern Europe, I was surprised to find out that the climate is almost as good (or bad!) as the Mediterranean. Actually, the month of May was the wettest month in Hungary in the last couple of decades, causing widespread flooding all across the country. I thought it would be rather fresh, but that week probably happened to be the hottest week of the century, for I was greeted by fierce sunshine and temperatures roaring up to 40 degrees. I took a shuttle to the hotel, freshened up, left my stuff and headed off to the conference venue to register.
As I later found out, Budapest has a very good public transport system of trams, buses and metro. One minor detail: tickets are sold only in post offices and metro stations. The former are closed on Sundays and the nearest station was miles away from the hotel. Or else, you can get tickets from machines at bus/tram stops. Great, there was a stop just outside the hotel, but the machine takes only coins and I had only banknotes of several 1000 HUF! And this made me walk, which I do not mind doing at all. Being in possession of a map, walking about was a simple task so I could afford to look around. I was immediately impressed by the sheer amount of graffiti on buildings. And by the rough appearance of shops with dense metal grills outside shop windows. The same can be said for the housing blocks with repetitive window and balcony patterns, clearly an inheritance from the communist era. The occasional contemporary buildings were then obvious signs of capitalism slowly infiltrating within the landscape.
After registration, I headed off to the famous River Danube, which Strauss had described as "blue" in his famous waltz. I soon found out that the composer was either totally colour blind or had a great sense of humour or, more likely, was too optimistic and thought it would be better to describe the subject of his music as blue rather than a hue of brown (like all rivers, after all). I was amazed by the width and flow of the river but even more by the presence of a "30mph" sign in the middle of the water. I thought to myself, "The Hungarians even have speed limits for boats." I walked a further 50m and encountered a traffic light...some 20m away from the river bank. I was even more amazed to see that the Magyar people also have traffic signals for boats. But, 50m later, I saw a zebra crossing sign! Clearly this was not intended for swimmers! So I quickly realised that the river had actually flooded the embankment road and the water level had risen by a good 1.5 or 2m! And then I recalled the floods...
The first half of the week was mainly characterised by the conference and the persistent hot weather. The lectures were interesting and useful and I met one of my academic idols whose papers have been the subject matter of several weeks' worth of reading and subsequent work. But conferences are not just about academic work: there are also the social events, which will give a good taste (quite literally) of the local culture. The welcome reception was held at the splendid Gellert Hotel, where I visited the spa baths and pools therein. And then the gala dinner, which was held in an equestrian park in Godollo outside of Budapest. The dinner was preceded by a horse show, which was quite amusing but also made it quite obvious why Dracula originated in east Europe: I never was tormented by so many blood sucking mosquitoes in my life until that day. The dinner was great: the Hungarians know how to eat. Their food is all about meat; a vegetarian will not survive in Hungary. The goulash soup was brilliant and the paprika-infested meat of all kinds which followed was unbelievably tasty.
The conference came to an end on the Thursday, but this meant that my wife was flying over to Budapest on that day and then 3 days of holiday were about to start! Thus started 3 packed days of sightseeing, walking, snapping, eating, drinking and chilling. Accompanied, of course, by the burning sun during the day and the annoying insects at night. During the travels, I was impressed by the sheer level of manual labour replacing automated systems doing the same tasks in other European cities. For example, you get paper tickets written off by hand by a ticket seller. The tickets are checked by inspectors at the entry of each station rather than by an automatic turnstile. And virtually every single shop, be it a Tesco express or a Burger King, has its own security guard employed. Surely there are no unemployed people in Hungary.
I was impressed by the number of superb Baroque, Neo Classical and Neo Gothic monuments - the Parliament, the Castle, museums, palaces, churches, avenues and monuments. The buildings on the Pest side lack any of the graffiti found on the Buda side of the river. Of noteworthy mention are the Liberation Monument, which is sited on top of some 200m high hill, which we went up on foot and, given that the temperature was high 30s, the gradients were over 45 degrees and the water supply was lacking, once on top, I felt I was as triumphant as the 3 Maltese who recently scaled Everest. The view was definitely worth it, though. Another demanding exercise was going on top of the 95m high dome in St. Stephen's Basilica, which entailed some 30 floors of stairs! Again, the view was breathtaking. I was impressed by the quality of the metro: the stations are airy, modern and all clad in marble and the platforms are clean, wide and even. Surely unlike some of the London underground! In fairness, there are only 3 lines in Budapest, but still I think they are an example to be followed. On the other hand, the train carriages are vintage machines, probably discarded prototype trains from communist Russia.
On Saturday night, we had dinner in the Castle in a very nicely decorated restaurant which was surprisingly quiet. The food was awesome; we started off with a bowl of goulash (naturally) and then I had pheasant and the wife had pike. And mentioning food, I forgot to mention the trip to the Market Hall, which was entirely dominated by meats of all sorts and all animal body parts, including tongue, tripe and, erm, genitalia. We did not fail to buy some Magyar sausages to bring back to London with us; half of the supply is shamefully gone already! And another aspect of Budapest: spa life. My wife and I enjoyed an hour or so in the hotel's jacuzzi and sauna and this was very welcome, given the aching muscles and blistered feet after several kilometres' worth of walking! The sights are beautiful, especially at night, with the illuminated Castle, Chain Bridge and Parliament defining the skyline in a most appealing way, probably even more than daytime. Needless to say, this deserved many, many photos and attempts in getting the right exposure and shutter speed to get the desired product...some things never change!
The week soon came to an end and on Sunday afternoon we headed to the airport and back to London, where we were welcomed by sun but cooler temperatures and fresh air. Besides bringing back a considerable level of suntan, a dozen or so mosquito bites, 1.5 GB worth of pictures and (of course) sausages, I can now say that I have visited an eastern European country, with official proof in form of a stamp on my passport. I am sure the nation has come a long way but I think it takes more than the pulling down of a wall or the replacement of a communist regime by a capitalist ideology. The biggest change is not a physical or political one - it is far easier to dismantle a concrete wall the size of the Berlin Wall or to replace an entire government system rather than changing people's mentalities overnight. It will require a few generations to go by for the western mentality to sink in and make the city a rival to other European capitals. Albeit all this, the Hungarians have ample potential to make their capital a modern, western-world city and are well on their way in realising this potential.
Of course, now I am back in London and the holiday mode is switched off. I had a terribly busy week at work, trying to catch up with my modelling work and am obtaining some good results. Budapest was a welcome trip and a deserved break which renewed my energies for more work. And, on top of all, the 2010 World Cup has started, which is keeping most afternoons and evenings busy! Forza Italia!
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