Hungarian Parliament Building - Budapest, Hungary

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This past September, I learned a new way to travel...by the seat of my pants and at the mercy of the transportation choices put before me. Did you know the further south you travel in Europe, the ease of travelling by rail decreases dramatically? Our next stop was Sofia, Bulgaria and it seemed you couldn't get there from Budapest, by train anyway. We found a semi-cheap flight but it was only available a few times a week. So, we could have one full day in the city or three...we chose one and hit the ground running.

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Because of our limited time, I couldn't spend a bunch of time trying to get amazing shots of everything. I relied heavily on my iPhone and for the most part, it served me well. When it came to the Hungarian Parliament Building, I was a bit overwhelmed. This building is easily the biggest I have ever seen and the largest and tallest in Budapest. I had a hard time getting all it in one shot and struggled to get quality images. So, I did what I do...took what I got and fiddled with it until I was happy. I know that countless photographers with the best equipment have come before me and if I want to look at a pristine image, I can find one on the internet. My goal was to produce a memory for myself.

This building is a mix of Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival architecture and was the result of an international competition where Imre Steindl was the winning architect. Construction began in 1885 and was completed in 1904. Here are some interesting stats from Wikipedia: "About 100,000 people were involved in construction, during which 40 million bricks, half a million precious stones and 40 kilograms (88 lb) of gold were used."

You can get an idea of the scale...look at how tiny those normal sized humans look on the steps.

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I wanted to give you a little bit closer look at the dome from the inner courtyard. I cropped this from a much larger picture which led to a little bit of dramatic editing to get me to my happy place. I'm curious which version you prefer...feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.

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This is the view from across the Danube at Buda Castle...another marvel worthy of multiple posts. I went with a soft-focus almost painterly look on this one.

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Overall, I was pleased with the shots I got and am very impressed we saw all that we did in this spectacular city in the time we had. Thanks for coming along for part of my afternoon in Budapest.

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This post is also my submission for the #architecturalphotography contest sponsored by @photocontests and initiated by @juliank.

!steemitworldmap 47.499576 lat 19.042053 long Hungarian Parliament Building d3scr