Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

December 2002.

It is coming up to twenty years since I first visited the magical city of Budapest. Twenty years. In many respects this is hard to process. Here I sit in my mid forties, trying to make sense of the 22 year old me captured in such uncomplicated and carefree times.

In the autumn of 2002 I moved to the Slovak capital, Bratislava, for what was only my second teaching position. There, I fell in with a fantastic bunch of people who fast became a tight knit group of friends. As longterm readers know well, I have documented this period in my short story series, The Slovak Files.

By the time December rolled around that year, Bratislava’s English teaching community had begun dispersing for the holidays. Some went home, back to Britain… The US… Canada… Australia. Others decided to take advantage of being in Europe to jet off to warmer climates. Greece, the south of Spain, all that jazz.

Not bothered about going home, and similarly apathetic about flying, my flatmate Goldblum and I began plotting a local excursion. Our decision to head for the Hungarian capital was down to one of Goldblum’s students. In fact, his name was Joe and he had an apartment to rent in Budapest. It wasn’t going to be a palace, Goldblum explained, but it would be cheap as chips. Cheap was one of our favourite words, so we took the opportunity. 

Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

Before long, a couple of friends signed up for our Hungarian Christmas adventure. Both hailed from Canada; Myles from Quebec, Citizen Kovacs from… oh lord, I have no idea. One grey chilly afternoon we all took the train to Budapest from Bratislava. I can still taste the anticipation. Being 22 years old… heading off into an unknown city in a brand new country for Christmas.

Goldblum certainly hadn’t been kidding about the apartment. It was… basic, but entirely serviceable and big enough for the four of us. In any case we were hardly in the place, which we employed solely for sleeping and morning coffee. The rest of the time, we were out exploring.

We weren’t very organised. Rather, the four of us walked and walked, following our noses. As with so many of these Once Upon a Time / Nostalgia posts, I find myself working with limited photos. Happily at least, I have a few surviving shots of Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

Constructed between 1840 and 1849, this was the first permanent bridge to span the River Danube. Interestingly, it was a Scotsman by the name of William Tierney Clark who designed it. Moreover, another Scottish guy called Adam Clark was in charge of building it. No, the Clarks weren’t related. 

Chain Bridge.

Chain Bridge connects the city’s two main districts, the appropriately named  Buda (on its eastern side) and Pest (on the western side). As we crossed the bridge that day, I casually asked the guys, who’d been walking ahead of me, to stop and turn. The resulting shot (above) is one of my all-time favourites, a photo that I’ve always thought would make a good album cover.  If only we’d had the songs.

It was bitterly cold during our stay, though we refused to let the weather hurry us. Indeed we spent some time on Chain Bridge staring out over the icy river and picking out various buildings along the foggy skyline. The pick of the bunch, without a doubt, was the splendorous Hungarian Parliament Building. 

This stunning Neo-gothic structure dates back to 1904 and has survived the considerable damage of two world wars and a barrage of national uprisings and revolutions. 

I remember thinking that it looks a bit like London’s Westminster Palace. Later on, after a bit of research, I discovered that’s exactly what architect Imre Steindl had in mind! Poor old Steindl spent fifteen years working on its construction before going blind. He eventually died in 1902 prior to the building’s grand unveiling. 

Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

Photo courtesy of Gabinho.

One single surviving photo reminds me that we spent some time walking around Buda Castle. Built in the mid 1700s on the site of an ancient royal residence, the complex was once home to King Franz Joseph I of Austria. Should I ever make it back to Budapest, I’d love to spend a day touring the grounds. Especially The National Gallery, The Budapest History Museum and The National Library.

One day, we spent an afternoon statue hunting. Budapest’s most impressive and concentrated collection of statues stands in the handsome Heroes’ Square. Here we found monuments dedicated to the seven Magyar tribe chieftains who founded Hungary. There are also tributes to numerous former heads of state, while a towering stone column crowned by the Archangel Gabriel oversees everything.  

The government unveiled the square in 1896 in order to celebrate a thousand years of Hungarian history. The famed Hungarian sculptor György Zala created most of the square’s statues and sculptures.

Photo courtesy of Godot13. 

Elsewhere, we stumbled across a statue of the Hungarian revolutionary Francis II Rákóczi, a national hero who earned himself the amazing title, The Prince of Transylvania. Rákóczi famously led The Hungarian Uprising against The Hapsburgs between 1703 and 1711. 

Francis II Rakoczi Statue.

Another statue that caught our attention was this tribute to Mihály Károlyi. He served as both Prime Minister and President for brief spells between 1918-1919 during the short-lived First Hungarian People’s Republic.

His legacy is that of a committed pacifist who disarmed the Hungarian Army at the demand of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Hungarians tend to have mixed views about Károlyi because of this.

After a couple of days wandering the streets we finally took the opportunity to warm ourselves up in Budapest’s legendary Szechenyi Baths. Opened in 1913, this is the largest medicinal bath complex in Europe. I’m talking 15 indoor pools, 3 outdoor.

I’ll never forget the amazing moment when, shivering by the main outdoor pool in temperatures of around zero, I lowered myself into the warm, salty water. Aaaaah. 

It was a lovey experience, but quite bizarre, particularly the groups of naked, beardy Hungarian men sitting around the pool playing chess. Still, I very much enjoyed my afternoon dip, the water up to my shoulders, my eyes taking in the Neo-baroque architecture. 

Back on the streets, it was Christmas Eve when we bumped into none other than Mother and Father Christmas! Or at least a horribly drunk Hungarian version greeting passers by with slurred seasonal wishes.

“Merry Fucking Christmas!” yelled the lady upon seeing us. “I’m Mary!” she growled, “And this drunken bastard is Mr. Christmas. So no dirty ideas ok?” I wanted to assure her that she was quite safe, then thought better of it. 

Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

Oh how I wish I’d taken some photos of all the Hungarian food we ate that week. We tried so many dishes, including what felt like a thousand bowls of piping hot goulash.

However, predictable me, my favourite dinner actually came at an Indian restaurant. Try as I might, I cannot track down the name of the place. This is as equally surprising as it is disappointing. Due to the fact, you see, that the waiter proudly informed us we were sitting at the very table Bill Clinton had dined at in the mid 1990s! There was even a little plaque. I was so tickled I asked the waiter to take a photo.

Our Christmas adventure in Hungary was over in a flash and before I knew it we were back on the train to Slovakia. I remember wondering if I’d ever visit Budapest again. You know, big world and all that. But little did I know that I would return to the Hungarian capital just three months later! This second trip came together spontaneously as a birthday celebration for Sheila, another teaching colleague in Bratislava. 

This time there was a big group of us, around a dozen if memory serves me well. It was weird to be back on Chain Bridge, the sun shining, the sky a light blue blanket. Being a birthday weekend, much of the focus was on alcohol and boy did we go for it. I cannot name a single bar we visited, though there were plenty of them.

The Birthday Trip.

I love the black and white shots from those blurry nights. Loaned to me by Sarah P, a good friend at the time who I’ve sadly lost touch with. The below shot of my buddy Ben and I always makes me smile, as our matching stripy t-shirts were purely accidental.

My choice photograph though is probably this one of Irish Mike (right) and Birmingham Chris. They had never been the best of friends. In fact, they seemed to disagree on just about everything, co-existing in a state of mutual toleration. I love the way this shot captures them in a rare moment of unity. “Beer. Yes”.  

Despite all the revelry, I did manage to take Budapest statue hunting to the next level with a visit to the fascinating Memento Park. Created in 1993, this open air museum houses around 40 statues collected from around the city following the collapse of communism in 1989.

And what a sight it was to see them gathered in one place, surreal relics of a gone but not forgotten era. Pictured below is the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Memorial, made by the renowned Hungarian sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strob in 1956.

Once Upon a Time in Budapest.

I really should have photographed all the statues. But unfortunately, I have just one more, the Workers Movement Memorial. Constructed in 1976 by another Hungarian artist, István Kiss, it shows a pair of giant hands wrapped around a granite ball. According to the sculptor himself, it symbolises the personal and professional growth and unity of workers under the communist regime. No comment.

I have always treasured these memories from my long ago visits to Budapest. But of course I know that in terms of the city’s many and varied sights, I barely scratched the surface. Thus I would definitely love to go back one day and give Budapest the attention I know it deserves. Until then…

For a deeper and more intimate window into this period of my life, dive into my short story series The Slovak Files.

I’ve been living, working and traveling all over the world since 2001. So why not check out my huge library of travel reports from over 30 countries.