Budapest Hungary

Here I find myself spending the week at Budapest Hungary. It is most definitely one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. The city with a population of 2 million has successfully managed to preserve its essence while embracing rapid modernization which proves that one can adapt to change without compromising the identity of the city.

I started my day on top of Castle Hill which is a listed Unesco Heritage site. I took a combination of the metro and bus to reach the top of the hill. You can take a walk from the chain bridge up to the hill top but I would only recommend it if you are really fit and have loads of time to spare unlike my schedule of squeezing a day city tour over half a day.

Here are some other places that I managed to take a snapshot of:

Trinity Column

Holy Trinity Column – Standing at the highest point of castle hill, this 14 meter tall monument was erected in the early 18th century as an effort to ward off plague.

Fisherman's Bastion

Fishermen’s Bastion

Labyrinth

Buda Castle Labyrinth – This 1200 meter long system of caves and cellars attracts visitors with historic walls and mysterious attractions. This is also a part of the Unesco World Heritage site.

Buda Castle

Buda Castle – The palace contains several museums including the National Gallery, Budapest Palace Museum and Ludwig Museum of Modern Art.

Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge – This is one of the many bridges connecting both parts of the city together.

The Parliament

Parliament House – This century old government headquarters stores Hungary’s greatest treasure which is the crown of St. Stephen, the first Magyar king.

St Stephens Basilica

St. Stephen’s Basilica

The State Opera

Hungarian State Opera House – The beautiful state opera although covered here by banners of the latest show running was completed in 1884.

Museum of Contemporary Art

Museum of Contemporary Art

Square of Heroes

Square of Heroes

Danube River and Budapest by Night

The view by night is amazing with all the main historical sites lit up. It reminded me of Paris and Rome at night with the river Danube flowing across the heart of the city separating Buda and Pest.

Benny Ong

Budapest Report

It has been a few days since I arrived in Budapest and I could feel the warmth and hospitality of the colleagues here. I am thankful to be able to deal with them and communicate in all sorts of level.

Well, something interesting happen yesterday evening when I was having dinner after an evening tour of the city tour courtesy of a colleague. When JC and me sat down for dinner in a restaurant, I was able to see the menu stand at the entrance. There was a fellow chinese which cycled and stop in front of the restaurant to look at the menu. The face looked familiar and it instantly struck my mind that it was a fellow peer from a supplier that I have dealt with when I was in KL. (WHAT A FREAKING SMALL WORLD!!!!!) What were the odds of seeing a fellow Malaysian that you know in a foreign land. I was aware that he was in the UK for some travelling and never on earth it would have struck my mind in a lifetime that I will be able to bump into him in all places, Budapest! Just amazing I tell you. We exchanged a few words and hopefully we would stay in touch and travel to some other interesting places together as well.

As I am blogging now, there were constant flashes at the back. I turned around to notice that there is a photo shoot going on. Now it explains all the pretty ladies I saw in the lobby as I walked back into the hotel. I am a bit reluctant to leave the business center where there is free internet access to be caught in between the buzz. I am totally dressed for bed Malaysian style with shorts, slippers and a sloppy t-shirt. Well, I will just run through the crowd I guess. Never expected them in the first place. :P

I took a few pics of key sites in Budapest and have even prepared a post for it but have never got around to upload those pictures. It will most probably be done this weekend and you can see some amazing sights I hope.

I also found out that a train ticket to Vienna from the central station here only costs 29 Euros which to me is a steal and I will be going to Austria on Saturday as a personal trip together with Jacinth. It is only for a day trip so that I snap a few nice pictures to share with you and also to gain exposure of the city. I heard loads of good comments about the city and am excited about it.

That’s all for now and till my next post.

Cheers!

Happy Birthday To Me!

It finally has arrived, I have spent 24 youthful years on this planet we call earth. Many thanks to everyone and let us hope that there are more sweet and exciting memories ahead.

I have done a rush job on launching my new theme on my birthday. Although I originally set out to design the theme from scratch, I have settled for building on an existing one. Don’t get me wrong, I did acomplish creating a theme from scratch but there were some coding errors that I did not spend heaps of time to fix. Oh well, at least my colour scheme and headers are put into good news.

Over the next few weeks, you will see new categories and adjustments on my blog which hopefully will result in a more streamline theme “Royal Self Worshipper” to declare the undying love of myself. Well, no one else could have been more original than that right.

Looking back at what I have achieve for the past 24 years at first, I was a bit dissapointed but when I started listing them down, I soon realised that I had done quite a bit. So, it ain’t that bad. There are a handful of other stuff I would like to achieve and will constantly work towards it.

We are unfortunately at dark times now with the economic being badly hit but always remember that things will get better. Don’t panic but deal with it using your common sense and the pure instict that has allowed us to survive for so long. That’s all my words for the moment and I will keep everyone updated on my misadventures.

Before I end the post, special thanks to Angieli.com which made a post of me. She has earn the reputation of e-mailing out pictures of people on their birthday! Now, she has moved on to blogging about it. Wonderful!

Also, not to forget my dearest Song Yia for the surprise present and all the well wishers on facebook.

Cheers!

Big Brother Diary Room Experience

A small token for not posting on my blog as often. This is the video of me and Song Yia from our recent visit at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

I hope you enjoy the video. We had to pay GBP 14.99 for the recording.

I am currently redesigning a new template for this blog from scratch and I have underestimate the effort required. With the bits and pieces of crowned logo you have seen on my pictures are a sneak peek into my new theme.

My two week escape from work has finally come to an end. It will be back to work for me but I promise I will start uploading my holiday pics. I already have some on facebook.

Cheers.