Formula 1 in Budapest

This past weekend Johanna and I took a trip to Budapest with 6 other Novartis employees.  Originally we had planned the trip with other LGOs but something came up with everyone and luckily we were able to sell their tickets to our new friends at Novartis.  Tickets?  To what?  To a Formula 1 race.  Please take a moment for jealousy to sink in.

Budapest is a 10-11 hour drive from Marburg and when you hit traffic and terrible weather it turns into a 13.5 hour drive.  Yuck.

• Top Left: The drive was long and Jo needed to feel like a King to get through it, even if it was only for a little while.


• Top Right: Christmas lights strung out over a crane.  We arrived so late in the evening that this is what Budapest looked like the first night.


• Bottom Left: Here is the construction they were doing literally right in front of our hostel.  This made it difficult to find the hostel and annoying to walk to.


• Bottom Right: Jo and I starting off Saturday morning on our way to the ATM to pull out tens of thousands of Hungarian monies (not even $200 US).

We started off the morning with a little breakfast and a visit to the big church in Budapest.  The church was 1.5 blocks from our hostel, but we took the long way around while we looked for breakfast so that by the time we saw the church I would have sworn we were a kilometer away.  The weather started just a little cloudy but all in all it was gorgeous the entire weekend.

• Top Left: Here you can see the restaurant where we had breakfast.  It was so windy in the morning that the outside metal chairs were literally blowing away.  They had to tilt them against the tables to keep them in place.


• Bottom Right: The hand of some guy who was influential in the founding of Budapest.  They love to collect body parts in the Catholic churches.


• Middle and Top Right: The winding staircase we walked up to get to the top of the dome, a look at the top of the decorative dome, and a picture of the citadel from a distance.

Next we walked around the city trying to find a bike shop to rent bikes for the day.  They were sold out of bikes so we elected to jump on a "hop-on-hop-off" bus to make up for lost time.

• Top Left: This weird thing with a bunch of locks on it...I don't remember what for.


• Middle Left: There were mimes with some lady with an accent preaching Christianity and the guy next to her was translating.  Odd.


• Bottom Left: Our bus!


• Top Middle: Our friends Tacy and Kendall from Novartis


• Top Right: Jo and I learning up on Hungarian history (basically who was oppressing them at different points in time) on the bus.


• Middle Middle: See a cat, make a cat pose.  It's what you do.

We took the bus down to the victory square type area.

• Top Middle: The main square was very nice.


• Bottom Row: There was this shallow man-made lake near the square but most of it was drained when we visited, not sure why.  I walked out on on e of the ledges and Jo snapped a picture of me.

Next we went up to the castle area.  There was a bunch of tents and events setup for the Formula 1 race and then the castle itself was very nice.  And of course, being a castle on a hill with a river, the view was amazing.

• Bottom Middle: Giant pot that could have fit 5 people in it at least, and it was greasy from the last time it was used.  Not just for decoration.


• Middle Right: See a cat, make a cat pose.  It's what you do.

They had some cars up by the castle and I came across my dream car, a 67 fastback Mustang.  Mine would be blue with a white stripe down the middle.  How odd to see my dream car in Hungary.



Next we went over to this free ride...thingy.  You load up 20 people or so onto this wooden structure and with the direction of some guy with a megaphone you start leaning.  Next thing you know the thing is rocking back and forth pretty intensely and you have to hold on so you don't fly off.  The bottom row and left row are random pictures I snapped while we rocked!



The view from the castle/citadel areas were awesome.  Budapest is a beautiful city.  Many of the non-public buildings are a bit run down, but it is eastern Europe, what do you expect.



That night we went out, like you do.

• Top Left: A killer rat tail that I did my best to capture.


• Bottom Left: My schnitzle that was bigger then my face.


• Bottom Right: Russian prostitutes that were scamming some guy.  We knew it was a scam because they tried to scam one of our friends as he came to meet up with us for dinner.

Sunday was the big Formula 1 race.  It was pretty darn cool.  There were a couple races that day and we got there pretty early so we caught most of them.  Again, the weather was beautiful at about 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

• Top Left: Best way to start your day is with a healthy breakfast.

In the end Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1 race and this upset Jo.  She is not a fan.  Formula 1 was cool, but to be honest the style of racing is not my favorite.  There was little chances to pass or see positions change, so the race is mostly a "don't screw up" mentality and it seems that you decide the winner during qualifying.

That night we went out for some night shots of the city.

• Top Middle: See a cat, make a cat pose.  It's what you do.

On Monday we made our way back to Germany.  What a good weekend!