Budapest and Bastille Day
Hey everyone,
As usual I tried to quickly write a post for you, but it turned out long as I remembered all the stuff I've done in the last few weeks. I never seem to be able to do these things quickly.....
A couple of weeks ago I was sent to Athens for just one day to prepare a site for migration. As I flew in late on the Wednesday night, worked Thursday and then left early Friday morning so I basically didn't see anything (got this shop of the Acropolis from the hotel roof). I'm now back in Athens for almost a week for the migration so hopefully I'll get a much better look around. The hotel rooftop pool was awesome though, this was the view!
In between Athens pre-migration site visit and now a couple of big things happened. Firstly I was sent to Budapest for a similar site visit, although this time I got a chance to quickly look around, and secondly I went back to Paris for the weekend (my last three weekends of work have been 'cancelled') and celebrated their National Day (or Bastille Day). Both were really really cool.
Before either of those (however), I also got a chance to check out the city of Rheims (France) in one of my weekends of. Ghizlane's sister works there as an air traffic controller and she'd agreed to show us around. I always wondered what it was like and I'm really glad I got the chance to see it. I can't explain it here very well but everyone knows that it's a hyper-stress job, and after going there I can see why. It's not that the job itself is ridiculously complex or technical, it's more that everything happens in real time, and there's always a lot going on. At any particular time there were twenty or thirty planes on screen for the station Yasmina was using (and it was a slow period in terms of workload) and everything is just moving. The controllers have had to learn a massive amount of 'local' knowledge like beacon and waypoint names/coordinates by heart to ensure that their response is as fast as possible when dealing with the traffic. What really got me is that there is no chance to stop, or slow down, or take a break (without someone taking over) etc, it's just relentless and you can see things easily going from being 'OK' to massively overwhelming. Yasmina took a few hours to show us the work area and processes as well takign us on tour of the compound (she only works one day in three and has breaks during her shift) where they can play sport etc in their breaks. They are REALLY well looked after with food provided, gym, sports gymnasium etc.. almost everything a person could want, but with that stressful a job, I can see why they need it. Being a geek I thought the IT systems were really old and crap, but apparently a new system is coming online soon which is heaps better (still, I guess it would take YEARS to fully test new systems as they simply CAN'T fail...). So that was awesomely interesting and I really learn heaps. Thanks Yasmina!
As for Budapest, I only really had one day of proper sight seeing. I was due to go and see two offices in two days, and while the first was pretty difficult and took the whole day, the second was cancelled due to everyone deciding to go on holidays. That gave me one day to check out the city before heading back to Paris for the weekend. I've gotta say that I'm pretty impressed too! The city itself is beautiful with lots of nice architecture (the castle and parliament building are awesome), plenty of greenery (parks, some almost forest type areas in the hills overlooking everything), lots of open spaces/squares with cafes and bars and of course the Danube river, which is cool to just chill near. The weather was a huge advantage too with it being mostly sunny and 25/26ish during the day - a pleasant change from the poor weather central europe has been suffering for months.
So to start my sight seeing day, I jumped on a horrible tourist bus to take a look around. Sure, they can be frustrating and the commentary quite simplistic (as they repeat the same thing 2-3 times in different languages) but I think they are a little bit of a necessary evil but it is worth the time and money when you're new to the area. Our tour was pretty good though as we only had German and English speakers, and the guide was fairly knowledgeable. She also spoke in English most of the time, and then just kind of spoke to the German people directly while walking etc, which was good. The first thing I noticed is that some of the wider streets in the city have tree lined or grassy islands down the sides sort of like Madrid... I really like that.
The first major sight seeing 'thing' was the Heroes Square, which has a large monument to a number of famous Hungarian kings/leaders/presidents etc as well as a central memorial with the statue of Archangel Gabriel on it and a memorial to the Unknown Solider at the base. On either side are the square are the an Art Gallery and.. something else.. can't remember but it's like a library or theatre or something. Just nearby (beyond the square and down the road a little) is a big Castle, the Zoo, an ice rink (in winter, built right in front of the castle) and some medicinal baths which are pretty famous (apparently worth checking out when I return). The Zoo area looked pretty awesome for kids as it's kind of tied into a nearby amusement park. Because of the river, lots of outdoor areas, sports stuff etc around, I think the city looks like a great place to take the family for a holiday.
After this the tour headed up into the hill overlooking the city. On top of the hill is an old fortress which has been remodelled into a museum plus a big statue of Lady Liberty (the chick clutching the palm signifying peace). The area gives a great photo opportunity of the city (that panorama I tried to put up at the start of the post is from there) and you get to realise how big it really is. Also you can see the differences between the Buda and the Pest side when you look at the buildings. Very cool but it's ironic the 'Lady of Peace' is on top of a fortress, surrounded by guns! What's the quote? "If you want peace, first you must prepare for war."
Just nearby is the main castle area of the town (it's not a 'classic' castle thing exactly more like a fortified area where the kings/royalty lived). This is on top of one of the hills and also has a great view of the city - particularly the Parliament House. The main sights here aside from the fortifications and gardens are the Fisherman's Wall (a wall the Fisherman's guild used to look after), the main statue in the courtyard and the big church (can't remember the name). The church is pretty amazing both externally and internally with every surface painted and /or patterned. And the walls have a few cafe's which give excellent views over the city (but I didn't have time to actually eat there).
But for me the highlight of the place was being able to hold.. myself... erm, a Hawk!!! There are a few trained Hawks which kept in the castle area and they're pretty cool to hold. When I first had it put onto my hand (big thick gloves are required) it just stared straight into my eyes and yeah, it doesn't fear you at all. The things just look nasty and I'm sure it'd totally kick my arse in seconds. So after a couple of minutes gently rubbing it's underbelly and things, we were good friends and I got my photos. Very cool.....
That was basically it for the morning tour. I had to go back to the hotel and do some work for a few hours, and by the time I was done it was late, so I thought I might as well go for a jog around town to take some more pics. The gardens and parks of the city are really nice, check out the colours of some of the plants and stuff. I decided to jog upriver for a while to see an island I had noticed from taxi rides around town. The island is quite large and completely converted into a big park/recreation area. While it's already green and full of trees/plants/flowers etc, there are heaps of recreation facilities like swimming pools, soccer fields etc all over it. Looks like the Budapest-y's are a pretty outdoorsy and active people (perfect for me).
I ended up jogging for over an hour as I then followed the river on the return leg too. The Parliament building is pretty amazing up close and there's plenty of statues, gardens, arty stuff etc to take in. The bridges (particularly the Chain Bridge) are pretty nice and as it started to get dark, the lights began to come on and make them look even better. These night lights were so impressive that despite doing that big run, I couldn't resist heading out again later that night around 10pm to do a far smaller jog and try to get some shots of the buildings I'd seen during the day. It's a really pretty city by night too...
That was about it for Budapest. The next day I briefly checked out the main cathedral of town before heading to the airport to catch my plane to Paris. While looking around it I came across a sign "Chapel of the Hand". Immediately I started thinking of some weird mummified hand relic, and it turns out that's exactly what it is! There's the hand of some old king (King Stephen) of Hungary there clutching some Rosary Beads. Apparently when he was buried, everything decayed normally except his hand holding the beads. Now it's on display in the chapel and once a year it's whole case is taken out and paraded around.. creepy! Apologies for the bad phots, there was almost no light in the chapel and with no flash permitted (standard deal).
I got into Paris fairly late in the afternoon but still managed to get into town, relax and eat before heading out for a free concert that was being put on at the Bastille. Apparently Saturday was 'National Day' or something, but I didn't quite link up all the information until the next morning. Saturday was Bastille Day! The concert was on an open-air stage and the entire Bastille area was rammed with people. On stage were a few musicians I'd never heard of, but I still enjoyed the music as a lot of it was kind of afro-cuban and funky. We all had a good dance and some drinks, staying until it all ended around 1am. Big smiles!!!!
Being Bastille Day on Saturday, there is always a huge parade down the Champs Elysees towards the Concorde with a whole lot of French troops from all of the different forces putting on a show. Despite getting there a couple of hours before the thing started, as you'd expect the whole area was completely rammed. People had set up spots early and after scouting the area for 30 mins or so, we eventually found a side street where we could see the main Champs Elysee without too much of a problem (I like being tall, I could see just fine). The program roughly went something like jets first (with coloured smoke, cool), then all the troops (previously lining the whole street) started marching down, then came vehicles like bikes and stuff, then armoured vehicles (APC's, trucks, troop transports, bulldozers on trailers etc), then tanks!!! (tanks are cool) followed by Fire Engines (they honour the firefighters),helicopters and finally more planes (even those big radar ones - AWAKS or something).
After sitting around a little after the show finished to let the crowd disperse, we headed towards a nearby metro station to get home. On the way I got distracted by the sight of huge helicopters and armoured vehicles on the park/lawn area outside Les Invalides. The chance to look at everything up close was great as it makes you realise how big it all is.
With no rest for the wicked, by the time we'd returned home for something to eat, we had to get a picnic dinner ready for the last and best bit of Bastille Day, the fireworks! People had been setting the things off all weekend, but the official show is pretty famous for incorporating the Eiffel Tower and the Tracodero. Again there was a free concert on but this time it was in the park next to the Eiffel Tower. Despite being early, again things were crammed but we managed to find a nice stop on the grass right next to one of the legs of the tower, with a good view of the Trocadero. It meant we couldn't see the concert stage, but we could still hear it and besides, it was only Nelly Furtado and Timberland playing, so I didn't miss anything ;).
After a couple of bottle of wine, some nice dinner and a couple of hours sitting around on a beautifully warm night, the show began! (it wasn't dark till almost 10pm). The thing was just amazing, really impressive, loud, bright, cool... uh.. everything. I don't know why fireworks are always cool, but they just are, but don't worry, I will still be patriotic and say that I'd take the Australia Day fireworks any day :). Again we hung around and enjoyed the night after the show was over before finally heading back to the apartment in the early morning hours, completely knackered!
Sunday was a very sedate affair for the majority as we slept late, but the weather was so nice I simply couldn't waste the day. Picking a random park area in the southeast of Paris we jumped on the metro and headed out. The park was really nice with an island in the middle of a big lake. The weather was so warm that we were sunbathing still at 6pm and enjoying the nice breeze, the sounds of kids playing, watching people floating around on boats etc. A nice way to finish the weekend.
The next day I was back on a train to Eurostar and bad-weather-London. There's seriously floods and junk there at the moment, it's crazy, and almost NO SUN! Man am I glad I'm in the south of Europe at the moment.
Although I had to go back for work, the main reason I returned was for to see my friend Rachelle for the last time as she's returning to Aus. For over a year she's not put up with my general crappness and the fact that I'm never around and I'm really grateful she's such a good mate. Gonna miss you Rachelle!!!
After two nights of catching up with Rachelle for drinks and one day of work in the middle, it was back on a plane again to Athens where I've been for almost a week. I only really got a chance to look around town today, so I'll try to get a blog up in the next few days about it all.
Today (as I finish writing this) it's my dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!!!
Later....
As usual I tried to quickly write a post for you, but it turned out long as I remembered all the stuff I've done in the last few weeks. I never seem to be able to do these things quickly.....
A couple of weeks ago I was sent to Athens for just one day to prepare a site for migration. As I flew in late on the Wednesday night, worked Thursday and then left early Friday morning so I basically didn't see anything (got this shop of the Acropolis from the hotel roof). I'm now back in Athens for almost a week for the migration so hopefully I'll get a much better look around. The hotel rooftop pool was awesome though, this was the view!
In between Athens pre-migration site visit and now a couple of big things happened. Firstly I was sent to Budapest for a similar site visit, although this time I got a chance to quickly look around, and secondly I went back to Paris for the weekend (my last three weekends of work have been 'cancelled') and celebrated their National Day (or Bastille Day). Both were really really cool.
Before either of those (however), I also got a chance to check out the city of Rheims (France) in one of my weekends of. Ghizlane's sister works there as an air traffic controller and she'd agreed to show us around. I always wondered what it was like and I'm really glad I got the chance to see it. I can't explain it here very well but everyone knows that it's a hyper-stress job, and after going there I can see why. It's not that the job itself is ridiculously complex or technical, it's more that everything happens in real time, and there's always a lot going on. At any particular time there were twenty or thirty planes on screen for the station Yasmina was using (and it was a slow period in terms of workload) and everything is just moving. The controllers have had to learn a massive amount of 'local' knowledge like beacon and waypoint names/coordinates by heart to ensure that their response is as fast as possible when dealing with the traffic. What really got me is that there is no chance to stop, or slow down, or take a break (without someone taking over) etc, it's just relentless and you can see things easily going from being 'OK' to massively overwhelming. Yasmina took a few hours to show us the work area and processes as well takign us on tour of the compound (she only works one day in three and has breaks during her shift) where they can play sport etc in their breaks. They are REALLY well looked after with food provided, gym, sports gymnasium etc.. almost everything a person could want, but with that stressful a job, I can see why they need it. Being a geek I thought the IT systems were really old and crap, but apparently a new system is coming online soon which is heaps better (still, I guess it would take YEARS to fully test new systems as they simply CAN'T fail...). So that was awesomely interesting and I really learn heaps. Thanks Yasmina!
As for Budapest, I only really had one day of proper sight seeing. I was due to go and see two offices in two days, and while the first was pretty difficult and took the whole day, the second was cancelled due to everyone deciding to go on holidays. That gave me one day to check out the city before heading back to Paris for the weekend. I've gotta say that I'm pretty impressed too! The city itself is beautiful with lots of nice architecture (the castle and parliament building are awesome), plenty of greenery (parks, some almost forest type areas in the hills overlooking everything), lots of open spaces/squares with cafes and bars and of course the Danube river, which is cool to just chill near. The weather was a huge advantage too with it being mostly sunny and 25/26ish during the day - a pleasant change from the poor weather central europe has been suffering for months.
So to start my sight seeing day, I jumped on a horrible tourist bus to take a look around. Sure, they can be frustrating and the commentary quite simplistic (as they repeat the same thing 2-3 times in different languages) but I think they are a little bit of a necessary evil but it is worth the time and money when you're new to the area. Our tour was pretty good though as we only had German and English speakers, and the guide was fairly knowledgeable. She also spoke in English most of the time, and then just kind of spoke to the German people directly while walking etc, which was good. The first thing I noticed is that some of the wider streets in the city have tree lined or grassy islands down the sides sort of like Madrid... I really like that.
The first major sight seeing 'thing' was the Heroes Square, which has a large monument to a number of famous Hungarian kings/leaders/presidents etc as well as a central memorial with the statue of Archangel Gabriel on it and a memorial to the Unknown Solider at the base. On either side are the square are the an Art Gallery and.. something else.. can't remember but it's like a library or theatre or something. Just nearby (beyond the square and down the road a little) is a big Castle, the Zoo, an ice rink (in winter, built right in front of the castle) and some medicinal baths which are pretty famous (apparently worth checking out when I return). The Zoo area looked pretty awesome for kids as it's kind of tied into a nearby amusement park. Because of the river, lots of outdoor areas, sports stuff etc around, I think the city looks like a great place to take the family for a holiday.
After this the tour headed up into the hill overlooking the city. On top of the hill is an old fortress which has been remodelled into a museum plus a big statue of Lady Liberty (the chick clutching the palm signifying peace). The area gives a great photo opportunity of the city (that panorama I tried to put up at the start of the post is from there) and you get to realise how big it really is. Also you can see the differences between the Buda and the Pest side when you look at the buildings. Very cool but it's ironic the 'Lady of Peace' is on top of a fortress, surrounded by guns! What's the quote? "If you want peace, first you must prepare for war."
Just nearby is the main castle area of the town (it's not a 'classic' castle thing exactly more like a fortified area where the kings/royalty lived). This is on top of one of the hills and also has a great view of the city - particularly the Parliament House. The main sights here aside from the fortifications and gardens are the Fisherman's Wall (a wall the Fisherman's guild used to look after), the main statue in the courtyard and the big church (can't remember the name). The church is pretty amazing both externally and internally with every surface painted and /or patterned. And the walls have a few cafe's which give excellent views over the city (but I didn't have time to actually eat there).
But for me the highlight of the place was being able to hold.. myself... erm, a Hawk!!! There are a few trained Hawks which kept in the castle area and they're pretty cool to hold. When I first had it put onto my hand (big thick gloves are required) it just stared straight into my eyes and yeah, it doesn't fear you at all. The things just look nasty and I'm sure it'd totally kick my arse in seconds. So after a couple of minutes gently rubbing it's underbelly and things, we were good friends and I got my photos. Very cool.....
That was basically it for the morning tour. I had to go back to the hotel and do some work for a few hours, and by the time I was done it was late, so I thought I might as well go for a jog around town to take some more pics. The gardens and parks of the city are really nice, check out the colours of some of the plants and stuff. I decided to jog upriver for a while to see an island I had noticed from taxi rides around town. The island is quite large and completely converted into a big park/recreation area. While it's already green and full of trees/plants/flowers etc, there are heaps of recreation facilities like swimming pools, soccer fields etc all over it. Looks like the Budapest-y's are a pretty outdoorsy and active people (perfect for me).
I ended up jogging for over an hour as I then followed the river on the return leg too. The Parliament building is pretty amazing up close and there's plenty of statues, gardens, arty stuff etc to take in. The bridges (particularly the Chain Bridge) are pretty nice and as it started to get dark, the lights began to come on and make them look even better. These night lights were so impressive that despite doing that big run, I couldn't resist heading out again later that night around 10pm to do a far smaller jog and try to get some shots of the buildings I'd seen during the day. It's a really pretty city by night too...
That was about it for Budapest. The next day I briefly checked out the main cathedral of town before heading to the airport to catch my plane to Paris. While looking around it I came across a sign "Chapel of the Hand". Immediately I started thinking of some weird mummified hand relic, and it turns out that's exactly what it is! There's the hand of some old king (King Stephen) of Hungary there clutching some Rosary Beads. Apparently when he was buried, everything decayed normally except his hand holding the beads. Now it's on display in the chapel and once a year it's whole case is taken out and paraded around.. creepy! Apologies for the bad phots, there was almost no light in the chapel and with no flash permitted (standard deal).
I got into Paris fairly late in the afternoon but still managed to get into town, relax and eat before heading out for a free concert that was being put on at the Bastille. Apparently Saturday was 'National Day' or something, but I didn't quite link up all the information until the next morning. Saturday was Bastille Day! The concert was on an open-air stage and the entire Bastille area was rammed with people. On stage were a few musicians I'd never heard of, but I still enjoyed the music as a lot of it was kind of afro-cuban and funky. We all had a good dance and some drinks, staying until it all ended around 1am. Big smiles!!!!
Being Bastille Day on Saturday, there is always a huge parade down the Champs Elysees towards the Concorde with a whole lot of French troops from all of the different forces putting on a show. Despite getting there a couple of hours before the thing started, as you'd expect the whole area was completely rammed. People had set up spots early and after scouting the area for 30 mins or so, we eventually found a side street where we could see the main Champs Elysee without too much of a problem (I like being tall, I could see just fine). The program roughly went something like jets first (with coloured smoke, cool), then all the troops (previously lining the whole street) started marching down, then came vehicles like bikes and stuff, then armoured vehicles (APC's, trucks, troop transports, bulldozers on trailers etc), then tanks!!! (tanks are cool) followed by Fire Engines (they honour the firefighters),helicopters and finally more planes (even those big radar ones - AWAKS or something).
After sitting around a little after the show finished to let the crowd disperse, we headed towards a nearby metro station to get home. On the way I got distracted by the sight of huge helicopters and armoured vehicles on the park/lawn area outside Les Invalides. The chance to look at everything up close was great as it makes you realise how big it all is.
With no rest for the wicked, by the time we'd returned home for something to eat, we had to get a picnic dinner ready for the last and best bit of Bastille Day, the fireworks! People had been setting the things off all weekend, but the official show is pretty famous for incorporating the Eiffel Tower and the Tracodero. Again there was a free concert on but this time it was in the park next to the Eiffel Tower. Despite being early, again things were crammed but we managed to find a nice stop on the grass right next to one of the legs of the tower, with a good view of the Trocadero. It meant we couldn't see the concert stage, but we could still hear it and besides, it was only Nelly Furtado and Timberland playing, so I didn't miss anything ;).
After a couple of bottle of wine, some nice dinner and a couple of hours sitting around on a beautifully warm night, the show began! (it wasn't dark till almost 10pm). The thing was just amazing, really impressive, loud, bright, cool... uh.. everything. I don't know why fireworks are always cool, but they just are, but don't worry, I will still be patriotic and say that I'd take the Australia Day fireworks any day :). Again we hung around and enjoyed the night after the show was over before finally heading back to the apartment in the early morning hours, completely knackered!
Sunday was a very sedate affair for the majority as we slept late, but the weather was so nice I simply couldn't waste the day. Picking a random park area in the southeast of Paris we jumped on the metro and headed out. The park was really nice with an island in the middle of a big lake. The weather was so warm that we were sunbathing still at 6pm and enjoying the nice breeze, the sounds of kids playing, watching people floating around on boats etc. A nice way to finish the weekend.
The next day I was back on a train to Eurostar and bad-weather-London. There's seriously floods and junk there at the moment, it's crazy, and almost NO SUN! Man am I glad I'm in the south of Europe at the moment.
Although I had to go back for work, the main reason I returned was for to see my friend Rachelle for the last time as she's returning to Aus. For over a year she's not put up with my general crappness and the fact that I'm never around and I'm really grateful she's such a good mate. Gonna miss you Rachelle!!!
After two nights of catching up with Rachelle for drinks and one day of work in the middle, it was back on a plane again to Athens where I've been for almost a week. I only really got a chance to look around town today, so I'll try to get a blog up in the next few days about it all.
Today (as I finish writing this) it's my dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!!!
Later....
posted by Anthony Hawke at 12:20 pm
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