STEVE PEARCE PHOTOGRAPHY

A Weekend in Budapest

I flew to Budapest with quite a lot of preconceptions of what Hungary's capital might be like. Living in Berlin, I have the German perspective on what eastern Europe can look like from seeing east Berlin and Brandenburg, which was formerly part of the DDR and the Eastern Block. East Berlin has a very solid stamp of Communist influenced architecture and this is pretty much what I expected to find in Budapest.

With the EU always telling us that the EU ascension countries have so far failed to meet the economic measures required to enter the single currency, I was half expecting a slightly underdeveloped country and to step off the plane and be greeted by Scoda's and Lada's!

I could not have been more wrong on both these counts.

Budapest has much of the beauty of Prague (I don't know why Prague wasn't more deeply scarred by communism either) and although the condition of the roads from the airport to the city centre left a lot to be desired, there were plenty of Mercedes' around softening the ride.

With no Euros, you have to come to terms with the Hungarian Forint - or flowers as we decided they would be called for the weekend. At the time of our visit, one pound was equal to 373 Hungarian flowers. Luckily, one Euro was around 250 flowers, so this would have to act as the working system for us. I promptly made a miscalculation and withdrew 600 Euros from a cash machine. We were going to have to be careful!

First impressions of the city were that it is a fair mix of new and old and looking over the rooftops from the top of St.Stephens, we could see that it is not a particularly green city. But then I am making comparisons with Berlin again, which is one of the greenest cities I have ever seen. The city features many narrow streets, giving it an old character quite similar to Prague.

Wandering about soon brings on a thirst and we were almost put off by some of the trendier looking bars on the main tourist streets. Don't be - good food and drink is one of the things we found to be cheap in Budapest. Berlin is cheap compared to the UK, and Budapest is cheap compared to Berlin. There are plenty of places offering typical Hungarian dishes as well as steak meals and you can find a dirt Donald's or comparable burger joint if that's what you're after.

SHOPPING:

On our second day, which was a Saturday, we had consulted our guidebook and decided that it would be wise to check out the shops which it stated would be closed after 1pm and would not open at all on a Sunday. If we were going to find any bargains, it would have to be now.

We headed for the new Westend shopping centre, which is a bit of a trek from the main tourist shopping street near the chain bridge, but just about walkable in fair weather.

We were again surprised to find how modern and developed the centre is. Westend far exceeds any of the excuses for shopping centres that you find in Berlin, both in size and in the quality of stores under one roof. Many of the German chain stores were also represented, which I found surprising as I have never seen most of them outside of Germany before. It would seem that many names are seeing Eastern countries as their new target markets.

Although all the types of stores we are used to are there, they are certainly not cheaper. Despite struggling with the currency conversions (it's amazing how quickly we have become used to the Euro), we found many labels to be more expensive than in Berlin, so roughly on a par with UK prices.

For a Saturday, there seemed to be very few people out shopping - I guess shopping at the weekend is not a typical Hungarian past time. I found this almost annoying considering M&S and Tesco's have decided it's worth having stores in Budapest, but not in Berlin!

The Hungarian language is an utter mystery. Just a glance at a few signs or a phrasebook will give you an idea of the nightmare that attempting even the most basic sentence is. The strangely positioned apostrophes give a first clue that you will probably get the pronunciation wrong and no-one will understand anyway. It's probably not even worth trying - which is not my normal attitude, but this mountain is just not even worth starting for a weekend! Fortunately, most people spoke fairly good English or German.

The character of some Hungarians can seem unfriendly, but we also got the impression that this is simply the Hungarian way. The accent, which is somewhere between Russian and Italian can add to this feeling as it can sound quite hard. When enquiring in a restaurant what came with a main course, we were abruptly told nothing and offered no choice! We later learned that this was the typical way of presenting a Hungarian menu, but this was just one of the abrupt answers to what are undoubtedly stupid tourist questions, but nonetheless.....

THE STATUE PARK:

Another similar encounter, but perhaps for very different reasons came when we enquired in our hotel about how to get to a communist statue park. The answer was only by an expensive taxi ride, which would then wait for an hour and then bring us back. When we asked if there was no way by public transport, the guy shook his head and simply said, "we don't like the place"! All very interesting.

An enquiry at Tourist information in the city centre revealed that there are indeed public transport connections to the statue park, although they are quite complex, so we opted for a 10 Euro tourist bus which took us directly there and back.

All indications were that the communist monuments did not bring back fond memories for the Hungarian people and that they were quite happy to have them tucked away outside the city.

The park is not bad, but seems a little half finished. If you have the time to spare, it is still worth the visit, but I would suggest buying the guide book before looking around to be able to put some of the statues in context.

THE CHAIN BRIDGE:

For one of the best views over Budapest and the chain bridge, I would highly recommend a trip up the funicular to the castle district (Buda) just before dusk.

The funicular, the Royal Palace on the hill and the view down to the chain bridge at dusk:

We were lucky on the weekend we were visiting that the chain bridge was closed to traffic on the Saturday (I think) and Sunday. It may be so every weekend in the summer as there was a summer on the chain bridge season running which consisted of some market stalls and street entertainment.

PARLIAMENT:

On our Sunday in Budapest, we decided to take a tour of the parliament building which came highly recommended in our guide book. We had already taken a stroll along the opposite side of the river and thought how it resembled the houses of parliament in London, then later found that this is no accident as it is loosely modelled on London's parliament.

The inside of the building is even more impressive than the outside. I was quite taken aback by how lavish the building is. The entrance seems more fitting of a cathedral than a government building!

It is worth phoning the parliament (sorry, I don't know the number) or maybe checking the tour times at tourist information, as there are tours in many languages and it could mean waiting a couple of hours for the one you want. It is also necessary for you to bring your passport to be able to get a ticket! I have no idea why, but you can't even get to the ticket office without it. Luckily my girlfriend had her German ID card, which for some reason got her in for free and she was able to buy me a ticket. I was a bit worried I would then be asked for my passport at the start of the tour, but wasn't. Nonetheless I would stay on the safe side and take it with you if you plan a tour.

There are TWO chambers in the parliament like that shown in this image - there are more MP's per head of population than any other country in Europe (or it could have been the world).

Clearly a democracy loving nation!

The tour was very good, but there was no mention of how the building was used during the communist period of Budapest's history. I read in our guidebook that the dome was crowned with a red star, so I'm not really surprised the era wasn't covered!

These cigar holders can be found outside the parliament chamber where smoking wasn't permitted. Smoking is now not allowed anywhere in the building, but when it was, the politicians could tell if there was a good debate on by how many cigars were in the holders!

THE BATHS:

Our guide says that Budapest has 31 spa-water pools and thermal baths! You cannot help but come across outdoor pools and bath hotels and this very much seems to be part of the Budapest (and maybe Hungarian) culture. We never had our swimming gear with us when happening across any of them, so cannot comment first hand, but they certainly look tempting when you pass by in the summer heat! I have heard that some are not the cleanest establishments and that the open back hospital style aprons for some areas can be slimy, but as I say, I cannot comment first hand. Never mind, I will definitely make time for a dip on our next visit, slimy apron or not!

Overall, we had a great time in Budapest and it can make a good weekend destination. A long weekend is enough to see the main sights and to taste some good Hungarian cuisine. If you are coming expecting a full on party scene, you will probably be disappointed - the place is pretty dead in the evenings after 11 or 12 o'clock and the few clubs listed in our guidebook were well off the beaten track. It's definitely not a good stag weekend destination. But if you're looking for a relaxing weekend with some fairly decent (albeit not that cheap) shopping, then I would highly recommend it.

Are you Hungarian or do you live in Hungary? Have I totally misunderstood something?

I know a weekend visit can only give a taster of what a country and it's people are like, so if I have been unfair in any of my comments or observations, please email and tell me and I will add your views or experience here.