Housepets!

I would like to show one of my personal favorite photos from last year. Usually there is no bus traffic on this strip of Váci út, but due to construction works on metro line M3, two bus lines were temporarily extended to Lehel tér. After all passengers got off, the buses went on a loop around the square and passed this beautiful church on their way. The bus is a 2013 Mercedes Citaro C2G, these buses came as brand new and were replaced last year as their contracts expired.
The church was built between 1931 and 1933 in Romanesque Revival style. It was named after Saint Margaret of Hungary (Szent Margit) when she was canonized as a saint in 1943. This church was based on a Romanesque church in Zsámbék (it was damaged by an earthquake in 1763 and it was never repaired), the architect of this church (István Möller) was leading the preservation of the ruins between 1896 and 1900. I really like Romanesque architecture, so this church has always caught my attention

That looks lovely Chieris. A beautiful architecture that is a treat to my eyes.

It is very eye-catching, grand in its simple elegance. Have yet to get to Budapest.

Thank you! I can definitely recommend to pay a visit to Budapest, it really is beautiful. I have conflicted feelings about my country, but I really think that it's a beautiful place and worths a visit

Cute.

One of my many weird hobbies is that I like to collect 1/87 (or H0) scale model buses. I always liked scaled down versions of vehicles, always loved model railroads and while I would love to buy model trains, I am quite limited in terms of budget and space (but I do want to have a model railroad at home if I'll have stable income and move out to my own place). So instead of model trains, I buy model buses which take up less space and also are not as expensive, to be fair I still spent ridiculous money on these or else there wouldn't be 28 of them sitting on my desk.
Here's one piece of my collection, a MAN Lion's City. It's the small-scale version of ÖBB Postbus's buses that used to run on bus lines 67A and 67B in Vienna. The place where I took this photo is Südtirolerplatz which is used as a bus station for international and airport express buses, but some of Postbus's regional and local buses are stored there too, that's why these Lion's Cities were there. This was one of the rare moments when I could match any of my model buses with their actual real-life counterpart

Well, I'm fascinated, Cher.
Incidentally, I have a model railroad set that my parents bought me for my fifth birthday (that's in 1951; we were living in Key West, Florida, at the Navy Base then). It's a wonderful Lionel train set with a steam locomotive, a coal car, lumber car (with some of the logs left), a tanker car, a box car, a cattle car with little laytex steers that can be offloaded, a milk car, and a caboose. Much, much later, on a whim, I bought a Hamm's Beer box car. I have the tracks as well. It's now in storage as I have no room in the house to display it, let alone get it running.
Memories and momentos, eh?

Nice photo, Chieris.

Really do like all of those photos Chieris that you took to post here! They all look really breathtaking!

More Magyar marvels, Cher!!

I'll try, but I have limitations because the forum won't let me upload any media so I have to share the pictures from my Deviantart (I don't know whether it would work with Facebook too). Hopefully this one will fit into the 'Magyar marvels'.
Last week I visited Szolnok and it has one of the coolest roundabouts I've ever seen as it has a Mil MI-24 helicopter in the middle of it. The reason why it's there is that Szolnok has a military air base
The bus is a MAN Lion's City 12G and these CNG-powered buses are common on the regional bus lines of Szolnok since last year. In terms of design it's one of my favorite buses.

I'm a little unsure whether the photo can be seen by everyone, because I copied the image link from a public Facebook group instead of Deviantart. If it won't work then I'll find an alternative.(EDIT: It did not work)
Budapest has an quite large tram network (currently 174 km / 108 miles, but it used to be even bigger) and it is so busy that it set the world record of putting the longest trams in passenger service twice. Some of these tram lines are surrounded by beautiful scenery, such as tram lines 19 and 41 that go next to the Danube on the Buda side, passing in front of the Gellért Hill and Castle Hill and going under the Chain Bridge. I use tram line 19 fairly often as I can transfer from the regional bus to that tram and it will take me to the university campus.
But the tram on the picture is on line 41 which is also an interesting one, it's the longest tram line in the city with the length of 18.5 km / 11.5 miles and it's southern section is quite unique as it goes through a rural environment and ends at the city border. This line is almost exclusively serviced with high-floor Czechoslovak Tatra trams because of that certain southern section can't be used by newer trams, but at the beginning of the afternoon rush-hours there are low-floor CAF Urbos 3 trams on this line too which depart from depot instead of the city border.
The picture was taken close to Batthyány tér which gives a spectacular view to anyone, as both the Buda Castle and the Parliament building are close and there is a baroque church on the square too

Um ... wow!

Really incredible work on snapping all of these shots Chieris! I love how all of them came out!

That trolly car looks so modern and colorful. Is Budapest the only city in Hungary with these trollies or do you find them in other Hungarian towns?

If you mean specifically that CAF tram, then yes. While Debrecen also ordered CAF Urbos 3 trams when they opened line 2 in the early 2010s, but those have a different exterior design and a better interior compared to the ones in Budapest. The other 2 cities with trams use different low-floor trams (Szeged: Pesa 120Nb Swing; Miskolc: Škoda 26T ForCity)
Beșancon (France), Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Freiburg (Germany) operate CAF Urbos 3s that are the most similar looking compared to Budapest's CAF trams, the ones in Utrecht even have a similar yellow color.

I don't know much about trams other than they look like they would be really fun to ride in! Its nice that you are so knowledgable about them!

I love trams and other modes of transit since I was little. Funnily enough I don't care about the mechanical part of them, but the history of different vehicles, the changes in the networks (I even spent some time comparing old images with current ones on places where trams used to run and Budapest used to have a much bigger tram network), their exterior design and even their sounds got me interested. So I'm probably biased when I say that it's indeed fun to travel with them, especially if you find a good line too (like tram lines 2, 41 and 56 in Budapest).

I want to share another photo from 2021, I took it on the same day I introduced myself here in the forums. It features neither a vehicle nor a Magyar marvel, just two kittens playing. My family and I went to Lake Tisza and we stopped in a rest area, that's where I saw these little guys. Little fun fact that this ended being my most faved submission on Deviantart with 32 favorites.

(I need to learn how to write my thoughts in a shorter form, I keep writing wall of texts anytime I post here)

The picture of the two of them is really adorable and just melts my heart! You did a wonderful job capturing this so there is no wonder why it is your most faved submission on DeviantArt!

Thank you, I'm happy you like it!

I visited Szeged again in March and one of the many water towers happened to be open for free on that day so I visited it. I went on its 'balcony' (I don't know how it's called) to look around and thought about including two things in one photo that would not be possible otherwise, the towers of the Votive Church and an old Škoda trolleybus.
The trolleybus on the photo is an 1990 Škoda 15Tr, it was previously used in České Budějovice (Czechia) before being bought by Szeged. Despite their old age, these trolleys are still important part of the trolleybus traffic there. These and their shorter variant (Škoda 14Tr) were pretty popular in the Eastern Bloc, but most of them were replaced by newer trolleybuses (in the former Czechoslovakia, where they were manufactured, there are only two cities which still have them in passenger service).
Škoda 14Tr and 15Tr managed to get to the US as well, Dayton bought 57 Škoda 14TrEs (E standing for export) while San Francisco bought 240 Škoda 14TrSF and 33 Škoda 15TrSF in the 90s, but now none of them are in service anymore.

That shot you got of the trolly is incredibly breathtaking! Wonderful work on snapping the picture!

Thanks!

Here are some photos from July when I visited Vácrátót arboretum with my family. I don't live close to water, so I don't see damselflies often. It was nice to see these little guys.

They do look like they are very interesting creatures and the pictures really turned out well. Thanks for sharing these!

Thanks, I'm happy to share my stuff here

I brought an older image (almost 3 years old) from Budapest, this time from the Pest side. Here's a refurbished Ganz tram from tram line 2 which was chocolate as the 7th most beautiful tram line on the world and for good reason. If you travel by this tram, you can see some of the most beautiful attractions Budapest can offer such as the Parliament building, the Buda Castle, the Chain Bridge and the Gellért Hill. This picture was taken next to Elizabeth Bridge where the so-called "viaduct" ends, it's a section of tracks fully separated from roads, that's the most beautiful part of the tram line in my opinion as it has the most spectular view.

Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 3:04 pm They do look like they are very interesting creatures and the pictures really turned out well. Thanks for sharing these!

These are excellent photos.
When I was a kid, I bought an aquarium and raised fresh water insects in it (tropical fish cost too much). Several of my damselfies reached adulthood and successfully became fliers. The trcik was getting them out of the house without injury and without annoying my parents.

Amazee Dayzee wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:35 pm The picture of the two of them is really adorable and just melts my heart! You did a wonderful job capturing this so there is no wonder why it is your most faved submission on DeviantArt!

Well, amazz and I will add two more "favorites" to your charming picture of those two little scamps.

I am pretty sure I already added them to my favorites on DeviantArt. If not then I will do it later when I get the time. LOL

One of the cities I visited last summer was Szombathely, it's the 10th largest city in Hungary and it's very close to the Austrian border. Besides the Church of Ják (which was about 20 minutes away from the city with regional bus), one thing that piqued my interest as a fan of public transportation was the local buses of Szombathely. Since 2022, Austrian-owned company Blaguss Agora is the operator of local buses in Szombathely and they bought brand new German-made Mercedes Citaro C2 buses, which is quite rare as other Hungarian companies either buy Turkish-made Conectos or second-hand older generation Citaros when it comes to Mercedes.
Here's one of the 12 meters long Citaros going into the roundabout at Batthyány tér. The building in the background used to a synagogue, but after World War II the number of Jews significantly reduced in the city and they couldn't maintain the building. The building was bought from the community (for much cheaper than it's worth) and it was converted into a concert hall in 1970s