Touring the Inside

So, I signed up for a tour of the Parliament building. Inside, it is a maze of corridors, stairs, and rooms of nearly every size all filled with plush carpet, tiled floors, dark wood accents, stained glass windows, and gilded surfaces.

It is a remarkable place. It must surely be inspiring to those who work there, even if they've been working there for some time.

As you can see this is much like a secular version of St. Stephan's (or it is a religious version of this place). It is not hard to image aides walking quickly and quietly along these halls transmitting information from one MP to another. It is a place that demands silence of the occupants.

Even if the decor is some sort of imitation (which it isn't), this place must have cost a fortune to build. It is the largest parliament building in Europe and it must certainly be one of the most ornate.

It makes the halls of power in the US look downright ordinary in comparison.

 

Hungarian Parliament

Before taking you inside to see a little of this huge building, here are a few (more) shots of the exterior.

The Missing Visit to Kossuth Square

Sitting astride his horse, Rákóczi Ferenc, commands a place of pride just outside the Hungarian Parliament. I have tried to digest a short statement of his role in Hungarian history but, alas, it is too complicated for me to do it justice. I'll just say here that he was nobleman who fought to gain greater independence for Hungary from the Hapsburg empire in the early 1700's. Although his efforts failed, he set important precedents for future attempts. More details can be found on Wikipedia.

A Walk About the Old Jewish Quarter

Even though the buildings in this city have taken a beating from two world wars, and the soviet occupation, there are still many beautiful places to be seen in a stroll through town. There are many art deco treasures such as the one above to be found.

Stopping in for a Bathe

The Szechenyi Baths is a great place to visit when you are in Budapest. It is clean and very well run. I buy my tickets online ahead of time and getting in is easy. It is 29 Euros to get in and for one Euro more you can to rent a changing room.

'Long About Midnight

Our efforts in attracting birds paid off handsomely long about midnight on this day of our photographing adventure. We set up in a field alongside the road near a couple of logs for bird perches. You need to remember that this happened in early June and the days were very long here at 64.5 degrees north. The sun barely set...it dips below the horizon (well, at the below the hills to the north of us) a little bu 1:30-1:45 am and is back up again by 3:00 or 3:30 am. By 11:00 pm the sun is very low and is mostly just sliding along near the horizon and the low angle light is a special time to photograph.

The Art of Bird Finding

Photographing birds in the wild is a hit and miss game. The first thing you need is to know where the birds like to be and what their habits are. You've got to meet them where they are. Next, you've got to be there at the right time. This involves varying amounts of luck. Yes, you can choose, as we did to be in the right place at the right time of year. But there is still the problem of being within photographing range of a birds at any particular moment.

Palette Cleanser: Alaskan Birds

There are several sorts of loons that are found in Alaska in early June. However, only one of these, the Red Throated Loon is found in the smaller ponds. This is, as I have been told by our tour guide, because the Red Throated  is lighter than the other loon and can simply take flight from a standing (sitting) start. The other loons, being heavier, need a "runway" to get up to speed before they can fly. This opens possibilities for the Red Throated in feeding and nesting in the smaller ponds that the other loons do not have.

More Reminders of 1956

My notes are not complete by this point in the tour... getting tired and hot. But I believe that this is a now some sort of community center. It was clearly once a high school since it says this up at the top. However a high school in Hungary is probably not the same as one in the US. Could have once been part of the Obuda University with is not in the yellow building to the left.

District 8 Art and Architecture

Near the Rákóczi Market Hall is this wonderful doorway. This restored building clearly has some beautiful details that have been restored.

From District 7 to District 8

In this part of town, there is lots of reminders that you are in the place where the 1956 revolution occured. One of these reminders is the reproduction of the Time magazine cover from 1957 declaring the Hungarian Freedom Fighter to be Man of the Year. You will notice that the flag has a hole cut in the middle. The Russians had added a red star to the middle of the Hungarian flag to indicate that it was a colony of theirs. The revolutionaries cut out this star.

Back Out on the Street

There is also a tradition here of posting stickers to express opinions and make protests. This has the advantage that you can prepare the statement in private and then post it quickly, unobserved.

Above there are two observations on the world. the one at the top is simply making fun of Andy Warhol's famous can of Campbell's Soup (In case you can't quite read it, it says " Warhol's Overrated F*king Art"). the lower one is more complicated.

More Remnants of the Holocaust.

As we pass through this hallway in the old, worn building, we come to a courtyard that is completed on the other three size by refurbished buildings (or sections of this one block-sized building. In this courtyard is a wall. "The" wall.

Street Art and Interiors

This is an unusual work of street art. Mostly, we are used to see murals or the occasional statue, standing free in a square. This one celebrates a rare human being, Carl Lutz. Wikipedia tells the story...

Walking Tour of the Old Jewish Quarter

I hired myself a private walking tour about Districts 7 (the Jewish Quarter) and 8 to see some street art and learn a few things. My guide, Attila Hofle, was a great companion and guide. I can highly recommend him (visit Budapestflow.com). One of the first places we walked to was Rumbach Sebestyén utca where we find this grand synagogue. Designed by Otto Wagner in a moorish style, the interior is octagonal.

Ethnographic Museum - 2

This lavishly carved and painted Sicilian cart was acquired by the museum in 1848. The same type of cart is still found in Sicily today in parades, wedding and other festivities.

The Ethnographic Museum

When we were in Budapest last, the Ethnographic Museum was closed. It was in the process of packing up everything and preparing to move it to the modern new digs across town in the park near Heros Square. It is not finally open. There is a large building filled with meeting spaces and presumably rooms filled with items and places to restore them. while what we saw was pretty amazing, it seemed like a small display considering the size of the building.

Above is a traditional Hungarian coat made of thick, fulled material and wonderfully decorated. This coat was displayed at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair. It was commonly worn over the shoulders with the sleeves empty.

The Ceiling of the Church of Anthony of Padua

Always the ceiling. This is place where the details, almost invisible from the floor, abound.

The Church of Anthony of Padua

There is an intensity to the beauty here. No one color dominates the scene, yet there are colors everywhere that draw the eye. The details draw you into the scene and into the right frame of mind.

Dobo Istvan Ter...The Church of Anthony of Padua

Back in the Dobo Istvan Square, we find the Church of Anthony of Padua. If it looks like we are moving from one church to another...well we are. It is very warm in the sunshine and the streets are filled with folks here for a some sort of street fair (lots of stalls selling things we don't need and "musicians" playing things are really don't want to hear). We've already eaten so ca can't find an excuse for visiting a restaurant again. Thus, we head to the churches to see what we can see.

Before we move ahead with more photos, let me pause to wish all my US friends a happy 4th of July. While there a great many things about which to be unhappy about in the US at the moment, there is still hope that we can redeem the mess and recover the country we all know and love. Keep your fingers crossed and work hard to reclaim our future. Now back to the regularly scheduled programming.

More of the Cistercian Church of Saint-Bernard-et-Saint-François-de-Borgia

Unlike St. Stephen's Basilica or the Opera house in Budapest where the gold ornamentation is wall-to-wall, this place uses gold as an accent with the heavy lifting done by things in gray and white.

Cistercian Church of Saint-Bernard-et-Saint-François-de-Borgia

Eger is a city of churches, many of which we did not visit. It was a warm, crowded day and we ran out of steam pretty quickly. But this unusual one caught my eye.

A Visit to Eger...Walking the Streets

One place we wanted to go on our previous trip was the town of Eger. It is about a 2 hour train ride away and rumored to have many things worth seeing. The first such thing we saw as this statue of Dobo Istvan in one of the central squares.

Kossuth Lajos tér and Falk Miksa utca

"Tér" is Hungarian for square and "utca" is the word for street. This square is the place where the famous Hungarian Parliament building is found.

Váci utca

Once we were refreshed at the cafe, we continued away from the market along Váci utca. This street is lined with shops and eateries for various sorts. Everything from ice cream vendors to Italian/Hungarian restaurants are found here.

The Central Market

No trip to Budapest would be complete for us without a visit to the Central Market. A big place filled with lots of meat and veg vendors as well as a few places that sell spices (lots of paprika), honey, and tchotchkes.

St. Stephen's Basilica, Back Inside to the Treasury

With a view of the right bell tower (again, as viewed looking toward the front of basilica from the street) and the Budapest Eye in the background, we leave the breezy walkway and head back inside the basilica to visit the treasury.

St. Stephen's Basilica, Inside and Out

And so we end the tour of the interior with a fitting look at the altar area. This is truly an extravagantly decorated place, clearly meant to impress. that it certainly does.

St. Stephen's Basilica

This place is quite large, but certainly not immense. Yet, the space, at times, overwhelms. The view above that is looking across the center aisle, leads you into a space that is truly grand on any sort of human sized endeavor.

St. Stephen's Basilica

This building, on the grand scale of bygone times, is actually quite recent. It was completed in 1905. Wikipedia tells us that in 1868, the dome collapsed and the whole thing had to demolished for a fresh start. So even though construction was underway for 54 years, you could say that they only really started in 1868 since they started over then.

Birds and the Tundra

My ability to photograph birds on the wing is limited. But when they alight (and hold still for a bit) I can do fairly well.It is especially nice to find them on the tundra with all the colors and textures it presents.

St. Stephen's Basilica Continued

Without the bustling crowd visiting the church of our previous visit, I am able to photograph some things I either could not get a clear shot of or found so difficult to shoot, I gave up on. This time all was easy.

Another Installment of Alaskan Birds

There are three roads that connect Nome to the region around them. There are no roads that connect it to the rest of the world or even a larger town. The population of Nome is fewer than 4,000.

One of the roads extends north into the interior of the Seward Peninsula. It connect to a small place about 70 miles away called Teller, hence it is called the Nome-Teller Road. It crosses several rivers and in the marsh lands near this road we find the Savanna Sparrow.

St. Stephen's Basilica

On our first outing into Budapest, we stopped for a a coffee and a roll (of course we stopped for food first) and contemplated the Basilica for a while. We decided to get tickets for a visit even though we've been there before. Unlike our previous visits, this day is warm, sunny, and we are early enough to miss the crowds.

The Long Tailed Duck in Breeding Plumage

As we work through the bird photos in something like chronological order, we are still well within the first day's adventure. Today I bring you the Long Tailed Duck. They don't normally look like this but this is breeding season and everybody has to (re)dress for the occasion. This fellow is no different.

A Taste of Things to Come - Andrassy Avenue, Budapest

On out first outing in Budapest, we stopped at the Opera station of the M1 subway to get a nice breakfast cake at the restaurant in the hotel next door. However, it was only serving the hotel residents at the time so we had to continue on down the street.

The Birding Saga Begins

 

Today I will begin the birding saga. It will be, at best, sporadic since it takes me time to process the images, sort the good from the bad, figure out my notes about who each bird is and get the results to the blog.

Last of the Flowers for a While

Today marks the end of the parade of flowers for a while. I know you must be as relieved as I am. Tomorrow brings images from other places, outside of Washington and a much needed refresh to the images here on the blog.

Flowers on a Sunny Day

The bees have really been buzzing about today. As you can see, there is lots of pollen on the petals of the flower from the disturbance of this recent visitor.

It's Pollination Time!

These guys are...well, just busy as bees around here. The bushes and flowerbeds are chock full of bumblebees and their ilk.

Bumblebees etc.

While it still raining with a continued frequency, it is easier these days to find a break where there is a little sunshine to venture out into the world. Aside from the dreary-wearies we get from from all the rain and clouds, we do get lots of fresh, green plants to grow everywhere.

Colors and Shapes Galore

Another bold specimen filling the screen with colors and textures.

A Few Flowers to Soothe Your Eyes

Even the common flowers bring a splash of color to our lives.

Not everything graceful is a flower. Sometimes it is just a frond of grass on the business end.

More Fun Along the Streets of Home

I continue to bring you photos of small, hidden sights along the streets of home. Perhaps my showing you these things in a new way, you can also see them as you walk about your neighborhood.

Things to See While I Wander the Alaskan Tundra

I really love the range of pinks in these flowers so I keep shooting them.

The More Subtle Colors of Summer

With the (slightly) warmer temps* come a burst of colors in all sorts of places.

Green Things

We are surrounded by the encroachment of chaos and no time is more naturally chaotic than spring. If you think about it, many of the jobs we've created are simply to hold this chaos at bay...landscaping, dam and jetty building, even home building.