A Very Rough Guide To Budapest

Church of St. Anne

2006-09-11T00:21:00.001Z

As you get off at the HÉV or the metro at Batthyány tér you can spot the twin-spired Church of St. Anne, actually its a little hard to miss, but you might be distracted by the majestic sight of the Parliament which lies just across the water. According to Duncan J. D. Smith (Only In Budapest) the churches are the best survivors of the violent Budapestian history and I think this is a prime example. And again it’s built in the Baroque style.

We did try and go inside on a number of occasions but unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment until late September '06. However, I did get a peek and it seemed quite beautiful and, as it generally goes for churches, quite peaceful.

By the way I don’t think ‘spired’ or ‘Budapestian’ are real words. But perhaps through constant use they might be added to the dictionary?

Matthias Church

2006-09-10T22:20:00.000Z

The Matthias Church is next to the Fishermen’s Bastion. It’s a rather imposing building: firstly, it's built upon a hill and secondly because of its tall and intricately designed steeple. It can be seen from quite far in the city. It is a really beautiful building and the area around it is pleasent to sit down in; there are artist selling painting and sketches as well as offering a free bit of wisdom to anyone interested.

Its name comes from the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus who was responsible for the southern tower; it’s built in the typical Gothic-Baroque style which is evident throughout Budapest. The church is over 700 years old and the signs of time and war are apparent. It was occupied by the Turks during their occupation of Buda in 1541. It was restored in 19^th century.

The ticket price at the time I went was 400 HUF but sadly we didn’t go inside because we were tired and hungry. While writing this little piece I’ve found out more about the church and now really wish that we had gone in! Perhaps next time…

Cited from:

"Matthias Church." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 10 Sep. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/matthias-church

The Fishermen's Bastion

2006-09-10T21:23:00.000Z

The Fishermen’s Bastion is a great place to go and see, it looks great with its neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque architecture. It was built between the late 19^th century and early 20^th century and its seven towers are symbolic of the seven tribes that settled in the area.
The Bastion along with the Matthias Church dominates the Castle District. The closest HÉV and metro station (M2) is Batthyány tér, from there it's a pleasent walk up especially if you take a narrow street (and I recommend you do) by the name of Jezsuita lép. Apparently there is also a Castle Bus service that you can take but I don't know where that starts or stops.
It is not, as I had previously thought, a castle defending the city from the days of old; that’s a little disappointing to be honest but kudos to the guys who designed and built it because it gives a strong impression of history. Thinking about it, there wasn’t actually a place where people could be garrisoned or such.

It offers great views of the city and provides a gulp of fresh air. When we were at Bastion there was live music: two violinist on the steps leading up to the structure and flute player (who was quite good) at the Bastion grounds. There is also a giant wedding cake in the museum that weighed 250 kg and took a hell of a long time to bake.

Oh and there was also a man with 2 eagles there. I think with a monetary contribution you can put on the glove and eagle will sit on your hand. The eagles’ eyes are covered because it’s a bird of prey; seeing so many people around it can enrage it and make it go berserk!

Just behind the Fishermen’s Bastion is the Matthias Church which apparently also worth a visit (more on that in another post).

Cited from:

"Fisherman's Bastion." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 10 Sep. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/fisherman-s-bastion

Sections

2006-08-21T14:06:00.000Z

The main tourist attractions of the city can conviniently divided into the following three sections:

Castle Hill
City Centre
City Park

Catle Hill: This is the area that's west of the river, in the Buda side of town. This part boast attractions such as St. Anne's church, Buda Royal Palace, Matthias Church and my favourite the Fishermen's Bastion. You can also find one of the most photographed spas here: the Gellért Thermal Baths.

City Centre: This is in the Pest region of the city and adjacent to the river and opposite the Castle hill region. Most of the places here are from a relatively later time. There are quite a lot attractions you can goto here such as the Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, the opera house, Hungarian National Museum and more.

City Park: This is the region that's up and across from the City Centre, I have to say, this is my favourite park of Budapest. Its nice and green, a good escape from the hussle of the city. But one can still enjoy the beautiful architecture that can be found through out Budapest. Places such as Budapest Zoo, Hero's Square and Vajdahunyad Castle along with the Széchenyi Thermal Bath and a handful of museums.

Last But Not Least

2006-08-20T17:20:00.000Z

One little final note about travel: always have a place to meet if you get lost and make sure that place is above ground so you can be get in touch with (no mobile phone signal in the underground).

Also, as with any where you travel keep and eye on your things, don't get money out unless you need to. Try not to take valuables with you unless you need to, keep your camera/camcorder in a carry case rather than putting it on public display. Make sure you come back with the number of things you left with!

While I was there I felt very safe and nothing of mine or the people I was travelling with got stolen. However, I did run into some people who got there camera and bag stolen while on the train. It's good to be cautios but just make sure you're not paranoid.

Tickets and Etiquette

2006-08-20T16:54:00.000Z

I found the ticketing system a little confusing in Budapest. This is what I think you're supposed to do:

get a ticket before or while you're on the transport
get it stamped/punched by the machines that make funny noises (they can be found at/on metro stations, buses trams et cetra
one ticket is valid for only one form of transport, eg. if you are trying to get from point A to point B and that requires 2 metros in a row and then a tram then you're ticket will be valid on both of those metros, as long as you don't get out of the station but it won't be valid for the tram.
you can buy 'books' of tickets, they can be single or return.
tourist/travel cards are also available for 1 day, 3 days or a week.

What makes it more confusing is that there aren't any barriers or such (as you might find at the London Underground or railway stations) to stop you from getting on or off public transport without a ticket. There are of course ticket officers but its quite easy to get away with not buying a ticket, but this is not recommended as if you get caught you'll have to pay a fine which about the same price as a 3 day pass.

I would strongly recommend you to buy a travel pass since you can use it on any form of public transport as long as you stay within the confines of Budapest. They cost 1150 HUF for 1 day, 2500 HUF for a 3 day one and 3400 HUF for a seven day one. If you are buying one go for the 3 day or 7 day one.

Now about the etiquette, it is adviced that you don't eat or drink while at the stations or on the transport. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the everything is clean in that city.
Having said that most of the metro stations have bakeries and such that are VERY enticing you generally end up buying something. My advice is either save it till you get off or better still buy it when you get off.

For more information check out the BKV website.

Buses and Others

2006-08-20T16:41:00.000Z

There are far too many buses in Budapest so I won't be mentioning much about them apart from the fact that we only went onto 2 buses, the first was the infamous no. 200 from the airport and second was when we were going to the Szemlő-hegy Cave (bus 29).
It's easy enough to figure out bus routes and such, just pay attention to which way you're going, making sure you are atleast going in the right direction.

The HÉVs are generally heading out of the city, the one we used was from Batthyány tér when we went to the Sziget Music Festival, that also went past Margit hid. There are, I think, 4 HÉV lines that head out from Budapest, you'll know the one to use when you're there.

As with the others, well you will get to know them if you use them. As for us, we didn't and thus far are still ignorant.

Trams

2006-08-20T16:11:00.000Z

Before going to Budapest I hadn't been on a tram before and I have to say that I find one of the most enjoyable way to travel. They travel at a gentle speed that lets you have a good look at the place you're going through. They are also the form of public transport we used while we were there. I recommend that if you haven't been on one before than you give it a go, although you'd probably end up getting on one even if you want to or not.

It would be a bit silly to describe the routes of all the trams that run in the area, instead I'm going to just mention a few routes which were pleasent or useful to go on.

Tram 2: The route that this tram takes provides a nice view of the Buda side of the city, make sure you get on the no. 2 and not the no. 2A as the Budapest Tourism Office website warns.

Trams 4, 6: These two numbers do almost a full circle around the city. They may not go through all the touristy places but they give a good idea of the life style of Budapest and the architecture of the city.

Trams 19, 41: These two numbers also afford a good view but looking towards the Pest side. As you go past you can see the Parliament as well as several brigdges. It also goes past some attractions on the Buda side such as the St. Anne's church and Buda Royal Palace.

The Metro

2006-08-19T00:24:00.000Z

There are 3 metro lines named, with a flare of originality, M1 (orange), M2 (red) and M3 (blue).

Deák Ferenc tér is the connecting point to all the metros, so if you're not sure which metro to get or get lost then Deák tér is a good place to end up at because it'll open up some options for you.

The M1 runs diagnolly across the central Pest area (east of the river) and basically goes to the fancy parts of the city. It starts off at Vörösmarty tér and ends up in Mexikói útca passing through quite a few places of interest such as Opera (for the Opera house), Oktogon (for Burger King, McDonalds, Subway and lots of cafés and restaurants aswell as a few useful tram connections), Hősök tere (Heros Sq. and Vajdahunyad Castle) and Széchenyi fürdő (Budapest Zoo, Amusement Park and Szépművészeti Múzeum).

The M2 runs roughly horizontally across the city cross the Duna river. It runs from Déli Pályaudvar in the Buda region to Örs vezér tere in the Pest region. Moszkva ter is the next stop after leaving Déli Pályaudvar and has lots of bus and tram connections that lead to quite a lot of places in the city. Batthyány tér is the closest metro stop to St. Anne and connects to the HÉV that goes to Margit-sziget and Óbudai-sziget. Kossuth tér leads to the Parliament and Astoria to the Synagogue.

The M3 covers the most area, starting from Kőbánya-Kispest and ending up in Újpest. You can get on the M3 after getting off the no. 2oo bus from the airport. Get off at Kálvin tér to get to the Hungarian National Museum and for St. Stephen's Basilica get off at Arany J. utca.

Transport

2006-08-18T23:48:00.000Z

The transport of Budapest is super cool and one of the most efficient I have ever seen. I'd estimate that in the populated areas of the city the most you'd have to walk is about 300m and you'll find yourself standing in front of some form of public transport. This of course means that once you get off you don't have to walk very far to get to the place you wanted to go leading to more energy to enjoy the sights!

The following types of public transport are avaible for your pleasure:

Metro
Buses
Trams
Trolley Bus
Suburban Railway (HÉV)

A little tip: When going on public transport make sure you plan your route, this way you make more efficient use of your time plus avoid the hassle of going back forth from one end to the other, something which we did a number of times!

At first all the names of the stops and streets seemed very confusing but give it a few journeys and you'll quickly get used to them. The best thing to do initially is to just count the number of stops you have to get off at, especially if you're in a trams or a bus.

We got lost so many times that we knew some of the places quite well the end the of it, we even became regulars at some shops!

Recommendation For A Travel Guide

2006-08-18T19:49:00.000Z

All though there are a lot of travel guides about Budapest there is one I particularly like: Only In Budapest by Duncan J. D. Smith.
It's not only a guide to all the usual places but also to all the hidden treasures of Budapest and how to get to these places. There are colour photos on every page or every other page.

The other fantastic thing about this book is that it has the history of the buildings and places mentioned as well that of the country.

The places are divided into the Buda, Óbuda and Pest districts, other places of interest near to the place are also mentioned to save time and effort.

The copy I bought was 4990 Ft from a bookshop at Nyugati pu., which is about £12. I find it a little bit over-priced but apart from that little inconvenience its absolutely great.

Money Matters

2006-08-18T17:38:00.000Z

Firstly, please accept my apologies for such a cliché title.

Secondly, don't take travellers cheques! They are a pain because hardly any bank changes them and none of the bureau de change accept them. We were only able to get them changed at the airport.

The currency used is the Fornit (Ft or HUF) and comes in notes and coins. The coins are as follows: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100.

The notes are quite large in terms of the number of digits printed on them. They range from 200 to 20000. This might seem extreme but looking at the exchange rates reveals the whole story.

The exchange rate is about £1 to 400Ft, $1 to 210Ft (19th August 2006)

There are ATMs and bureau de changes located all over the place, especially in the touristy areas and the busy parts of town. It's better to buy majority of the currency while you're there (take out about £20 worth before you go to cover travel expenses, food and what not), preferably in the city and not at the airport. As always, look around and try to find a place with maximum exchange rate and minimum comission.

Some touristy place also accept Euros but not many so there isn't much point taking them with you.

One little advice: keep an eye on what you spend, it might not seem a lot but it does add up!

The Language

2006-08-18T16:58:00.000Z

The most widely spoken language in Budapest is, as you might guess, Hungarian (Magyar). Its a member of the Ugric language tree and also belongs to the Finno-Ugric sub-group. It is unrelated to the other languages of Central Europe.
This maybe infinitely interesting to a linguist but what this essentially means to the hoi polloi is that it is a pain to learn, even for the purposes of saying greeting like 'hello' or 'thank you'.
However, if you are feeling particularly heroic and want to learn some helpful phrases then follow this link to Wikipedia for the Hungarian language.

In my experience the joint second most widely known language is German (along with English), which, relatively speaking, is so much more easier. So if you know it then brush up before you go. If you don't know it then you have the option of either learning Hungarian or German, I recommend the latter since it'll be useful in other parts of the world, something that I can't really say for Hungarian.

As mentioned above people also speak English and it is easy enough to get by without knowing the the languages mentioned above for a short while (a week or two) but if you're planning to stay then I suspect you'll want to have conversations rather than just ask for directions or point at things you want to buy.

At The Airport

2006-08-18T15:05:00.000Z

There's one airport in Budapest, Budapest (Ferihegy) International Airport which has three terminals: 1, 2A and 2B. The terminals aren't very big so don't worry about getting lost. There are the usual food and souvenir shops with thier usual high prices (a bottle of coke is more expensive there than at London Heathrow).

We landed at Terminal 2 where there is a little tourist info. It provides several useful things, all free of charge. The ones I'd recommend you get are the 'Budapest City Map' and 'Budapest City Guide' - all these little booklets are available in several languages like English, French, Spanish, German...
If you have any specific questions then they'll try and answer them too.

You can get no. 200 bus from the just outside the terminals (make sure you buy a ticket!) and it'll take you to the metro station of Kőbánya Kispet (its the last stop so don't worry about where to get off).

I shall cover the essentials of public transport in a later post.

Short History of Budapest

2006-08-18T14:00:00.000Z

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary, it is situated on the Dunabe river. It used to be three different cities: Buda, Óbuda and Pest.

Roman town of Aquincum founded in 89AD which is modern Óbuda.
Pest came from Contra Aquincum which was a smaller sentry point.
Magyars of Central Asia occupied the cities in 900AD.
The cities were destroyed the Mongol invasion in 1241.
A fortress was built in Buda in the 13th century by King Béla IV
Buda became capital in 1361 under Matthias Corvinus.
Conqured by the Ottoman Empire in 1541.
Recaptured by Austria's Hapsburg rulers in 1686.
Cities fused in 1867 to become Budapest.

For the remaining history follow this link: Budapest Pocket Guide

Cited from:

"Budapest." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003. Answers.com 18 Aug. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/budapest
"Budapest." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 18 Aug. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/budapest