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Published: August 18th 2013
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Szent Istvan(Saint Stephen)
First King of Hungary. Heroes Square - Andrassy Avenue The number one hero is Stephen (Ishtvan) who was the first crowned King of Hungary in the year 1000. After his death he was even sanctified by the then pope Sylvester II. The biggest national holiday is St. Stephen's Day which is on 20th August. One day after we leave 😞 It seems the main feature of the celebrations are the fireworks over the Danube. Many shops and other businesses are also closed on and around this date so it may be just as well that we will not be here. The many heroes and rulers of Hungary appear as statues in Heroes' Square which is a huge square that was built in 1896. This year marked the 1000th year anniversary of the Magyar conquest. The heroes stand between colonnades and there is also a 36-metre column upon which stands the archangel Gabriel who protects the city. Stephen, of course, has a Basilica named after him and within this is his mummified right hand - rather gruesome! There are other monuments and statues of heroes standing around the city of Pest which is where we are staying and also on the Buda (hilly side) on the other side of the Danube.
Interior dome
Szechenyi Medicinal Spa We were able to get a good deal on a 5 star hotel - The Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal and it is quite splendid as you walk in, with porters at the door, a grand red-carpeted staircase and chandeliers. The hotel is one of the oldest in Budapest, first opening in 1896 and has a history of being used for other functions during the wars, reopening, closing, but finally it was purchased by a Maltese company that restored it to its original splendour in 2003. At the hotel's concierge desk we booked a 4 hour tour of the city, followed by a tour along the Danube. Lucky for us we were the only people booked for the English tour so we had our tour guide, to ourselves. She was the same age as myself and also has 2 sons so we had some things in common. We were driven around the main sites of Pest and Buda in a minibus but we also walked around the Heroes square, the City Park, the Szechenyi Spa and the Castle District. It was an enjoyable leisurely tour which ended with a 40 minute cruise of the Danube.
There are heaps of
thermal spas in Budapest and, on our tour, we were shown the Szechenyi Spa which is in the City Park (first public park in Europe). This is a huge complex built in a modern renaissance style between 1909 and 1913 and contains waters sourced from a depth of 1,246m and the temperature 28 deg - 40 deg in the medicinal pools. There are a number of swimming pools and massages and treatment rooms. Our hotel has a Royal Spa which is really a 15 metre indoor pool and, of course, there are lots of treatments and massages to improve your "wellness" on offer!
We found Budapest to be a very interesting and beautiful city. Hungary has had an unfortunate history and lost a lot of territory over the course of the two world wars. After WW1 it was partitioned into almost 1/3rd its original size and millions of ethnic Hungarians found themselves living outside the country. Then there were the horrors of World War II, the Russian intervention that followed where the people suffered under Stalinism, and the 1956 revolution which claimed so many lives. There are some beautiful old buildings and some have been restored after the 1989
revolution but there are still many waiting for the money needed for the restoration. There are also wide tree-lined boulevards shaded with tall trees like Andrassy Avenue which is very long and contains many well-known stores and labels at one end and lots of grand buildings at the other, some still in a state of disrepair after having been nationalised during Russian occupation, and others restored and being used as embassies. Andrassy Ave ends at the Heroes Square and I can imagine that it was used for big marches and pomp by various rulers/occupiers!
Viktor Orban is the current prime minister of a conservative right wing administration. A general election is scheduled for next April and Orban is campaigning in Romania because for the first time ethnic Hungarians living abroad can vote and there is a significant number of ethnic Hungarians living in Romania. The present administration has also been accused of being anti-semitic and rascist by the American Press, from what I can gather, by reading "The Budapest Times" (english version) which I found in our hotel. There have been many letters to the editor criticising this view citing Rabbi Koves Slomo as having "… confirmed that there
Rabbit
Bok wine bar and restaurant is much more antisemitism in the USA, Canada and France where he used to live". I think the prevailing view here is that Orban is ok and a government like this one was necessary "… to change the bad rules and laws passed by the corrupt ex-communist regimes-turned-globalists who sold out the country to the global market, for their enrichment". (Budapest Times - 2 August - 29 August). Another item states that the Mayor of Budapest, Attila Ughy, stated that "… flea markets at junctions, in streets and underpasses" could be removed from September as well as "the homeless, alcohol consumers and cigarette smokers elderly ladies selling bunches of flowers and other vendors peddling fruit and vegetables".
We visited many interesting places but I have to make mention of 3: 1. Dohany Street Synagogue which is the largest in Europe and is a moorish oriental building more akin to a mosque than a synagogue! The synagogue was bombed by the Hungarian pro-Nazi party in 1939; used as a base for German radio and suffered severe damage during air raids during the Nazi occupation. During the communist era it resumed as a place of worship for the severely diminished
Hungarian State Opera House
300 years old. Mahler was appointed director here in 1888 Hungarian Jews. Its restoration started in 1991 and ended in 1998. In 1944, the Synagogue was part of the Jewish Ghetto for the city Jews and served as shelter for a lot of people. Over two thousand of those who died in the ghetto from hunger and cold during the winter 1944-1945 are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue. 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis! 2. The Great Market Hall building decorated with Zsolnay coloured porcelain tiles was designed by Eiffel and covers 10,000 square meters under an enormous iron roof structure. On the ground floor can be found food stuffs and above are the ubiquitous souvenir shops selling mostly embroidered items. We bought a delicious sour cream pastry with apricot. Variety of salamis spiked with paprika and slabs of pork lard are common items sold here. It was fun mingling with the local shoppers here. 3. The Fine Arts Museum located at Heroes Square was hosting a temporary exhibition of "Egon Schiele and his Age". So we were able to view 70 works which have been loaned from the Leopold for this exhibition. There were also some great pencil drawings of nudes by Klimt that I
had not seen before.
Now to food. Yes, and Goulash! Goulash here is more like a soup and can contain chicken, beef or pork and tiny dough balls and small bits of potato and carrot - all in a delicious flavoursome soupy gravy and of course paprika. Our first meal was in the Michelin starred Bock restaurant in our hotel (but not owned by the hotel). It was a wonderful gourmet meal. Another night we went to a lovely little traditional restaurant "Pesti Vendeglo" which was intimate, friendly and the food was home-style. I also had a glass of Apricot Patinka (schnapps) whilst sitting opposite the Franz Liszt Music Academy (under extensive renovation at the moment). We've found the Hungarian food very tasty and much more interesting than German or Austrian cuisine. Last night when we returned to our hotel after our meal, we found a 4 piece orchestra playing Hungarian music in one of the bar areas. They sounded really lovely and it completed our experience of Budapest on a musical note!
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