A few odd notes on getting around Budapest. I recently, at the suggestion of – Joy -, took the bus up and walked down from the Citadella. Beautiful day, but it brought to mind a few words of caution.
When entering a bus other than the articulated ones, always use the front door. It isn’t always required but it’s a bunch easier and faster. With the articulated buses use the front door when the sign on the front of the bus says to and show your pass or ticket.
Move quickly in or out as buses don’t stop for long and other people want to get in and out.
If you ever wanted to drive a Formula 1 car, standing in a bus in Budapest is a close second. They move extremely fast and stop very quickly. Curves and turns can be sudden and throw you off balance. So, hold on. If you stand in the front you can watch all of the near misses.
Tram and metro doors stay open for 10 to 15 seconds. That’s barely enough if the conveyance was full and they are all getting off at the stop you are getting on at. Move briskly. The local pushing past you isn’t rude, he just wants to get home.
Stair, steps, doors: I believe that when we are raised among certain norms our mind subconsciously identifies and processes visual information. When the visual cues are absent our mind makes mistakes.
Obvious, is we all know the English drive on the wrong side of the road and still we look the wrong way at crosswalks. At least the English have been kind enough to put up signs correcting us. Probably prevented more than a few deaths.
Then there are the more subtle cues. Like stair nosings of a different color. Lack of a stair nosing color indicates you are at the bottom. Ooooops, nope, one more step, and down you go.
All steps are the same vertical dimension, no need to look. Nope, down you go.
Wobbly? Reach for the handrail. Oooops, no handrail, down you go.
Walk out the door, no landing, immediately 2 steps, and down you go.
Sidewalks and plaza are for pedestrians … well, except when there is a bike lane through the middle of it. Bikes are a nuisance. They run you down on the sidewalks and in the bike lanes and on the streets. Can’t be worse? Sure, who said that tram tracks could not go through the middle of a pedestrian plaza with no rails, no separation, no warning lights or ding, ding bells? Sure, they can.
For the most part the toilets in the city are clean and sanitary. Most are Co-ed. Some charge but not many. But none of the toilet rooms and certainly not the stalls are accessible to someone in a wheelchair. But that doesn’t matter because as often as not, they are located in the basement at the bottom of twisting narrow stairs.
All of this is part of the charm.
