Some great pics of Budapest and lots of interesting posts. Thanks men (and ladies).
I drove from Bournemouth to Budapest with my Austrian GF in 1980 in an MGB V8 GT. Nice drive except for folks shaking fists at us in Hungary,maybe because we were doing 60 overtaking the struggling Ladas and other weird contraptions.
The "assigned" hotel was awful, the staff surly and food yucky -- but that was Communism. Elsewhere, very interesting. Got cheated by three men on the Lion Bridge exchanging money (the police policy seemed to be to arrest the tourist not the crooks). Czardas music in another hotel was wonderful, but the band knocked off at 10pm - we though it was for a break but they didn't come back. Budapest seemed to shut down around this hour, but probably we didn't know the right places. After 3 days we decided to call it quits and went back to Vienna.
Our last experience was two soldiers with tommy-guns leaping into the road in front of us when nearing the Austrian border, then a thorough search of our 2-seater for hidden stowaways. Still, it was all fun in retrospect !
Cheers Jim and welcome to the forum. Interesting tale.. nothing so eventful for us, just an Easyjet flight from Luton
Good story Jim ,, imagine fuelling that V8 now all that way !
Cant be related to our other member in Bournmouth as he hasn't mentioned ,, you know what
A lot of interesting architecture, though I don't know enough about any of it, I took lot's of pictures of various buildings, but I'll spare you. Suffice to say they're better viewed for yourself.
There was fighting here between the occupying Germans and the Russians toward the end of the war, but the damage to the city centre was limited.
There's also lot's of leftover traces of the Communist era, here a billboard atop a building without it's neon.
On top of the Gellert Hill.
Inside the Citadel fort. The 360 views are breathtaking.
There is some history exhibitions here and also a small hotel.
Ze Bunker. A low budget history of the German occupation and Soviet battle against them, actually quite good with a lot of interesting photo's, the hilltop was the scene of intense fighting and was totally leveled under bombardment.
Note the large river cruisers, very well equipped with cabins, restaurants etc.
Last edited by Neo; 04-05-2012 at 12:30 AM.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"
A small part of Buda Castle
The easy way to the top.
Chain Bridge.
Last edited by Neo; 04-05-2012 at 12:36 AM.
Parliament.
The sun sets..
and the lights come on.
That's all folks!
Cheers Rob fantastic pics once again ,, can't wait to get me hands on me new GX1 , bloody things got a 10 day wait on it now , never mind the weather is still crap , and were gonna have a day out in Dublin when the weather breaks so , I hope to give it a christening then ,, shall be looking forward to yours and Bluey's expert eyes giving them a going over when I put em up.
Out of green pixels am afraid ,, looking forward to your next photographic venture !
I'm proud of my 38" waist , also proud I have never done drugs
ha ha
there's nothing expert about my eyes
{you can tell a Yorkshireman , but you cannot tell him much }
they can be a bit critical though , but i do apply it to my own photos,
worse in fact
neo
if that's you in the bunker photo reflection,
it's criminal the way you hold your camera, single handed up in the air at arms length...
like a orchestra conductor.
i had a sneaky look at the photo info ,
see you have a Panasonic
it's a good job too ,they seem to have the best stabilization system !
anyway love the Elizabeth Taylor photo
Neo, nice thread.
Well presented, exceptionally good photographs.
Hungary, certainly looks the part, some of the buildings
you have shown especially are superb.
Parliament building looks very special. The River Bridge as well.
The bronze statues, and of course the Château.
Brilliant job all round, thanks for sharing.
Nice work Green coming your way.
All the women take their blouses off
And the men all dance on the polka dots
It's closing time !
Sorry, It won't let me Green you.
Look closely at many of my pics and you can easily see the limits of the camera's ability..
the GX1 should adequatley cover all bases, but yes I'll happily offer any constructive opinion.
Lumix TZ6 Yes the Liz Taylor pic was very eye catching, it was in a interior design shop.. didn't have a price.. I was thinking of knocking up a few and knocking 'em out on the market.
It's the thought that counts, I'm glad you enjoyed the pics.
I forgot this one..
Hi everybody
I'm looking for info about this statue of a girl on the roof of Ibis hotel. I was in Budapest in 2008 and was told this monument is in memory of those commited suicide 'cos Budapest had somewhat higher level of it compared to the rest of Europe. Now a friend asked me about it and im not sure what to say. Spent all day yesterday looking but nothing i can be sure of. Maybe there is some info in the hotel guest book or you could redirect me to some website i could read about it... Thank you!
Have already spent 2 days looking for info about it - there is number of facts but i can not put this puzzle pieces together.
1. The hotel is Ibis now but it was built in 1990 by a famous Hungarian architect Jozsef Finta and had a name Liget Hotel then (Liget means grove) but it doesnt say if he is the author of the statue. The hotel was renovated in 2000 and maybe it was then that they put the statue. I checked out a few statues by Finta - e.g. Shakespeare (sorry i can not give a link yet as i dont have enough posts) but it seems very different in style from that girl.
2. I started to dig into this suicide subject. There are studies saying the rate of suicides is really high in Hungary esp. with women. There is a song Gloomy Sunday that is often called Hungarian suicide song - the story is in Wiki. Still it has nothing to do with the place.
3. The movie Gloomy Sunday - Ein Lied Von Liebe und Tod (A Song of Love and Death) was filmed in 1999 and is a fantasy about how the song was made. Accoring to the list of filming locations on imdb.com the hotel or its restaurant was not one of the Hungarian locations for the movie. So this seems to be another dead end ((
I'm lost but starting to get obsessed with this puzzle. Need help! ))
Last edited by LanOks; 11-05-2012 at 07:52 PM.
Well I don't know if LanOks will come back to this thread, but I've found out that the piece is called "soaring bronze siren" by Istvan Madarassy. It was built in 1990 and apparently has no particular significance to the location it is on. Just a piece of rather melancholy art.
Thanks for taking the time neo, nice pics, ive heard good reports about hungary, The women would allegedly give a jellyfish a woody
As far as cities go, Budapest is right up there with the must see destinations. In my opinion.
Hungary is a big country and most of it is rural, very similar to France with long hot summers, the culture too is very food/family/village based. I'll be getting to see as lot more of it when I move in a couple of years.
How IS the food? Besides goulash, what are some traditional dishes?Originally Posted by Neo
Interesting story on the sculpture dedicated to suicide victims.
Very tasty, usually several courses. Always a soup.. lentils, peas etc.. lots of meat and potato, cabbage. The food is spicy, lot's of paprika, pepper and chillis. Pork is the mainstay, salami and chorizo, smoked belly pork...Lots of pickled vegetables, to substitute seasonal veg I guess, gherkins, onions, peppers. Hungary is very rural and the food reflects that, it's not complicated, but it is very tasty because of the seasoning. töltött káposzta is typical, it's cabbage stuffed with pork cooked with paprika and served with sour cream, something like this would be part of a meal consisting of several dishes.
A typical Hungarian eats a pound of lard a weekOriginally Posted by natalie8
They are a miserable bunch though, their position at the top of World suicide figures testifies to thatOriginally Posted by beerlaodrinker
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