August 23, 2010: Budapest Zoo & Street sites

August 23, 2010: After breakfast I set out to walk to the Opera House to buy my ticket for the Mahler's 2nd Symphony concert. And, I am proud to say that I'm becoming familiar with the layout of the city since I didn't need a map and even figured out some short cuts to take (Budapest is a challenge to learn the streets of because rather than using a Cartesian or rectangular coordinate system, they chose to use a polar coordinate system instead). I arrived at the rear of St. Stephen's Basilica to find Andrassy Ut.

Rear view of St. Stephen's Basilica

Soon after that I reached the Opera House. However, as I had feared, I arrived there at 10:00 to see the sign telling me that the box office opens at 11:00. Rather than wait, I took the 20 minute walk to Hero's Square to go to the Museum of Modern Art which I hadn't seen yet, only to discover that it was Monday and museums aren't open on Mondays. Not to be deterred, I remembered that the Budapest Zoo was a short walk near the lake just north of Hero's Square.

Lake with Hero's Square in distance and zoo to right

 Figuring that animals must eat every day, I reasoned the zoo must be open even on Mondays. And it was. Again getting a free ticket because of my International Teacher's card (saving ~$9.00 this time!) I entered the zoo.

Budapest Zoo entrance

The zoo has quite a variety of animals and I was surprised at how accessible the animals are to the spectators. I don't think any American zoo would have allowed people to be as close to the animals as we were to them. Following are pictures of some of the animals:

Eel in hole in Aquarium

This is a fish

Bats

The bats were loose in a room that we spectators roamed through (too bad about that lady next to me that the bats sucked the blood out of!)

this monkey was free to walk right up to us if it wanted to

As you can tell, I was very impressed with the zoo. The animals looked very well kept and there were a lot of caretakers with the animals at least while I was there.


After the zoo, it was time to return to the Opera House to get my ticket. Rather than walk all the way there, I decided to take the subway (five stops it turns out so I guess I really did some walking!) 

Budapest Subway train car

The subway took me right in front of the Opera House and I walked in and purchased my ticket. I'll be in the 3rd balcony right in the front just like our regular seats at LA's Disney Hall. We'll see how the two compare. One thing's for sure -- the ticket in Budapest cost ~$18.00 whereas the tickets we buy in LA are $50.00 for roughly the same location.


I'll conclude things with a few pictures taken on the streets -- two of them dog pictures to show you how mellow the dogs here are. They just stay near their master.

Electric tram car -- these go all over the place in Budapest

Gardeners in front of Budapest Art Museum

This afternoon I'll be picked up by taxi at 4:00 (as arranged by the cousin of the apartment owner who called to schedule the taxi for me). The taxi will take me to Corvinus University where I will be attending orientation for Central European Teaching Program (CETP) that has arranged for my job at Ujpesti High School. I'll be meeting the 40 some other teachers. We'll be getting tips on Hungarian culture, learning a little of the language, learning a bit on how to teach in Hungary, and just get to know each other. Should be fun.