I headed into town this morning to meet up with the "Free Budapest Walk" which is 2.5 hours, first walking around downtown Pest and then across the bridge to the castle area on the hill in Buda. It was a very interesting tour, and great to start with as it gave me a good orientation around the city.
Saint Stevens Basilica
This is an interesting town with a long and troubled history. The hungarians have basically been occupied by one foreign power followed by another...
Some of the scars remain
St Steven was the first king of Hungary who brought christianity to the hungarians and settled them here where hungary is today, around the year 1000. He was and is well loved by the hungarians.
Unlike Prague which I gather has many really old buildings, most of the buildings in Budapest are under 200 years old, many built towards the end of the 1800's.
A fairly new tower (less than 100 years) built in the castle area.
The buildings were often built in historical styles which gives the place an older feel. Of course there are also a number of buildings which were built during the communist period which are very plain, square, uninteresting and inexpensive buildings (think the worst of the 1980's). So there is an eclectic feel to the place.
The tour was run by a group of Hungarian born and bred people around my age who are passionate about sharing their city and their history - I will go on the communist walk later in the week. The tour is free, but of course at the end if you have enjoyed the tour and found it worthwhile, you can give them a tip. And I did - It was great and I would recommend it to anyone (and I have!). They sat us down at the end of the tour and gave us tips and hints about the town, where to go, what to see and what to avoid.
After trying a couple of bakery treats I had a quiet afternoon at home before heading to my friends' house for dinner. It was lovely!! They had some other guests around my age and we had a lovely evening chatting about all sorts of things. I also had the chance to try some delicious hungarian wine from the Szekszardi region - a winner, and some goose liver pate with the spicy paprika! I also had a small snifter of the local fire water - Palinka. Quite nice but enough to take your head off, especially if you have some home made!!
I can report happily that my head was fine the next day!!
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