Moving on to Budapesht

7 January 2009 - 10 January 2009

Total time in transit, from Prague to Vienna and Vienna to Budapest, is 6 hours. Considering these are some of the oldest cities in the Western World, and three capital cities of modern states no less, this is pretty cool.

Budapest, pronounced "Boo-da-pesht" in Magyar (Hungarian), is made up of two distinct communities on either side of the Danube river. In the late 19th century, the two towns, Buda and Pest, merged to form the current city Budapest. Another history lesson for all of you!

First a bit about Hungary in general: they speak Magyar, which is an incredibly weird language that I didn't even bother trying to learn. It's closest related language is.... Czech. NOT! It's actually Finnish. Go figure. For those of you new to geography, Finland and Hungary have no less than 6 independent states between them. If that's not an indication of a weird culture, I don't know what is (Note: I have a Finnish guy on my hockey team, who despite being hilarious and a really nice guy, is just plain weird. So for Hungary to be weird is not necessarily a surprise).

That being said, the Hungarians, and especially Budapest itself, makes up for its weird language with one of my favorite things of all - delicious cake. And while I was there, I made a point to take advantage of the Budapest cake at least once per day. Again, food staples here were potatoes, bread, and meat, and again, it was all amazingly delicious. I had a meal outside the Synagogue (which I will get to) that was absolutely incredibly (and incredibly cheap!). I have NO idea what the sauce was made of, but it was like a thicker, bigger version of a matzoh ball slathered in delicious spicy sauce with pieces of steak in it that made me think of beef stroganoff except way way better. There's a photo in my Budapest album, so if anyone can identify it, please let me know.

Unlike Prague and Vienna, the skyline is not dominated by any single structure. Instead, Budapest has more modest buildings but many of them. For example, the Jewish Synagogue - second largest in the world to New York's - is plainly but elegantly decorated with geometric patterns on the front facade. In the back is the Weeping Willow, a holocaust memorial made out of steel in the shape of a willow tree. Each "flower" of the tree has a name inscribed into it, memorializing the 600,000 Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis in the holocaust. It's quite a sobering memorial, especially when reading the inscriptions on the base of the tree, presumably from those who donated to its construction. One read "So our children will never forget." You get the idea.

Other sites in the city include the Parliament building, modeled after the British parliament but with a different stone and thus a different color, and the Buda Castle perched on a cliff just across the River Danube. But one of my favorite places was the "fake" Vajdahunyad Castle. Good luck pronouncing that one. Anyway, it was built for the millenium world's fair in the late 19th century based off an identical castle in Transylvania out of cardboard, but became so popular that they completed it with stone and turned it into a museum. Pretty awesome story. Now there is an outdoor ice skating rink just next door, but the real attraction is across the street on the opposite side: The Turkish Baths.

To be honest, in retrospect, this place was a little weird by my American cultural standards, but it was a lot of fun. The three of us, Anna Lilly and I, went with some of our new friends from the hostel we were staying at (Carpe Noctem - awesome place. If you're ever heading to Budapest I definitely recommend it.) One of them was Irish and the other Australian, and both hysterical. Anyway, Budapest was probably the warmest of the three cities we visited but still freezing cold, so going into the outside baths was a bit of an adventure that began with running barefoot across freezing cold pavement. But the baths were quite warm and steamy which made it seem like being in an Olympic swimming pool sized hot tub. One of the pools main attractions was a circular whirlpool with jets all pushing water in the same direction so everybody floated in a circle. Me and my new friends, while trying to wrestle each other out of the narrow entryway each time we passed, successfully splashed enough water to anger every single Hungarian in the pool (except one old lady who couldn't stop laughing) and got the middle part with the jets to ourselves. So that was fun.

On the way back from the baths to the hostel was Statue Park - an enclave of numerous Hungarian heroes depicted in gigantic statue form, and the Terror Museum. Even though it was closed for renovation while we were there, the story of the Terror Museum is compelling. After having conquered Budapest, the Nazis took this building and turned it into an SS Headquarters and torture chamber. When the Soviets came and vanquished the Nazis in Hungary, they discovered this building, along with the abandoned torture devices and memos on their use. Naturally, the KGB picked up the pieces where the Nazis left off, and continued nearly the same practices that the SS had employed earlier.

Budapest was the center of the Hungarian revolution against the Soviets in 1956, resulting in 3000 civilian casualties, so you can imagine that the building housing the Terror Museum got some use during this particular time period. The Soviets also gutted the Buda Castle and destroyed all its contents.

Soviets and Nazis definitely left their mark on Budapest, a city that hasn't belonged to a distinct Hungarian state for most of its history. Partly because of the history, partly because of the awesome hostel I stayed at, and definitely because of the cake, I enjoyed Budapest the most out of the three cities I visited on this New Year trip. And since there was SO much I did not get the chance to do and see in the city, it stands to reason that I MUST visit it again in the future.

And that's the end of my three-city quasi-Eastern European New Year's tour. Next up: The Grande European Spring Break Adventure!