Budapest Parliament Overcast Day Countdown Timer

Same building, hours earlier, no lights on, and it could not look more different. This is the version you get in February. Flat grey sky, wind coming off the river, and stone that looks like stone. All the gold and drama of the night shot is gone. What is left is the sheer length of the thing, two hundred and sixty eight metres along the water, a hundred and sixty two statues, and no straight line anywhere you could put a ruler to. From here you can count the arches. There are a lot of arches. I had walked past it the night before and thought I understood it. I did not. Daylight is honest like that. It shows you the soot on the spire and the scaffolding on the left wing and the fact that half the facade is an argument between two architects who apparently never spoke again. I like this picture more than the pretty one. It is not selling anything. It is just a very large, very old, slightly grubby building sitting on a river in the middle of winter, doing its job without asking for applause.