Hola todos,
Well, we final got our first European travel hurdle. Traveling by bus always puts you at the risk of either traffic or a flat tire, neither of which you face when traveling via train.
And on the way to Budapest, right at the Slovakia-Hungary border, we got a flat tire.
It wasn't the worst thing--we all stayed seated in the bus while they completed the repairs and ended up only being 15 minutes late despite the 30-minute repair. It still made for a late night, though.
The bus station thankfully has a metro stop, so I bought a ticket (so cheap!) and boarded the metro into the heard of Budapest. When I emerged from the train station, I was blown away. There was so much vibrancy and nightlife, and then I turned a corner and saw amazing buildings with beautiful architecture that light up the nighttime sky. Incredible.
I checked into my hostel and settled in for the night. The next morning, I found out that the hostel is in the perfect location right in the center of all of the tourist spots. (Which I researched and sort-of knew when booking it, but you never really know, you know?)
I started my day by walking around a quiet Budapest in the morning. There was plenty of commuter traffic (it was a work day), but no tourist crowds yet.
Many of the streets are tree-lined, and there are parks and green space scattered throughout the city as well.
This is a hand-decorated porcelain fountain. The shop of the company that decorated it is across the street. Talk about good advertising!
I passed by the second largest synagogue in the world. They also do interior tours (which I ended up not doing) but the exterior itself is beautiful to behold.
I ended up making my way toward the Danube and walking up the path along it. Fun fact: The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe and goes through 10 countries!
The pictures I took cannot do this view justice. (As I found out later, the view is considered UNESCO heritage site!) Fun fact about Budapest: It is actually two cities that combined into one in 1873. Two million of Hungary's 10 million residents live in Budapest. There is the Buda side (visible in this picture, where the Buda Castle area is) and the Pest side (where most of the tourism is and most of the city lives).
I met up with my walking tour and set off to learn about this city! Once again, I ended up meeting some great fellow travelers: folks all the way from Florida to Spain; some were students "on holiday," some were working at local hostels in exchange for the ability to travel, some are between jobs and using that time to explore the world. So cool!
To start, I learned that modern Hungarian language and culture is influenced by ancient Hungarian, Turkish, and Finnish tribal groups. Hungarian is one of the hardest languages for native English speakers to learn and there is really no similar language that shares roots or pronunciations. Budapest itself was settled in 896 AD. (What?!?)
Throughout the tour, we learned about the history of Hungary, including its time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Hapsburgs. It seems like much of Hungarian identity was built around trying to be bigger, better, and more beautiful than Austria. (Of course, I will get the Austrian version of the rivalry in a few days!)
We passed by St. Stephen’s Basilica, which is 96 meters tall. There is a Pest-side height cap on all buildings so that the Basilica (and the Parliament building, which is also 96 meters tall) remain the tallest buildings in the city. Budapest is 80% Roman Catholic today, which surprised me, given the long hold that communism had on Hungary.
The back and front of the Basilica, respectively.
The interior is so elaborately decorated. I loved the art on the dome (partially visible in the right pic). The ginormous pipe organ is on the left.
We also walked by Liberty Square, which holds two controversial memorials. One recognizes the German-inflicted horrors of World War II but ignores the involvement of the Hungarian government and people in persecutions themselves, especially the Arrow Cross party (its fascist party, aligned with the Nazis). The other controversial memorial will not be taken down because it is under the diplomatic protection of Russia: it expresses gratitude for the Soviet liberation of Hungary from the Nazis.
The pro-Soviet memorial
Once again, our tour guide (who was about my age) spoke fervently against socialism and communism, explaining to our group that communism sounds nice in theory, but it wreaks havoc on a country's citizens. He even had stories from his grandmother describing her experience under communist Hungary.
We concluded the tour at the Hungarian Parliament building, which has a neo-gothic design built to mimic Westminster Palace in London. This was an effort of the designer to bring Hungary into the Western European fold. Here are a lot of photos in an effort for me to show you the scale of the building and the intricacies of the architectural design:
One of the women in the group, Ilana, and I were about the same age and connected during the tour (her brother lives in the DMV!), so we decided to grab lunch together. But first, we wanted to check out the Shoes on the Danube Memorial, which was nearby.
The Shoes on the Danube Memorial commemorates the mass murder of Hungarian Jews by the Arrow Cross Party of Hungary, which was affiliated with the Nazis. There are 60 pairs of shoes representing the final act many Hungarian Jews committed before being murdered and falling into the Danube: taking off their shoes as spoil for the Arrow Cross. There are even small shoes for children. It's a sobering memorial.
Ilana and I then headed off to a lunch recommendation from our tour guide. He said we could get good Hungarian food at reasonable prices, and he was right. We both had the chicken paprikash. It was amazing. You could really tell there was a strong, paprika flavor, which usually isn’t my favorite, but it worked with all the other spices they had going on. TThere were also potato dumplings served with it. It was pretty rich, but I was so hungry! (It was also an affordable entrée--we love to see it!)
On the walk back to my hostel to regroup, I stopped by a roadside stand and bought a chimney cake. This is a sweet, bready dough that is baked and then coated in a topping (chocolate, coconut, sprinkles, nuts). I had the regular cinnamon one, which I thought was going to be cinnamon-sugar, but it was mostly cinnamon and only a little sugar. Honestly, that was totally fine since it wasn't overly sweet!
Sometimes they serve these with ice cream inside too. That would be delicious!!
I went back to my hostel to regroup and sketch out my next 36 hours or so based on our tour guide's recommendations. After a few minutes, I was off again!
I headed off along Andrassy Street, the Budapest "Champs Elysees" equivalent. It's a wide, tree-lined street with fancy shops and beautiful architecture. There are also a lot of embassies along this street and some cute-looking side streets with restaurants and bars.
My first stop was the opera house. While I only checked out the exterior, you can do tours of the interior design and history of the opera house. The opera house has the third best acoustics in the world, and apparently opera singers will perform for you at the end! So for you music and theater aficionados, it would totally be worth it.
My next stop was the House of Terror, a sobering museum about the horrors of fascism and communism in Hungary. It is actually housed in the former headquarters of the Arrow Cross party, which was then converted into the headquarters of the Soviet party. This was a very well-done museum. They have a lot of propaganda films and memorabilia from their fascist and socialist eras, and they also have video interviews with survivors from camps, gulags, and prisons. They also have video interviews from members and leaders of various resistance movements.
The basement of the building used to be a prison and torture center. At the conclusion of the museum tour, you hear from one of the men who was in charge of cleaning the room following an execution and you walk through the basement. While it isn't perfectly preserved and exactly like it was during its use, the museum has tried to faithfully reconstruct what it would have been like.
As I said, a sobering museum.
After concluding the tour, I walked Andrassy Street back toward the downtown and walked the few blocks around my hostel. There are a ton of nighttime restaurants, bars, and souvenir stands in the park area just outside of my hostel. This city is so full of life at night!
Besos,
Tina the ExploraDora
No comments:
Post a Comment