Budapeshht!!

          

       Last weekend I went on a class trip to Budapest! It was so fantastic!!!!--two of my professors here in Vienna happen to be Hungarian and wanted to personally show us where they were from! So they organized an optional weekend trip to Budapest. Tibor Frank, my Arts and nations professor, gave us a tour of the "Pest" side of Budapest on Saturday, and then Gez, my Intercultural Communications professor, showed us the "Buda" side of Budapest on Sunday, which is just across the Danube...

        This picture^ is of the famous Hero's Square (or Hősök tere), complete with many statues of (you've guessed it!)..Hungarian heroes! On the right side, there used to be some Hapsburg figures, but those were taken down and replaced with Anti-Hapsburg figures for obvious reasons. Tibor knew far more information that anyone should about every single statue. He knows so much!!!! 

       Ok, now the next picture is what Tibor refers to as "the Fun castle!!!" (he's so cute). But apparently, this castle has 17 different building styles from across Budapest put togethe. Or maybe it was 7. No, I think it was 17. I can't remember, Tibor! I'm sorry!!!

         Our wanderings took us to this special little statue. (If you're thinking it looks an awful lot like George Washington, you're CORRECT!) Here's Tibor himself! With George Washington--a monument put up on Budapest by Hungarian Americans.

 

      Then Tibor took us to the Liszt Museum! (The Music Conservatory). I'm actually reading about Liszt right now in a book....he's from Hungary, but he didn't spend that much time there, until later in his life. BUT anyways, there's a marble cast (of sorts) of his hand (because his piano-playing hands are LeGeNdAry!!) and I decided to compare my hand to Liszt's hand....conclusion: not as elegant.

 

        This is the view of the Pest side of Budapest from the Buda side of the Danube River. Gorgeous!

 

And here is where Tibor's tour ended! :(:( Until our next class, Tibor!

        So, the next day we got a little lost on the Metro lines and missed Geza's "Buda" tour...but we still had an excellent day--wandered around both Buda and Pest, enjoyed the sites and some beautiful weather! Here's St. Peter's Basilica (Looks like Budapest has as "Stephansdom" as well!)

And here is the most impressive Opera House I've ever seen!

And here is the Parliament Building! Such an impressive building...

       And of course, every phenomenal example of architecture surely deserves a selfie with Heart-shaped sunglasses, am I right??

     Famous Chain Bridge in Budapest! This is a weird picture actually...self-taken..and I think we were trying to get the lion in between us!

 

Der schönen blauen Donau!! View from the bridge :)

 

        After crossing over the bridge to the Buda side we decided  to climb up to the Buda castle! It was quite a climb....

The castle:

 View of the Danube from the Castle. So pretty!!!!

And here is St. Matthias' Church

 

         I took many more pictures, but they're not important! Budapest was a gorgeous city, and we were so lucky to have Hungarian professors take us through the city they know and love! The only thing I didn't have time to see, were the Baths...guess I'll just have to go back someday!!