Over the past few weeks, I’ve visited two amazing European capital cities – Berlin and Budapest. Eastern Europe has become an area in which I’ve recently become very interested in and these two cities certainly gave me a glimpse into the history, politics and culture of the region.
BERLIN…
Berlin is very different from many other European capitals. There is no real centre because of its fragmentation in the post-war period and there is an absence of grandeur in the architecture that is so often present in many western European cities. There are lots of tower blocks, industrial buildings and of course a new wave of modern structures that dominate the city’s landscape. However, despite its somewhat “ugly” facade, Berlin is a city full of exciting surprises and huge potential. In many ways it reminded me of Glasgow (where I go to university) – both are stuck with the “ugly” label but they are some of the most culturally vibrant places in Europe.
Brandenburg Gate
My friend and I stayed in the Alexanderplatz area of Berlin which lives up to the label and is mainly composed of grey concrete block style buildings. Nevertheless, Alexanderplatz proved a relatively cheap and easy location from which to explore the rest of the city.
Having never visited Berlin before I was eager to tick off a lot of the main tourist attractions; the TV tower, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. As we were working in Berlin for two of the six days we were there, there was a lot to pack into a a very short time. However, a boat cruise down the River Spree allowed us to see most places in one journey.
As a history student I could not leave Berlin without visiting a museum. Berlin is a city that has managed to present its very troubled recent history in a very poignant and effective way. Unfortunately, because we had very little time we were only able to visit one of the museums.
We visited Topography des Terrors which is a museum that serves as a documentation centre for the central institutions of Nazi persecution and terror. The site itself serves as the perfect place to uncover the dark secrets of the people who wielded this terror, as it was once the headquarters of the Nazi secret police – the SS.
Topography des Terrors – museum
The two main exhibits that make up the museum are well set out and free to access. One exhibit runs as a timeline along the wall outside the museum and explores the historical context behind the terror that was taking place. Inside are lots of photographs and documents relating to the lives of individuals who suffered at the hands of the SS and a closer looks at the seemingly normal lives many of the SS officers led.
One of the best parts about visiting Berlin is having a friend who lives there to show you around. I am lucky enough to have kept in touch with my German pen-friend – who I’ve been writing letters to since I was eight. She recently moved to Berlin to try and successfully audition her way into drama school and has been living and working in Berlin for almost a year. The area where she lives is a trendy, culturally diverse area of Berlin called Kreuzberg. Kreuzberg is rich in restaurants specialising in indian and turkish cuisine and has a number of very cool pubs and clubs.
Pub in Kreuzberg
My friend took us to one pub called ‘The Jungle Book’ – a really amazing little bar with trees growing inside it! We also watched the Germany vs Ghana game in another pub in Kreuzberg where the barman was so laid back and the furnishings so minimal that it felt like you were entering into someone’s living room. The food, drink,atmosphere of the area and the people made me fall a little bit love with Kreuzberg and left me wishing I lived there myself.
Berlin Wall
There is something really special about Berlin in that it has not grown too big for its boots. It still feels like a city a little unsure of itself (most likely because of its recent history) but it is also a city that is moving forward and excited about what the future holds for it. There is far less arrogance in what the city has to offer amongst the people living there in comparison to other European capitals. For that reason Berlin seems like a really interesting place to live because there are pockets of the city that are redeveloping and emerging at a very rapid and successful rate.
BUDAPEST…
Budapest was a very different trip for all sorts of reasons. The main one being that it was a group holiday. I stayed in two hostels in the city with three of my friends from school.
Budapest was our destination of choice for simple reasons; cheap flights, good weather and the promise of being the best European city to visit on a budget (according to the Daily Mail). Perfect for four students.
Before visiting I shamefully did very little research. One of my Hungarian friends at university had told me about some of the main attractions but aside from that I was pretty clueless on what the city had to offer. Thankfully, Budapest did not disappoint us.
The city is often referred to in travel guides and blogs as the “The Paris of the East” and the beautiful architecture certainly makes this a fitting description. Budapest lies on the River Danube and standing by the river or on one of the bridges gives the best perspective of where to go sightseeing. From the Pest side of the river (where we were staying) you can see a series of colossal landmarks that are scattered across the Buda side. These include the Fisherman’s Bastion, Buda Castle and Gellert Statue (see below for images).
Fisherman’s Bastion
Buda Castle
At Buda Castle
At Gellert Statue
All we needed to do was spot the landmarks and then figure out how to get to them. The monuments and statues on the Buda side are surprisingly close together once you’ve survived the trek uphill to reach them. However, there are funiculars (cable cars) that take you up to the top in the space of a few minutes if you’re feeling a little breathless from all the walking and the heat! The Buda monuments could easily all be seen within the space of one day but given we had ten days in Budapest we decided to take a couple of days visiting them. This meant that we saw spectacular views both during the day and at sunset and fully appreciated the beauty and grandeur of the place.
During our stay in Budapest we split our time between two different hostels. The hostels are very cheap to stay in when compared with other European cities. Our second hostel only costing us £6 a night! The good thing about staying in two different hostels was that we saw two different sides of the city. Our first hostel was on one of the main streets but in quite a upmarket part of the city. Although, it was a little further from the main attractions it was conveniently close to the ruin bars and clubs – where Budapest’s vibrant nightlife is concentrated.
The ruin bars and clubs are now world-famous but they are a native creation of Budapest. After World War II many of Budapest’s buildings had been abandoned and quickly became rubble-filled shells of what they once were. Later on, as one tour-guide told us, people decided to turn them into galleries, late night cafes, bars and clubs. The ruin bars have developed from something created by locals for locals to become places ranked as some of the top nightlife spots in the world. My friends and I had great nights out there and met lots of people from all different countries. The main bars/clubs in the area are Szimpla (where we usually ended up each night), Instant and Grandio Bar. The nice thing about these places are that somehow the mismatched furniture, graffiti, art, plaster free walls and all variations of music make for a really relaxed and fun atmosphere.
Our evenings in Budapest were full of nightlife entertainment but our days were jam-packed with historical and cultural discoveries. One day we spent three hours in the Hungarian National Museum. A fascinating albeit tiring day of finally making up for my complete ignorance to historically significant events concerning Hungary, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 or the persecution suffered by Hungarian Jews in World War II. One of my friends and I also visited the Hungarian national graveyard which was in a particularly depressing and eerie part of the city. There were, what looked like, very recent memorials to those who lost their lives in 1956. However, we quickly left the graveyard after feeling we were being closely watched by a guard – probably wondering what two British girls could find remotely interesting about Hungarian graves.
A free Jewish History walking tour which we joined on one of our last days was particularly interesting. Our guide took us to the former Jewish quarter in Budapest and explained the dark and troubled history of the area. We visited two synagogues – one being the second largest in the world, after New York. However, the most poignant part of the tour was standing in a former Jewish ghetto which had now been turned into cheap apartments. Most of the people living there now, we were told, completely unaware of the torture that was once inflicted in the grounds where they are living. Across Budapest there are quite a few Holocaust memorials but the most touching one had to be the shoes on the Danube. In front of the magnificent parliament building lies a memorial to the Jewish citizens who stood naked on the banks of the ice-covered Danube in World War II and were shot by fascist militia.
Jewish WWII memorial – on the Danube
One of my favourite days during our time in Budapest was when we rented bikes. The bikes were relatively cheap to rent for the day and we planned to cycle to a market on the outskirts of the city. Perhaps, with a little more research and thought we would have realised that “vintage markets” in Budapest are not quite the same as British ones. When we finally reached the market it was in a rundown area and the items on sale looked more like car boot sale junk than what we were expecting. A few locals seemed curious as to why we had arrived but the main disappointment was that the market had just closed as we’d been locking up our bikes. Despite this, the bikes gave us the freedom to explore more of the city than we thought possible during a day. We visited Margaret Island – a place on the river full of parks and fountains before racing back to bike rental place to get our deposits back. Somehow, in our rush to get back we all lost each other and one of my friends spent about twenty minutes lost in the centre of Budapest trying to find the rest of us.
Finally, one of the highlights of our trip was the famous Szechenyi Bath Party. Although, we had all been unsure of whether it was worth the money and a bit of an overrated experience from what we’d heard but we decided to give it a try. Budapest is a city famous for its thermal baths and spas – which are a popular visit for tourists and locals during the day. However, one or two nights every month in summer the baths host “sparties” (essentially a nightclub in the baths) which have become a favourite with young inter-railers. The bath party is unlike anything I’ve ever been to and for that reason it was worth it.
One thing we did struggle getting used to in Budapest was the money. Everything is pretty cheap but the Hungarian currency makes it seem like everything is very expensive – £1 = 398 Hungarian Forint. Therefore, having to pay for a bag of crisps with a 1000 note felt very strange. The language is also too difficult to try and understand or at the very least pronounce. I was told it’s the second hardest language to learn in Europe, after Finnish.
Budapest is a fantastic city to visit with a group of friends and I think we made the most of our time there. The city is somewhere that is becoming increasingly popular with tourists. At the moment it is peacefully free from constant huge crowds and flashing cameras that surround the main attractions in other European cities. However, I doubt that it can remain this way for much longer.
curlywrites 