Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Budapest

Last week was Autumn school break in Hungary, and my host parents decided to take me to Budapest for the first time. I was unforgivable touristy all week and therefore have some cool pictures to show you all. As I'm sure you are aware, Budapest is the capital of Hungary and the city is home to close to 2 million people. The city of Budapest is split into two parts by the Danube river: Buda and Pest. On the Buda side of the Danube you will find the Buda castle where the Kings and Queens of Hungary used to live. The castle has now been turned into the Hungarian National Gallery. Buda also houses the famous Mátyás Church, where all royal ceremonies were held. Unfortunately, Mátyás Church was under renovation when I was visiting so I didn't get to see the apparently elaborate interior, but outside the church overlooking the Danube and the rest of the city is a big, beautiful wall that the King and Queen would walk along after their wedding ceremony so that all the people of the city could see them and cheer for them. I felt like Repunzel when I stood on the top of the wall.

Connecting Buda and Pest is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, which was built in 1849 and was the first permanent bridge across the Danube. When it was first built, the Széchenyi Chain Bridge was one of the architectural wonders of the world, and represented the wealth of Budapest. The bridge was designed by Willian Tierney Clark, who also designed the Marlow Bridge which crosses the river Thames in England. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge is a larger but almost identical version of the Marlow Bridge.

The Pest half of the city houses Parliament, Heroes Square (a huge memorial to past kings and famous Hungarians), many museums, and the Opera House. When I visited the Opera House there was a movie being filmed outside the building and I got to see all the actors dressed in their renaissance garb. I was told that the movie wasn't a Hungarian one, so I will have to keep an eye open to see if perhaps it was and American film.

The city of Budapest is still full of beautiful old stone buildings. New buildings that are built these days are required to blend in with the old style of the rest of the buildings in the city, therefore Budapest hasn't lost any of it's charm as the years have gone on.

Budapest has metro, bus and c-train lines which make it very easy to get around the city, so I am excited to go back to the city to see just how lost I can get!

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