Thursday, November 26, 2009

Budapest: Day 1 (20.10.2009)

Budapest welcomed me with a foggy afternoon when I arrived today. It was almost dark with the fog though it was only around 3:30pm. I was disappointed but it was late autumn almost winter so I was kind of prepared. I took train to Nyugati train station (around 20mins trip), it's not the main station and was bit strange one (supported by strange language that I had no clue at all :-P)..at least it took me several minutes to figure out how I could get to the Metro. I went directly to the hostel that I have booked before, it's located in Ferenciek Tere, after I bought a three-day ticket for public transportation in Budapest (which was a really good idea).

After putting my luggage in the hostel I tried to do my orientation of Budapest. I went to the city center in Pest area tried to find the Tourist Info Center and visited the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) then hurried up to find the Hungarian State Opera House to see a ballet performance called Karamazov testverek (Karamazov brothers). Good that I managed to get the ticket that evening :-)

The Opera house is so beautiful inside, even when you're still at the hall area. It's not that big actually but beautiful (I know I said that before :-P). To be honest I never heard about Karamazov Brothers before, I just wanted to see a performance in the Opera house :-P. Luckily I sat next to a nice lady who told me the story and also about how famous the story and Dostoyevsky (the Russian author who wrote Karamazov Brothers). I do not have any clue on Russian literature and neither most of Indonesians I think...:-P It was a modern ballet performance from Boris Eifman (a Russian choreographer). The performance was great, better after I knew the story for sure :-P

After the ballet performance, I strolled along the Andrassy boulevard to the Vorosmaty Ter (the Weihnachtsmarkt again :-P) then to Danube promenade. Had some photo sessions of the Chain bridge and Elizabeth bridge in misty Budapest..

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