Budapest
From the singing call for prayer in Muslim Istanbul to the church bells of Roman Catholic Budapest. What a difference a short plane ride makes. As soon as I stepped off the plane I felt I had stepped back into civilization as I have known it.
Unfortunately the Turkey water caught up with me and I spent the next two days recovering in my hotel room. Eventually I wandered out and found out some stuff..
Just shy of 2 million, Budapest, founded in 1873 with the combination of three existing cities that had run together near the Danube river - Buda, Pest, and Obuda (old Buda). The area, however, had been occupied for thousands of years before.
Cheap, Budapest is not. At least not near the tourist traps I always seem to find. I saw more backpackers than anywhere else so far. The bridges and churches lit up at night make the city look glorious, however, I found it a little shabby during the day despite the interesting architecutre. It appears that the Hungarians are making an impact at restoring bit by bit.
There's a cool midieval city at the top of a hill but after seeing, oh, about 100 of them, its hard to impress me now.
Hero's square showcases several monuments of guess what... heroes. Nice place to hang out, with world-class museums nearby. I don't know who the heroes are except St. Stephen, the first King of Budapest, who also has a nice Basilica called 'St Stephen's Basilica.'
Finding out I had to wait many hours for my train out of town, I checked out the Terror Museum. This building (you can see 'Terror' written from a below viewpoint) was witness to two shameful and tragic periods in 20th Century Hungary. In 1944, the Arrow Cross Party was Nazi headquarters of Hungay. Then, between 1945 and 1956, the notorious communist terror organizations, AVO /AVH took up residence here. Its a beautiful building in an upscale area and included the prisoner cells and torture chambers in the basement (which got so full they that they ended up renting neighboring buildings to house more prisoners). The initial organization headed by a guy, Peter Gabor who had a grade 4 education, was intended for investigating war crimes but soon every 3rd person was being charged for something... especially the rich farmers who were given bogus charges so that the communists could get their land. Many died during the horrendous interrogations before they ever went to trial.
I didn't find the actual contents in the museum that interesting, but reading the sheets provided in English caused me great concern the way these poor Hungarians were treated for so many years.
I'll to go back to Hungary sometime and check out their natural springs and eat some of their food (I was too sick to eat... woe is me) but I'll stay away from the bull's blood. I'm not THAT adventurous.
Not sure how to put my finger on it, but I find the people there kind of weird. They seem to be better at service than anywhere in Western Europe but they're rigid, although the young people seem nicer.
If you've been to Calgary, you may have seen brightly-coloured cows spread throughout the city. These little bulls remind me of those but they usually include humour. This bright blue bull has a stick saying 'Don't Lick'. Factoid - Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik's Cube, was born in Budapest, and in 1982 the city was proud host of the first ever Rubik's Cube World Championships. The winner was Minh Thai (USA), who sorted his cube in 22.95 seconds.
posted by Ilsa @ Thursday, August 10, 2006
3 Comments:
hey auntie lisa thx for the post card sounds like your having fun
love ashley
Hey sis. Where are you heading after this? I have a friend in Vienna you could look up, you know.
I'm off to Prague tomorrow but was actually considering Vienna if time. Email me details.
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