Budapest

Hi Everyone!

Once again, this instalment of our blog comes to you from a train, as we leave Budapest, the  beautiful capital of Hungary, for the spa town of Eger in the countryside.

After an easy train ride from Vienna, we emerged at midday last Tuesday into a very foreign-feeling city with an incomprehensible language and almost no English signage.

In Amsterdam and Vienna, we were able to decipher a lot of written content. But not so much with Hungarian, which is almost a unique language. For example, can you guess what this sentence means?

"A gyors barna róka átugorja a lusta kutyát."

I didn't think so! I'll tell you at the end of the blog :-)

As a result, we found navigating so stressful that there was only one way to recover: buy a bottle of cheap but tasty Hungarian wine and drink the whole thing (straight from the bottle) with a picnic lunch in the park near our B&B. Phew!

That first afternoon, once we sobered up sufficiently, we toured an area called Castle Rock. The highlight was seeing "The Hospital in the Rock". This vast, underground complex, built into natural caves that honeycomb the hill, was developed as a hospital and used as such near the end of WW II, then again in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising, and was expanded to house a huge bomb shelter in the Cold War era. It was only declassified as "top secret" in 2000, and is frozen in time in the eeriest way imaginable, with operating rooms, wards, decontamination showers, supplies, etc. perfectly preserved. The strangest gift shop ever sells actual WW II and Cold War artifacts: gas masks, glass syringes, Red Cross armbands. Hey kids, guess what mom and dad are bringing you from Europe!

We have learned more about 20th century European history here than in any other place we have visited. A lot of our learning has been thanks to conversations with our excellent hosts at the B and B,  Judit and Liosh.

 

Budapest allied itself with Germany right from the start of WW II, as there was a home-grown Fascist regime, the Arrow Cross, already in place as early as 1920. Throughout the war, but especially during the 100 day siege of Budapest near the end, both the Nazis and the Allies bombed the crap out of the city. Since the "fundamental changes" (what people here call the fall of the Iron Curtain) most historic buildings have been rebuilt, but not all.

Visiting the House of Terror museum (it sounds like a hokey tourist trap, but is a legit museum) was very distressing. It's housed in the actual building where two regimes of secret police, first Fascist, then Communist, detained, interrogated, tortured and executed thousands of people. We both felt physically ill afterward, and have decided to limit our exposure to graphically-disturbing displays (especially Holocaust-related) for the rest of the trip. Trish, we know you will understand and approve of this decision....

On a lighter note...we spent a couple of hours on a blustery day (the cold weather has surprised us) at the huge thermal bath complex in the City Park. We tried every single one of the dozens of pools, ranging in temperature from less than 20 to over 40 degrees. Many were green and murky and stinky...but in a good way! At least, that's what the Hungarians think. Every age, size, shape and condition of body was displayed in every style and size of bathing suit. My favourite sight was clusters of old guys playing chess while soaking.

Another highlight was attending a performance of Hungarian folk music and dance. The very-professional performers radiated joy, pride and humour as they leaped, spun, kicked, snapped, stomped, whooped, whistled and slapped their way around the stage. I think only someone with a heart of stone could have resisted being delighted and charmed by it. Frank thought it was  "just okay...." (Ha ha, just kidding, he loved it too!)

One last adventure to write about before I sign off. 

Last night, we teamed up with a very friendly couple from Salt Lake City, Bill and Jean (also staying at our B and B) to explore some of the city's "ruin pubs". These bars and restaurants squat, paying minimal rent to the city, in decrepit buildings that were damaged in the war and sat abandoned for 50 years or more.

 

The largest and most mind-boggling we saw was in a tenement-style apartment building in the former Jewish Quarter of the city. The rust-eaten beams and crumbly bricks have been "decorated" with every imaginable piece of detritus, including a dentist's chair, a claw foot bathtub and scary dolls.  Although we were some of the oldest people of the 500 or so in the huge bar, and despite the techno music, we really enjoyed the ambiance and the company. It's clear Budapest knows how to party!

So: after our initial confusion wore off, we felt safe, welcome and constantly stimulated in this city of 2 million. It wasn't was genteel and cultured, or as easy, as Vienna, but it was more interesting...and more fun. We both agree we would return, given the opportunity.

We think of family and friends often and are constantly seeing variations of your faces in European crowds! We'll write next from Prague.

Bye for now,

Wendy and Frank

 PS: The sentence in Hungarian says "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."