Tuesday, 2 June 2015

Inferno - snapshots from the perimeters of the movie set


Are you a movie buff ? Then you must already know that Tom Hanks has been in Budapest to shoot the Dan Brown thriller Inferno. 
No , I did not even get a glimpse of him . Pic is just a screenshot snuck from someone else's instagram account.
That's his son Chet Hanx a rapper . Do not confuse him with Che Det the Malaysian blogger.
 St.Stephen's Basillica is in the background. 




Budapest - bicycle friendly city


As per the title , it's true.
Budapest is a bicycle friendly city.

You may rent one via the public sharing system, where a week's use will cost you only 2000 forints.....



Monday, 1 June 2015

Steeple chasing escalators on the Budapest metro


For the first time visitor , hopping onto the escalators that take you to the bowels of earth is like taking an adrenaline thumping ride on some scream machine. 
Holy sheeet....I haven't been to the one in D.C. but this brutal one at Szell Karman Ter is enough to make me feel faint .
See how small the people are at the end of the line !
Don't know whether this is higher than the one at Rakoczi Ter because that one was so jaw dropping , my stomach churned till I didn't even dare hold my cam up !



The Budapest 7 day travelcard


Currently, the 7 day travel card costs 4950 forints.
And that entitles you to unlimited travel on buses , streetcars, trams, the underground, trolleys , cogwheel even local trains within Budapest ! If I am not mistaken you may also hop onto certain public boats by the Danube too but since I didn't try that out, can't confirm it. 

Should you take the monthly pass, that would require a passport sized photo ID which you can easily snap at a mobile photo booth for around 1000 forints. 

Here's a complete list of prices. The Hungarians thought of everything. There are even dog and bicycle passes. 


The city is huge . I could have rushed it from the get go but I chose not to because no way, I hate that.... that's not the way I wanna travel. As a result, I did not get to ride the cogwheel . No matter, I was having too much fun exploring the city itself and this way, the memories do stick !

However, the week long pass did accord me rides on one of the world's oldest electrified subway line in the world ....
see the leather holders.


Getting acquainted with Keleti Pályaudvar



I am on Baross Square and that's a statue of Baross Gábor, the Hungarian statesman who managed the feat of connecting the massive Austro-Hungarian railway into one efficient system that worked like a charm from the 1800s till today.