After Prague, I was ready to bet that I will not like any other place as much… and in a day Budapest had me broke.
It is possibly one of the most beautiful places not because it is perfect but because it is not, in its own unique way.
It is an amazing mix of old and new… truly avant garde restaurants along with relics from past where the KGB used to dine.
The beautiful Chain bridge along with the green Liberty bridge that reminded me of old railway bridges in India.
The swanky new coaches of M4 Metro and the really old coaches of M1 which is the second oldest metro line in the world.
It has its own share of hustlers and con artists. You can find a great bargain buying Hungarian Paprika in the Great Market Hall or pay up for useless strands of saffron of real suspect quality.
Budapest was also in my recent memory as it became a geopolitical flash point in 2015 during the migrant crisis when the Keleti station became a refugee holding point as Hungary took a position not to let asylum seekers move further without processing.
Sitting at the station it was hard to imagine that it was a tent village just a few months back.
Probably the most beautiful bridge in the world. The lights are CFL as I realized walking on the bridge the next morning.
The Parliament building a study in symmetry, and if you add the reflection it is near perfection.
To get here, it took an early morning train ride and then some maneuvering to get across the really busy road to the banks of Danube but the effort was every bit worth it.
You can find art in some of the most unique places as I realized while visiting the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Of course it is a beautiful church and it offers fascinating views of the city from the top but the art exhibition by Matyas Boros and Gabor Kerekes was totally unexpected and fascinating.
A tower of what is the epitome of our consumerist world - plastic bags and how it is consuming our world.
Somehow this installation took me to the dystopian Black Mirror series. We communicate so much still the voices are somehow silent or are they screams?
Shoes on Danube. A reminder to never forget.
And this was the most memorable architecture in Budapest for me – Fisherman's Bastion. It is a neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style terrace situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill. Again a little hike from the nearest metro station but worth every step.
The quirky cone shaped domes makes it uniquely endearing.
Liberty Statue on top of the Gellert Hill. It is totally worth the hike up specially when you add the bonus view of the city.
Buda and Pest along the Danube
The charming Liberty Bridge
