By the time i reached Budapest, i had concluded that my camera would only give me major problems if there was a significant amount of daylight involved, which is just as well considering i was in Europe near to the Winter Solstice (which is tomorrow if i remember correctly..) which meant that the sun would set by say 4:30pm. So while the minimal daylight made sightseeing that much more challenging, at the least it made it more convenient for me to take pictures that didn't look like there was zero visibility in the city. What i ended up taking to doing, starting from Budapest, would be to ascend the Castle Hill (seemingly every city i visited from Prague onwards had some sort of architectural marvel situated on top of a high hill + plus a great view of the city from the same hill to boot, and since i stay on a hill myself and regularly have to climb it to head home, i had no issue with the climb - though admittedly again channeling my inner kiasu S'porean i would use public transport where possible if i had a day pass) just before sunset so i could at least try taking some pictures as daylight faded and then take better pictures once it did get dark. TThe result is that while the picture quality still isn't the best, it's better than nothing...
The city itself was a welcome change from Prague, in a sense that while perhaps less concentrated with things to see than Prague is, the correspondingly lesser amount of tourists meant that on a whole the city did feel less touristy and that much more authentic (and of course, less claustrophobic as well), even if it meant that i had to try out whatever utterances in Hungarian i could conjure up far more often than i had to in Prague (and Hungarian is no easier than Czech - even after looking through the mini-phrasebook and pronunciation guide over and over again, what something was supposed to be pronounced as still usually ended up sounding totally different from how i would have envisioned it..) There still was a lot to see in Budapest though, such that i ended up staying there for longer than i had originally planned (ok maybe part of that was due to indecision as well..). Teaching what i teach, one place i was definitely glad to visit was the House of Terror, documenting the conditions under both the fascist and communist regimes in Hungary. Not just to justify myself for having taken this three week trip by reasoning that i did things there that can help me in my work, but even just to get a better idea of how things in such periods in history, especially when the situation then is (at least ostensibly) worlds apart from how things have been like back here.
Somewhat randomly, a long time ago, when i had looked at books that showcased many different breeds of domestic dogs, i distinctly remember that there were certain breeds that came from Hungary, at least two of which had fur which reminded me of Whoopi Goldberg. I was semi-expecting to see one when i was there but kinda forgot about it, until one day, lo and behold, at the Christmas market in Vörösmarty tér (don't ask me how to pronounce that), i chanced upon what i believe is known as a Komondor. Or maybe it's just a giant string mophead with a black nose. You be the judge (too bad that my camera was wonky when this was taken).
Of course, being the chilli freak that i am, another reason to look forward to going to Hungary was the food, especially since as far as i can remember, i have always associated the country with paprika. Even though i knew that it would hardly compare with some of the chillis we have here, at the least it would be a new kind of food to try (when was the last time you saw a Hungarian restaurant in S'pore? Or anywhere, for that matter?). And of course no way i would go all the way to eat at any place with one/many of the following words in their name: panda, bamboo, peking, palace, lotus. So while i was there, i did manage to try some local food, at various places, including the aforementioned Christmas market, where one thing i chanced upon was a giant saucepan of rooster testicle stew. I didn't try some though (a serving cost 1800 forints - i.e. 1800 forints more than i would pay to eat rooster testicles).
Another thing i really enjoyed about Budapest was the opportunity to go beyond what your usual tourist might do (i.e. pretty much all of what has been mentioned above). Through couchsurfing, at the last minute i managed to find a great host (with a really cool family too) for what turned out to be longer than i had originally planned. To cut a long story short (cos have i been long-winded here) ended up doing positively un-touristy things like walking through the woods in near pitch darkness and being blessed through visiting not one, but two Bible study groups on two separate nights (incidentally my first Christian gatherings of such a nature in way too long, which got me thinking of something i ought to be doing now that i'm back here). These would be exactly the kind of unexpected happenings that i was praying for at the start of the trip - and there would be more to come - just so that this trip would not be just a trip. Pretty cool i think how the Lord enables things like random events to just come together like that...
And to top things off, on the morning i finally left Budapest, i found a little present from Santa Claus at my doorstep - it just so happened to be the day he would come :)
Well, when all that's said and done, i do wish i had more time so i could see more of the country apart from Budapest and Szentendre (an hour outside of Budapest), as for some reason this is one country that fascinates me quite a bit. Maybe in a few years i'll find my way back, we'll see how things go...
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