Lightning Does Strikes Twice | Day 13

The 3rd beer I might could have done without but when in Budapest I suppose haha. I seem to have gotten behind on my daily entries so I sacrificed the mid morning to work on the computer. Yesterday I had gotten about a noon start and was able to see so much so I wasn’t to bummed out to stick around and work. I typed away and after a couple of hours I knew I needed to get motivated or else the day would slip away. The only thing I had on the schedule was a tour of the Parliament building. Other than that I thought to go see the Fisherman’s Bastion and the shoes memorial that I missed yesterday. First thing first and that was to find a scooter. I walked the normal route to where the scooter parking was and found a good amount of them parked. I learned from the previous day about the battery thing so I looked for one that had plenty of juice. Likewise, I knew not to take the street that the maps had sent me up yesterday so too a bit longer route but wasn’t as steep so the scooter made it without trouble. I parked in the lot and headed back up the stairs I had done half of yesterday. I reached the main level to find a crowd of people walking in every direction checking out the Bastion. 

The original walls facing the Danube River were built in the 1700s forming part of the walls of the castle, but the structure seen today was built 1895 and 1902. The name of building is theorized to be called that because it was entrusted to the guild of fishermen to protect but really they think it is because of Danube side settlement called Fishtown or Watertown. In Between the Bastion wall and the massive church in the middle was a man with a hawk. I’m not sure what kind of hawk it was but it was quite large. He had a hood on and was just perched on the stand the owner had made. The owner was an interesting cat. He was just chatting on the phone and was dressed in red pants, white shirt, interesting looking scarf, a hip satchel, and leather like shoes. He looked like someone that would own a hawk haha. People wanted to take pictures of the hawk and he put whoever was on the phone on hold and said it would cost money to do that. One person emerged from the crowed and wanted to hold the hawk. I had gotten a photo of two of it and that was good enough. Just beyond the hawk was a large monument that looked like it was of a previous King riding a horse. Was hard not to take photos of it similarly to the large church that was in front of it. I walked all around the site and came across a place called “The House of Houdini.” 

Houdini was born in Budapest but when he was young his father moved the family to the United States. It was a bit of a museum but also after the short tour there was a magic show! How could I pass that up? I walked in and there was an older lady and then a very attractive girl working the register. They said the accepted cash and the next tour was in 15 minutes. Since I pay mostly with card I have been really poor about exchanging currency. With my mental error at the Bucharest train station I just had Euros and not Hungarian Forint. I went to their site and they had an option to purchase a tour ticket online. I bought one but it occurred to me that it never asked for an email or contact info. I went to the register and showed them my credit card payment and that seemed to be enough to have them print me an actual ticket. I could hear applause coming from one of the rooms and surely magic was happening. The time came for the tour and it was just myself and another foreign couple. The tour started with a small room with a large safe in it and a we were told that in order to continue on the tour we had to pass through the magic safe. To do that we needed a password which was how many cards were in a deck excluding the jokers. I waited the right amount of time for the other couple to answer but silence. I knew then and there that I was going to have to carry the team through this tour. I replied “52” and the couple turned and looked surprised. I thought how many cards in a deck was common knowledge but suppose I was wrong. We then had to count down and loudly say “52!” We did it once and sure enough it wasn’t loud enough. We did it once more and luckily opened the safe. We passed through and entered another room that had some historical artifacts from Houdini’s early life. We learned about how he got started as a magician and how he started with card tricks but was told escapes other visual tricks would be much better. We got to see period piece handcuffs and the box where a magician would saw a woman in half. Also in the room was a copy of his birth certificate that showed he was born in Budapest. The older woman from the front was our tour guide. She took something from inside of the cutting box and appeared to have put a large knife through her arm. She asked how such a thing could be done and again the other couple let me down. They drew a blank and so I said its a cut knife to wrap around your arm. Shit I think this couple must have thought I was a magician but they were shocked and even chuckled when that was correct. We moved from that room to another that had more pieces of Houdini history including the first Houdini movie poster which was donated to the museum by Jamie Lee Curtis. It was all very cool! We reached the point of the magic show.

The couple mentioned to the tour guide that they had in fact seen the magic show on the last tour but hadn’t seen what we had just previously seen so they didn’t need to see the show again. If your good at math then that means your figured out that that just left me to see the show haha. Yup just me and the magician who was standing in the next room with about 30 seats in it. The couple departed and there I stood. The show must go on as the say and so I sat in the front row until the magician came around through another door. I could see his face as he recognized this show would be a private one haha. I looked at him and looked at me and we both read the situation the same. He said “since it is just you I will need you to help me throughout the show.” I of course obliged and with that let the show begin! The show of course wasn’t a Sigfried and Roy show but it was filled with rope, ball, and of course card tricks. We got about halfway through the show and was on to a card trick that you could purchase from their shop. The deck was a special one as there was a hole in the top part of all of the cards. I small lock was produced and I was asked to say stop had he flipped through the cards. I said stop and a card was chosen. He said the familiar phrase, “remember your card.” Next the lock was used to lock the deck together so no card could be removed. We did the traditional waive of the hands and then he said, “now let’s go through the deck to see if your card is still there?” With the lock still locked we started to go through the cards one by one. He asked what my card was and I told him the 2 of diamonds. We got about 2/3rds of the way through the deck and glaring at us was the 2 of diamonds. Our faces were absolutely priceless. He looks right at me surprised and said “are you sure that’s your card?” I said “NOPE” hahahahaha!!!!!!! Seemingly I had forgotten what card I chose! I then replied, “shoot it could have been the 5 of diamonds.” We pressed on through the deck, I’m sure both praying that the 5 of diamonds wasn’t in there. We got through all of the cards and sure enough there was no 5 of diamonds. We both kind of had a sigh of relief. He the produced the card that was back in the box. I applauded of the trick was done successfully with no help from me haha. We both got a pretty good laugh at that and it was all made funnier because there wasn’t a single other people to say “no you dummy it was the 5 and not the 2.” For what the price and tour was I would say it was worth it. 

With the tour and magic showed finished it was time to make my way to the shoes memorial. On my way to the scooters the magician happened to have come out of the home and we walked down the street chatting about magic and the show. We both had a good laugh again about the card mix up and he said he would do about 5 shows throughout the day. We went out separate ways and I made myself to a scooter. The ride to the shoes was going to be a far one. It was about 3 miles from where I was. My wisdom from earlier seemed to have left me because the scooter I got ran out of power nearly instantly. Luckily enough the first part was downhill so I coasted down and found another corner with more scooters. I found another one that said it had significantly more power. The route took me through a park and down a few busier streets. I passed a small waterfall and cliffside church. I reached a bridge that I needed to cross and there wasn’t really a bike path there so I just risked it and rode in the middle of the lane across. Cars passed around me and luckily enough that bridge happened to not be busy at that time. Reached the other side a calamity of errors followed. I somehow ran in to a no scooter zone and the scooter stopped. I couldn’t go any further so I had to turn it around walk it out of the no ride zone. That then led me to a small two lane road that was packed with traffic. There wasn’t a bike lane so just attempted to ride in the lanes. I must have been close enough to that no ride zone because the scooter quite again and I had to walk it to the other side of the street and back the way I came. I walked it across the intersection and wound up at a staircase which I was never going to get the scooter up. I then walked it backwards against traffic up the small hill and finally hit a rideable zone. By then however the scooter was out of juice and I had to swap it for another one. Getting to these shoes was posing to be harder than imagined. I went to the Lime app and looked for anyway around this no ride zone and that of course was back across the bridge so back I went. I retraced my steps and rode the river walk for a ways and then crossed yet another bridge. I finally reached where the shoes were! I had about an hour and a half before the tour so needed to make it snappy. Well of course there was no where to park the scooter and the closest parking zone was blocks away. I raced over there but by the time I got there I thought I was never going to be able to walk, see, shoot, and get back to the scooter all before the tour. It also had dawned on me that the last time I tried to see a Parliament building they required a passport which was conveniently located in my hotel room. I abandoned the parking idea and just rode the scooter back toward the shoes. I then thought why not just pull up to the shoes, pause the ride, quickly see the memorial, then start the ride up again. It was a risk but I had made such an effort to see them that I would have been bummed not to. 

After taking the time to see the memorial I raced back to the hotel for my passport. The Parliament Building I feel is the number one thing to see in Budapest and didn’t want to not see it because I didn’t have my passport. I followed the route taking the bridge over to the hotel side of the river and paused the scooter ride. Ran upstairs and grabbed my passport. I still had about 45 minutes and the map said it would take 15 to get there. I have noticed in Budapest that there aren’t really any convenient stores like there are in the US. They do have these little rooms every so often that have vendo box machines. They are no more than fully stocked vending machines but the food seemed to be a but better than just Lays chips. There were a few people in line and when it came to my turn I selected the item but then couldn’t seem to get through the payment part. I tried typing in the number and hitting start, held up my card, and nothing. I tried a different way and still nothing. I even read the instructions and finally got the right combination but then the card couldn’t be read. Luckily enough there was no one behind me but the whole thing took a lot longer than it ever should have. I slugged down my Redbull and put the water in my pocket. I hopping back on the scooter and rode it toward a new bridge I had never been over. I pulled up to the parliament building with 15 minutes to spare and walked across the huge courtyard toward the front of the building. Seemingly there wasn’t any sign of a tour entrance. I asked one of the guards and he pointed me back the way I came. Naturally the large downward staircase I had passed was not for the subway but in fact for the the tour entrance. I ran down the stairs and stood in the security line. I had gotten my ticket online but after waiting in the line for 10 minutes the sign at the front read you needed to have a printed ticket that you could get at the ticket desk. I got out of line and hustled to the ticket desk. She printed the ticket and I said hopefully I will still make the tour. When I returned to the security line in fact they only let people through that were on that time slotted tour so I still made the tour.

We walked through the security check and after all of that they didn’t even need my passport. Was over here stressing about nothing but better safe than sorry. We each got a little recorder type device that head a headphone attached and a small screen. The device was set for english but they had a giant wall that if you needed another language you scanned that code and your device switched to the language. The tour was semi self guided. We all walked as a group following the instruction of the gizmo and tour guide. The recording told us all about the room that we were currently in. We started by walking up to the 4th floor on a golden staircase. The stairs themselves weren’t gold but the ceiling was. It had intricate designs and patterns and the windows at the top of each landing were stained glass. It was incredibly impressive. The 4th floor was home to the top of the Grand Staircase. The staircase is made up of 96 total steps and lead to the Dome Hall. The ceiling is decorated with 3 paintings, but the true wonder of the room is the eight four-tone granite columns of a type that only 12 can be found in the entire world. Truly magnificent. We continued to the Dome Hall. This is where the Hungarian Holy Crown and the Coronation Insignia, among the oldest coronation regalia in Europe, have been kept since 1 January 2000 and where they are protected 24 hours a day by the Crown Guard of the Hungarian Armed Forces. The Dome Hall, which is almost 27 metres tall, is complemented by an ambulatory at the lowest level. This is linked to a splendid, sixteen-rib vaulted ceiling with colorful stained glass windows interspersed between the ribs. At the base of the rib-like pillars, statues of Hungarian rulers occupy golden pedestals accompanied by their pages under canopies of gold. It is insane to be able to stand so close to the such relics. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take photos in the Dome Hall. The tour kept moving and we walked through the Lounge of the Chamber of Peers. What is so unique about this room is that it is home to one of the largest hand-knitted carpets in all of Europe. The last stop on the tour was the Chamber of Peers. This is the equivalent to our Congress House Floor. It was incredibly impressive. It is shaped like a horseshoe and also stands 4 stories tall. A huge oak podium with space for the Speaker and the Member speaking emerges at the heels. Paintings of the coats of arms of Hungary’s royal families can be seen on the main wall behind the podium, with murals depicting the historical role of the nobility on both sides. The splendid composition of tables and benches with seating for 453 Members is arranged in seven neat rows, stunning in magnificent brown, green and red. With that being the last stop we headed back down the stairs and turned in our headset. I am so glad that I got to see that and if you are ever in Budapest please go see it!

On my way out I came across a part of one of the street car lines and knew this was the place. I had wanted to get a cool shot of the street cars but hadn’t found the right place until now. I setup looking down the long street and added some of the plants in the foreground. The street cars went up and back and I waited for the perfect moment. I snapped a few and knew I had something cool. I shot a video as well which turned out really cool. Was just a short camera op but knew I had taken advantage of it nicely.

Like the day before I raced back to download images off of my camera and charge some batteries. I wanted to shoot a straight on shot of the parliament building and fly the drone if I could. Being on the side of the river facing the building I didn’t need to get to the spot as early. I went through images and then packed up my gear and headed that way. I parked the scooter and found my spot on the river wall. It had been overcast all day and so there wasn’t fantastic light on the building as of yet. There was no one around me except for one gentleman who was taking photos as well. I launched the drone and did a few orbits around the building which looked absolutely stunning. The man next to me looked my direction and said “Its a shame this won’t be a great sunset so I think I will go.” I told him you never know about these things and with low level clouds the sunset could pop. He shrugged and walked off. I ran the batter down to about 50 percent and wanted to save the rest for when the lights turned on. Again I shot various photos of the building as the sun started to go down. Just as I predicted the sky lit up. The sky turned orange and pink and it couldn’t have been any better. I popped the drone up again and shot photos and videos of the sunset. I had one additional battery with about half power so sacrificed this one to capture the awesome sunset. Finally the lights came on. For a brief moment a flash of light happened off in the distance and could see that there was a storm heading our way. I switched batteries and popped the drone up. I had lined up a shot showing the Parliament Building, Chain Bridge, and Buda Castle. I had set the drone to shoot a bracket of exposures so could capture the entire scene. When you press the shutter button you get a slight freeze in the screen of the first image it shoots. I pressed the button and frozen on the screen appeared to be a lightning bolt. I said to myself, “no way that just happened!” I didn’t want to get ahead of myself because I have thought in the past I had gotten the perfect moment but only to be disappointed later. I kept the drone in the same position hoping to catch another lightning strike but the battery was down to 15 percent and needed to bring it back. I certainly wasn’t going to let the drone die and not see if I had captured that moment. I landed the drone and shot more photos on my main camera. The storm was moving closer and so was the lightning. I turned my camera toward the Citadella which had a Hungarian flag on top. I was shooting some 30 second exposures hoping to have lightning strike twice. I paired my camera with my phone so I didn’t have to touch the camera. I was looking down at my phone and a bright flash happened. I hadn’t pushed the shutter button! I attempted to press it directly after the flash but nothing happened. Then I heard the click and in fact the camera was in the middle of a 30 second exposure and I had been exposing during the lightning strike. I didn’t see the lightning so I didn’t know where it had landed but had hoped it was somewhere near the Citadella. I could see the rain starting to pour over the Citadella and new I had to pack up fast. I rushed everything in to my bag and right as I put my backpack on it started to rain. It poured on my way back to the hotel and I walked through the door soaking wet. I raced to my room to put the images on my computer and see what I had captured.

First I wanted to see about the drone. The images couldn’t download any slower but once they did I scrolled through and THERE IT WAS! One of the frames showed a bolt of lightning hitting the ground behind Buda Castle. I had captured the perfect moment and perfect exposure. I stared at it for a little just thinking how lucky I was to have captured such a moment. I next looked through the photos from my main camera man oh man did lightning strike twice. Not only did that 30 second exposure capture the lightning but there was a bolt of lightning going straight behind the Hungarian flag. UNREAL! I guess that dude earlier was wrong about the sunset not being that great! My effort to sit and wait for the weather paid off completely and this called for a celebratory beer. I headed down to the hotel bar and ordered a beer. I sat there reflecting on the images and also another great day. Things seem to have a way of working out you just have to put in the effort to go and do. How incredibly lucky was I and these will for sure being going in to my portfolio as well as prints. What an awesome way to end a great few days in Budapest! I had an earlier train the next day heading for Vienna so kept the beers to two and shipped off to bed. Budapest you were amazing and I will certainly be back!