Budapest

I took advantage of only having class a few days a week in June to join Brennan on some of his travels. We headed to Budapest together first. Budapest is another beautiful city and I really wished I had been able to stay longer than two days. Also, this visit really just reaffirmed how much I want to travel more in Eastern Europe. 

Both of us were a bit tired of visiting museums, so we mostly just walked around the city and looked at the major sites.  We started by heading up the hill to the castle complex, which includes a variety of museums and the residence of the president.

There’s a funicular railway going up and down the hill. We did end up riding it near the end of our trip to use up our extra money. As a brief side note, the exchange rate there is 300 forint per Euro which was definitely the most challenging currency adjustment I’ve had to make.

As would be expected, there’s a great view of the city from the castle hill.

Also on the hill is Matthias Church which has a beautiful tiled roof.

There’s also the Fisherman’s Bastion, a terrace on the edge of the castle complex.

By far, my favorite building in Budapest is the Hungarian Parliament Building. Built in a Neo-Gothic style, it’s absolutely gorgeous and impressively large. The crème color of the stone is beautifully rich at night when the building is lighted. The photo really doesn’t do it justice.

Our second day, we went into the part of the building open to the public, which houses the Hungarian crown jewels. The inside is equally impressive.

In the evening, we visited a natural spring bath. Inside, there’s a long line of small pools with differing temperatures ranging from numbingly cold to painfully hot.  There was also by far the hottest sauna I’ve ever been in at 90° C. It was physically painful to stand in there for more than a few seconds so we just walked through briefly. Outside, there were both regular pools and another large natural spring pool. It was a wonderfully relaxing and fun way to spend an evening.

We briefly walked through the inside of the Basilica during mass our second day (a Sunday) which was a bit awkward (I hadn’t visited a church as a tourist during a service before).

We spent most of the rest of our time walking along the Danube, enjoying the local cuisine (goulash is so delicious), and appreciating Budapest’s architecture.

I think this Holocaust memorial along the Danube is beautifully simplistic and it certainly had an impact on me, particularly after my experience in Poland.

Visitors

Recently, two of my close friends from Macalester came to visit Vienna as part of their post study abroad summer travels. It was wonderful to see both Kat and Brennan again and it was fun to show them around Vienna. I also took the opportunity to see some of the sights of Vienna I hadn’t seen yet with them.

With Kat, I visited Schönbrunn, the Hapsburgs’ main summer palace. The gardens of the palace are beautiful and full of a number of impressive fountains, as are most of the rooms in the Rococo style palace.

The ducklings in the fountains were pretty cute too.

Kat also joined my class for our tour of Vienna’s main cemetery, particularly known for the large number of famous musicians buried there, including Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss.

Also on the cemetery grounds is a large church, named after the controversial Austrian politician Karl Lueger. The church is also where he's buried. He's a particularly controversial historical figure due to his Anti-Antisemitism and his role in incorporating Anti-Antisemitism into the official party platform of Austria's largest political party. Actually, due to this controversy, a major street named after him is being renamed currently.

I also continue to really appreciate and enjoy the aesthetics of cemeteries so here are some more photos.

I found the gnomes in the last shot to be a comically interesting choice for a tombstone design.

With Brennan, I completed my immersion into the life of the Hapsburgs by visiting the Hofburg, the winter palace located in the city center of Vienna. The museum there includes the impressive royal cutlery and dishware collection:

and an exhibition on Empress Sisi, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph who ruled for much of the later 1800s and early 1900s. She is an entirely fascinating historical figure as she consistently lived her life as she wished and rejected many of her royal duties.

Brennan and I also rode the Riesenrad, the large Ferris wheel in Prater, the amusement park in the former royal hunting grounds. It’s the second largest Ferris wheel in Europe after the London Eye and there’s a great view of the city from the top.