{"id":701,"date":"2015-12-22T10:15:02","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T18:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/?p=701"},"modified":"2015-12-22T10:15:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T18:15:02","slug":"budapest-first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/budapest-first-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Budapest: First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBad trip idea, Tim,\u201d I thought, and grimaced as my dilapidated Soviet-style metro creaked into yet another gruesome station on the M3 line.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_702\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-702\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Ecseri_\u00fat_Budapest_metro_3_ready.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-702\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-702\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Ecseri_\u00fat_Budapest_metro_3_ready.jpg\" alt=\"By Christo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons\" width=\"500\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Ecseri_\u00fat_Budapest_metro_3_ready.jpg 500w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Ecseri_\u00fat_Budapest_metro_3_ready-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Christo, license CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>This was my first trip to Budapest, and my ride-in-from-the-airport impressions boded badly. Clunky bus to the subway, unpromising countryside, metro stations like the one above.<\/p>\n<p>Resigned to a lousy visit, I disembarked downtown, climbed to street level &#8230;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-704\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0611edit.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-704\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-704\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0611edit.jpg\" alt=\"Budapest Parliament\" width=\"500\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0611edit.jpg 500w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0611edit-300x186.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8230; and thereafter thought no more negative thoughts for beautiful Budapest. Never before have first travel impressions so misled.<\/p>\n<p>Consider yourself forewarned. Give the city a chance before bolting back to Ferihegy International.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>A mercifully short summary of Hungarian miseries endured in the century past:<\/p>\n<p>(\u2666) \u00a0Allies overran Hungary after World War I, <a href=\"http:\/\/gotohungary.com\/history\">downsized<\/a>\u00a0the nation from twenty million to eight million.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-706\" style=\"width: 362px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0987.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-706\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-706\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0987.jpg\" alt=\"1956 banners on graves at Kerepesi Cemetery\" width=\"362\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0987.jpg 362w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0987-218x300.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1956 banners on graves at Kerepesi Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(\u2666) \u00a0Hitler <a href=\"http:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2015\/05\/05\/how-world-war-ii-shaped-modern-hungary\/\">strong-armed<\/a> fence-sitting Hungary into lining up with the losers in World War II, then invaded in 1944.<\/p>\n<p>(\u2666) \u00a0The Soviet Bloc <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hungarian_People's_Republic\">claimed<\/a> Hungary after WW II, killed thirty <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historylearningsite.co.uk\/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980\/the-cold-war\/the-hungarian-uprising-of-1956\/\">thousand<\/a> while crushing a valiant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ihS_D0Btaz8\">rebellion<\/a> in 1956 &#8212; a date still memorialized on hand-placed gravestone banners in Kerepesi Cemetery, as in the photo &#8212; and went away quietly in 1989.<\/p>\n<p>Hungary has been a calmer place since, but a tour guide agreed that a life among such rapid ideological scene changes might encourage cynicism. \u00a0Consider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mementopark.hu\/\">Memento Park<\/a>, tucked off in the suburban city outskirts: a now-kitschy collection of communist-era propaganda statues, likely of far less appeal to locals than to tourists.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_709\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-709\" style=\"width: 333px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0819edit.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-709\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-709\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0819edit.jpg\" alt=\"Statue at Memento Park in Budapest\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0819edit.jpg 333w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0819edit-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-709\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Statue at Memento Park in Budapest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That stuff was presented <em>seriously<\/em> to John Q. Budapest, not so long ago. How might I feel as an American while chaperoning Hungarians to, say, a boutique museum recalling the Dubya years: pasting up a host&#8217;s game smile while describing that oh-so-quirky 2000 Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida,_2000\">ballot count<\/a>, or the endlessly replayed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YDu7bXqx8Ig\">propaganda footage<\/a> we Americans saw of the toppling Saddam statue in Firdos Square?<\/p>\n<p>A nice yuk for an uninvolved Budapestian, perhaps; not so funny for me. The only local I saw at Memento Park was the amiable clerk who sold me a souvenir CCCP passport. That probably doesn&#8217;t evoke many smiles in Budapest, either.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>Budapest built the second <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Budapest_Metro\">metro <\/a>on <em>terra firma<\/em>, and the first on the European continent. I now kick myself &#8212; figuratively, at least; it&#8217;s hard to get my heel that high while typing &#8212; for missing stations on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanrail.net\/eu\/hu\/budapest\/budapest-line1.htm\">M1 line<\/a>, built from 1894 &#8211; 1896.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_710\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-710\" style=\"width: 333px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0712edit.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-710\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-710\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0712edit.jpg\" alt=\"Tram passes Museum of Ethnography in Budapest\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0712edit.jpg 333w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0712edit-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-710\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tram passes Museum of Ethnography in Budapest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cExcellent\u201d is my rating for city transit services overall. Most metro cars are spiffier than the clunker that ferried me into town on the M3.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve gotta work this in somewhere: I took a 3:30 a.m. cab from my hotel for a wee hours flight to Frankfurt, and was amazed to see so many Hungarians still strolling the city at that hour.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>Budapest = hilly Buda, east of the Danube, and flat, urban Pesht &#8212; that&#8217;s how they say it; with an &#8216;h&#8217; &#8212; to the west. The closer you get, the more the distinction matters. The two cities became one in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/12\/03\/travel\/buda-v-pest\/\">1873<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>Practical information: I put my smartphone online quickly with a prepaid SIM card from a Vodafone desk at the airport, but suffered occasional connectivity issues in town. Budapest offers no transit IC card (that I know of, anyway), but I had no trouble buying a seven day <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bkk.hu\/en\/budapest-7-day-travel-card\/\">travel card <\/a>from the airport&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bkk.hu\/en\/2013\/09\/bkk%E2%80%99s-customer-service-points-help-arriving-visitors-with-information-on-how-to-get-around-by-public-transport\/\">BKK desk<\/a> (and soon learned to have this card ready while entering the city&#8217;s metro, no Shangri-La for fare cheats).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_711\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-711\" style=\"width: 424px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0662edit.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-711\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-711\" src=\"http:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0662edit.jpg\" alt=\"Overlooking Chain Bridge, Danube and Parliament\" width=\"424\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0662edit.jpg 424w, https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015_11_europe5_0662edit-267x300.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-711\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Overlooking Chain Bridge, Danube and Parliament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The frequent-running <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bud.hu\/english\/passengers\/access_and_parking\/by_public_transportation\">200E<\/a> bus ferries fliers from the airport to the K\u0151b\u00e1nya\u2013Kispest station; get on at the terminal, ride to the end of the line. \u00a0I found no use for Budapest-specific transit apps, but <a href=\"http:\/\/moovitapp.com\/\">moovit<\/a> fired up at the\u00a0Kelenf\u00f6ld vas\u00fat\u00e1llom\u00e1s bus pad, gracefully shepherded me to Memento Park.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>Yes, many posts of late, and no, not written for any particular reason. We retirees can yield to whims. \u00a0Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBad trip idea, Tim,\u201d I thought, and grimaced as my dilapidated Soviet-style metro creaked into yet another gruesome station on the M3 line. This was my first trip to Budapest, and my ride-in-from-the-airport impressions boded badly. Clunky bus to the subway, unpromising countryside, metro stations like the one above. Resigned to a lousy visit, I&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/budapest-first-impressions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-budapest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Budapest: First Impressions - Tim Adams<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/budapest-first-impressions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Budapest: First Impressions - Tim Adams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cBad trip idea, Tim,\u201d I thought, and grimaced as my dilapidated Soviet-style metro creaked into yet another gruesome station on the M3 line. 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This was my first trip to Budapest, and my ride-in-from-the-airport impressions boded badly. Clunky bus to the subway, unpromising countryside, metro stations like the one above. 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