Hello and Howdy friends! This time round I wanted to share a trip I took alone to a far away land called Hungary! Sarah was in a situation that ended up taking her home to the States for roughly 10 days. So, I had a weekend to myself and decided to go to the place with the cheapest flight. As it turned out, it was not a cheap weekend for flights… HOWEVER, one day, when I was at work, an €80 flight popped up out of nowhere to Budapest, Hungary. Sure enough I bought it that same day! So, from Nov 16-19, I spent my time trekking Budapest alone and it was marvelous!

One of the downsides was my flight left at 21:45, or 9:45 pm, Friday night.. This meant I would land a little before 1:00 am.. and thennnn it was a 50 minute bus ride to my hostel and thennnn I had the check in process. Ya boy ended up going to bed around 2:30 am before waking up at 8:00 to start what would be a very full day…

Before I continue with the journey, I wanted to mention the hostel I was staying in! It was an amazing little place called The Lazy Muggle. I saw the name and was sold. However, it did have good reviews and was in an absolutely amazing location. That and it was €7.33 a night. Much of Budapest was a little cheaper than expected, though. In fact, everything was quite cheap in Budapest with the exception of major touristy things. Many museums and cathedrals/churches were only around 3 or so euros. The currency in Hungary is also different. They are called Forints and 1 euro is worth roughly 324 forints… This made it a liiiiiiittle harder to keep up with the cost of things but it worked out!

Back to the journey. All I brought was my backpack that was filled with enough clothes to get me though Monday, a towel, my camera, and a smaller bag to carry around in Budapest. Day one, I jus threw my clothes on, brushed my teeth, and headed out the door as quickly as could. Saturday morning started by walking maybe 50 paces from my hostel to St. Stephen’s Basilica.

This was the start of my observations towards recognizing the differences between Spain’s, or France’s, architectural and interior decorative designs in the church. Inside of the Hungarian churches was a much brighter atmosphere. It felt like churches in France wanted to make humanity as unnoticeable as possible, but these churches in Hungary seemed to ensure the role humanity plays in the church. In another way, to me, one seemed to isolate man from God as he is far above all else, but the other felt like it was keeping humanity in connection with God. It was an explicable thought process for me and you can feel free to disagree! Also, I thought the organ was beautiful so here you go:)

There were some interesting relics inside of the basilica. One of which was the literal right hand of Stephen I for whom the basilica is named after. Stephen I was the first king of Hungary and he died in 1038. Yes, the 11th century.

You cannot really see but there is 100% a clenched right hand inside that box. You can see the band that acts as the hilt or the cap of the hand.. To me, this made me think just how serious the church was/is and how it can sometimes be a little heavy handed (there’s a pun for ya if you laughed. If you did not, I am sorry). Can you imagine listening to a conversation about chopping a guy’s hand off and displaying it for your churchgoers? Just seems like… a lot.. to me. I have seen some relics before, but they have usually been shards of bone, or a femur, or hair. However, seeing this seemingly petrified hand brought upon different feelings and thoughts for me. If you make a trip to Budapest, I recommend experience St. Stephen’s Basilica!

Next, I went to a market! In Budapest, there are two big markets. One is called the Lehel Market and the other Central Market Hall. Today, I went to Lehel and I will talk about Central Market Hall later. The Lehel Market had two floors: the first floor was all kinds of produce and the second floor was a bunch of products like clothes, toys, gifts, souvenirs, etc. It was very big but full of a lot of crap, honestly. Very interesting architecture, though! It seemed like an experimental design that used the architect’s children’s ideas.

 

I decided to walk towards the City Park next, which is sort of like an island in Budapest. It contained many things to do there like a zoo, a spa, a park, a museum, a castle, and even a carousel!

I bumped into this train station on my walk that was absolutely stunning! Alsoooo, in front of the station was a little food cart selling what they called chimney cakes:D

 

 

 

¡Que ricooooooooooooooooo!

Chocolate and coconut 😛

 

 

Finally, I made it to City Park. As I came closer, there was a large landmark acting as an entrance of sorts.

This location represents the Seven chieftains of the Magyars (Hungarians) and other important Hungarian national leaders as well as their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a great experience to witness and made me recognize even more of Hungary’s pride in their country.

The main thing I wanted to do was enter the Vajdahunyad Castle area where there was a a museum on much of Hungary’s history. It more so had to do with agriculture and the Hungarian way of life since their conception in the year 896. I did not stay for toooo long because there was so much to do!

Okay. So. Big thing. Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, and music educator from Hungary. His work as influenced much of the world in regards to music education as well as influenced me. Teaching with Kodály methodologies is usually associated with earlier ages in music education but can be used for any and all ages. In a 3 level program, I am certified in 2 levels from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. I have amazing colleagues/friends from there and extremely phenomenal teachers/teacher friends! With this preface in mind, one of the locations where Kodály lived in Budapest, was turned into a memorial kind of museum! Unfortunately, these pictures were the closest I got to being there….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it turned out, the place happened to be closed for my entire trip there. BUT! This experience was exciting enough for me:) By this time, it was a little later in the afternoon and I had to make it to a tour of the Hungarian Opera House. Since the Kodály memorial museum was closed, I squeezed in the Franz Liszt museum:D It was the same idea as Kodály in regards to the location of Liszt’s museum. It was at the same spot where Liszt used to spend some of his time in Hungary; not so much his childhood but throughout his life.

Pictured are two items actually used by Liszt! One is a sort of “composer’s desk” that was given as a gift to Liszt. It was a normal desk with a pull out mini keyboard that struck something more like chimes rather than strings, but the idea was to help with arranging/composing. The second is an invention Liszt asked to be constructed. The top set of keys is a piano whilst the bottom set is an organ. A very unique instrument that Liszt sought to be built.

These three photos contain a music stand crowned with Beethoven’s, Schubert’s, and Weber’s head. Liszt wrote of this stand as being a force that commanded him to go on his own way and perform his task. In the middle is a lock of Liszt’s white hair… More… relics, I guess. Always interesting to mention. The last is a gifted baton to Liszt which, quite literally, looks like a wand. I just want one of these some day is all.

After this musically endeavor, I made my way to the Hungarian Opera House:D

 

Magnificent, right? Turns out, the whole exterior and main hall was being renovated for at least 2 years but the guide made it sound like 4 more years.

 

 

However, the opera house offered a live performance of solos and duets.

I took more pictures but these are probably enough to understand what the opera house had to offer. The opera house was made by a single architect and designed everything down to the door handles, which there are 2,000 of. The house seats 1261 audience members with no standing space. Apparently, in Vienna, there are standing seats you can purchase. The paintings you see in the top right photo are by a Hungarian artist when he was in his mid 20s with the secco art technique. When you see them, you may understand the feat he had accomplish and surely did. I asked if the paintings were thematic to operas, but the theme was based on greek mythology. The tour was rather short because we had to head over for the soloistsssss. The list had a picture of several singers (only two came out). There was a mezzo and a lyric soprano. The latter was quite underwhelming and the entire performance was a little mediocre. Their duet was the Flower duet from Lakmé but the mezzo swallowed the soprano’s voice. Always pretty to hear, though! It was still really cool to hear some opera singers in an opera house, though. Do not get me wrong:)

I ended the Saturday trip time with an evening at a brewery that had other breweries’ beers on tap as well. From my findings, Budapest seems to be more of an IPA kind of place. The place was called Neked Csak Dezsö. Yes, I was trying to pronounce it in my head, too. I ended trying 5 different beers from a flight and they were all pretty tasty:) I recommend stopping by.

I lied juuuuust a little when I said the brewery was the end of my trip… The Lazy Muggle (my hostel) was having a pub crawl starting around 9:30 pm. Sooooo, I went haha. Many buildings and places were abandoned or damaged by WWII and, afterwards, many people purchased some of these locations. However, many bars left the locations the way they were and inserted the necessities of a bar, i.e. chairs, bar, tables, lights, billiards, etc. They became known as ruin pubs and today people purposefully make a bar look like a ruin pub because of its popularity.

The left picture was one of these ruin pubs I went to on the crawl. Also, there was this sort of traditional drink called the Shrek. It did not have layers but it contained a variety beverages. Out of 3 parts, it was 2 parts wine and 1 part I do not know haha. It was delicious, though, and quite hidden in regards to it being alcoholic. So. get this. You are supposed to have a bracelet to get into the club or pay some amount of money. I said I could not go, so one of the leaders of the pub crawl just gave me a bracelet! Apparently it was because of how much fun I was. I pretty much just danced and tried to get everyone to dance. I ended up going to this club and it was so fun! Live musiccccc, chicken tacossss, and many friends:) I befriended a great guy from the UK named Ben and we talked for so long that night. I also met two ladies that were sort of like interns at The Lazy Muggle. Taylor was from the states and Magge was from Germany:D I also had a wonderful time with a French gentleman, but I cannot remember his name right now. All of these people were there and it was a wonderful time with all of them! I am sure they are all still in Budapest, having a great time. Only problem was I did not go to bed until 3 am. I had to leave early, but I compensated by waking up a little bit later.

The next day my back and neck were a little sore from all the dancing haha. BUT. This was the day I went to the the Gellért Spaaaaa…. oh, buddy… First, though, I went to the place where I had breakfast everyday. It was called Costa Coffee and it was right next to The Lazy Muggle. I always had the smoked salmon sandwich with cream cheese and cucumbers and a latte. So good. On to the spaaaa.

The Gellért Baths and Spa is part of the Gellért Hotel and was built in the 1910s. There were 4 thermal baths, all at different temperatures, and two larger baths in the center of the estate. Also, they had 2 steam rooms and a sauna. They use a type of mineral water that is supposed to be great for the skin and body. This ended up being great for last night’s repercussions. I spent around 3 hours hopping from bath to bath, steam room to steam room, until I was content. After that, I was supposed to head to the Buda Castle District, but a mountain caught my eye and I decided to climb it. Halfway up, there seemed to be a hobbit hole door. Inside was this small cave that had a church inserted into it. I would have never thought to turn the location into a church but someone did. I was extremely caught off guard, always trying to remind myself that it was a real church.

Amid the top of the mountain was this gorgeous view of the Buda side and the Pest side of Budapest, separated by the river. I was a little pressed for time but I soaked up these moments as long as I could. I needed to be in the Holy Trinity Square for a walking tour. 

 

 

The statue contains the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the top and was erected during the Black Death or Black Plague. The Hungarians believed they were being punished by God and the statue was erected to ask for forgiveness.

 

 

 

 

A little bit about the Buda Castle District. A collection of tribes, the Magyars I believe, settled in this district in 896 and became a kingdom by the 11th century. In the 19th century, the cities of Buda and Pest were officially cohesive. The tour started talking about, probably my favorite iconic landmark in Budapest, Matthias Church.

This church was oldddd and absolutely stunning! In fact, it is probably one of the most unique I have ever been to. The roof is made of Zsolnay pyrogranite that is some special ceramic that has great durability. The inside was even more majestic. Something else had been happening as well…

Inside, there was a small orchestra with a choir rehearsing Mozart’s Requiem. I was able to witness this the entire time I was exploring this wonderful church. I soon found out that the performance happened to be that night… Yes… It was in about 2 1/2 hours. So, I went and had a very Hungarian dinner and tried Palinka and it was not amazing. Just strong haha. After dinner, most of the seat were gone, but part of the chancel was open and I snagged a seat up there! I ended being right across from the conductor, to the side of the soloists, and in perfect view of the orchestra and choir! Exhilarating experience… Mozart’s Requiem was the first mass I ever sang, so it was a bit more special for me. It was also hard to not sing along haha.

After this, the tour guide had mentioned a statue of some kind of general I do not remember the name of. What was important was the tradition it was a part of. Nearby is a university and students come to hang around Buda Castle District. Well, at some point the students would rub this statue the night before exams for good luck.. However, what you needed to rub was quite unexpected. Let’s just say the brass statue had the horse’s testicles shiny without a patina haha. The tour guide asked if anybody wanted be a part. Nobody was saying anything. So, naturally, I volunteered.

It was in this moment.. I became that much more of a Hungarian than the rest.

The next day I had time for just a few things! I toured the Hungarian Parliament Building. This building is said to have used so much gold in its construction, it could create and sustain a city of 150,000 people with its cost.. It was also a rather massive building that stuck out amongst the other buildings.

Very impressive building:)

Last biggg thing was going to the Szabo Ervin Library (was told about from a lady sharing a similar name (little shoutout, Lynn)) which used to be “an aristocrat’s mansion”.

The 2nd and 3rd pictures were of a reading room behind the philosophy section and the last photo was the sheet music section:D I perused this area for just a little while:P Sadly, the other more scenic areas were closed for renovations in this not-to-little library.

The last thing I did was go to the Christmas Market!!! I had mulled wine and Lángos, which was quite delicious if I do say so myself.

It was so awesome to dive head first into the feeling of Christmas time:) I could not have asked for better final moments in Budapest:))

This trip had so many more things but it was just too much to write! I do not think I have ever been/felt so alone before on this trip. I do not mean it in a depressing way, but more so in an experiential or eye-opening way.. It was an entirely new idea/experience for me. I was completely alone in a different country and was truly making 100% of the decisions. I found out that is something I am not used to… When other people are involved I tend to be non-confrontational about things. I do not usually speak up on places I want to go when they differ from other people. I just know I will be happy either way because I think I am more concerned about who I am with rather than where I am. It may not mean a whole lot to say I took charge of all decisions when it was just me, but it was empowering. It provided me with recognitions of myself I was rather blind to. I will say traveling alone is also fun because you get to do whatever. you. want. I changed my plans probably 10, or so, times!!! If you have not already, you should give traveling alone a whirl. It is an amazing time of self discovery (in my opinion). If you really do not feel like it that is okay, too! Maybe just take some time to reflect on the sides of yourself that are seldom seen by even you! All the love my people:)

Some extra photos for ya:P

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