8 Day Itinerary

We spent a total of eight days on our trip to Budapest and Hungary. We visited palaces and museums, walked the busy streets filled with people, looking into the elegant stores, and enjoyed the Christmas Markets jam-packed with crowds enjoying the food and the products from the stalls. I remember the young faces and joy of the young Europeans enjoying their city.

Budapest has great natural beauty, with the Danube river dividing the mountains and the palaces of Buda and the busy streets of Pest on the other side. The experience was more raw and exciting under the cold weather. Vienna was more sophisticated, with elegant streets and modern trams> The beauty is in the old streets and coffee houses and the multitude of museums in the museum quarter to visit. The Schonburg and Belvedere palaces were exceptional.

History was made in these cities, in a time long gone after the World Wars. Only a semblance of its magnificence remains of the Habsburg and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My first glimpse of this world was in Ernest Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms.'  The romance and elegance still remain, but the old days are still grasped in old novels, movies, and the old buildings in these cities. During the trip, I watched YouTube videos and learn more about this world long gone.

Budapest 

Day 1: 27 Nov, Thursday  

Arrival and check in, and meet at City Market, walk along the Danube on the Pest side

Day 2: 28 Nov, Friday

Walking Tour starting from St. Stephen Basilica to Parliament on the Pest side

Bus ride to Buda across the Danube river, Fisherman's Bastion, walk around the palace district until the funicular, dinner in the Christmas Market, walk along the streets and square, and go to St. Stephen's Basilica

Day 3: 29 Nov, Saturday

Walk in City Park, ride the Tram to the hotel area, and walk the streets with the Christmas Markets

Vienna

Day 4: 30 Nov, Sunday

Train ride from Budapest to Vienna, Hop on Hop Off bus along Vienna, go to St. Stephen's Church, and the Basilica

Day 5: 1 Dec. Monday

Go to Schonbrun Palace, lunch at the bus station, walk around the city center, and dinner at Karplaz train station

Day 6: 2 Dec. Tuesday

Go to the Lower and Upper Belvedere palaces and attend a Mozart and Schubert concert

Day 7: 3 Dec. Wednesday

Go to Leopold Museum and Wein Museum, walk around the Museum area, dinner at Karplaz train station

Day 8: 4 Dec. Thursday

Departure from Vienna to Toronto to Charlotte, and drive back to Greenville, SC.

I went back to work the next day, Friday, after getting some haphazard sleep on the flight and a few hours starting at midnight. I answered emails and posted comments in the group chat of the projects I am working on. Back to the grindstone on the 9th day.

City of the Viennese

Yesterday we went to Leopold Museum located in the Museum Quartier. Leopold had an excellent exhibition of Vienna artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele whose paintings can clearly claim to be a new way of perspective. In fact, it was not only in the realm of art but also in psychology (Sigmund Freud), economics (Hayek, Schumpeter) music (Mahler and Schonberg) and architecture. It is one of those periods in history when gifted people, new ideas and a special city come together with the right ingredients to claim a break from the past and point the way towards a new way.

The exhibit at the lower floor of the Leopold was on esoteric subjects like Theosophy, spiritual enlightenment, life after death and such areas that pertain to the supernatural realm.  Vienna in the 1900s is like Paris in the 1920s or New York in 1950s or San Jose\ Silicon Valley in the 1980s or Shanghai in the 2020s. Unfortunately, Vienna succumbed to fascism with the rise of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. After the World War I, Austrian – Hungarian empire collapsed, and the Hapsburg were dethroned. It was not a happy ending considering the promising start.

The next museum we went was the Wien or Vienna Museum. Initially, I wanted to go to the Albertini Museum but decided we had enough of art museums. We walk through the museum quartier made our way towards St. Charles Church. There was a Christmas Market in front of the church but did not get a chance to visit the church or the market. Instead, we spent nearly 3 hours in the Wein Museum, which was all about Vienna, the city. The museum reminded me of the Tokyo Museum which I visited long ago.

I have been watching YouTube videos about the Hapsburg, Austro – Hungarian empire which I tried to relate to my visit, to imagine rising of a multi-ethnic society and the social process and governance it took to manage or mismanage this immense grouping. Wien Museum brough me down to earth, to understand the history of the place with exhibits of weaponry, armory, artifacts and good use of audio-visual technologies to improve our understanding. The admission was free, and I should have spent more time here.

I liked the exhibits on the siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, by Napoleon Bonaparte, Congress of Vienna and the Anschluss or annexation of Austria by Hitler. I could link my visit to Upper and Lower Belvedere which was owned by Prince Eugene of Savoy who fought in the wars against Napoleon. Of the city mayors and the business men and financiers whose palatial homes dotted the city center and their business history. It provided a closer glimpse of the Viennese and their city.

Mozart and Strauss Concert

 Vienna is a huge dense city, unlike Budapest which has a large river frontage and open spaces with clear views of the river and high mountain in the Buda side to see the wide spread of the city. Vienna does not have a picturesque view of the Danube River nor high mountains nearby where one can see the lay of the land. There are no natural highlights but tall towers, or large Ferris wheels like the famous structure in the movie ‘The Third Man’.

However, there is charm in the city streets with the imperial palaces of the Hapsburg or former princes like the legendary general Prince Eugene of Savoy with his Belvedere palaces. Other noteworthy structure is the immense Opera house or the other Hapsburg palaces that have been turned into museums. There is also the food. We had an excellent dinner of lamb kebab and chicken skewered server with rice, sour crème, pickles, onions and beets. For starters, we had excellent Bortsch and pumpkin soup and for s=dessert a strudel and Turkish coffee.

The central train station and the tram system were excellent though we had to figure out the train lines and the route to travel in the city. After dinner, we watched a concert where a young group played various pieces of Mozart, Strauss pieces in a small concert hall Wiener Music house near the restaurant which was an Albanian or Turkish restaurant that faced the street where people walked about and some smoked Shisha pipe on the tables outside. One can feel the wealth and ease that comes from a rich state.

The television shows did not have English sub-titles unlike in Budapest which is refreshing to see an un-Engligh leaning country that is confident of its European history. I watched YouTube videos of the Hapsburg Dynasty and how the family became an empire. In the exhibition at the Belvedere, the paintings by Klimt and Egon Schiele and the other artist that led the Vienna Succession offered a new way of seeing things. Their style was a real break from the romantic view and more towards an impressionistic way of seeing.

 Any new empire would have a whole different way of seeing reality and would be reflected in their new art, whether in painting or literature. This confidence of being on the vanguard of the new may often lead its rulers into wars such as the First and Second World War. The Hapsburg empire was a true multi-ethnic state that had several innovations that heralded a new way but unfortunately led to devastation and eventually demise.

Vienna Noir

 

We arrived in Vienna on Sunday after a chaotic start in Budapest train station where we struggled to find seats in the train. We set at separate seats at the start of the trip but eventually found several seats where we all sat together in a new caboose added later in the trip. We bought chicken nuggets in the train station and enjoyed our lunch together as the train approached Vienna. The countryside was wonderful under a dreary sky but eventually a day emerged as the train arrived in Vienna at around 1 pm.

The hotel did not have the correct reservation for our friends, so we had to find another hotel nearby; across from the central train station where we arrived. After settling in, I bought tickets for the Hop on and Hop off bus tour that circled the city through specific routes. The bus had an audio tour where we connected our earphones and listened to lectures of the historic building we passed along the way. We left the bus at the train station near the center where I had Sushi and bear.

Afterwards, we walked along the busy Sunday streets to the St. Stephens Cathedral and St. Peters Basilica where was mass was going on. The church was magnificent with the high Gothic architecture of St. Stephens in contrast to the Baroque architecture of St. Peters Basilica. The interiors were magnificent with high ceilings, frescos and intricate design. I lit a candle, said some prayers and dipped my hand in the holy water as we left the church. The streets were filled with people enjoying the festive night with Christmas markets and the elegant stores lining the streets.

Yesterday, we again rode the Hop on and Hop off bus at the central train station after breakfast of salmon and cheese sandwich, Bavarian donuts and hot chocolate. I also bought Red Bull which I drank later in the day. We toured the city of Vienna listening to the audio tour and got off at Schonbrun Palace were we walked the gardens for about an hour until the designated hour to enter the palace.

The Schonbrun tour was informative with good displays and as we walked through the magnificent rooms, enjoying the visual and audio tours. I was always interested in the Hapsburg and the Astro – Hungarian empire and to finally visit these places where the Hapsburg lived and understand the city of Vienna that existed in my mind and to finally reconcile reality with the mental images of my youth.

We had dinner at the central train station where I had boiled pork in soy sauce with rice and vegetables and Austrian beer. We explored the train stations and the various shops, checked the train schedules and the terminal for the train to the airport as our friend were leaving Vienna to go back home. We will stay for 2 more days and plan to visit the art museums. I watched several You Tube Videos on Vienna and Hapsburg.

Buda and Pest

Yesterday we went around Budapest with a local guide in the free (or tips based) walking tour that we signed up online. The walk started in St. Stephen’s Basilica which was a 18-minute or so walk from our hotel. We walked along the Danube River to get to the Basilica where the walk started at 11 am. The tour snaked around the capital city where the tour ended at around 1 pm in the Parliament building.

The walking was enjoyable and possibly the best way to discover a city. We tried our first walking tour in Copenhagen and tried to do the same we visit a place. We did the same on our visit to Boston and Chicago. The tour was on the Pest side of the city and took a bus to Buda side, getting off the stairs below Fisherman’s Bastion at the height of the castle district. Before going to the other side of the river, we had an exorbitantly price lunch in a lunch in a Christmas Market.

We did not realize the cost because there was no screen register to see the amount plus the difficulty of calculating the exchange rate. Only later after eating our lunch we realized we paid about $70 dollars for a meal of Kielbasa sausage, fried rice, sauerkraut, pickles and beer. Our friend paid a similar amount for Pork knuckles, curry chicken and vegetables and fried rice. It would have been best to go into a formal Hungarian restaurant than eating street food in a Christmas Market while watching the interesting people around.  

The view from the castle district from the heights of Buda was spectacular, seeing the Pest side across the river with the magnificent building like the Parliament. We spent time taking pictures and enjoying the view though we did not have time to go to the Palace nor Mattias Church as there were many people and we still felt bad for overspending on our lunch; not having the common sense to calculate the cost. Nevertheless, the rest of the afternoon was fun walking in the Castle District and talking the tram and bus to move around the city.

Evening came early with the night settled into the city at around 4 pm. We went back to Pest and walked around to enjoy the festivity of Christmas Market and ate Chimney Cake apple pie and whip cream and went into a coffee shop to have coffee while checking our smart phones and talked about plans for the next day. We walked back to our hotel, tired from the day’s events. I watched YouTube videos on Budapest and enjoyed watching a French detective show at the same time.

Descent from the Alps

 

We arrived at Budapest at around 3 pm, took the 100E bus to the City Centre and walked for 5 minutes to the hotel. There was a long line of people waiting for the bus but we did not wait long as the huge tram like bus keep the line moving quickly. I thought about taking a taxi or Uber but decided to take the local bus to get closer towards the way life is experienced by the locals instead of zipping through like a tourist. I had a good view of the countryside and emerging city by looking out of the bus window.

After settling in the hotel, a small comfortable place with a young and friendly staff, we went to the Central Market where we ate Goulash – pork with pasta and beef soup, plus stuffed cabbages. I had a local draft beer with my food. We walked through the large Central Market looking at the local stall with their local products and Paprika products present in all the stalls being the national plant. I remembered watching a movie (Romania) where Paprika was mashed into a paste and sold into stores. Apparently Paprika was introduced by the Turks.

We walked through the city streets enjoying the lively flow of mostly young and attractive people, the cobblestone streets and shopping stores. We walked to the Christmas Market with a huge Christmas tree in the center square and looked at the food stalls with the myriad dishes of Goulash in bread bowls, sausages in various ways being served in bread, pork knuckles, beef steaks and the popular Chimney Bread which we had eaten in the Central Market served with ice cream. Chimney bread was also popular in Prague and Copenhagen.

We walked for an hour or two, enjoying the cold evening and the elegant old and massive buildings along the busy streets. Budapest is an old city and I saw the old hotel depicted in Michael Korda’s ‘Journey to a Revolution’ about the 1956 revolt against the Soviets. People had died along these streets some time in the past though one would not have thought looking at the young, prosperous people walking its streets today.

We walked along briefly the Danube River the flowed along several countries in Europe and planned to take the evening cruise later today. Coming over from Zurich, I saw the river snake through the countryside from the plane window. The plane had travelled over the majestic mountains of the Swiss Alps with it’s snow covered peaks breaking through the clouds and the ragged mountain tops making way to the green countryside and rivers after leaving the mountain regions and descending into the green plains of Budapest.

Austro Hungarian trip

I leave today for Budapest, where we will stay for 4 days and travel to Vienna for another 4 days. I have been reading books and watching videos of these countries to acquaint myself. I visited Prague 2 years ago, and the coming trip will let me know more about Central and Eastern Europe. My imagination of these countries comes from the spy novels of John Le'Carre and the early Bond films with Sean Connery. But I have also watched the recent films about the Prague Spring and the earlier movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

I am reading the book by Korda about the earlier Hungarian revolution in the 1950s, a period I associated with the Kennedy, especially the 1960's after visits to Washington DC and going to the Spy Museum and the holocaust museum, where some camps are located. There are echoes of these events in my recent visits to Boston and the Kennedy Library. It feels like I am finally getting to see the places that my childhood imagination dreamed about, reading historical books on these subjects.

I compare these social upheavals with the EDSA people's revolution in 1986, where I watched firsthand and wrote a paper to get my college degree. These social movements are always led by young people who go to the streets to hanker for a better life. My college years of exploration and growing up amidst the political turmoil of the Marcos years come to my mind after the Aquino assassination. All these memories have been in my mind recently, perhaps due to coming into middle age, and that sentimentality seems more frequent.

I am starting a regular writing habit so I can start working on a memoir where I can express these stories. I start to look back on my life and also seek meaning in the remaining years of my working life. The brain reaches certain stages in a person's life, and I feel a certain slowness which seems to be expected as one comes into their 60s. So I have a strategy using tDSC devices and physical exercises to keep my mind sharp. I do get episodes of doubt and minor confusion when working on a project, where in the past, my actions were instinctive and confident.  

Such is the experience of everyone who grows old, and one needs to be careful into descend into senility, so travel and reading books remain all the more important. Instead of instinctive action and thought, one must now think and follow a working process, using tools like an action register and planners. To use tools like Loop to keep notes and AI tools like NotebookNLM, Gemini, and Chat GPT. It's a godsend that these tools are starting to mature in my old age.