Budapest y Estambul: Eres El Hombre Con Más Suerte y El Hombre Con Menos Suerte

Uh oh.  I did it again.  I went on a trip and I didn't blog about it.  I don't know what's gotten into me, I used to love writing about my adventures and reliving them through writing and photos.  Somehow, it's gotten away from me.  I could continue to make false promises, but that's not who I am.  It's who I was, but not who I am no, I swear.

And there were baths!

Anyways, the last trip I took was to two amazing cities and countries.  Over semana santa, or holy week, I went to Budapest, Hungary and Istanbul, Turkey.  Budapest was just like any European city that I had been to, but it had its quirks, which I will get into later.  Istanbul, on the other hand, had much more Islamic influence that was noted in much of the architecture.  That being said, it was also extremely European, even on the Asian side.

Having been to Vienna, I saw many similarities with Budapest.  For instance they have a similar looking palace and architecture.  Both cities also have a rich history, however Budapest was on the receiving end of many empires and cultures including the Austrians.  They also were sacked by the Ottomans and bombed by the Nazis.  After all of this damage, Budapest has become a cheap city with lots of buildings that represent its tough history.

The mosque

On that note I want to mention my favorite part of Budapest, the ruin bars.  These bars were once buildings: cafeterias, apartment buildings, theaters, that they were going to destroy, but someone bought them and made them into a bar.  That means that we were drinking in wide open buildings with different rooms.  Some places used these rooms to play different styles of music.  Some people used these rooms to make some quieter places outside of the loud bass of the songs.  There were some with a giant dance floor and some with giant figures hanging from the ceiling.  Each place was a different hipster's paradise.

Other than bar life, Budapest also has the second largest synagogue in the world.  This religious building is absolutely stunning from the outside.  Unfortunately, we didn't want to pay the steep price to enter, but I'm sure the inside would have been just as spectacular.  One site that we did enter was the palace.  Unlike Vienna, this palace didn't have much to offer.  The entrance fee was surprisingly cheap compared to the other palaces that I've been to in Europe and it's because there really doesn't remain too much from all the different eras.

One interesting sight in Budapest was the St. Stephen's Basicila, this large church that was right next to where we were staying in the Air BNB.  It was truly stunning, but what really stuck with me was the original hand of St. Stephen.  Yeah, they had it cased in a room and it looked just like you would expect a hand to look like after 1,000 years.

And this doesn't even come close to all that we saw in Budapest and we were there for only 2 and a half days!

We were in Istanbul for 5 days and boy was it worth it.  Budapest was similar to Vienna because they are both smaller cities that are easily walkable.  Istanbul, on the other hand, is a gigantic city with half of the city being on the Asian continent.  It isn't as easily walked, but that doesn't mean we didn't do it.

Looking at Asia from the European side

Istanbul has three main sections.  One is where we stayed, called Beyoglu, and then there is the Golden Horn with many beautiful mosques, and finally there's the Asian side, which doesn't have too much, but is an experience in itself.  Now, I'll rate each side and my favorite parts of each zone.

The Turkish drink tea with every meal

We started with Beyoglu.  Now, I said before about how Istanbul isn't as European, but I don't want to convey that it doesn't have a European feel because it does.  Especially in Beyoglu where there were many buildings that had the stature of European styled buildings.  The biggest difference for me was really the mosques.  I don't think I had ever seen a mosque in my life until I went to Istanbul and they were everywhere.  You could find them easily because they had at least on large pillar outside of a court yard.  This is where they used to climb to call the worship.  Now, they use speakers to call to worship.  It was strange being in a country where the primary religion was Islam, however that soon passed.

Anyways, in Beyoglu, my favorite part was definitely a palace.  For those non-histoy buffs out there, there were two giant empires that called Istanbul their capital.  These empires were the Byzantine and the Ottoman.  The Ottomans were the most recent one and they have many structures still standing.  That's not to say that the Byzantines don't.  In fact, many of the standing Ottoman structures still hold Byzantine architecture.  In this case, my favorite site was an Ottoman palace.  When the Ottomans got bored, they built a new palace and this was the most recent one.  It was amazing to see the luxurious life that they led.  The theme for this palace was gold and glass.  They actually have the largest chandelier in Europe! A gift from Queen Victoria.  Anyways, this was by far my favorite place that we entered and one of the more beautiful ones.

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

The Golden Horn was the second zone that we visited and it was chock-full of mosques.  It even houses the Hagia Sofia, an old mosque that houses Byzantine art and the Blue Mosque, which was my favorite one.  It was so grand from the outside looking like a castle and mountains and the painted walls on the inside left you breathless.  What's great about mosques is that they are free to enter.  You do need to conform to their religious laws which means that you have to remove your shoes and women must cover their heads with scarves.

The Golden Horn also some of the oldest cisterns in the city.  Although they used to be used for water storage, they are a popular tourist attraction now.  I didn't realize it until I went down there, but I had read a book where the cisterns play a major role.  I was walking and I thought, this place seems familiar, almost as if I had been there before.  Later, I looked it up and I had read about it in a book!  Another fun activity on this side of Istanbul is the Grand Bazaar, a giant market that was built centuries ago and still exists to this day.  Now, they sell knock-offs for fractions of the price and just haggling is an experience in itself.  It was something I had never done before and I ended up buying presents for some of you back home.

Finally, the Asian side.  We spent a full day here and we quickly learned that there weren't many special monuments here.  We did have the best Turkish Breakfast here.  A Turkish breakfast consists of jam, honey, all types of cheese, olives, butter, bread, eggs, and meat.  All of that food was only 7€!  It filled us up for the day.  Right after we went on a walk and saw the few sights like a lighthouse in the middle of the Bosphorus Strait.  We were then told about the best place to see Istanbul and we took the 2 mile climb to see a jaw dropping view of the city, the one you can see above.  The hike was worth it to see such a beautiful city from amazing heights.  We walked around the Asian side some more and then went home.

And that was it.  Well, not all of it, but I can't write any more or people won't read it! So there you have it.  This was a trip I took a month ago and I just got around to writing about it.  I hope for those of you who have read this entire post that you've enjoyed it and if you didn't hopefully you enjoyed the pictures!