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October 3rd 2007

Published: October 3rd 2007

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Statue

Here are some statues shaking hands. Soviet Style.

I am so sorry I have been slacking on my updates. I have been so busy writing a paper for my Roma class, I just haven’t had an opportunity to update here. Please don’t hate me J
Last weekend was really fun, we had another school field trip on Saturday and Sunday, this time to a city called Pecs. The ‘e’ actually has an accent, but I don’t know how to do accents on here, or at all on a computer. This makes typing in Hungarian really difficult cause accents are a MUST.
So last Friday during the day I went on a field trip for my Art/Monument class. We went to the Statue Park. This is a park way on the outskirts of the city that they built to put different soviet statues in. It is interesting because the park itself is a work of art as well. After the fall of communism in 1989 the different former communist countries all faced a variety of different issues, one of which was what to do about all the different soviet and communist art. The problem with simply tearing down the art and statues is that this is exactly what the soviets

Proof I was there

See that person? Thats me. I was there looking at stautues. Really. And it was raining! Dedication.

did when they took over, so what kind of a statement would that be? Lots of places just left their statues up, some took them down and destroyed them. Here in Hungary some are still standing while others were taken down and put in museums and such, and then there is the statue park. The park itself is sort of demonstrating the idea of “Never Again”, they took the statues down, but we must never forget about them and what they stood for in order to prevent repeating history. Last year was the 50 year anniversary of the 1956 revolution here in Hungary. During the protests of they tore down the Stalin statue that had been standing right behind what is now Hero’s Square. In order to pull this giant statue down they had to cut the statue right under his knees, and then topple him over. This left just his boots basically sitting atop the column. So in honor of the 50th anniversary of this the statue park erected a recreation of these boots. It’s really pretty eerie to see. They also have two houses built out of material taken from internment camps from around Hungary. Lastly they have

Hedi

This is Hedi. She is one of the two people who is in charge of our program at the school. She is really great. Here she is trying to demonstrate how a statue might look.

The statue area which is six circles, all connected that you walk through and can view different statues. The different districts around Budapest donated these statues when the park was being built. At this point in time, no more statues can be placed into the park. Because it is a piece of art in itself, this aspect of it is now complete and no more statues can be added. It was interesting walking around and looking at all the different statues and reading about where they were and who they depicted.
Fun factoid? In front of the citadel up on a hill in Buda there is the Liberty statue. I may have posted a picture of it before, but I’ll put up another. The Liberty Statue was a soviet statue, and it used to have a soviet soldier statue in front of it, they were a pair. After the fall of communism the soviet solider was pulled down and put in the statue park. The Liberty statue was covered with a giant cloth, which was meant to represent the ghost of liberty. This lasted for about six weeks before the cloth was pulled off in a sort of “rebirth” of

Listening

More statues. Guess where!

the statue to try and separate it from it’s soviet past. This statue is still there and looks out over the city. Interesting, yes?
Friday night Paige, Stacey and I went to find this pub that we read about. It is on our street, just up the block. It’s another one of those places that you would never recognize as a pub or whatever just by walking by. Inside there are couches and stuff as well as tables and the food was really good. There is only one cook however and it took about an hour to get our food, so we invited our friend Darcy to come entertain us while we waited. The menu was really fun too, they wouldn’t let you order a side dish unless you ordered a full meal as well, and they would only let you order the side dish that they thought went best with the meal you ordered. Tricky tricky.
Upon leaving the pub we took part in what can only be described as organized dumpster diving. Apparently once or twice a year each district has a day when people can get rid of all their junk. Instead of donating it somewhere they

Statue Park

This is a sprawling view of the statue park. It's vast, and open, and communist.

all just throw it out onto the street in front of their house. By mid afternoon Friday the streets surrounding by house were all lined with giant piles of junk. Throughout the day, and that night people swarm around and dig through looking for stuff they want. People were driving trucks from pile to pile pulling out stuff. There was everything from socks to dinner tables. So on the walk back to our place Darcy, Paige and Stacey went dumpster shopping Budapest style. It was very entertaining to watch. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anything that interested me in any of the piles. Stacey, Paige and Darcy however got hooked up with all kinds of fun stuff.
Come Saturday morning we found ourselves exhausted, on a bus, headed towards Pecs. Our first stop was Lake Balaton for an hour to get a snack and walk around. The lake is really beautiful, really really beautiful. I am actually going back again this coming Sunday for the day. We are meeting Janos there. I’m excited. After the lake we went to this old castle/fort that the Hungarians tried to defend against the Turks a long time ago. Sadly, the Hungarians lost and they

Boats

These are some boats at Lake Balaton. It was really beautiful there. Can you tell?

all died. It had all since been rebuilt and changed, but it was interesting none the less. After this, we headed to Pecs, for reals this time.
Pecs is my new favorite city in all of Hungary. It was so beautiful and quaint and lovely. We met a girl who lives there named Kata, and she went out to dinner with us, which was fun. We went to this place called something something Elephant. It was Italian food, and I nearly died it was so good. I haven’t eaten that well in a very long time. After dinner Kata took us back to here house to show us her kittens. She had three kittens, and then he cousin found two more in a trashcan and brought them over for her cat to raise, so she now had five kittens. Five Whole Kittens. It was quite exciting.
After the kittens I ended up going back to the hotel and going to bed. I have had this persistent cough it just won’t go away. It is now officially encroaching on my fun. The next morning we went to two different little museums before loading back onto the bus to head home.
We

Lake

Here are some more boats. There is more to Lake Balaton than just boats. But I'm to tired to hunt those other pictures down. Next weekend. I promise.

did make one stop though, at a Mill Museum. It was amazing. This museum was located off in the middle of nowhere. They had two mills there; one was really old and used to be run by horses. The woman explained the entire process, which was really interesting. Then they had a newer mill that was run by waterpower. After touring these two mills we were served a lunch. The lunch consisted of freshly made bread, cheese, fresh sour cream, different fruits and veggies, honey, jam and walnuts we learned to crack ourselves. As in, lay the walnut down on a rock, and slam your palm into it. Such FUN! It was amazing. So so so so so so so so so good. We just lay around eating amazing food and hanging out on the grass for two hours or so. There was also a mill cat that came to hang out with us, she was quite the exciting kitten playing as if she didn’t like us, then rolling onto her back so we could rub her stomach.
I definitely enjoyed Pecs more than Debrecen, and I am really glad I went on this trip after all. I had kind

Turkish Helmet

This is a turkish helmet. I am not actually wearing it, it is hanging on a wall. I had you fooled there for a moment huh? I am also wearing the traditional Turkish warrior garb, a sweatshirt from my university.

of been considering doing something else instead just cause the Debrecen trip was not really a highlight. Pecs however, was entirely worth it all.
Interesting things I have been thinking about:
1. In Hungary, if you are driving along and the person in front of you in driving too slow, you just jump out into oncoming traffic and speed around them. This is a little disconcerting in a giant, slow bus.
2. You know the red star on Heineken bottles? Yea, that’s the soviet star. Yet they still drink Heineken here.
3. When people here are waiting to get on a bus or an elevator or something, they all just stand right in front of the doors and as soon as they open the people try to rush on. It’s as if they don’t realize that people are trying to get off. If you happen to be one of the people trying to get off, you better push or you’ll miss your stop/ride the elevator forever.
4. What’s up with the US dollar? Would it stop freaking dropping already? I’m living here in another country and the dollar keeps bouncing around like a kid on a trampoline. Knock it

Pecs

Here is a street in Pecs. How cute is that!? Maybe you had to be there. But really? It's the best EVER!

off! I would like some consistency in my life.
5. In Pecs, I had the best ice cream in the entire world. It was amazing. This place we went, it was like my Utopia. Actually I think it might actually have been called “Kristin Michele Wilson’s Utopia” except in Hungarian.
6. Also in Pecs? A wedding procession that was just walking around the streets….with a TRAIN. Yup, a little train driving around, up and down these walking streets. They also had a marching band. Pretty cool.
7. I bought my ticket to visit Elaine in Paris. You all know what this means. Come November, pictures of the Eiffel tower. I know you are all excited. I am too.
8. Happy Birthday Aggie!!!!!!
That’s all for now. If I think of anything else that’s exciting I’ll come back and tell you.
I love and miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.s. I saw a guy selling kittens on the street by my house today. I’ll post a picture.

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