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Published: November 8th 2007
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16th October…………Budapest,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I stayed 4 nights (3 days) in Hungary’s capital of 2 million people. I got a single room in the 11th Hour Hostel, probably once an old apartment building. The first couple of nights were spent as the sole occupant of a 6 bed dorm but it was noisy being next to the common area which turned party mode till late with young people from across the planet (many of them Australians, including the daughter of a close friend of my brother’s) playing the usual loud card games. My hot water wasn’t working as well and I had to use another bathroom and so I asked to be moved. I wish I had asked sooner as I was put in a huge updated apartment- separate kitchen, washing machine etc. It had absolutely high, high ceilings. The rooms, like the city itself, reminds me very much of Buenos Aires: wonderful architecture everywhere you look, sprawling in all directions for miles, now faded or fading, decaying or decayed. Some wonderful apartment blocks with windows broken, now empty and waiting for investment. I got an excellent view of the city by going up the 146 steps to the top of the dome
of St Stephen’s Basilica. What was interesting, other than the view was being inside the dome- the area between the ceiling below and the copper roofing above- and seeing how it was constructed. One thing I didn’t waste my money on was putting a Euro into the slot machine to light up a glass casket containing the ‘Holy Right’, the ‘Holy Dexter’……the mummified right hand of St Stephen. Ah! Seen one severed limb, you’ve seen them all…sorry Stephen.
Budapest, like any major city, has its share of the 'Mad', 'Bad' and 'Sad', But unlike Vienna, all three were more obvious- beggars in the streets, the homeless in doorways, the mutterers facing a different reality. In Vienna the 'Sad' were at more obvious locations, attempting to get money to survive or at the steps to the Underground, which for me was like discovering a parallel universe. Having a bike means you don't need to discover, decipher and use the public transport system and so it wasn't until I went underground to 'cross' a major intersection (carrying my bike with me up and down the steps- 'The Mad') that I came across the 'Mad' & 'Bad' appearing to find this underworld
more comfortable, accepting or a better opportunity.
On my first day in Budapest I cycled along the cycle way of one of the city's most beautiful roads, the Andrassy Boulevard. It is an avenue of lavish residences, offices and stately apartment buildings that continues to 'Heroes Square' and the City park. But I wasn't along here to visit those sites at this stage. I was off to discover some of Budapest's darker moments at the 'Terror Haza'- the House of Terror.
The 1880 building, which once blended in with the others on Andrassy Blvd, is now a museum. It is more of a sculpture really, inside and out, as a monument to its victims. For it was here that the Hungarian Nazis (the Arrow Cross Party) had its party headquarters in 1944. The building had the '1984' name of 'House of Loyalty'. Dreadful acts of interrogation and killing of numerous people happened in the basement, not only under the Nazis but also by their soviet 'liberators' between 1945 and 1956. They took over more of the whole block and formed a labyrinth of prison cells and torture chambers.
One person in every third family was seized, mistreated, crippled
or killed. Ordinary citizens were trained to spy on fellow workers and neighbours. Innocent people were sent there under 'suspicion'. Looking at what has happened in Australia under Howard, shows how easily things can change- children in detention without a crime, individuals incarcerated with no trial for political expediency, laws changed that theoretically would allow similar things to happen to 'terrorists', those under 'suspicion' to be seized with no outside contact or representation., propaganda advertising campaigns and use of language to instil fear and doubt in the general populace and to encourage reporting of 'suspicious' behaviour. It is the beginning of a continuum which we need to recognize every time.
I visited another site, on a somewhat lighter note which informed me further of the recent circumstances of Hungary's history that I was pretty ignorant of. Monument Park or Statue Park lies some 10km out of Budapest Centre. Across Europe, Soviet inspired heroic monuments of social realism were ripped down and destroyed with the fall of the Iron Curtain. In 1993 Hungary put 40 or so of these iconic busts, memorials and statues together as an open air museum. Four of these monuments were erected as recently as the late
Koala Ted in the Big Smoke
Koala Ted - been there, done that. Statue & Parliament House, Budapest. 80s. Similar museums exist in Central Europe. The best known in Lithuania, is a communist theme park known as 'Stalin's World'. The one here plays with it a bit too, selling T shirts of 'Marx Park' instead of South Park, with Marx, Engels etc lined up as characters and a dead Lenin lying before them with teh caption "Oh my God, the've killed Lenin". The size of some of these pieces is absolutely enormous. The one and only Stalin statue in Budapest was destroyed in the 1956 uprising.
The architect of the park sees it as being "about dictatorship. And at the same time, because it can be talked about, described and built up, this park is about democracy. After all, only democracy can provide an opportunity to think freely about dictatorship. Or about democracy, come to that! or about anything!"
The following is from a display board at the park: “COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP IN HUNGARY. At the end of World War 2 Hungary was on the losing side. 'Behind the back' of the country, the victorious powers- USA, Britain & the Soviet Union- decided that Hungary would come under the rule of the Soviets and their all-powerful leader,
Stalin. Being assured of the support of the Red Army, communist politicians within Hungary's coalition government managed to gradually strengthen their power, thereby repressing the rising democratic developments. By 1948-49 the Soviet model of totalitarianism became reality in Hungary, its main characteristics being a single-party system, state life submitted to the communist party's top leaders, mistrust and blame within the party due to the failure to produce expected economic indexes, intellectual and physical isolation of the country, forced agricultural collectivism, legal and material despoilment of the peasantry, forced industrialization, planned economy, constant shop-shortage, cold war hysteria, enforced worship of party leaders, state terror to keep the population in constant fear. "
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Marilyn
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Peter, you've definitely missed your calling. Your stories are so realistic and interesting - you should become a travel correspondent. I would suggest you put in an application to GETAWAY. Cheers.