Goodby to Budapest

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Jim-Write up 4 - 5/10
After our Friendship Force Group arrived we left the flat and moved to a Hotel in the old Jewish Quarter of Budapest. We truly loved the location of our flat down by the “Old Market”. After the FF crew had a night of sleep, we took a boat tour and also a general tour of the city on the bus. Our guide was terrific. I have enclosed a picture. One thing he mentioned about the weather was that 20 years ago in the winter, Budapest would have heavy snows. Often a meter or two (1 meter = roughly 3 feet) of snow on the ground. For the last 7-8 years they have had no snow in the winter. He felt it was definitely do to global warming. He also said they have very little spring and fall, just a couple of days of each rather than the couple of months of spring and fall that they use to have.
I have also attached a couple of pictures of St. Mathis Church which is undergoing reconstruction. It is on top of Castle Hill next to the Fisherman’s Bastion. I have also attached a couple of pictures of Monument Park. It is a tribute to the Soviet Era of bad taste and bad construction. They even had a Tribet (Spelling) car in the park, it was built in East Germany and is generally considered the worst car ever produced.
Now we are taking the train to Bratislava.

Mary Anne
Monument Park was a really big surprise to me. What is there are many of the statues from the Communist era. We were shocked that they would want to display these pieces of art of Lenin, Stalin and other prominent representatives of Communists. Most of these statues were in very prominent locations in parks and in front of large building’s. During the revolution most of them were destroyed or at least the top half of them was toppled down. When they built Monument Park they restored most of the statues. It is very weird and kind of scary to see a whole park dedicated to something that most of us find horrifying.
Our guide explained to us that even as awful as it was for the people to survive during that time it was part of the history of Hungary and it is very important that the young people learn and study their history.
Tomorrow we get on the train and head for Bratislava, Slovakia.

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Comments

[Kathryn]

trip
Jim , will be anxious to hear what are your favorite sites?