HUNGARY (Budapest)!!

As recounted in my previous tale pertaining to Austria, Vienna was sending us strong 'I may not open at all tomorrow' vibes, so it was a damp and grey Viennese morning when Nicola turned to me and said 'I know a place which is only a two hour drive that you might like'.

Budapest is a fully fledged cultural and architectural destination on its own. Nobody does a day trip to Budapest. I think my exact words in reply to Nicola's above quote was 'shit yeah'.

We didn't bother planning anything. Before Nicola could finish the cold burrito from the previous night as some strange surrogate 'breakfast' I started the car, threw it into reverse and basically left black tyre marks on the driveway, engaging with a quest to get ourselves as close to somewhere interesting as possible.

Blissfully, rolling green hill after rolling green hill gave way to open road, motorway and, eventually, the clumsily maintained farmland of Hungary. As Nicola read and listed the scenes we must take in during our short visit, I pondered the fact that there were high levels of Gypsy action in Budapest, and came upon the firm realisation that I did not in fact like Gypsies.

In my experienced around Europe, Gypsies beg, steal and smell bad, and are generally as untrustworthy as a Spaniard. I hoped I would not encounter them during my stay, and got to thinking about how many plastic bottles I could muster in order to lure them away from us if they got up in our grill (they like collecting bottles to use for recycling refunds - to the point that they will run up and grab them out of your hand before they're empty, something we experienced in Berlin).

What was promised in Budapest was (from all reports, including those of a lady named 'Trish', a Kiwi who accosted us in Prague, with the seemingly sole purpose of letting us know how 'noice' Budapest is) beauty both natural and man-made. Positioned in a convenient 'kink' in the Danube river, and flanked by hills in the West and embracing the beginnings of the 'Great Plain' in the East, Budapest's landscape was one rich in variation and colour.

But it is arguably the 'artificial' beauty which shines brightest, even on the haze-coated late summer's morning when we finally arrived, armed with our motorway vignette, a car tank full of petrol and a hastily thrown together schedule for the 'must sees' of the day. As soon as I steered the Blue Bolt out of the farmland and into the outskirts of Budapest, we could see in the distance the blurred outlines of bright golden crosses, catching at impossible angles the rays of a sun shrouded in low cloud and smog.

This was not the day for slow and peaceful Sunday driving or for quiet coffees in tucked away locations; this was to be a full-on mercenary experiential extravaganza. So as we handbrake parallel parked into a free inner-city street car park, I basically commando rolled out of the car, seeking to make up for lost time we spent consuming a sandwich from a motorway stop. I think it was chicken and mayonnaise. I suppose that wasn't important to note here.

We arranged a bag full of necessary equipment and wandered up towards 'Castle Hill', which is on the 'Buda' side of town. This area of town has beautiful panoramic views of 'Pest', the Danube and the surrounding cityscape. It wasn't great timing to arrive short of breath and see before us Matthias Church, as it left me completely breathless. Like no other church or cathedral I've seen, its mix of European Catholicism and Eastern/Turkish adornments was spectacular, and one of my favourite buildings of our entire trip.

Left a little startled by this site, we wandered away and found Fisherman's Bastion, a neo-gothic arcade area, with walls, walkways and endless wonderful viewpoints over the entire city. The sand-coloured stone and pointed onion-shaped cupolas on the viewpoints was a very obvious example of the apparent influence of Hungary's almost 150 years of Turkish rule during the 1500-1600's.

After appreciating the vista across the river, we made our way through the enormous Royal Palace, and down towards the Gellert Baths. These baths are Budapest's oldest natural hot spring baths, and are adorned with intricate teal blue, maroon and orange tile mosaics, depicting fish, people and serpents. This scene gave cause for us to make use of our bathers and have a quick stop for a relaxing soak.

We collected our thoughts at the baths, and then wandered across the river into the 'Pest' side of town, the city's commercial hub. Virtually everywhere we walked, we saw streetscapes which were just pulsating with life and energy. I'm not talking about the kind of energy generated by fat tracksuit pant-wearing tourists buying useless printed "I heart [insert name of city in question here]" t-shirts. It was the energy of those who interact every day with the community, of those who buy the spices and paprika to cook at home, of those taking their children to school each day and of those weaving the intricate wall rugs which were such a feature of indoors Budapest.

It was a great joy to wonder through a city which was operating 'business as usual', with no small octagonal tourist huts, manned by Indian immigrants and selling 120 varieties of crap.

It was getting to later afternoon as we traipsed through old town squares, past beautiful old buildings which were not celebrated as brilliant or particularly significant by themselves, but which formed a cityscape of continued wonder and captivation. We oriented ourselves towards a traditional Hungarian/Azerbaijani restaurant for dinner; another example of the rich tapestry of cultures which have left their mark on this remarkable city.

After our amazing dinner of strong spice-influenced rice, vegetables and mutton, we started our walk back to the car, via one final architectural quest. The Hungarian Parliament building has been described by others as 'Westminster Abbey with the added bonus of crazy spires', and it certainly delivered on this claim. Flooded by warm golden late-afternoon Budapest sunshine, it provided us with countless opportunities for some snapshots of what was another standout architectural achievement.

It was dark by the time we made our way towards the bridge back across to our car park, and it was here that we encountered a riverside festival on the banks of the Danube. There was music, dancing and the smells of traditional Hungarian food being cooked for the crowds of locals (interspersed with a few tourists). It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch all this colour and movement, and it provided us with another (probably unneeded) opportunity to reflect on how much we loved this city.

Although it was a really short stay (and sometimes fast-paced), what struck us about Budapest was not how the place was as a tourist or a visitor, but of how it was as a community, as a place to live. From my (all too) fleeting impressions, this was a place of wonderful cultural integration and energy which left me wanting more.

The people...

The Hungarian people bear more than a little the marks of those other cultures which have reigned here over Hungary's history. A splash of Eastern European gruffness, a dash of Austrian professionalism and a good drop of Turkish inward pride and occasional outward acts of flair.

They are friendly, welcoming and humble people, happy to be serving you their local food and culture. They like dancing, cooking, eating and drinking, and although they won't chew your ear off talking, they are more than amenable to a quick chat.

One interesting fact we've learnt is that Hungarian language is one modern day European language which has no links to any other language. It's not Germanic, it's not Romantic, it's even got nothing to do with Bulgarian or Romanian. This very much reflects Hungarian culture as a whole; it is complex and multi-layered, but simple enough to draw likenings with other cultures. At the end of the day though, it is just 'Hungarian', and that's good enough for me.

Key activities...

• Overcoming boredom to get out of Vienna as quickly as possible
• Undertaking a trip which takes most mere mortals several days in just a few hours (although admittedly with a few short cuts)
• Aiming to leave Budapest by 10:00pm, and to arrive back at our Vienna campsite at midnight

Highlights...

• Virtually everything about Budapest impressed me, especially the 'very few tourists' part
• Specifically, the cityscapes were amazing. What it didn't challenge Prague with for sheer MASS of beautiful buildings, it made up for with structural diversity, a grand old river and a very evident mix of architectural influences.
• Our dinner out was fantastic - beautiful food presented in a quiet and traditional back-street setting.
• Not seeing any Gypsies; I was genuinely relieved, as Gypsies have worked their way into a 'worried' part of my psyche reserved as a child for thunderstorms and The Count from Sesame Street, and still inhabited by chickens.

Lowlights...

• Having to leave so quickly.

In summary...

One of the main benefits that I will preach to any traveler to not planning one bit of your holiday is to have the ability to leave a place you don't really like, and instead go to somewhere better. There is no better place to 'not plan' than Europe - everything is so close. Within only two hours we'd managed to use the Blue Bolt's special 'avoidance of cultural vacuums' button to get out of Vienna and to land us in inner Budapest. The contrast couldn't be starker.

WIthin two hours we'd managed to get to a city so rich in tradition (not just 'HUNGARIAN' tradition, but those of countless other nations) that it left us a little shell-shocked. 'Culture' is a word we often use to simply describe at a 'generalising' level the behaviours and traditions of a given community or nation of people. However in Hungary 'culture' means much more than this; it is an expression of Hungarian life in its most basic form. It is what you feel as soon as you put your foot on the cobble stone footpaths, peer up at the stunning buildings or have a meal.

More than any place we'd previously been in Europe, we felt the 'CULTURE' of Hungary through Budapest, and this left an impressive mark on us both.

I would liken it to…

A late-night souvlaki. You make a snap decision to go ahead and encounter it and it delivers with a seemingly undiscovered array of flavours. You go away crowing about how bloody good it was, and it makes you want to go back again as soon as possible.

However, unlike the humble 'souva', Budapest didn't leave us with a ripping hangover, spilt garlic sauce on our clothes or a vicious case of gastro the next day.