Walking in Pest

Buda, being on a hill, has impressive monuments and views but Pest, while it may be the lesser cousin of its neighbour, has its majesty too. It is helpful, if somewhat simplistic, to think of Buda as the old town and Pest as the new to see how Budapest compares to other grand European cities.

Pest has a touch of Paris about it, and having a leisurely morning coffee in a French cafe in a pretty square with a fountain and a statue certainly helps to foster that feeling, as do the wide boulevards and the art nouveau buildings.

A lot of the main areas are car-free, or car-light, and so it is easy to stroll between the parliament, cathedral, square, market, river, etc. Along the way you can look up to see beautiful buildings with decorations, ornaments and balconies, all of which are best observed at leisure over a large glass of a local beer. This is what holidays are about.

Citadel, Budapest

A golden rule of travel is to climb the high places so I spent a day on the hills of Buda exploring palaces, museums and old cobbled streets while enjoying the extensive views of Pest across the Danube (the views of Buda were less impressive!).

Citadel is on one of the hills of Buda and is worth the tortuous, and confusing, walk to the top to see the magnificent Soviet era statues.

The Liberty Statue was first erected in 1947 in remembrance of the Soviet liberation of Hungary from Nazi forces. It is 14m tall and stands on a 26m pedestal. It depicts a woman holding a palm leaf.

The brutal concrete landscape, the large statues and the stunning views remind me very much of Vitkov Hill in Prague, one of my favourite places in that city.

Visegrad, Hungary

A colleague of mine who lives in Hungary took us for a trip out of Budapest to the Danube Curve where the Danube loops around Visegrad, which means high castle. We spent the afternoon and evening in pretty villages, in wild woods, up high hills, on a car ferry, learning Hungarian history and enjoying the occasional beer and an enormous pizza.

Visegrad is steeped in history. The Visegrad Group was formed on 15th February 1991 at a meeting of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, Václav Havel, the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, József Antall.

 A similar meeting, took place there in 1335 and was attended by John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, Charles Robert, King of Hungary, and Casimir III., King of Poland. The central motif of the two meetings was the desire to intensify mutual cooperation and friendship among the three Central European states.

Parliament building, Budapest

After less than two days in Budapest I feel worn out already, which is why I am taking a short break with my PC! I've climbed the hill to the cathedral twice, walked all around the large park by Heroes Square and explored Visegrad (about an hour drive away) and the surrounding area.

My hotel is by the Danube, on the Buda side, and looks towards the parliament building on the Pest side. The tram stops almost outside the hotel and the nearest metro is about 200m away so it is easy to get around. A 7-day travel card costs just 4,000 HUF, which is around 15 GBP, so one day's unlimited travel on the metro, trams and buses costs about the same as one bus fare in London.

The plans for today are less ambitious, I want to see inside the parliament building and then explore the main shopping street before going to a concert in the park this evening.