What to do when you are in a beautiful city like Budapest for only six hours?
G and I were in Lake Balaton for my freelance work for CNN Travel and we ended up in Budapest for only about six hours. Talk about a challenge. We didn’t do any research because it wasn’t planned at all (we were planning to stay longer in the Lake Balaton area, but the fog was just too much we decided to go to Budapest.) So we had very limited time, information and wifi, which was both unfortunate and interesting.
일 때문에 부다페스트 근처까지 갔다가 안개가 너무 껴서 마지막날은 부다페스트로 올라왔다. 제한된 시간과 정보, 그리고 미미한 와이파이 때문에 약간 헤매는 상황이 연출되었지만 다음을 기대하게 만든 시간들이어서 나름 성공.
The easy solution was following all the tourists. The first stop was the Saint Stephen’s Basilica, which was wow, a lot of gold. It was named after the first king of Hungary and it’s famous for its concerts, especially its head organists. The concerts still take place on Thursday evenings. I feel like I say this every time, but it was really fancy. And colorful.
무작정 여행객들을 따라가다보니 역시나 대성당이 나왔다. 너무 화려해서 눈이 아플 정도.
It’s also famous for housing the most important relic in Hungary: the Holy Right Hand. It’s St. Stephen’s mummified right hand. Yup. His hand.
The candles were amazing. Not the little ones (yes, that’s G’s hand) but the huge chandeliers.
샹들리에는 아니지만 비슷하게 생긴 촛대가 너무 크고 찬란해서 눈이 시릴 지경. 여기 또한 화려함의 극치. 의미있는 성당에 갈때마다 초를 사서 켜는 G.
Then there was the walk along the Chain Bridge. There were three reasons we did this: We couldn’t find the tram station, there were so many people walking on it and we didn’t think it would be so long. Or windy. We kind of thought it would be like the Charles Bridge in Prague, but then there were no cars rushing back and forth in Prague. (Note to self: next time, take the tram.)
성당에 나와서 강을 보고 싶다하여 헤매다가 건넌 체인 다리. 사실 트램역을 못찾고, 굉장히 많은 여행객들이 아무렇지 않게 건너고 있었고 그리고 그렇게 길어보이진 않아서 건넜는데 뭔가 프라하의 까를교처럼 로맨틱할 줄 알았는데 차들이 쌩쌩 달리고 바람도 쌩쌩 불어서 다음엔 트램을 타고 건너기로.
Found the tram station. And two love birds. The trams were very convenient, so there was no need to rent a car, really. The sad part was that they were renovating the stations and tracks so much, it was a bit difficult to go around. But I believe this will be a temporary thing.
The streets around the Hungarian Parliament building was under construction, so we didn’t get a closer view. We walked along the streets and ended up in Andrássy Avenue, which instantly reminded me of Paris’ Champs-Élysées (The long streets, shopping area, dining areas, dessert cafes).
We both realized that Budapest is certainly going through a facelift. Not because I was writing, well, partially, about it or because CNN Travel is having a series on it, but because it was just so evident: they were having so many constructions for new roads, buildings, squares, plazas, streets and stations. It was a bit of a mess when we were there because of such constructions, but I believe in the next two years, Budapest will be able to step up its game. Not that it’s not already popular now.
공사가 굉장히 많이 이루어지고 있어서 구경하는데에는 불편했던게 사실. 하지만 생각해보면 그만큼 돈과 시간을 투자하는거라 향후 2-3년 내에는 여행하기 훨씬 좋아질것 같은 느낌. 어느 도시를 가건 다시 올까라는 생각을 늘 하는데 부다페스트는 다시 오고 싶은 도시였다.
All photos by rachelsanghee