Budapest, Hungary

Now that we had a good rest in Santorini, we were back ‘on the road again’. The longer than expected stay in the island of Santorini, meant that we had to forgo our planned stops to Turkey and Egypt. Having no regrets about skipping them this time around (choosing to rest, instead, and saving them for later), we headed to Budapest. Using our alliance of airlines, the city of Budapest happened to be the only city connecting Athens to Europe, other than London,  - so, onto Budapest it was.

Hungary, as you may know, is one of the Central and Eastern European countries that have been under the oppression of Soviet Union, until not too long ago. Stepping into the country that was once behind the iron curtain, we expected heavy security at the airport. We had the passports all ready to be handed over and readied ourselves for long questionings. Instead, we found that there wasn’t even a single customs line (did we have all those pages added to our passport for nothing?). We just breezed thru the airport, without even being checked. Apparently, since Greece and Hungary are part of the European Union, they did not require us to go through customs again; since we entered EU in London.

My first impression of Budapest, as we were driven into the city center, was that it still felt heavy and oppressive. The massive stone buildings of its past glory days, that lined the streets, looked old and neglected (surprisingly many were covered with graffiti). It may have been because it was getting dark and drizzling, or that the first Hungarian that we encountered (an airline employee no less), happened to have the demeanor of a KGB interrogator. Our mood, as we drove in, was to not expect too much and to quickly move on. Our outlook changed in the next three days, however, as we toured around the city, experiencing the beauty and glory that earned the city two world heritage site designations and the title "one of the most beautiful capital cities" in the world.

The morning after our arrival, we decided to be tourists and took a city tour, via the Hop-On & Hop-Off bus. This is the grand Opera House on Andrassy Ave., one of the first stops on the tour. In the front, on the right side of the building, is a statue of Franz Liszt, a famous Hungarian composer who composed their national anthem and was a virtuoso pianist, but better known as the father-in-law of another well-known composer by the name of Richard Wagner.

The city of Budapest is divided by the Danube River; into the eastern Buda side and the western Pest side. This is the tunnel that leads into the Castle Hill area – the Buda side of the city. There is also a funicular (sort of a train ride) right next to the tunnel that can take you up the hill, if you don’t want to hike up.

We got off the bus at the Palace and started to walk towards the Buda Castle. There were tulips and spring flowers, of all colors, lining the walkway leading to the Castle. The sun was out, high and bright, and presented the city to us in vibrant colors, on an ideal spring day.

The Buda Castle now houses the Hungarian National Gallery & the Budapest History Museum inside its grand buildings.

The Castle was the residence of Hungarian kings since 13th century but was destroyed and rebuilt many times after the invasions by Mongols, Turks, and during the 1848 War of Independence. What is standing now, is the neo-Baroque style of architecture.

Of course, where there is a building of significance, there is a statue of someone, equally significant.  In fact, I don't think I've ever seen more statues anywhere else, other than in Budapest. 

In Budapest, nothing was ordinary, even its iron gates had to be ornate and artistic. There was a ring or a key of some sort, in the bird’s beak, which I’m sure symbolized something.

This is the view from the Buda Castle across the Danube River,via the Chain Bridge.  If we had more time, we could have chosen to visit Vienna, 5 ½ hrs. by fast boat on the Danube River.

On the left is the Matyas Templom (Matthias Church), with its colorful tiled roof, and on the right, is Halaszbastya (Fishermen’s Bastion). Matthias’ Church was undergoing extensive renovations.

This is a photo of the Parliament building from the Buda side of the city, across the Danube River. It is the largest building in the country and was constructed in 1884-1904.

The Chain Bridge (Szechenyl Lanchid) was built in 1849; it’s one of the best known landmarks of the city. The bridge is the oldest among many bridges connecting the two sides of Budapest.

In the Pest side of the city, at one end of Andrassy Avenue (dubbed Champs Elysees of Budapest), was Heroe’s Square. The Millennium Monument had Mach angel Gabriel atop the huge column. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery were next to the square.

The Szechenyi Spa was located behind the Heroe’s Square. Budapest is well known for its natural hot springs with medicinal powers. After a tiring day of playing tourists, we were able to relax there. We spent 2 hours in the numerous pools (more than 10) of all different temperatures and sizes; both indoors and outdoors; partaking in the natural ‘healing’ thermal waters of Budapest.  More so than by its medicinal waters, we were more impressed by the surrounding palatial looking architecture.  Of all the different hot springs we’ve experienced around the world (in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, England, Germany, & Hungary), we would have to rate the experience we had in Hakone, Japan as our favorite.

After the sunset, this was the grand Buda Castle, at night, across the Danube River. The scenery at night looked even more majestic.

The Chain Bridge all lit up at night. Our hotel was on the Pest side, only a couple minutes walk from the bridge.

The Liberty Statue at the Citadel.  The Citadel used to be a fortress, since it sits atop Gellert Hill, with the most important lookout in the city, but now it’s a museum. The most gruff and unfriendly of all the people, sat in the ticket office. It looked like his job was to scare people away. Needless to say, we made a speedy exit, without entering the premises. Joanne told me that he must have suffered from torture or something like it, during the Soviet dictatorship.

These are the souvenir items, on a cart, sold at the Citadel. I told Joanne that instead of buying and having to carry them home, I’d just take its pictures.

We stepped out for lunch, and since it was Easter weekend, we were treated to a Hungarian folk dance performance at the Vorosmarty Terrace.

The Terrace was filled with numerous outdoor, tented restaurants that were busy with visitors.

Our menu for lunch (and for dinner since they served the same) were extra large sausages, chicken kabobs, and beer - I would say a good combination for a meal anyday.

Before our departure from Budapest, on Easter Sunday, we visited St. Stephens Basilica.  The giant, painted egg was donated to the city by the Croatia’s Tourism Dept.


We got to enjoy Easter service inside the Basilica. The inside was not only beautifully and ornately decorated in tons of gold, the acoustics were terrific. I especially enjoyed the choir and the organ. It was too bad that we had to catch a flight and didn’t get to stay for an evening concert that was being held there.


Except the drizzle that greeted us when we first arrived, we enjoyed the warmth of the spring sun, every single day that we were in Budapest. The hotel that we chose was a boutique hotel in the best location of the city and the reception staff in our hotel couldn’t have been nicer; the Starlight Suiten Hotel receives our thumbs up. Location wise, it was right behind the Four Season’s Hotel, but it didn’t charge its five star prices.  Despite having to get used to stoic looking faces, by some of the citizens who seemingly still lived in the old communist era, we were definitely happy to have stopped at Budapest.

Santorini

After three nights in the hustle and bustle of Athens with a lot of walking, metro, & buses to see the ruins, we headed to the island of Santorini (Thira Island to the locals). Athens was a good stop because we needed to visit the American Embassy to get more pages added to our passports; there was no space left for additional stamps.  Santorini was going to be the place for us to unwind.

We chose to stay in a so called traditional Greek house called the Strogili. It was located in the village of Oia; at the top tip of the crescent moon shaped island of Santorini where the best sunsets are. We had a one-bedroom suite that came with a kitchen, living room and its own private balcony. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the owner who was waiting for us in the front.  Breakfast was served on the balcony every morning and with a view that was as serene and peaceful as anything that we’ve seen, we told ourselves that we had found 'THE' place.  This is the place where we would stay put and relax for a while. The next morning, we extended our stay by another five nights.

Our routine was to get up in the morning, have breakfast in the balcony, gaze out the sea, go across the street to have lunch, and after the sunset, cook a simple risotto or spaghetti for dinner.    We got to know the whole family who owned the villa pretty well, from Dina the mom, Popi the daughter who checked us in, and her cousin, Spiros who owned the restaurant.  Dina even baked 'Easter' cookies and gave us a bottle of sweet (and strong) home made wine; a specialty of the island called Vinsanto.

The small island of Santorini is filled with photo opportunities everywhere.  Boutique shops, traditional houses, cafes, and restaurants were all getting ready to open for the season. The owners Dina and Popi told us we were the second guests to stay in the Strogili for the season and they said the island gets a million visitors during the summer.  We were just glad to be here when we were and were able to enjoy the serene island without the crowds (we even enjoyed the two days of hearing the pitter patter of the spring rain).  Instead of me rambling, I think the photos speak for themselves - hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Athens, Greece

After two weeks of driving and running around UK & Ireland, we were ready to fly to Greece. There, we planned to walk the streets of Athens and visit their famous ancient archeological sites. However, we also planned to spend some time in the Greek Isles and do what people, from Europe and all over the world, flock over there to do; that is to soak in some sun and watch it set over the azure blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

In case you’re wondering how we’re doing with our luggage, we’ve gotten much better about it now. We’ve been traveling extremely lightly; with only one carry-on each. Firstly, we learned to travel with much less and sent a lot of stuff back home – thanks to our sisters. Secondly, since we still have one check-in and two carry-ons, we asked our hotels to store the larger one for us as we go along. Hotels will store the luggage for you as a service upon check-out, as long as you book a return stay. There’s usually a time limit but they are willing to bend a little if you ask them nicely. So, we no longer have the two elephants and two gorillas that we started out with, but rather, we now have two lightweight chimps on our backs. Although it means more frequent washing and drying (Joanne loves using the heated towel bars in hotels as a dryer), it sure made us more nimble.

As far as eating is concerned, we’ve been finding all kinds of restaurants everywhere. In Asia, we normally went with the local food, but in New Zealand, Australia, UK, & Ireland, the options ran out pretty quickly. In which case, we had no trouble finding Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and of course, the old standby Chinese restaurants, to give us variety.

A fast-talking but friendly young woman at the information booth in Athens airport said she would tell us a secret (later we learned that Greeks in general tend to talk mile a minute - it sounded more like Spanish but just from the sound of it, you can’t tell if they are friendly). She whispered there’s a concert that evening by a popular Greek tenor (apparently a handsome heart-throb as well) near the Acropolis and it was free in celebration of the Earth Day. After checking in at our hotel and eating gyro for dinner (a welcome variety), we took a bus down to the outdoor concert venue near the Acropolis. Two local women, who happened to be heading to the same concert, helped us get off the bus and led us to the venue. The place was filled with people and every time the tenor sang, a lot of the audience sang along in unison. It reminded us of a similar atmosphere at a concert in Korea, except we couldn’t sing along because we didn’t recognize any of the songs.

The next morning, we decided to check out the National Archaeological Museum. When we got to the door, they said the day was reserved only for people with invitations. Of course, since we didn’t have an invitation, we would have to turn around and come back the next day. But Joanne somehow convinced the usher to let us in.   The museum was filled with tons of sculptures, pottery, coins, and statues. They even had exhibits of Egyptian and Roman antiquities. It was fascinating to see that some of these were real antiquities dating back to more than 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. Many of them were extremely well preserved and looked like they were made only a few years ago. We were impressed with the Palace National Museum in Taipei but the sheer number and the beauty of its collections was dazzling in comparison.

Below are some of the photos of the collections inside the museum.

This funerary urn was from around 430BC. At first, I thought it was a large vase that may have been used for flowers or plants - shows what I know about urns.

Early classical period 460BC bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon (the former identification is more probable).

Egyptian exhibits.

A group of Greek children were absorbing not only the art & history; there was a lady explaining everything to them and also a musician who played live music. 

These are the16th century BC gold death masks excavated from Mycenae;  known as the ‘Mask of Agamemnon’.

‘Changing of Guards’ in front of the Greek Parliament building. We could see some of it from our hotel room’s balcony;  the parliament is located across the Syntagma Square. The change occurs every hour, on the hour.

Our Greek dinner - it was a welcome change to have a different menu. We went to a traditional Greek restaurant, which was run by a family for more than 50 years. The owner explained to us about each item that we had ordered and how each was made.

If you follow this sign it will lead you to the back side of the Acropolis.  We walked up from Hadrian's Arch (by the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and stopped for coffee @ Lysikratous Sq.  Afterwards, we walked up the narrow steps following little handmade signs like the above, but this did not lead us to the entrance of the Acropolis.  Our route was unintentional, but getting lost in the back streets of Acropolis was part of the "recommended things to do" in Athens. 

There were many quaint restaurants and cafes along narrow streets leading up to the Acropolis.

I  could just imagine all these steps being filled with tourists during the peak season.

Parthenon – built during the second half of the 5th century BC. A sign in the front described it as a ‘universal symbol of classical sprit and culture’.

The amphitheatre at Acropolis.  It is also being restored for use.

In the foreground are the ruins of the Temple of Zeus. You can also see the Olympic Stadium in the background where the first modern Olympic was held in 1896.

Heavy reconstruction work was going on at the Parthenon (at other buildings at the Acropolis as well). A brand new museum was also being completed. It looked like the reconstructive work won’t be finished any time soon. It’s a pity that a beautiful frieze from the Parthenon is still being kept at the British Museum, instead of where it rightfully belongs.

The famous ‘Porch of the Maidens’ at the Temple of Athena - a retired history teacher from Norway told us that she had come to Athens just to be able to see this, and then she went on to explain to us about the other structures that were around us.