| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 10 February 2005 |
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A sculpture in the back garden looking like a
tree with many long silver leaves is actually a grave marker on top
of one of the mass graves, with a victim's name engraved on each
leaf.
The buildings on the back streets were very run-down, with
pieces falling off and so on. And everything is very dirty, from
the pollution.
We returned via Vaci utca, the main shopping street (for
tourists?) in Budapest. At a record store in Vorosmarty ter
(Square) I bought my Hungarian souvenir: a Hungarian cast album (on
cassette) of LES MISERABLES (called A NYOMORULTAK). This idea
actually came from someone on Usenet (hi, Wayne!) and I just adopted
it. This cost 190 forints, or about US$2.85. After the events of
1989, I don't think anyone can hear 'Can You hear the People
Sing?' in Hungarian without a special feeling inside.
After dinner we went to the Folklore Theatre for a folklore
show. This was done by a professional troupe who were quite good.
One musician played something called a 'duda' that looked like a
bagpipe. Mark is a big fan of Hungarian (and gypsy) music.
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Our city tour first took us past the Dohaney
Street synagogue (which is apparently closed most of the time--we
were lucky), and past a lot more buildings desperately in need of
cleaning and maintenance. I suppose I would have to say that Prague
is better maintained, but Budapest is more gung-ho, especially for a
free market. Out by the sports stadium, a flea market was going.
And everywhere were shops, even 24-hour ('Non-Stop') shops. Billy
Graham, by the way, recently preached in the stadium and Luciano
Pavarotti sang in the sports hall.
We drove along Dosa Gyorgy, where large May Day demonstrations
used to be held. They aren't any more. The statue of Lenin that
used to grace the square has also been removed. We drove through
the City Park, passing the zoo, the circus, and the hot baths, and
returned to Heroes' Square (Hosok tere).
Heroes' Square has a 36-meter pillar in the center surrounded
by the 'Seven Hungarian Chieftains.' The colonnade behind has
statues of the most important Hungarian kings. In 1989, the remains
of Imre Nagy (the prime minister who led the revolt in 1956 and was
executed in the U.S.S.R. in 1958) were located and given a state
funeral in Heroes' Square. History is recent here.
We then drove down Andrassy utca. If you can't find this on
your map, don't be surprised. Until last year it was Nepoztarsasag
utca, which was some reference to Communism. Many street names have
been changed in the last year. Luckily for tourists with old maps,
they have not removed the old name plates, just painted a red slash
or 'X' through them and attached the new ones beneath. I read that
the rush to rename streets has slowed now that cities and towns are
realizing how much all those new street signs would cost.
We stopped at St. Stephen's Cathedral where Cardinal
Mindszenthy is buried. He was imprisoned in the 1950s, and
liberated in 1956, but then sought asylum in the American embassy
when the Soviets invaded. He lived in the embassy until he died in
1975.
We then drove across the Margaret Bridge (Margit hid) to get to
Buda. We drove past some Turkish baths still in use (though the
alternating days for men and women would make it awkward for us to
try them even if we had time). Then we went up the hill to the
castle area: the Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion.
The Matthias Church (Matyas Church) dates from the 13th Century
but has been added on to and renovated so many times that it is
considered by some to be a 'model of European eclecticism' (and by
others 'overdecorated stage scenery'). Fishermen's Bastion gives
one a wonderful view of Pest ('photo op,' as Steve keeps
announcing), but was never really suitable as a defensive structure.
After taking our pictures, we returned to the hotel.
One more comment on street names: Streets named after people
are family name first. So it would be Liszt Ferenc Street (for
Franz Liszt), Szilard Leo utca, and so on. (I don't know if these
exist; they're just examples.)
For the afternoon there was an optional excursion to a
'typical' Hungarian village with a stop at an artist's workshop.
This sounded like just the sort of thing we try to avoid, so we did,
and instead took the second walking tour in Andras Torok's BUDAPEST:
A CRITICAL GUIDE. (This, by the way, is a really great guide book,
with a decent map and lots of neat anecdotes, some of which will
undoubtedly appear below.)
But before we started, we bought some more music cassettes,
some of gypsy music, and a Hungarian rock opera (ISTVAN A KIRALY, or
KING STEPHEN) about Hungary's first king. The latter was mentioned
in Torok's book as having sold over a million copies--pretty amazing
in a country of only ten million people.
Rather than describe everything on the walk in detail, I will
just hit the highlights (which I assure you will be more than
enough!). We saw the Basilica (St. Stephen's) again, but Torok's
commentary added a lot. He described how it took a long time to
build it--people had a saying, 'I will pay you back when the
Basilica is finished.' And when the second architect took over in
1868 (after the first died), he inspected the unfinished, but still
in use, building and discovered cracks in the dome. He closed the
building and eight days later the dome collapsed in the middle of
the day--with only one eyewitness. There was much less traffic
then, that's for sure.
We also saw some art nouveau buildings. One in particular had
different decorations on different stories, including majolica
sunflowers. Inside, the lobby (which we could see only through the
locked door) had art nouveau ear-shaped windows.
We saw a variety of cars as we walked, all small and almost all
eastern European. Of particular interest was the Trabant, the East
German car being abandoned in great numbers in West Germany. It's
not recyclable--it's plastic (honest!). It's not burnable--it's
toxic. So the West Germans developed a bacterium to eat it. I am
*not* making this up.
We passed the Houses of Parliament, in use again. Well,
there's only one house now, but that's better than none. The red
star that used to be on the spire is gone.
Of the 'White House' (its color) near Margaret Bridge, Torok
says, 'The once-dreaded power centre, from where the country was
governed, ... by Janos Kadar, for 32 years, now contains office
facilities for the MPs. Nobody wants to move into the former Kadar
suite.... You cannot imagine how good the feeling was to take a
right turn coming off the bridge from Buda--a privilege once
reserved for higher party functionaries.'
There is also a statue of Marx and Engels. One proposal is to
send it to the suggested theme park with all the Lenin statues (and
the red star?).
We crossed the Margaret Bridge, which we had crossed in the
morning. Then, however, Agnes hadn't told us about the disaster in
1944, when the German charges placed on the bridge went off
(accidentally, it is assumed) during the rush hour, killing hundreds
in the city's greatest single disaster.
Then we came back south along Fo Utca in Buda and back across
the Chain Bridge to the hotel. By this point we had been walking
for three and a half hours and were done in.
After a half-hour rest, however, I went out on one last errand:
a quest for a Hungarian tchotchka. I settled for a flute and a
button with the Hungarian coat of arms (and no red star!) on it.
We rested until dinner, then went with the whole group to the
Carpathia Restaurant for dinner with gypsy music. Dinner was
something resembling a burrito as an appetizer, followed by turkey
and vegetables as a main course (it didn't taste as American as it
sounds), and hot apple strudel for dessert. Wine was also included,
a special 'treat' on Brendan tours, as usually they exclude drinks-
-Mark didn't get much benefit from this.
Returning to the hotel, we walked across the Chain Bridge and
back for one last look at nighttime Budapest.
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The bellhop caught us on the way out, asking,
'Do you know whose this is?' It was a roll of film which we had
shot (I stick labels on them, so I recognized it). It must have
fallen on the floor. I'm glad he caught it! He asked us where we
were going next. 'Romania.' 'Oh, I'm so sorry; there's nothing [to
buy? to eat?] there.' He also talked about how Romania should return
the 'Hungarian' part of Transylvania (which Romania got after World
War I, lost during World War II, and regained after the end of the
war).
We drove out past more buildings with facings falling off.
Budapest desperately needs a major renovation effort. One problem:
no money for it (though gradually some buildings are being
repaired).
As we drove eastward toward Romania we actually saw someone
using a power mower to cut grass. We also saw a horse-drawn cart
and people using hoes to cultivate fields (not just gardens).
We had a heck of a time trying to park the bus in Szolnok, our
last stop in Hungary. Mojca misdirected Tone down a dead-end where
he had a hard time turning the 45-person bus (now holding nine plus
Mojca and Tone) around.
We went into the grocery store and spent our last forints on
soda, beer (bottle for Dave), cheese, etc. I wonder what Romania
will be like.
We headed for the border but had to backtrack briefly when we
overshot the last gas station. Gas is apparently impossible to get
in Romania.
The border crossing took forty-five minutes. Mojca said it
used to take four or five hours. We changed 100 schillings into 580
lei. The rate in February was 35 lei/US dollar; now it's 60. (We
discovered later the black market rate was 120 to 150 lei/US
dollar.) While we waited to have our passports processed we ate
lunch.
One of the first things we noticed about Romania was the
pollution, perhaps because Oradea (the border town) had a lot of
heavy industry built up by Ceausescu, and the air quality shows it.
We also saw more horse-drawn carts. In fact, this seems to be a
major mode of transportation in Romania. Many have rubber tires
(hence the enormous number of 'vulcanizares,' one supposes), but
some have only metal-clad wooden wheels. Many of the people driving
these are wearing old clothes, but some are wearing new clothes in
up-to-date styles, and the contrast is remarkable. Then they get to
the fields and work with hand tools and horse-drawn plows. Now that
the land is being re-privatized, people once again are working their
own land, and this seems to make them work harder. |
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