So, I seem to be having a thing with Budapest--just made my 4th visit and for the third time visited in mid to late May because I need to see the nesting storks on Margit sziget. There are other reasons, like my job needs me present during the summer, and I like to avoid hideously hot weather, but the storks make me very happy indeed. I've done many if not all of the tourist things--sorry, not tempted by the baths--so my visits now are more personal and this trip I really needed some relaxing time.
I arrived around 3 pm on Tuesday the 15th and bought my 7 day transit pass (hetjegy) at the airport and was taken expeditiously by Fo Taxi to my new location (I previously loved staying off Fovam ter near the river) at Hotel Medosz on Jokai ter, just off Andrassy ut and 2 blocks to the Oktogon metro stop. Taxi cost 6800 HUF. I was briefly tempted by the new airport express bus, but I saw it twice during my stay and both times it was jam-packed with people, standing room only--no thanks, not the way I like to arrive or depart if I can avoid it. I liked this hotel a lot--the lobby needs renovating but the room was fabulous; queen bed, quiet, enormous and with a wall of windows so great light, excellent breakfast included, with a big terrace with a panoramic view of Castle Hill, St Stephens and Parliament--perfect for a beer in the evening or coffee in the morning. It was lovely and made my 6 nights very comfortable.
I immediately set off by tram to Margit sziget, the little zoo is open til 6 and I spent a good hour there communing with the birds--3 pairs of nesting storks, a 4th pair in a separate area and no signs of chicks. The work on the island seems done and the bus that runs through it is running again--that helps as the nature preserve is a good 1/2 mile onto the island.
First full day I spent in Vienna--an easy 21/2 hr train trip and I enjoyed a day wandering this beautiful city, riding the Riesenrad and having lunch at a place I love in the Prater called Englischer Reiter--the grossmutterschnitzel is fabulous--seeing Beyond Klimt at the Lower Belvedere and just enjoying a pleasant day. Some of the trams that circle the Ring area weren't running due to some kind of work being done, a minor aggravation.
I finally visited the Hospital in the Rock--what an incredibly interesting museum! Bottom of Castle Hill, there's an elevator down to it and the 1 hour tour was just fascinating. Then I happened upon some kind of solemn ceremony commemorating Something Important at a monument in the square complete with attractive soldiers, huszars, marching band, cars being towed, rain--it was all quite thrilling.
I made a trip to Pecs; had bought my train ticket from Kelenfold (very easy to collect my Keleti and Kelenfold tickets bought online from the machine at Nyugati) and arrived at the station and it seemed I needed to get on a bus--but why? And to where?! No one else--i.e. the Hungarians--seemed perturbed so off I went on a bus to Szazhalombatta, a good 45 minutes away. Nice to see outside Budapest proper. The radio on the bus was playing American rock music and that was oddly soothing. At Szazhalombatta there was a train waiting and we got on it and arrived in Pecs exactly on time--return trip exactly the same. It was odd, and I have no idea why it happened. A bus driver in Pecs kindly gave me a free ride a couple of stops and I started with their ethnographic museum--very small, probably not interesting to most people--then onto the Csontvary, Vasarely and fabulous Zsolnay museums. Lunch outdoors at the main square and more wandering--it's really a lovely little town, worth a day or overnight stay. There's little to no English spoken--they are kind but seemed unsure of what to do with me.