Till We Get To Budapest

August 2nd, 2007

it was as if we’d stepped out of the train station and into a world just begging to be explored. the air was dusty, every single wall in the city (not an exaggeration) was graffitied over, personality rose off the sidewalks like vapour, and the people felt real. in Vienna, everything was orderly and squeaky clean, a little bit like a listless museum, but here in Budapest, people moved and shouted and swished their skirts as they knocked back beers.

it was chilly the night we got there, and Sze, our lovely host who has a giant jar of Nutella in her kitchen, told us we were lucky to have the breeze because the predecessing days were sweltering with heat. says Sze in her blog, it was so hot that the old women looked like they were melting into the upholstery of their tram seats. i guess Jethro Tull was being polite when he sang about Budapest being hot.

we spent 2 days in Budapest before we headed back home to KL. like in Vienna, it wasnt enough time to see everything, but we tried our best to cover as much as we could. we went to Castle Hill, walked probably all the bridges that ran across the Danube, went to a couple of bars, traipsed along Vaci Street (where i lost my camera!), and did some poking around at the Great Market Hall. we also ate a lot of goulash. a lot. and saw many homeless people sleeping on the streets using Selgros Cash & Carry plastic bags for pillows.

what we didnt get to do in Budapest : the public baths and Gellert Hill. museums and parks. and all those delightful looking pastries!!!!!

so here are photos taken by me using Martian’s camera. damn nice right the picture quality of his camera. why the person who bought it for him so clever choose camera wan!


#1 at a bar called Spare Key


#2 the moral story behind this sculpture is that man should help his fellow man. i think i missed the point


#3 Martian and Sze talking about dolls. if you look closely at Martian’s back pocket you can see the string of my camera :( sigh, the last vestige of it before it was rudely taken away from us!


#4 kids and their toys


#5 a little bit of Vaci street


#6 lepakers


#7 i am ashamed to say that we jaywalked a lot while in Vienna and Budapest


#8 girls hanging out outside the Great Market Hall


#9 the Great Market Hall, souvenier central


#10 my dad used to bring back these dolls for me every time he went to Europe. till today, i dont think he knows that these dolls actually scare the heck out of me


#11 i left my fingerprints on the dusty walls of Budapest


#12 napping


#13 Budapest road, Budapest girl


#14 while walking to dinner. i had bak kut teh for my starter! seriously.


#15 a bar that was situated in the courtyard of a school undergoing renovation


#16 foyer of Sze’s apartment building


#17 one of those old-fashioned elevators you only see in movies now. so cool right, i know.


#18 our neighbours for a while


#19 this woman had a little tupperware of watermelon cubes in her bag that she kept snacking from


#20 Martian map-reading and me disturbing


#21 train station stillness at Nepliget


#22 graffiti is universal


#23 but there’s a lot more of it in Budapest


#24 reprieve in the summer


#25 the Danube river


#26 at Castle Hill


#27 c’est us!


#28 with Sze who knows the secret to forever looking young


#29 doing our fountain thing


#30 The Pout!


#31 The Pout again!!


#32 stony angst


#33 lengchai tourists


#34 in Malaysia you get arrested


#35 fruit-shopping


#36 sausage-shopping. ‘aeroplane? this, problem! this, no problem!’


#37 goodbye Budapest and sunning myself by the side of the roads as trams rattle past and bicycles whistle by

Entry Filed under: Photos, Travel

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