The Unplanned Budapest
Hey guys ! As I promised you on my last text post , I’ll tell you my experience to explore the gypsy Budapest (LOL!).
As I stated as the title of this post, actually this trip was totally unplanned (I mean i didnt have such a plan when I was planning my winter trip at home). It started when I just arrived in Vienna, Austria. I was thinking to go to Wien Westbahnhof (the main train station at Vienna) to grab some lunch and eat some cucumbers , and I saw the Tickets Machine , felt so curious of the prices , i checked it . I was checking some tickets to my dream destinations such as Salzburg , Muenchen (Munich) and so on , then i checked some EU regional destinations such as Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest. And okay the return ticket price from Vienna to Bratislava (Slovakia) was just €14, and I saw the return ticket to Budapest was just €33 (just continue reading, and youll know the ugly truth).
So I was thinking thinkin and thinkin , if there’s still money left , I’ll go to Budapest. So finally as much as possible I saved my money, and on the third day of my trip I was going to Budapest :D . I checked out from the hotel in early morning, and I went directly to the station, gonna catch the earliest train up. To make sure , I checked the machine again, and…. I read something strange, the ticket that i checked last time was not the ticket from Vienna , to make it sure I went to the station’s ticket centre . I asked the officer, and he said that the ticket from Vienna to Budapest was actually €72 return -______-” , friggin disappointed -,- . Finally i took it without thinkin before (regret it anyway, why didnt i ask for under 18 or students price -.- ?? ).
The train was ÖBB railjet. A very comfortable Hi-Speed train that owned by Austrian Railway Federation, and it usually serves trips to not only far Austrian cities from Vienna such as Salzburg and Tyrol, but also EU regional cities such as Ljubljana, Bratislava and Budapest, and also international destinations in neighboring countries, such as Zurich and Munich.
The Train.. :)
Destination : Budapest-Keleti Palyaudvar
Getting inside
the 72 Euros ticket -,-
After arrived at Budapest , I felt a bit disappointed , the station was not really clean , and yeah the situation was not as good as in Vienna. First time I got off the train , some strangers followed me and offered me Taxicab service, -____-” . Since Hungary was not the part of Eurozone , I had to exchange my money from Euro to Hungarian Forint. After that I went to the Travel Agencies in the station, quite kind travel agencies , at least they gave me free city map (FYI : I had to purchase the map for 20 Eurocents when i was in Cologne [Germany]).
I got only 5 hours to discover this Hungarian Capital, so i had to quick. I started my trip to visit the second largest synagogue in the world , wow, never imagined before that I was really gonna do that. Without any special religion purpose (because I’m a moslim) , I entered this jewish house of prayer because I just wanted to know what it is , and also adding my knowledge about world religions. Before I enter the synagogue I have to pass the security control, damn they’re really worried about their security, I mean , jewish people have a lot of enemies, there are many people who don’t like Israel and their people right ? Maybe that’s why the security was overprotective. I entered the synagogue, first feeling was creepy, I didn’t know why , but it feels so freaky being there. Mystic and yeaaah made me scared, I saw a majestic interior , quite high , and but yeaaah still creepy.
After the synagogue , I went to see the Hungarian Parliament from the Buda Hill. Budapest is separated into 2 parts , one is Buda , and one is Pest , It’s separated by the danube river or duna in Hungarian, a second longest river in Europe. I went to the Buda castle, many people said Buda castle is the best place to see the Hungarian Parliament from the opposite side (FYI : Hungarian Parliament is located at the Pest side). Once I reached the Buda castle , I was really disappointed because there was a fog , so I couldn’t see the Hungarian parliament -_________-” .
Damn Fog , it shud be clear !!!
After friggin frustrating, I went to the place where I could see the Hungarian Parliament closely. Yaaaayy , I could see it closely , but again it was disappointing, I couldn’t see the whole building , but it’s alright because I like the way it hurts. It was so majestic, the style was gothic. It’s just amazing , it’s still used by the country’s parliament till now , OMG. Magnificent it was the best Houses of Parliament building I’ve ever seen (before I went to London :) ).
Not the whole building , but it’s okay
After seeing the Hungarian Parliament real closely. I went shopping till drop. I went to the city centre and looked for some goods and souvenir. But wait, there was a winter market. It was so unique and typical Eastern European tradition on winter. Stands sold traditional goods, food and so on.
After shopping till drop , seemed that I had no more time (FYI : I got only 5 hours visit to Budapest), I got back to the Budapest Keleti Palyaudvar station , gonna catch my train back to Vienna, cus i had to catch my Bus for a long back trip to Rotterdam. Yeah , best winter vacation ever :D.
