Pictures from Budapest

As an acquaintance I met at the conference put it, Budapest seems to have preserved its dignity in a way many other Central European capitals haven't.  There's a whimsical, wedding-cakey "National Style" building every few blocks, and the natives are handsome-looking and friendly.  Here's a female traffic cop overlooking Heroes' Square:

Here's the rally she was monitoring, held at a giant square built in 1896 to commemmorate Hungary's millenium anniversary:

In this reliquary shrine, draped with strips of bejeweled cloth, you see the 1000-year-old mummified right hand of St. Stephen, Hungary's patron saint and founder:

The Hungarian Parliament building, also erected in the millennium building spree:

Some amusing German from the entrance kiosk to a funicular railway:

A reception in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts:

The entrance hall of the Gresham Palace, a massive Art Nouveau confection built by an English insurance company in 1905 and recently renovated and turned into a Four Seasons Hotel:

That's all for now.  Will post more later as official duties die down.

Comments

[lutz]

They simply ask you to check the change.
"Betriebspause für Instandhaltung am Montag jeder ungeraden Woche" is a perfect set of words. How many people might know the number of the week?

[bosso]

I see. 8-D

The sign don't want you to check your valuables.

It wants you (bureaucratically for sure) to check at once, whether you bought or are handed out the right tickets, because they won't replace or change the tickets, if you weren't able to buy the correct ones... So: Verify the ticket value right at the desk! Otherwise you can't complain!

[Andrew]

The part of the German sign I found amusing was "check your values" (instead of valuables) before you leave the cashier's desk. Mine appeared intact, and nothing on the funicular railway posed a danger to them, I must say.

[bosso]

"Betriebspause"
Yeh, ok! It ain't beautiful German. German isn't used here as it is generally would be spoken.

Instead it's a perfect German bureaucratic lingo! Hence: Don't you moan! Enjoy!

[Fast Gonzo]

Yes, "Betriebspause für Instandhaltung am Montag jeder ungeraden Woche", that is exactely what I said to my wife at breakfast this morning when she asked me to pass the salt. She is German, too. But wait, is this a "ungerade Woche"? I must have confused here. Damn, those Hungarians are good.

[bosso]

What is so amusing about the German? Sounds to me astonishingly fluent for a sign in Hungary? Just the "kontrollieren Sie Ihre Werte" is a bit peculiar... but no per se wrong, is it?

[Joinsen]

No, it just means that in groups of ten and more the reduced price is not only for under14s but also for under18s.

[bosso]

What is so amusing about the German? Sounds to me astonishingly fluent for a sign in Hungary? Just the "kontrollieren Sie Ihre Werte" is a bit peculiar... but no per se wrong, is it?

[Junger Gott]

So if you've got a group of nine kids going on that funicular railway, you're gonna pay 4,500 HUF, but when they bring a friend along, it'll cost only 500 HUF for the ten of them?