Budapest for me is going to be a combination of missed opportunities and a little boredom. It is the first place I’ve been to in which I failed to do something that I really wanted to do. I read about Statue Park, a place in Budapest where old Soviet-era statues are paid tribute, much in the same way that the early 1970s airplane disaster movies were paid tribute by the movie Airplane. However, I didn’t get a chance to make it out there.
I think that the timing of the trip was wrong. I was in Budapest for three full days. On Saturday, most of the day was spent on football-related adventures, culminating in me attending a match between Budapest Honved and Györi. That was a lot of fun and well worth the effort, but it did eat up a lot of time. Sunday was Easter and, obviously, Monday was Easter Monday, so other than the hardcore touristy places, most everything was closed. The biggest problem with this is that while I was taking my long walks through the city, there was very little opportunity for me to go into local places and check them out because they weren’t open. Add to list of problems the fact that Monday was around 50 degrees and raining and it put a (literal) damper on the final day of the trip.
That being said, it just means that Budapest is high on my list of cities to which I should return because it was very interesting when I did get out and I think I would have had a lot more fun under different circumstances.
Like I said, my first full day was football-oriented. A goodly size chunk of the Hungarian population is in and around Budapest, so many of the clubs in the country’s top soccer league are also in and around Budapest. I looked around online and saw that no fewer than three were playing at home during the weekend – all on Saturday since Sunday was Easter. I knew I was only going to be able to go to one, so I narrowed my choices to watching Ferencvaros or Budapest Honved.
Ferencvaros plays in the stadium that is closest to my hotel, so that would have been an easier trip. Ferencvaros also has been the better club in recent years, one of Hungary’s best, and is playing well this season. I went to the stadium and checked out how to get tickets online. Their matches average only around 2000 fans, so I didn’t think it would be much of a problem. Well, there was one problem. Ferencvaros has a history of fan violence. Because of this, it appeared that I was going to have to register prior to buying a ticket. I checked out the stadium and, noticing that the team’s colors are green and white, decided that I would check out Budapest Honved.
Honved’s stadium is a little more complicated to visit. It is located around three miles south of my hotel and there is not a metro stop closeby. Also, Honved is not having a good season, and hasn’t been good for some years, though it arguably has the greatest history of any Hungarian football club. Most importantly, Honved’s colors are black-and-red, so I knew I’d prefer a Honved cap to a Ferencvaros cap. I decided to check it out.
To get to the stadium, I took the metro as close as it would take me. From there, since I had a day travel pass, I hopped on a tram that took me to within two blocks of the stadium. I walked around the stadium and checked it out. It was nice, but very small. It holds only 15,000. More importantly, I could get a ticket without becoming a registered Hungarian soccer hooligan, so I bought a ticket. I bought a grandstand ticket, the most expensive on the list, and it was less than $20. I entered, grabbed a beer, grabbed a hot dog and took my seat. (Note: The hot dog had french fried onions on it. Very interesting.)
The crowd was probably between 1500 and 2000 people strong. It was also a rather laid-back crowd, without much of a rowdy fan section. The match was good, even though Honved and its opponent Gyori finished the match in a scoreless draw. It was a day match, and one of the most beautiful days imaginable. I swear there were times that I thought the match was set against a backdrop of a beautiful spring day billboard because the clouds didn’t seem to move at all. Anyway, that makes matches in eleven stadiums in nine countries on three continents for me this season, so I was pleased.
As for the touristy stuff that I did and ate, I’ll get into that in the next entry.
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