Celebrating National Holiday in Budapest

When arriving by train in Budapest, my friend came to pick me up at the train station. As soon as we had parked the car, we went for some turbo sightseeing through the garden island and the fortress before we went out to a place caller Szimpla. This was a huge two stories high building, which was turned into a really neat bar, with all kinds of rooms with different music and decorations. It was just like an apartment sharing community where you would walk through the kitchens, living and sleeping rooms and it really made me feel like I was at some home party of someone. On the way home that night I noticed how extremely many sex shops there were in Budapest. One could count one on pretty much every second corner, where neon lights would hang out blinking to the people who were passing by.

When walking out on the streets the next day, one could notice that there was some kind of big event going on. There were flags every street, people were wearing their national outfit, there were military vehicles in the city center, flight shows and people were marching in parades just like we do on our own national independence celebration in Norway. There were also lots of tents with traditional Hungrarian food cooked in pots, probably from the time of the Soviet Union, which were big enough to feed a whole army. The day ended with some amazing fireworks which took place at the fortress and by the Hungrarian parliament.