Wednesday night I ventured out to the Pest side. And before I blurb about it, there is no better time than now to briefly discuss pronunciation. For you English nerds: pɛʃt. And for the rest: peSHt. Seriously, don’t be afraid to pronounce it correctly. It won’t bite you on the way out of your mouth.
So we walked over to the Pest side of the Danube. It takes about 15 minutes to walk down to the Chain Bridge, another 10 to walk across, and voila, you’re on the Pest side of the river. At night this is a particularly magnificent walk, as the bridge, monuments, even river are lit by what seems to be a thousand tiny moons. The stone, marble, and brick are even more brilliant than during the day, no offense, sun.
Behind the glitzy art nouveau Gresham Palace Four Seasons, there is the beautiful Szent István tér capstoned by the stunning Szent István Bazilika (St. Stephen’s Basilica—Budapest’s largest church). Another block or so and you’d reach Vaci Utca, which is the street for shopping in Budapest. I haven’t been yet, but probably will soon. Especially because the word floating around the ex-pat circles is that there is an American-taste-bud-approved Mexican cantina around that part of town.
We stopped at Café Negro and sat on the large outside terrace facing the square and basilica. It was about midnight so the crowd was buzzing with locals and tourists. Slightly chilly, we sunk low into the deep leather armchairs. Even though the drinks were Manhattan prices, the atmosphere of sitting out on the promenade at that time of night with the sights and sounds of the square would have been worth double the charge.
As I re-read what I write here, I keep catching myself in this travel voice and it’s a mixture of nostalgia and awe and really annoying to me, but I just can’t help being happy here. But I promise as soon as I stop experiencing things here that waver along perfect, then I’ll get back to my usual cynical sass.
In the following video, my magyar tour guide and translator extraordinaire gives you a brief panorama of the night from the national gallery, the Chain Bridge, and the cafe.
b u d a j e s t 
I think Georgie should be a tour guide. She is sooooooo cute! The Danube looks so cool and once again I say–I am SOOOOOO JEALOUS.
Good luck teaching he–she–his–her! Doesn’t the Hungarian language distinguish between masculine and feminin?
Love
m
Thank you for comment, Mary.
The thing is with the he/she/it is yes, we have only one word for this, and this is “ő”. As one of my favourite book describes it, the Hungarian language expresses the he/she/it as one. It says, it’s because the Hungarian language recognizes human beings, as they are, not genders.
On one the pictures of the Chain Bridge there appears to be some graffiti. I wonder if the graffiti is in Hungarian or if it is a universal language. It looks the same as our
“gang” graffiti!!
So regarding the book you are quoting, in the Hungarian language males and females are are considered equal. That’s super! And so liberating. Is there any gender discrimination?
Well, graffiti are everywhere all over in Hungary, in Budapest and even in smaller cites. Sometimes they are so abstract, I can’t tell the language. Yesterday I saw a graffiti on the Erzsébet híd: Jim was here – with huge letters and in a very simple style.
And if we consider the language itself, there is no discrimination at all in Hungarian language which is kind of unique – as far as I know other lanuguages.
In other ways, of course there are, just like in any other European countries or nationalities. But we are trying our best to make the remaining discrimination diminished…
I don’t know if the Buda — or pest — has a Ministry of Tourism, but your posts and photos are doing more to encourage visits than anything it could do. IMO
By the way, are you and your chums making plans to see the movie event of the year, coming in October?
See: http://www.prontherun.wordpress.com
W.
well thank you. it’s high praise. and i’d love to audition for the role 🙂 Budapest’s Ministry of Tourism official English blog!
Jessica- Simply amazing. The pictures and your adventures sound so thrilling. Hungary seems like an amazing country. When will you be staring to teach or have you already?