Budapest Day 2- To the Buda Castle Labyrinths

The first thing I noticed in my Budapest travel guide was the Buda Castle Labrynths. I had no idea what they were, I just knew I wanted to go. Because of Boro's suggestion, I decided to go after 6pm. This meant I had to take the subway for the first time.

I've been avoiding the subway like the plague. Growing up with the horror stories of the New York Subways and not feeling entirely safe on the Olso subways, there was no way I wanted to ride the subways in some foreign country. This night I had no choice. I couldn't really ride the trams to my destination and I wasn't familiar enough with the bus system to take advantage of it. Much to my surprise, my fear was 100% unfounded. The subways were brightly lit, clean, and didn't have creepy people lurking about. The subways in Budapest are a joy to ride.

Unfortunately, the closest subway stop to the labyrinths was on the other side of Castle Hill, a place I haven't visited before. I emerged from the subway stop into a blizzard, I couldn't see anything. I ducked into a supermarket for a chance to consult my map after doing a quick walk around the block to get my bearings and the street names. Much to my dismay, I discover that there's no brightly lit public roads to the castle from my location. I have to go through the park. No website I visited warned of the dangers of the park, and it was only 6:30 in the evening, but I still wasn't all that crazy about walking alone through a park where I could be snatched away without anyone noticing. I don't like being in parks at night in my home town, let alone in a strange city. I didn't see any other choice available besides getting back on the subway and going back to Pest. I decided my best plan of action would be to walk along busy streets until I came to the park and make my assessment from there.

The park is long and narrow, so I didn't have a long way to traverse, it was also pretty well lit. I saw a gentleman get off the tram and start walking through the park, so I decided to follow him. A witness would help deter anyone from doing anything unsavory to me. I walk about eight paces behind the guy, enough distance that I don't freak him out but close enough he could hear me scream. About halfway through the park, the man starts picking up his pace and I realize I am freaking him out. Safety comes before politeness however, so I continue to keep pace with him. That he's a bit freaked by someone eight paces behind him concerns me even more, is this park really scary at night?

When we reached the other side he hurried across the street while I paused a moment to figure out my next move. There's no streets I can see that lead up Castle Hill, just a dark, stone stairway. Alrighty then, up the stairs I go. The good part about the stairs is they are quite narrow and I can see all the way to the top. The bad part is there's only two exit points, the top and the bottom. I hurry up the stairs as fast as I can, keeping an ear and an eye out for anything that looks suspicious. I reach the top only to find another staircase.

This staircase is in the open air, and I can see from pristine snow that no one has been up the stairs for the past few hours. The lack of people comforts and unnerves me. I'll easily be able to see or hear anyone coming, but there's no outs if someone does come. I'm not the best at running down steep, slippery steps. At this point there's only one course of action, onward and upward. When I reach the top of the second set of steps I recognise my surroundings and realize I've made it. I'm on Castle Hill, safe and sound.

I'm comfortable on Castle Hill, I know the layout and I've seen the faces of the people in that area of town. I know it's a friendly area. The park might have been just as friendly too. I hadn't read anything that would lead me to believe otherwise, but I don't like to guess. If I'm not sure of an area either at home or abroad, I treat it like it's dangerous. It's especially hard when I don't have a feel for the place and my spidey-senses aren't working properly.