The Hills of Buda
I'm not sure why I always end up writing about the proceeding Friday on Wednesday night, probably has something to do with the fact that it is the first day when I can start to look forward to the coming weekend. And after two consecutive days spent in at Bethen Gábor tér from 8 AM to 5PM I need it. Regardless of the reason here is the run down of last weekend.
Ranjan's friend Kate, from his REU this past summer was visiting from Paris with her roommate Kate so naturally we had to show them around the city. So after class on Friday (well class for me and Ranjan at least) Kylee, Ranjan, the Kates, and I, met up and took the metro into Buda with the goal of reaching the top of Jánoshegy. From the Moszkva tér metro stop we took one of the ubiquitous yellow trams to the base of the Cog Wheel Railway.
This took us up into the Buda hills themselves and deposited us a short walk from the start of the Gyermekvasút or Children's railway. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Children's railway is not a railway for only children, but is rather a railway run by children. No I don't know if they get to miss school for this, if they have a special railway school, or what the selection process is, though my first Hungarian teacher did say it is a privilege to work there. We Ranjan and I tried to explain this as we walked up to the station but as we had never ridden the train ourselves we were a little unsure as what to expect. As we stroll on to the platform I am greeted by a Hungarian woman yelling a question at us. Since we were planning to take a look at the schedule and prices and plan from there I went with the non committal "Nem tudom" or "I don't know?". Clearly noticing my horrible accent she switched to English and informed us that the train that was at that moment pulling out of the station was the only one for the next hour. Luckily for us as we were running up to her, the woman flagged the train down and it backed up to meet us. As we hastily rushed into the train the woman told us we could buy our tickets on board. Since there was only one car we found seats and proceeded to buy tickets. This is where the children entered the picture. Our ticket collectors were two 12 year old boys coached by an adult who thankfully spoke good English. We were able to figure out the stop we wanted and pay the boys. Sadly I didn't have my camera out so this picture stolen from Kate will need to do.
At every stop we were informed by one of the uniformed children and were flagged down by similarly bedecked boys and girls. All to soon we reached our stop at János-hegy and were forced to leave the novelty behind.
Soon we were on our way up the hill to the highest point in Budapest. On the way we stopped at a playground to exercise our own inner children.
From the playground we could see the hill top lookout tower known as Erzsébet kilátó.
A short walk brought us to the top of the tower where we could see the entire panorama of Budapest.
As well as the rather windswept Hungarian flag flying at the tower top. That bar at the top is completely unneeded as when we were there the wind was nearly strong enough to push us off the tower.
On our way back we opted to walk directly down the hill generally following the Libegő a chairlift that goes down the hill into Buda.
From the bottom of the hill we caught a bus that eventually took us back to Moszkva tér where we caught the 4/6 tram across the river back into Pest. We strolled down Pozsonyi út (again at the recommendation of Kylee's house mother) in search of a late lunch and eventually found a reasonable hungarian restaurant. I had the stuffed cabbage which was quite good and held its heat exceptionally well.
After going home for a bit we convened at Jared's house for some excellent pad thai, rivaled only by the curry and shrimp tempura he had cooked the night before.
On Saturday I woke up late and met Caitlin, Kylee, the Kate's, Ranjan, Ed and Peter (Ranjan's roommates) for lunch at their (Ranjan, Ed, and Peter's) favorite restaurant. I'm not positive I could find the place again which is a shame since the food was great. I wasn't even able to finish my Paprikás csirke which was excellent (I took it home and ate it later). Though this is a traditional dish I had not had it before last weekend since most of the inexpensive restaurants here don't serve Hungarian food.
The rest of my weekend was mostly spent doing homework and catching up on sleep. Classes are going well though I'll need to devote a full post to them sometime soon. This coming weekend is a three day weekend for everyone since it is Nemzeti ünnep or Hungarian national day commemorating the revolution of 1848. Everyone seems to be traveling somewhere interesting so I'll hopefully tag along and report back.
Ranjan's friend Kate, from his REU this past summer was visiting from Paris with her roommate Kate so naturally we had to show them around the city. So after class on Friday (well class for me and Ranjan at least) Kylee, Ranjan, the Kates, and I, met up and took the metro into Buda with the goal of reaching the top of Jánoshegy. From the Moszkva tér metro stop we took one of the ubiquitous yellow trams to the base of the Cog Wheel Railway.
This took us up into the Buda hills themselves and deposited us a short walk from the start of the Gyermekvasút or Children's railway. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Children's railway is not a railway for only children, but is rather a railway run by children. No I don't know if they get to miss school for this, if they have a special railway school, or what the selection process is, though my first Hungarian teacher did say it is a privilege to work there. We Ranjan and I tried to explain this as we walked up to the station but as we had never ridden the train ourselves we were a little unsure as what to expect. As we stroll on to the platform I am greeted by a Hungarian woman yelling a question at us. Since we were planning to take a look at the schedule and prices and plan from there I went with the non committal "Nem tudom" or "I don't know?". Clearly noticing my horrible accent she switched to English and informed us that the train that was at that moment pulling out of the station was the only one for the next hour. Luckily for us as we were running up to her, the woman flagged the train down and it backed up to meet us. As we hastily rushed into the train the woman told us we could buy our tickets on board. Since there was only one car we found seats and proceeded to buy tickets. This is where the children entered the picture. Our ticket collectors were two 12 year old boys coached by an adult who thankfully spoke good English. We were able to figure out the stop we wanted and pay the boys. Sadly I didn't have my camera out so this picture stolen from Kate will need to do.
At every stop we were informed by one of the uniformed children and were flagged down by similarly bedecked boys and girls. All to soon we reached our stop at János-hegy and were forced to leave the novelty behind.
Soon we were on our way up the hill to the highest point in Budapest. On the way we stopped at a playground to exercise our own inner children.
From the playground we could see the hill top lookout tower known as Erzsébet kilátó.
A short walk brought us to the top of the tower where we could see the entire panorama of Budapest.
As well as the rather windswept Hungarian flag flying at the tower top. That bar at the top is completely unneeded as when we were there the wind was nearly strong enough to push us off the tower.
On our way back we opted to walk directly down the hill generally following the Libegő a chairlift that goes down the hill into Buda.
From the bottom of the hill we caught a bus that eventually took us back to Moszkva tér where we caught the 4/6 tram across the river back into Pest. We strolled down Pozsonyi út (again at the recommendation of Kylee's house mother) in search of a late lunch and eventually found a reasonable hungarian restaurant. I had the stuffed cabbage which was quite good and held its heat exceptionally well.After going home for a bit we convened at Jared's house for some excellent pad thai, rivaled only by the curry and shrimp tempura he had cooked the night before.
On Saturday I woke up late and met Caitlin, Kylee, the Kate's, Ranjan, Ed and Peter (Ranjan's roommates) for lunch at their (Ranjan, Ed, and Peter's) favorite restaurant. I'm not positive I could find the place again which is a shame since the food was great. I wasn't even able to finish my Paprikás csirke which was excellent (I took it home and ate it later). Though this is a traditional dish I had not had it before last weekend since most of the inexpensive restaurants here don't serve Hungarian food.
The rest of my weekend was mostly spent doing homework and catching up on sleep. Classes are going well though I'll need to devote a full post to them sometime soon. This coming weekend is a three day weekend for everyone since it is Nemzeti ünnep or Hungarian national day commemorating the revolution of 1848. Everyone seems to be traveling somewhere interesting so I'll hopefully tag along and report back.
How about some pictures of the food so i can eat vicariously...
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