Back from Budapest , where I stayed a few days for a job . I also visited several places across Hungary . I had not been in the country since a few years , and on my first two visits I had not really stayed in Budapest . Time to correct that : The city has great architecture and provide the most welcome respite from living in Paris . Its pace is more gentle , less stressed . I stayed in a place near the National Museum , at walking distance from main sites of interest.
The first day, I bought a transportation pass : The best way to enjoy freely the city with its subway, tram , bus and trolleybus system . The weather in september was quite warm and people in Budapest were relaxed , and there was this vacation feeling in the mood . If you stay a while in Budapest , you will regularly walk on its bridges , because this is where the Buda- and -Pest parts of the city meet and breath. The Danube seems much wider than the Seine in Paris , and the strollers appreciate the breeze and the view from the bridges . There are a lot of cyclists and rollerbladers around , be careful when walking on the sidewalks....
World war II german soldiers with designer glasses ? That is not rare in Budapest . These two guys wait their turn, as a scene of a movie about the french Resistance is being shot in a street . See the real bullets impacts on the house behind : 1945, or 1956 ? Another day , I saw the preparation of two double-decker London buses for a scene of Spielberg's movie about the Munich Olympics . The city has such a great architectural diversity that it can accomodate any setting needs . You need Vienna in the 1900's , Berlin in the 40's or London in the 70's , Budapest will do the job .
Szoborpark : The many statues of the socialist era have been taken away from their initial location when the socialist regime collapsed, and gathered in the "Statue Park", in an ordinary suburb at a distance from the city center . To reach it , I took tram N° 6 southward from Jozsefaros to Moricz Zsigmond Korter, then bus #3 to Campona, and then bus # 50 to Szoborpark , such a long way to reach the purgatory of yesterday's heroes . Nice range of Lenins , proletarian figures , liberating soldiers shaking hands with workers, and the compulsory spanish war heroes....
Hungary offers also great landscapes and traditional country life to the visitor . I took this picture in the south , near the croatian border . The day was rainy , and I spotted this sheperd with his dog and his flock on the side of the road , pasturing along a canal . The rain was so intense that you can see the drops in the picture .
I slept in a few campsites in this trip across the country . Good way to enjoy the country , but beware of mosquitoes , it seems there are plenty of them in the country , even under the bright sun . 2005 was very rainy and this may be the reason . I took this picture in one of the campsites . You know now who has to do the dishes...
Many villages in Hungary have 3 or more churches , as several faiths lived together with the different populations who settled here along the centuries : Uniats , greek orthodox , roman catholics, lutherans... I saw this catholic church at some distance from the main road , and it happened to be the church of Mariagyud, wich is a reknowned site of pilgrimages . A wedding had just been celebrated there and I shot this picture of the two honor-attendants children .
