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Debra's
Diary ~ Date:
13-21 June 2007 We choose to visit our destinations
at the time of year that will be the most suitable for
filming, and will show off the place to its best advantage -
so, choosing to go to Budapest in June seemed a good
idea. Based on predicted temperatures, we chose our
hotel in Pest - a wonderful old apartment building turned into
a hotel, with impossibly high ceilings; tall double-casement
windows with shutters; polished wood floors; period
furniture. A joyous change from the modern brick and
glass, flat-packed hotels. Which just goes to show you
shouldn't always rely on predictions - for our entire stay the
temperature did not dip much below 37°C and wonderful old
apartment buildings without air conditioning suddenly aren't a
patch on modern brick and glass hotels with air conditioning,
no matter how high the ceilings or how polished the
wood! Holidaying I can take the heat; you can wear
clothing designed to keep you cool and spend as much time as
you like under cover drinking cool drinks. But filming
in the heat is another matter entirely - especially when
you've chosen a smart tailored dress, designed to hopefully
disguise a less than even terrain beneath, teamed with an
eye-catching complimentary little cardigan and matching
shoes. Which just goes to show you should always have a
dress B in the newly-downsized-to-meet-absurdly-low-weight
allowances suitcase.
But
the show must go on (and the budget didn't allow for a return
visit in a 20 degrees lower month) and Dave couldn't really
see the problem (not understanding the importance of appearing
comfortable and actually being comfortable), so we
started filming. We research heavily before we go
anywhere, and have a pretty set route to follow, but we do
like to be flexible, and if something up a side street catches
our fancy, we're quite likely to divert our course to feature
it, so our filming course is erratic at best, and we film
until we've completed the allotted distance - no matter how
long that takes. We met Judit Nemeth at the Tourist
Information Centre on March 15th Square - which was incredibly
difficult to find - and she gave us our press packs, some
useful pronunciation hints and sent us on our way.
We
found Budapest easy to film and get around in, despite it's
size. Because we had chosen a route that encompassed
both sides of the Danube, and (hopefully) all the really good
bits, there were only a couple of instances when we broke off
the foot-slog and took trams, underground trains or a
bus. Andras Török was a joy to meet - a former
dissident, short-term Deputy Minister in the new government
and now Director of an Arts Council and author of a
best-selling book about Budapest - he was uniquely placed to
talk about so many aspects of Hungarian culture. The
problem with situations like this is that we could have made a
programme just about him!
The
only time I was actually cool was when we were in the
Labyrinth, which is several metres underground. Its history
was fascinating, from being cellars and hiding places for
valuables, it became an air-raid shelter for 10,000 people
during WW2, and then a secret military installation before
being opened as an exhibit. Even though it was so hot,
we still had goulasch soup at lunchtime, but compensated with
gallons of the local beer - such a change from our normal
routine... Even filming at night was sticky and uncomfortable,
but it has to be done - Budapest is one of the most beautiful
cities at night - they've really thought about their
illuminations, they are spectacular. City Park was
really pleasant to walk in, and the restaurant beside the
thermal lake was particularly nice to sit in and rest the
feet. Quite often we eat sandwiches 'on the hoof', so a
proper restaurant is to be savoured to the full. At the
Citadel on top of Gellert Hill there were superb views, a
welcome breeze and more cold drinks which made the climb up
worth it. Although there were plenty of good restaurants
with excellent food, we were usually so tired that we tended
to eat within a small radius of our hotel with the occasional
foray further afield, and found the prices to be pretty much
on a par with the UK in the top tourist spots. We're told the nightlife is good,
but as we generally view the day's rushes and then plan for
the next day to encompass any changes and fall into bed
(having hastily ironed the smart dress for yet another attempt
at a wrinkle-free day in the heat), I have to honestly say we
didn't sample it.
We've
been to Budapest in the winter too; that time we stayed in
Buda in a wonderful sixties-style round tower of a hotel and
had just as much fun wandering the streets, albeit bundled up
in winter woollies. We visited the national museum, and
although you have to put up your house and your passport as
surety in order to obtain the MP3 players with the audio tour
to guide you through Hungary's long history, it is worth it if
only to go through the WW2-Communist years exhibits. The
House of Terror Museum is haunting, and I particularly enjoyed
the stamp museum, but you need a generous amount of time to
look at everything. Definitely an all-year-round city to
visit.
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E-mail
Debra at:
grindelwald_prods@lycos.com
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