Saturday night in Budapest (part 3)

Ahhhh ... rested, fed and ready to go again!

And so I am off to the Fire Dance ... woo hoo!

I took a new way back to the Chain Bridge, I got some neat shots too.

A self-portrait in a handy window on Fashion Street.

St Stephen's Basilica.

Freedom Square and its interactive fountain, with the US Embassy in the background.

I've reached the Danube now ... the Chain Bridge and Buda Castle in the distance.

And so I am back at the Festival - - with its lovely colored lanterns in the trees, colorful benches, and with the Chain Bridge and Buda Castle in the background.

More of the fabulous colored lanterns - it was SO nice!

And so I wait for the Fire Dance to begin ... I manage to get a seat on a bench in front of the Large Stage, once the last act finishes and the crowd thins. Then - the Fire Magicians Company emerges and it becomes clear that they will not perform on the stage (which makes sense, with fire being their art and the woodenness of the stage) ... rather next to it on the sand. So, up I get to stand along with the many others in a semi-circle surrounding the small burning markers that the performers had just placed to mark out their "stage."

There were four performers, two male and two female. The music they were dancing to was a light industrial if you will. Good fit really.

A good shot of two of the performers.

They were very acrobatic, as you can see from this shot. The women are hanging on just by their feet!

A great shot ... you can see the fan-like implements held by one of the girls, spread out wide. Every few minutes the performers would alternately go behind a screen and get new implements to dance with. The woman in the foreground is swinging a ball of fire at the end of a chain.

Another acrobatic move ... turning into an ...

... an upside down split! Whoa!!

Uh oh ... they look like they are winding down for an ending.

Ha! It was just a fake-out ... cool! Now both of the women have the fans of fire.

Ummmm ... ouch. That does NOT look like it feels good for the woman on the bottom! But, it does make for a damn good shot!!!

I love this action shot ... with its fabulous trails of fire!

So, this performers new implement is a large hula hoop! She twirled that thing well boy, going up and down her body - - even to her neck ... which made me wince every time the lit parts came near her head/hair!

So, now the women have long chains lit on fire - - whoa, great shot! Love the shaft-of-fire going skyward (far right) ... showing well the blue and orange of fire.

Another fave action shot ... lots of fire trails! Ooooo ... p-r-e-t-t-y.

Another cool action shot.

Sigh ... and so they are winding down - with a really cool split move!

And so each of the four performers take their "bow" ... by kneeling and eating the fire of their particular implement - a great shot, no blurriness here!

An excellent show ... truly entertaining. The music was good, the dancing and acrobatics were well done and choreographed - but the star was the fire - - - - life saving at time, and life taking at others ... fire, so cool and hot all at once!

I took a detour on the way home, to the Parliament building - so I could get some close-up shots, not just the ones I got from across the river.

A wide-shot of the Parliament building.

A close-up of the pointed-arched groin vaulted upper arcade of the Parliament, nicely framed by the double spires.

A view back at the Chain Bridge from the Parliament building, with Buda Castle in the background.

Atilla Jozsef, sitting on the grass at Parliament. He was an important and well-known Hungarian poet in the first 1/3 of the last century ... he died young, 32, in 1937.

And so I begin to make my way home to my hotel, as it has been a long long - great - day.

I came upon St Stephen's Basilica again, and what a gorgeous place it it! There were many people hanging out on the steps and in the square there, even though it was past 11p already.

And so I stopped for a tea and a WC visit ... and found a handy mirror at the California Tea Company!

And that is it my friends, the end of my first full day in Budapest ... and what a busy and fabulous day it was!

Thanks for joining me - tune in tomorrow for more of this lovely city.

Here is a link to the day's photos on my Picasa page ... Budapest Day One

Saturday in Budapest - part 2

Welcome back to Budapest my friends ... 


And so I have reached the Fisherman's Bastion, which is also the location of Matthais Church.


The Bastion is an amazingly castle-like structure ... and SUPER bright and white too. It was a really cool place. It was built between 1895 and 1902, in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque styles. It takes its name from the guild that defended that stretch of the city's walls during the  Middle Ages. It is a viewing terrace, so it full of stairs and platforms and paths - - all with AMAZING views of Pest, the Danube, and the parts of Buda below it. Check it out ...

I was excited to recognize this statue on the 1st landing I came to climbing up the stairs to the Bastion. It is St George, defeating the famous dragon. I've seen it in the Prague Castle courtyard, and I saw the "skull" of the dragon at Karlstejn Castle too. Fun!!

A neat shot of King Stephen I on the terrace of the Bastion, seen through the archway leading to the terrace.

Here is a wide shot of the Fisherman's Bastion.

A close-up of one the large towers of the Bastion. There are 7 towers, one for each of the Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. Wow - - it looks like it could be on top of a wedding cake!

A wide shot of the tower from the previous pic, with another tower shown as well. It is such a cool place! So many paths and stairs and windows to explore!!!

The stairs up to the ruins at one end of the Bastion terrace. You can see it in the wide-shot pic 3 pics ago.

The ruins of a Medieval Church, which are now on the property of the Budapest Hilton.

Still in the ruins - this is a statue of Julianus and Gerardus, exploring Buda and Pest in the 1230's.

A view back at the Bastion, from the raised ruins area in the previous 2 pix. I love seeing how far down the Bastion's wall goes.

The Church of Our Lady - aka Matthais (as in Corvinus) Church, which is right next to the Fisherman's Bastion. Those colorful roofs are just gorgeous!!!

A wide-shot of the Matthais Church. Lovely and large!

A close-up of the gorgeous colorful tiles on the roof of the Church of Our Lady.

A close-up of the Matthais Church spire.

A view of Pest and the Hungarian Parliament through the arch windows of the Bastion's walls.

A fabulous monument to King Stephen I, on the terrace of the Bastion. This is the statue seen through an archway up onto the terrace from the beginning of today's blog entry.

A close-up of King Stephen I ... I love the braided mane and the elaborate and decorative saddle rug. Cool!!

Cool statues in the archway leading down/up from the Bastion's terrace. This is the same archway that you saw King Stephen I through at the beginning of today's blog.

And so I leave the Bastion behind, as I am STILL hungry and the sun is HOT! I head down and to the left (north), as that is where the Parliament building is and I hope to find a restaurant for lunch.

A ... religious school perhaps ... that I found on my way down to the Danube riverside.

A lovely double-spired church with copper tops. There was a wedding coming out when I got there!

The "mall" where I had my lunch. The text reads "vi. Central Market" - so maybe the 6th Central Market?

A view up the spiral staircase of the pizza restaurant that I had lunch in - - the art was particularly cool! But I am a sucker for a spiral staircase!!! And ... considering the sun ... air conditioning!

The top (3rd) floor of my luncheon place, the non-smoking floor ... which doesn't make a lot of sense considering smoke rises, but I didn't have any problems - the place was pretty empty. That is a view into the "mall" on the left, although I entered through a street door two floors down. The food was y-u-m-m-y! And it was almost dead across from the Parliament, which was perfect for my plan.

And I am off again, having had my midday meal - and now full of energy again. I head across the square to the riverside walk, and head left (north, and away from the Chain Bridge) towards the Parliament building. I didn't have far to walk, but it was fun because I was right on the walls of the river - nothing but a drop between me and the Danube. Cool!

And so I reached the perfect picture position ... to get the building dead center in my lens. Check it out!

This building is AMAZING ... and pretty damn large too! It is the 2nd largest Parliament in Europe, and the largest building in Hungary. Construction started on the building in 1885, and it was inaugurated on the country's 1000th anniversary in 1896.

There were over 1000 workers building Parliament, using 40 million bricks and half-a-million precious stone and 88 lbs of gold. It is 879 feet long, 404 feet wide and 315 feet tall ... second only to St Stephen's Basilica as the tallest building in Budapest.

It has 10 interior courtyards, 13 elevators, 27 gates, 29 staircases and 691 rooms - over 200 of which are offices. There are 242 statues on the outside of the building.

The building is in the Gothic Revival style, with its symmetrical style and a central dome - shown here.

A cropped close-up of the central dome ... you can see the flying buttresses.

Another beautiful church seen on the Danube riverwalk on the way back towards Pest.

A cropped close-up of the lovely rooftop tilework that seems to be unique to Hungary.

I'm not sure what this monument is for, but it is REALLY neat! It doesn't translate well, something about the victims of a storm. I am still on the Buda side of the Danube riverway.

I made my way back to the Chain Bridge, and across it - - to the Nyar A Lanchidnal ... the Summer at the Chain Bridge festival.

I'm now at the festival.

This is the first stall I came to once I reached the bottom of the stairs from the Chain Bridge ... I love it! It is so quaint and rustic and sweet -- but I have to admit that I was a little grossed out when I discovered what they served. Check the image out on my Picasa page if you want to know ... as there may be children reading this!   ;-}

So, for those curious peeps ... here is a link to the above image on Picasa

This is the small stage at the festival, and these artists are performing an operetta concert titled "Come with me to Varasdin"

So, after walking through the entire festival and not finding anything that jumped up and bit me (but much lovely stuff nonetheless) - I headed back to my hotel for dinner and a rest, as I would be coming back to the festival tonight for the Fire Dance ... woo hoo!!

A great fountain I passed along the way home, it definitely reminds me a Greek mythology though ... that looks suspiciously like Poseidon at the top.

This sculpture caught my eye ... especially the infant held my the hand. It is a monument to Lutheran pastor Gabor Sztehlo - who saved around 2000 children and adults during the rule of the Fascist Arrow Cross Party.

And so that is it for my first day in Budapest ... back to the hotel to rest and recoup, and then back to the Summer at the Chain Bridge festival for the ... FIRE DANCE - - woo hoo!

Stayed tuned to the cool, I mean hot, pics of the Fire Dance.

Here is a link to the day's photos on my Picasa page ... Budapest Day One

Thanks for coming along!