Silver Map: Places, People, Impressions

Bern

Bern: First Impression. Exploring central street

12:52

Eastern Europe

Kosice: a new look at the same city

09:37

Budapest

Falling in love with the Perl of the Danube

11:11

My first aquaintance with this marvellous capital happened in summer, 2012. And starting from that period I managed to visit this city 4 more times.

Lucky I am that my hometown Uzhgorod (Ukraine) is situated on the border with 4 countries, those are: Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania. So if you ask our people whether they've ever been abroad, they will probably say "no", considering those lands not to be a real "abroad".

Some call Budapest the perl of the Europe and it is, indeed. The city is unique because of its location, the city centre is linked to the main river, so when you walk there you have loads of opportunities to cross all the possible bridges that are there,and each of them has its history, style and individuality.

So, starting with the city's architecture& atmosphere.

It is very beautiful and peculiar, but it really needs a bit of repairment. As we've noticed before, when you walk in Budapest, you have a feeling that it delibarately hides its treasures from you, though it doesn't. Anyway, it remains one of my favourite places to visit, that's because I feel here at home. And that's very unusual , because when I visit some new places, I need some time to adjust myself to it.

We were wandering different streets,since we like to go somewhere without consulting a map, and each street contained some special buildings. Of course, we visited almost all the sightseeings for those 4 times we've been there. My favourite place is surely Fisherman's bastion. Every time I come to Budapest I want to see it over and over again. The hilarious view from that point, loads of people hanging around, a mix of languages you can hear there and the white "castle" that is very interestingly designed are that things that make this place special.

Fisherman Bastion

I don't know why but I feel sorry for those guys, who are in the guard, They should keep poker face while most of the tourists capture them, or make the photos with them, or try to make them laugh or laugh at them in general. They should have a really strong nerve system:)

The only place I always pass , but never go there for purpose (but always want to) is the Heroes' square. It is situated a bit further from the central part, so if you prefer not to take public transport, but walk, you might feel a bit lazy to go there.

The Parliament is of course the main landmark of the city. It is beautiful in all times of year. They repair it all the time, in different parts, though. If you want to have a very close look at it, you should go along the river, where at first you will see another interesting thing i.e. the iron boots. When we didn't know quite well where we were going, we were wondering what did that boots mean, but as I found out later, it was a memorial to the jews during World War II.

Another creepy thing is, when you walk along that river there is no way you can easely cross the road, you have to walk quite a while to the next bridge in order to see the crossing place. At first we were even scared a bit, having a river on our left and a big curb on our right and no sign of crossing point ahead.

Since the city stands on the river, it has a lot of ferry tours to offer. The one I got was a little tour round the bridges, where we had the radio with 16 different languages to hear about the history of Buda and Pest and its buildings and each of the bridges. The tour was interesting and cost something like 2500-3000 HUF.

And I just can't keep from mentioning about my favourite tellephone cabins with pink telephones inside. It adds its perk into the city.

People.

I had only good experience with Hungarians. First thing that I noticed, when I came there was that most of them went jogging , or if not jogging then cycling. They seem to be fans of sport, because wherever you go you will always find Hungarians running. I heard that they were not that agreeable when talking to strangers, but I found it opposite. Once we were completely lost without GPS and maps, and we went to completely different part of the city, though our buses were waiting for us on the other side. The only thing we had to do was asking for the road. And how pleasantly surprised I was when each person I asked (there were pretty a lot of them) tried to help us. Most of the people were able to talk in English, some, however, were speaking German. But they turned out to be very helpful, because even if they didn't know the route, they were trying to find it on a map or they were calling some of their relatives/friends to ask for the place we needed. And also I can't keep from mentioning that I liked the way people smiled to us as they passed by. Once I even decided to count the "gathered" smiles from the people and till the end of the day I had something like 30 in my collection.

Travelling through Hungary.

On my way back from Vienna to my native Uzhgorod I had a bus to Budapest Nepliget and my train was in an hour and a half in the Nyugati train station. Getting from the bus to the railway station turned out to be very easy, since there is a blue line of the subway, and those are its two stations, so I got to the Nyugati in half an hour (that's considering that at first I didn't know where to go on the bus station). I do not speak a word in Hungarian, but my ability to note my route is very a helpful skiil. When I entered the subway I didn't know which direction I should have taken, but there were two controllers on the each side, so I just approached them and showed my papersheet with "Nyugati" on it, so they showed me the right direction. First impression of the Nyugati was...not that good. In fact I didn't know whether it really was a train station, since it wasn't that clean. And again, the building itself is amazing, but it's not kept clean at all. I didn't have any problems in buying theticket, since I showed the cashier my other note with the train I needed.

Budapest in winter.

My first trip of 2014 started again with Budapest (02-03.01.14). The christmarkets were alerady closed, but the atmosphere of the New Year was all over the city. The streets, the cafes, the shops and malls and even the public transportation was adorned with Christmas lights, toys and other sparkling things. It really made up for the lack of snow. This time we spent mostly in the big ARENA shopping centre and even had a look on Margit island at the Margit's bridge, but as it was winter, Margit island wasn't that attractive. In fact we saw just a park for jogging. I guess, it looks better in spring. One of the perfect places to visit in winter was ARENA mall. We spent the whole day there, being lost in the variety of things we wanted to buy. ARENA had its special Christmas atmosphere and it was amazing.

A statue of the horse with the torn wings in front of the entrance to the WEST END shopping mall. The only question is What do that torn wings mean?

Two songs that are essential parts of my Budapest visits:

city of coffee

10 reasons to visit Uzhgorod

12:34

Uzhgorod is the westest administrative centre of Ukraine that is more than 1120 years old. It is very often considered to be a mini-version of Lviv and thus is very frequently overlooked by many people, who prefer to visit its "bigger" brothers. However, Uzhgorod has its unique features that distinguish it from all the other big, old and beautiful cities and makes it a very special place to drop in.

1. Kingdom of mini statues

Since recent times the railing along our tiny river has been adorned by new little sculptures, such as a knot, a family of hedgehogs, Shweik soldier, ferry "Carpathia", Ferenz List, St. Nicolas, Bela Bartok and of course, the queen of that little kingdom - "Svobodka" - Statue of Liberty, which is also the first lighthouse on our river and is a strategic object of extreme importance for paper ships!

Reasons-to-visit-Uzhgorod, mini-statues-in-Uzhgorod

2. Sakuras

Reasons-to-visit-Uzhgorod, sakura, sakura-in-Uzhgorod

Uzhgorod is the first and only city with such concentration of Sakura (Japan Cherry) trees in the whole Ukraine. That's why in April - May, the city becomes totally pink and it's one of the most spectacular things to see. Of course, since recent times those Sakuras were planted in the nearest cities of our region as well, but Uzhgorod remains to be the core of it.

3. Multilingualism.

Our people are not that much in love with English, though most of them know that "London is the capital of Great Britain", "The sun is shining brightly" and " I'm on duty today". However, they are still polyglots :)

Sometimes, especially when you are in the bus or you go to the nearest market, you'll feel like you are in Hungary. The same can be told about hearing Slovakian language. It's an ordinary thing here and noone pays attention, though Hungarian knowledge for a lot of us still means knowing how to count to ten, say "hi" to one person or a few people, and some swear words to be sure that someone treats you well, or if not- to express yourself, too :)

4. Uzhgorod is watching you...

Since Uzhgorod is on the border with Slovakia, it is so close to the customs that students from the university that is situated up on the hill can see the nearest Slovakian village from their windows, while listening to some boring lectures. So when you go to the university, with "a few" extra steps you can end up at the customs.

5. All the world in one city

If you call a friend and he tells you he is in Tokio and you are sitting drinking coffee in New York, you can easily meet up in a few minutes. To such epic phrases we can ascribe: "Let's meet near Ukraine", "Tonight we are going to Prague", "Yesterday we hung out in Budapest". Our hotels, department stores, shops and cafes make up their own map of the world. In such a way, you can as well visit Europe, Venice, Florence, London, Parma, Chicago and even Olymp in a visa-free regime and without crossing any borders :)

Reasons-to-visit-Uzhgorod, Uzhgorod-bridge, Uzhgorod-city-center

6. Compactness

You can get from point A to point B easily on foot. Everything is within a reach of a "15 minutes walk". The city centre with its major sights are centred near each other, so you won't have to spend your money and, sometimes, nerves on getting into buses. Besides, walking is not only good in terms of nice views ahead, but as well is good for health, and if you are lucky to stroll along our "longest" linden alley in Europe, you will enjoy the honey scent of its flowers.

Uzhgorod-linden-alley, Uzhgorod-embankment

View upon the Linden Alley

7. Coffee & Wine

People in Uzhgorod in their majority are fond of this drink and our coffee is of different state and taste, comparing with the nearest "coffee-cities", like Lviv.

Our wine is also special, usually made manually by locals for their own consumption, that's why it's not only tasty, but of a very good quality as well.

8. San-Franсisсo Bridge. Uzhgorod Edition.

Since our city is situated on the river, it offers a lot of bridges to cross. They are of different types: transport ones, pedestrian woth love locks and some old and obscure. But there's one special - suspension bridge, which leads to the city park. It's old , wooden with iron frames and it ususally shakes when someone crosses it, so one gets a cool shaky feeling, when being in the middle of it.

9. No rush

On the contrary to bigger cities, where you feel so much stress even when taking a ride on a bus at rush hour, you will feel the city to be "lively" at the peak hours, but still , no stressful rush. Of course, you can encounter some little quarrels in buses, since some people really have a strong and determined need to communicate and express themselves.

10. Atmosphere

Uzhgorod differs from the rest of Ukraine by its "western" features and from Western countries by its "eastern". Wherever one is coming from, he will probably feel at home and notice something different at the same time. Uzhgorod has its own atmosphere. Here you will be inspired by little old creative streets, art cafes, some interesting yard sales, festivals events and flesh mobs.