We were supposed to have a nice, beautiful day in Budapest but the weather gods have ceased playing nice with us. It hasn’t been bad (re: rainy) but the skies continue to taunt us, which keeps us from all-out exploring the city. Instead, we’ve kept close to cafes, bookstores and other establishments that might keep us for an extended period of time.
Enough of that weather stuff.
Budapest is broken up into quadrants, conveniently labeled I, II, III, IV and you get the picture. We are staying in a hostel in VII, which is just a stones throw from VI which, among other things, is home to: the Oktogon, a ruthless and corporate section of town with places like Sushi Planet, and Lizst Ferencter, a cafe and restaurant stretch named for the the pianist (something Lizst I would presume. Please see my sister Cheri for all updates on pianists).
This statue o Lizst, which shows his legendary gigantic hands, sits in the middle of the three-block stretch of cafes. It is, according to my friend Zsu — a native of these parts, the place to be.
Which explains why our waiter last night was a little nonplussed when showed up in jeans (or shorts in my case), computers in hand and with rather loud “thank god we are not in a train anymore” voices.
Whatever, we had fun. (And Friday we are meeting Zsu for dinner and drinks here. But that is not now. Let us return.)
After our morning coffee (and we had the absolute best cup of coffee in Eastern Europe at Cafe Mia Mano), we made our way to an Enligh book store called Tree Hugger Dan’s that John stumbled across his last time through.
It’s a small establishment with a little cafe in the back (and by small I mean there is room for just 5 or 6 people). We picked up a few books and then made haste for the City Park, which is main attraction in the north of the city running across Vi, VII and XIV, which is Roman numerals for a shit-big park.
Trust me on that translation.
The big attraction of the day was Hereo’s Square, a gigantic concrete structure that sits on the southern entrance to City Park. Bookending the Square is the Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Hall buildings, two grand structures.
The Square, though, houses 3 gigantic stone structures that showcase the former presidents and leaders of the Hungary, going back hundreds of years. You can trace the different ages through the statues (e.g. from peaceful to academic to war-faring).
This is one section where pictures and words don’t do the structures justice. This structure sits at the front of the Square, depicting the early leaders who helped settle Hungary before there was a Hungary. These were, by all accounts, vicious and scholarly men.
Their fierce nature and educational prowess are, for reasons I don’t quite understand, the reason that the Hungarian language is so far removed from any of the Eastern countries (IOW, knowing Russian will not help you understand Hungarian…at all).
