The bus from Prague is not straight through. Rather, it stops in the lovely cities of Brno(see Moravia Posts), Bratislava( Slovak Capital), and Gyor(no I didn’t make that it up, it’s a city in Hungary). From the way out, I don’t really remember that much of Brno, or Bratislava, cause I was pretty much unconscious. As we left Bratislava, though I started to wake up, at least enough to enjoy watching the end of the Prestige, dubbed into Czech. As the film was ending, more than six hours after we left Prague, we finally reached Budapest.
Budapest(pronounced Buda like the man, and Pest with an accent on the e, so not like pest), is the ancient capital of the Magyar state, and has been since at least the 10th century. The Arpad dynasty, which would created the Kingdom of Hungary had its seat of power near the fortresses of Buda and Pest. Gradually the two towns grew together, and some bridges were built over the Danube(think Minneapolis-St. Paul if it had been around to be sacked by Genghis(actually Batu) Khan)) and in 1371 Budapest became the official Capital of Hungary. Like Prague (and every other European City) Budapest is split into two quarters by a river, in this case the Danube. One side of the Danube, the closest to Prague, is called Pest, and is split into two more by a market street known as Andrassy. On opposite side, Buda, is the majestic Buda Castle (home to an art museum, and the Citadel, a fortress like area.
Budapest, is also in someway distantly connected with a bit of family history. My Great Grandfather, and Great Grand Mother for that matter, were both born and raised in Hungary, and both spoke the language. They left Hungary in about 1918, and the moved to the United States, were they had a daughter, my Grandmother who also grew up speaking Hungarian. My father apparently also tried to learn the language at some point, and failed. I know all of four words of Hungarian, not one of which proved useful on this trip.(for the record the four words are Omama(Great Grandmother), Opapa(Great Grandfather), Nokli(Noodles) and Poprecas(a type of food)).
The point of telling you this story, besides sharing an interesting tidbit about myself, is too highlight just how difficult Hungarian, or Magyar if you prefer, is as a language. When we arrived somewhat sleep deprived in Budapest, we had absolutely no idea what any was saying. Fortunately through some combination of gestures and guessing, we matched to find an ATM, and get about 10,000 forints(before you question my financial situation, you should realize that 10,000 forints is about $50). Feeling somewhat absurd carrying around 10,000 forints notes, we managed to find the subway.
The Budapest Subway is among the oldest in Europe, and it kind of looks it. The trains are dark blue, or some cases yellow, and they make noise like you wouldn’t believe. Also, the doors slam with what sounds like enough force to tear someone’s arm off, and the fact that all the announcements are in a language you can’t understand adds up to a pretty surreal experience. Also, it stops running at 11pm, which will be important later.
Once we managed to figure out the subway, and also the tram system, which seemed to be of a similar vintage, we managed to find our hostel, Home Plus Hostel. If you ever happen to find yourself in Budapest, and are in need of a good place to stay, I can very much recommend Home Plus Hostel. Located right along the river, and just up from the Hungarian Parliament, Home Plus, feels very homey inside, with a living room, and accommodations for about twenty or thirty guests. It is run by an American Ex-pat, and her Hungarian (I think) husband, both of whom were just about the nicest people we could ever hope to meet. We also picked up the advanced scouts of the group, Stef and Kate(They had gone to Budapest the day before). The girls had been busy, and made up a plan for the rest of us, and given that we were all pretty much exhausted we agreed to it.
First on the plan, food, we headed back up to the main street, to a small Hungarian fast food like joint, were I got some chicken stuffed with…something and some potatoes(and no sour cream, my Hungarian Grandmother would be appalled). After that, we returned to the hostel to be briefed on the rest of the plan. With almost military precision (think the US Army, ca 1930) , we marched(stumbled) out of the Hostel to head down to Heroes Square, and the Hungarian Baths.
Heroes Square is a collection of monuments looked at the far end from the river of Andrassy St. It includes statues of a number of famous Hungarians included St. Istvan(Stephen), the patron Saint of Hungary. As we walked into the square, it started raining, and so those in the group with umbrellas pulled them out, and the rest of us, pulled on our coats, and soldiered on. Also at about this point, I turned on my camera, only to have it inform me that it was out of batteries, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from Budapest.
Well, not no, I have this nice one of St. Stephen(I think he's on the left)
After lingering around the square, taking pictures and poking ourselves in the eye(that one was all Stef), we started to wander in the direction of the Hungarian Baths. Apparently, Budapest is home to some of the largest and nicest baths in Europe, and I don’t mean bath tubes. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my swimsuit to Budapest, so I was not able to enjoy them, that night. Fortunately, I was alone in that, neither Alex, nor Stef, nor Allie were particularly inclined to go to the baths either. So the four of us headed back to the hostel, along the way, we got a phone call from Adrian, the tenth member of our little tour group who had failed to book onto the bus. After carefully reading the map, we managed to successfully direct him to the hostel, and the five us went out and got some pizza. Then we all pretty much collapsed and watch the Winter Olympics.
The next morning, rather earlier then I would have liked, we headed out to the Market Center. The Market is located in a single building the size of a small mall, is loaded with just about every bit of Budapest merchandise you could possibly imagine. On the first floor are aisles of meat and cheese, and wine (no Alex, not at 10:30 in the morning). On the second is basically souvenirs, they had shot glasses, snow globes, chess sets, pencils, Soviet Era hats, and gas masks(for one the enraged mob caused by your hat starts gassing you), t-shirts, more chess sets, marionettes, more chess sets. Really, it was all kind of overwhelming. So, if about an hour there, we decided to go to the place you unwind after shopping, the Terror House.
Ok, so let me be clear, the Terror House is not a nice place. It is not bar with a funny name, or some sort of bizarre club, it is in fact the former headquarters of the Hungarian Secret police, so this next little bit will be as serious as I can make it.
The period of Hungarian History from the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, was not at all a happy period in Hungarian History. It was ruled first by the Regent, Admiral (in a country with no Navy) Milos Horthy. Because of Hungary’s proximity to Germany, Horthy, in the 1930s, would bring Hungary into alliance with the Nazis. As result of this alliance, the Hungarians own home grown fascist party, the Arrow Cross, would gradually increase in power. So too would Hitler’s frustration with Horthy. In 1944, Hitler had Horthy removed from power and replaced with an Arrow Cross puppet. This puppet, willing delivered into Hitler’s hands much of Hungarian Jewish population, which had not suffered as much under Horthy as it would under Arrow Cross. As a result of the polices of Horthy and the his Arrow Cross successors, more than 600,000 Hungarians met their deaths in the Concentration Camps(believe me, this is not the last time the Holocaust will be mentioned here).
Things did not get better for Hungary after the war. In 1945, Soviet troops liberated Budapest, and set up the People’s Republic of Hungary, which was a puppet state the Soviet regime. In order to repress dissent from this action, the Soviets set up the AVH, the Hungarian version of the Stasi in Germany or the KGB in the Soviet Union. Throughout existence, and especially in the period following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, thousands of people would be arrested, tortured and murdered by the AVH, and the Hungarian Regime.
Andrassy ut 60 was the Headquarters of the AVH, and also of the Arrow Cross Secret Police, as well as their Arrow Cross predecessors. The entrance to Andrassy 60 is decorated with the symbols of the Arrow Cross, and Hungarian Communist Parties. Once these exhibits, you reach the café, and the front desk. Once past the desk, and the small gift shop(something the Hungarians picked up from the West), you are greeted by a massive Soviet tank, and thousands of pictures. These pictures are of the faces of those that died or disappeared while in the custody of the Arrow Cross, or the AVH. The exhibit continues on the second and third floors of the building, discussion, pretty much as I did above, the histories of the AVH, and the Arrow Cross party. After a discussion of how those parties suppressed religion, you reach an elevator which takes you into the basement of 60 Andrassy.
(and this one of the tank, but that's really all I've got.)
The basement is probably the most chilling part of the entire museum. It consists of a full reconstruction of how basement would have appeared at the time of the AVH, when it was used as a dungeon. There several “normal” cells, which have pictures of some of the people incarcerated in them, and some which lack furniture, but are otherwise tolerable. And then there are the special cells, one which would have been filled with water to a prisoners ankles so he would also be wet, one that was too small for anyone to stand up in, and one that was too narrow to move, like a small wooden box. Beyond the cells, there is a room with electrical devices that were used as an instrument of torture. Beyond that is a room which features several reconstructed gallows. From there, you exit the museum, walking through a room which features the pictures, and dates of birth and death(if applicable) of various members of the AVH or the Arrow Cross Party(I was honestly surprised that any of them were still alive, after that museum.)
Feeling completely depressed, the group headed out to lunch, and then split up. Stef, Kate, Diego and Adrian, decided to head up to the Citadel, and the rest of us, Allie, Alex, me, Walt, Jake and Ian, headed up to Budapest Castle. Most of us were out of money for train, and so we walked, first the Danube, and then up the mountain to reach Buda Castle. Though we didn’t actually go inside the castle, the view from there was breath taking. After taking pictures (everyone but me that is) we headed back down the hill to go back to our hostel.
Once we were all back at the Hostel, the group once again split up. Stef, Adrian, Diego, Allie and I decided to head down to the baths again (I borrowed a bathing suit from Jake), while the rest would hang out at the Hostel, and find a club to go to that evening. It took us a while to get back to the baths, but they would prove more than worth it. The building in which they are located looks like a palace, and the baths themselves are more like very hot swimming pool then what an American might call an actual bath. The water was just this side of a hot tub. Being in the warm water was incredible relaxing, though after a while it started to feel like you were cooking a little bit. We spent a little more than three hours, just sort of swimming around, and hanging out, enjoying the warm water and the steamy air it created(steamy for some Hungarian couples too…and others… though not for yours truly…sadly.)
After our relaxing sojourn in the baths, Adrian, Diego and I headed to a Burger King(yes I know, its American Fast Food, but I hadn’t had a cheese burger in nearly a month, and it was better than in the States, and Budapest is the European Capital of Burger King’s(just like Prague’s got a KFC every block…sigh)). After that refilling meal, we headed back to the Hostel, picked up the rest of the group, and headed out to club Roxie.
Roxie is located far out in the boonies of Budapest, beyond the normal subway line, which had stopped running by this point anyway, and to make matters worse, they close the Margret Bridge. But we weren’t worried about that just yet. Roxie was a truly massive club, it looked like it was set up in an old warehouse. The line to get in was larger than the crowd at Lucerna( I exaggerate though only a little.) and everyone was pushing and shoving to get inside, it was miracle no one died. Inside, was kind of awesome, there were men and women dressed up as angels and devils, and the drinks were flowing rather freely(I had some, but not as much as some others.) We stayed pretty late, and then as a group headed for the door. This resulted some rather interesting moments, as with place so packed, we occasionally had to resort to violence to make our escape, mostly throwing elbows.(though apparently Jake had to punch some Hungarian guy, but I didn't see it.) Most of us were sober enough to walk back to the Hostel, but a couple had had a bit too much. (slight understatement, but whatever). So, while most of the group walked, two mostly sober people (me and Kate) and one rather drunk person (who will remain nameless) got in a cab and drove back. The sun was coming up by the time we got home, and so I went ahead and hit the sheets.
The next morning was a hurried frenzy of check out and then grabbing lunch.(did I say morning, I meant the next afternoon). Between the time we finished lunch, and the time we had to catch the bus, we had enough time to visit Budapest’s synagogue. This synagogue is the largest in Europe, and the second largest in the entire world. It was built in the Gothic style, and so the inside looks a little like a Cathedral, though of course decorated a little differently. There was also a small museum, which discussed the Jews and their history, and to some degree the Holocaust, and a memorial to the 600,000 people that lost their lives in the Holocaust.
From the synagogue, we got on the Metro and headed to the bus back to Prague. (This time I was awake the whole time, Bratislava looks even more boring when you’re awake.)
Next: Prague Part VI: The tragedy of the Jews of Central Europe, Part 1(Prague’s Jewish Quarter, Lidice and Terezin )
No comments:
Post a Comment