Hi, everyone! Welcome to mybeloved.camera. Yes, it was 10 years ago. I have been going through my photographs and reorganizing/rewriting my blog posts and came across some photos from my first visit to Budapest. The reason I started photography was to capture the pictures of my kids and send them to my parents living away from me. But I have to say taking pictures while traveling, especially on my business trips was the reason I really got into photography. I have to say this trip back in March 2023 started all. Looking at my photos from 10 years ago was little embarrassing in a way. I realized how bad I was back then. Nevertheless, this trip was the beginning. It was the first time I really took time on my own to shoot what I wanted to shoot. By myself. Taking the time I needed to take.
You might ask why Budapest? Yes, it is a beautiful city. But there are a lot of beautiful cities, and probably more popular or well-known destinations. I have to say it was simply pure luck. It was a business trip. Back in 2012, I resigned my position at Amazon and move to my current company. My department outsourced some of the operations to an offshore company, and one of their offices happened to be in Budapest. We visited there to retrain the team we had there. When I learned my boss was sending me for a trip, I was mildly shocked and wildly excited.
If you search Budapest on Google or Bing, you can easily find beautiful photos of the Parliament, Castle, Bridges and other historical places. There are a lot of beautiful things to photograph for sure. Most of these are in walking distance from each other, and you can spend a day taking a leisurely walk and shooting beautiful and historic architectures.
Budapest is also a tourist-friendly city. Of course, it has to do with the fact tourism is one of the most important industry for the city. Also, there are street vendors and shops with tourist traps. Pick pockets seem to be a common petty crime as well. But I have never experienced any danger or any negative experience as a tourist there. I have walked all over Budapest. Even early in the morning or really late at night, I felt fairly safe walking around the city taking pictures, carrying my camera and tripod.
We stayed at Hilton Budapest. It probably is one of the best, if not the best, hotels to stay for photography. While it is not the most convenient for sightseeing of the pest side and central area, it is right next to the St. Matthias Church, right by the best photo spot to shoot the Parliament building, and is in the historic district of Budapest. Their restaurant for breakfast overlook the Danube river and the Parliament. It was a wonderful way to start the day looking at the beautiful city drinking coffee. Their buffet breakfast is also awesome.
I believe this is a part of Buda castle. Walking through the "wall" and climbing down the stairs and the hill gets to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. As this bridge and the castle district is the most popular and iconic attractions, there are a lot of tourist from the morning to night.
Back then, I was shooting Canon Rebel XTi with 28mm-135mm. It was not the best combination given the APS-C censor. Since this trip, I visited Budapest 8 times until July 2022. I took photographs of same buildings, bridges, and architectures with different cameras, lenses, in different seasons, at different times. I have shared some of these photos through the years here on this site. If you are interested, please take a look at them.
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