Fireworks by the River

Time:  7 am, Place: some hotel in Budapest, Date: 20^th of August. I woke up; still in bed I grabbed my mobile phone, checked the time with one closed eye. I wondered what should be done today in the city. I typed on google: “St. Stephen's Basilica”. A place which was on my to go list. As Google always gets you the newest information first, I noticed there are a couple of links talking about some preparations that were being made there because of Hungary National Day. This day matches the 20^th of August. I checked my calendar and it is actually 20th of August. I thought oh well what should I expect on a country’s national holiday? Celebrations or closed shops? I hoped the day would turn out fine.

I read on the internet that there would be fireworks by the danube river at 8 pm that night. I thought it would be like a 2 minutes quick celebration, nothing fancy but I was keen on watching it anyway so at 7:50 pm that night, I was in one of the side streets with my friend trying to get to the main road by the river. As soon as we reached it, I was shocked by the number of people. There were hundreds of people standing along the river side. You could see people in the Far East, the far west and on the other side of the river. That scene reminded me of the demonstration days in Egypt, except it wasn’t a demonstration; it was just people gathering for the fireworks.

We couldn’t stand in the crowd. We noticed a railway track that is closer to the river and less crowded so I placed myself with my friend on it for a better view and fortunately it wasn’t working at the time.

It is time, 8 PM, Soft music started; you can hear them wherever you were. On each street light pole there was a sound speaker attached to it. It felt like the whole city is in one harmony, one synched beautiful piece of music. It was magic.

It was dark until The Sky lit up with colorful fireworks. You could hear the sound of music, the sound of fireworks’ banging, people cheering. You could see the fireworks along with Cameras’ flashing lights that are capturing every moment of this celebration.
The Fireworks movements are perfectly synced with the music. A low pitch is a short bang. A high pitch is a longer more colorful bang. Fireworks were dancing on the bridge. They were coming out of the river water and they were up high in the sky. They were everywhere around me. I thought this must be magic. This cannot be real. The celebration lasted for a whole of 30 minutes and I could truly say this was one of the happiest 30 minutes in my life.

Here are 2 photos that I had taken back then.