Budapest

August 20-22, 2015

By Robin Leabman

March 28^th, 2016

I had a trip to Budapest in time for the festivities of St. Stephen‘s Day, which is similar to our Independence Day with fireworks, concerts, street vendors, and partiers. I spent most of the day on my own, wandering around the riverfront area, people watching, and taking pictures. I wasn‘t moving around too well… Hobbling actually, because I sprained my foot the day before, slipping on the airplane's airstair back in Washington DC.

I limped past Parliament to a good perch for the fireworks. My hotel was actually right where the fireworks would be launched, but I wanted to capture the fireworks from afar with the backdrop of Budapest‘s landmarks. The pain and limping was worth it!

The following day, after sleeping in and trying to lick my jet lag, my crew and I wandered around the city to take in the jovial mood of Hungary‘s holiday weekend. We wandered up to their hilltop monument, watched a zither-maker play his zithers, ate street food, and generally enjoyed as much as we could take in during our short stay here.

The two days we were in Budapest are the only two days out of the year that this bridge is closed to motorized vehicles. It was a great opportunity to show Dane and Angela how to make all those moving people on the bridge disappear in photos by playing around with some long exposures.

Some locals, one of them the head coach for Hungary's national hockey team, saw us sitting in the middle of the street taking pictures and struck up a conversation with us. We had a few laughs, I took their picture, and then they showed us around the city. We were all sad we only had 48 hours in Budapest, but the people and city's beauty make me want to return as soon as possible to continue exploring this delightful place.