The German word of the day is dei der, or in English, at your place.

This weekend I visited Hungary and this trip was an especially important one for me because I have Hungarian ancestry as well as because I plan on studying for a semester abroad there this spring.  Budapest is an amazing city and like most other post-communist Eastern Bloc nations, it has its pros and cons.  There is an amazing history to explore in Budapest, from its castles and churches all the way to its 1956 memorials and beautiful parliament, which is based on the English parliament in London.  But at the same time the city is plagued by graffiti, a black market, and a poor transportation system.  Nonetheless, this city along the Danube holds many treasures, from its illustrious churches all the way to its quiet and tranquil island parks.  You visit the city and then have a strange realization that about one hundred years ago your family came from this place.  It’s a very strange feeling when you find the language incomprehensible to the point of gibberish but still know that a part of you comes from this country (of course, I can say the same thing about Germany, England and Ireland but it’s really only my Hungarian and Irish heritage that’s emphasized back home).  I was only in Budapest for three days but I’m glad to know that I’ll be going back in several months and get to see all the things I missed the first time I was there.

The trip started with a three hour train ride from Vienna’s Westbanhof to Budapest’s Keleti station.  Upon arriving we were treated to a crowded train station that felt a wee bit older than the state of the art stations you’re used to in Western Europe.  In fact, there were a lot of major differences in Budapest, a lot of which could be found on at subway stations.  First of all, guards monitor every station and require tickets before you can even reach the platform, a practice unheard of in Austria.  Another difference are the escalators, which go about twice as fast in Budapest than in Vienna.  You have to time yourself to jump on at the correct moment.  The subway cars that we took to get to our hostel were also of poor quality.  It looked as if they had not been refurbished since the end of the Cold War.  Outside of the poor conditions these subway cars faced under the Soviets, it should also be known that Hungary holds the world’s oldest subway car system, so that may be one reason why I felt a little out of place on it.  After getting off the trains and ascending the staircase to central Budapest, our reflections began to grow more and more positive.  People were playing instruments in the street, the shops all had a good deal of charm, and many of the churches and monuments required much picture taking.

We reached our hostel and settled down in an apartment that was built in the 1890’s.  I’m not sure if it was the age of the building or the fact that we were in an Eastern Bloc nation, but at one point we turned the knob on the door to our room and if fell right off.  So the living conditions could be called quaint but there were definitely some historical importance to the area because it was the Jewish quarter and consequently the Jewish Ghetto when the Germans invaded in 1944 when Hitler feared Admiral Horthy was going to attempt a separate peace with the Allies.  There are several memorials to the Holocaust around the area and the Jewish temple is one of, if not the, largest in Europe.  The synagogue was actually quite fascinating because its architectural design seemed to channel a Turkish style.  Now, if these places of worship are anywhere similar to the churches I visited in towns like Assisi in Italy, I wonder if the building became a synagogue after the retreat of the Turks.  I would presume the possibility that this building was once a mosque but I am only speculating.  One of the more darker conjectures I wondered about while on the trip was what was going on in our apartment complex during the war.  Again, the building was constructed in the 1890’s and the area had been the Jewish Ghetto so I can’t help but wonder what was going on between 1944-1945 (being that Horthy never sent the Jews to concentration camps until he was sacked in 1944 by Hitler and Nazi troops marched into Budapest).  Whatever the case may be, I found the district to be filled with historical items and monuments.

From our hotel we went exploring and came across the St. Stephens Cathedral of Budapest, which had an amazing dome and an interior design that expounded in opulence and beauty.  The church was actually conducting a wedding while tourists were gazing from the sides.  As the bride and groom left the church bells began to chime and the sound emanated throughout every part of the building.  It was definitely a sight to behold and I have to say I like it much more than Stephan’s Dome because of its size and non-Gothic architectural style.  While we were leaving we saw an interesting display on the steps of the cathedral where about five hundred heart shaped pillows had been put together to mimic one giant heart.

There were a lot of commemorative statues along the way that were interesting to view.  There was one statue outside of the American Embassy commemorating General Henry Hill Bandholtz, who led America’s occupation of Hungary after WWI.  He was greatly admired by the Hungarians because he stopped the Romanians (Allies during WWI) from destroying the Hungarian National Museum as well as sacking the royal palace.  Other interesting monuments included one to Imre Nagy, one of the main leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, who was finally arrested by the Soviets and executed.  There was one of the original 1956 flags with the communist symbol cut out of it on the grounds of parliament.  This was a form of nationalist pride, both in Hungary, and in other Eastern European nations because the communist symbol was always in the middle of the flag and by cutting it out, the original, unadulterated flag could finally be seen.  There was even flame coming out of a marble granite slab that was also used as memorial to the thousands who either died or were arrested during the Soviet’s brutal crackdown on the revolutionaries.  There were other statues along parliament, such as one for Kossuth, the leader of the Hungarian revolt against the Habsburgs during the revolution of 1848.  An interesting part of Habsburg history in Hungarian museums is that the Austrians and the Hungarians usually disagree on many of the historical issues happening between their two peoples and it’s funny to read the choice of words describing events in the history of both countries.  In Vienna you might read about how Hungarian bandits raided the countryside and killed many innocents while in Budapest you’ll read about the Hungarian freedom fighters attempting to break the shackles of the oppressive Habsburg rulers.  One of the last moments that I was truly intrigued by was one of Budapest’s police stations, which still has seemingly hundreds of bullet holes and shrapnel wounds along its exterior.  I don’t know whether this was from the Soviet battle against the Nazis on the streets of Budapest or from the 1956 uprising but the silent testament these walls make I believe do much more than statues to tell the story of the past.  

We decided to spend the rest of the day on Margaret Island, a beautiful park in the middle of the Danube connected by a bridge.  The park has a series of gardens, statues, a small zoo, and even rentable pedal carts.  We walked along the island until dusk and then had dinner with the intention of visiting parliament the next day.  Sadly, the next day we were notified that all tickets had already been sold to view parliament so we had to find something else to do.  We decided to go to the Castle District, which holds the Buda Castle and nearly all the museums.  When you get to the top and view the whole of Budapest it’s almost like seeing Vienna from the Schonbrunn.  We visited the Budapest museum, which takes us through the history of the city from its inception during Roman times all the way to the 1920’s (I guess the people don’t want to learn about the rest of the city’s history).  Afterwards we walked around the medieval ruins of Buda hill and then made our descent back across the bridge over the Danube.  We walked around looking for Budapest’s botanical gardens and in the process of our search, were suddenly presented with the amazing sight of Hero’s Square.  This square has an amazing assortment of statues commemorating Hungary’s Kings, leaders, as well as heroes as the name would suggest.  There is even a statue of St. Stephen and most notably, one of Attila the Hun since Pannonia (later Hungary) was the farthest push he successfully made before his defeat in Eastern France years later.  The rest of the day was fairly relaxed because we decided we couldn’t find the botanical gardens and so made due with the Budapest zoo.  The zoo was really cool but I don’t think many of the exhibits would pass muster in America because of safety standards.  The bars surrounding the crocodile cage (which was actually below us since we were walking on planks above them) didn’t look like they would do the job.  At the same time though these poor safety standards also meant you got to see these animals up close whereas in America they’re kind of far off in the background where none of the visitors can see them.

So that was Budapest, a beautiful city with wonderful sights but at the same time a lower budget on transportation and graffiti cleanup.  I love many of the romantic streets at night and the walks on Margaret Island while also hoping that Budapest will one day be as cosmopolitan as Vienna is today.  I think Budapest is a great deal for many Americans since it’s all so cheap but one must also be sure to not splurge and ignore the amazing history surrounding the city.  I’m hopefully going back there this spring for a whole semester and I hope to enjoy all the things I missed on this first outing but having gone there and gotten an idea of life in a post-communist country that I also consider one of my many ethnic homes was something important for me.  I’m glad I was able to appreciate both the history of a country as well as the history of my family and I hope to gain an even greater appreciation once I visit again and learn more about the culture and life of the average Hungarian.  Needless to say, I had a wonderful trip.