Budapest - fog all day and no free parking(almost)

  Budapest, Hungary
Friday, October 10, 2008

Ah Budapest, a city with that dirty "living city" feel, a melting pot of cultures and a place with almost no free parking. Welcome to the first instalment from Budapest.The drive to Budapest from Bratislava was uneventful, basically 2.5 hours straight down the motorway. The only thing of note was the complete lack of breeze and the light blanket of fog that remained for our entire journey. The lack of wind resulted in the many wind-turbines we saw on the way standing still; silent sentinels to the wind. Before we knew it we were navigating our way to our hostel where, in the time taken for us to check in I obtained my first souvenir, a parking ticket! 
After the initial frustrations (and associated words associated with such events), I asked a staff member in the hostel  how does one go about paying for these things; the ticket was all Hungarian to me!It turns out, very few people in Budapest ever pay their parking fines. It appears the reason is was only 10 years ago that paid parking was introduced in Budapest. When they did, the government essentially sold the rights to ticketing to private organisations; that is, money raised through paying fines goes to private organisations (ie. profit). Now the people aren't happy with this as these organisations are not that transparent (ie. viewed as corrupt - money that is raised goes missing). The people would be more happy if the money was going towards paying for playgrounds rather than the bottom line of shady corporate organisations!
So, for the most part, people don't pay the fines. It seems that the government, when they sold the rights, didn't provide the firms with a good mechanism to enforce payment (eg. loosing licences etc); the only avenue available to the firms is to sue for the amount owed, which would require the use of the courts. Obviously this can be a costly exercise, so it is only done in cases of significant tickets being gathered. So, the one I had on "Toddy", and the eight or so I saw on the car opposite on the street, wouldn't even matter!
Armed with that information, and with no information on how to pay the fine, it is likely I will be bringing a parking ticket home with me as a souvenir :) The fine wasn't large, only 1 days worth of parking (3,330 Hungarian dollars - or 13 Euro).
After the fun and games of parking, Shellie and I spent the afternoon exploring an Island in the middle of the Danube, Margit-sziget. It is a fantastic open space, about 5.5 km around. There is a dedicated running path around the island, made from that "squishy" material found under children's playgrounds these days. There was a fountain whose water flow was synchronised with the sound of a classical music piece playing over nearby speakers. There was a massive water park, complete with diving platforms (three of them), at least two 50 meter pools, those spiral slippery dip things (you know the ones that water flow down) amongst other things. There was also a large football over, various tennis courts, a large open space perfect for cricket (not that they know what that is!). Pretty much, it was a perfect outdoor space in the centre of Budapest.
We finished our walk at sunset, taking a photo or two, one of which is attached. 

Us on a bridge over the Danube

Tomorrow we do some more exploring. Shellie discovered there is a food festival, a film festival, and two others (which I can't remember at the time of writing).
All the best,
Paul