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Budapest statues and humbug
By nealejames | January 28, 2010
There’s no doubt about it, Budapest has lots of statues. On day one I was capturing virtually every statue that presented itself. Day two and I was being rather more selective. Day three emerged and my interest level dipped. There’s a shade under two million people living in the city. Every single person has their own statue. Fact.
This is my hotel room view. What you can see is the national gallery, once home to Hungarian royalty. It probably would have celebrated the reign of Archduke Franz Ferdinand if he hadn’t been assassinated triggering a string of complex historical odds and bobs that led to the first World War. I learned that at school. My own children will no doubt only know Franz as a musician, who by the time they’re time able to buy their own toons, will be a golden oldie and as uncool as Dad’s McCartney collection.
I love art. I love galleries. I prefer a photographic experience, but I’m just as happy observing brush strokes, albeit slightly more contemporary ones. The Tate Modern remains one of my favourite places in the World. The sport of proclaiming “My Son could do better and he’s only two” is par for the course when you view modern art. This one is for my favourite carpenter, ‘Soccer Stu’ who would LOL at the bad dovetailing of this priceless piece above titled ‘Great Prism.’
Not far from the gallery is the Matthias Church and nestling in the grounds is this. I quite like it, hence the shots.
January is seasonably chilly in Budapest, so the concept of capturing lovers canoodling by the Danube, street entertainers strumming their Hungarian chords and general busy-ness was somewhat lost during my visit. I did capture these two musicians, but my hunt for further locals in pursuit of their profession was pretty fruitless. In this temperature, people simply buckle up and walk on by.
A Beetle for no other reason than I love Beetles. I had one, once. Favourite car. In the snow it suffered heating failures, bellowing exhaust and smoke fumes in to the cabin. Maybe that’s why this one clearly hasn’t been used for weeks. And so I come to the end of my mini tour. It’s been fun, and I return with many images to show for my stay. Budapest is full of history, full of places of worship, full of statues. And full of Burger Kings. As a place to live, it ranks third out of sixty five European cities in the quality of life index. You’d think with that statistic the locals would be positively radiating a smugness. But, it’s not so humorous Pestside. It may be the cold, but natives don’t seem that friendly on the street. Passing nods and smiles seem to be greeted with mute indifference. I’ve never thought of myself as a travel togger, though it would be fun, artistically. Sadly, I’m not a huge fan of air travel it has to be said. I rank it fairly low in pastime pleasures, somewhere between root canal surgery and half marathons. Paradoxically I hold a private pilot’s licence of the rotary variety; machines that defy all known laws of gravity to lift off, when really they should in fact screw themselves into the ground. So, as I sit here composing this post enduring a bout of clear air turbulance which the BA First Officer has profusely apologised for (they don’t do that on Malev) I look forward to composing my next travel blog in April when we take our family holiday to somewhat sunnier climes. Next post, back to weddings.
Topics: Blog journal | 1 Comment »
March 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
This set of images are truly inspiring… I especially like the church reflected in the windows, a type of shot I often try to find but never quite seem to nail it.
Why do everybody else photo’s look 100 times better than mine?
Photo blogs are both inspiring and frustrating!