Wine, Baths, a Castle and the Largest Synagogue in Europe, What More Could I Ask For?

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Ok, I honestly think I have heard more German in Budapest than Hungarian. The Germans, or at least German speakers, are everywhere. To be honest, that does make me quite a bit more comfortable with the city, as they generally don’t love English speakers because the Brits tend to come in and use the whole of Eastern Europe (particularly Hungary) as a playground for stag and hen parties and generally make a nuisance of themselves without respecting the locals all that much. I did find most to be friendly, though, and had a great time in the city. It is very much the heart of the country, too, as it holds over 25% of the population and is very active and vibrant in its own right.

Wednesday, May 21st:
Easy train ride into Budapest last night and I was able to get into the hostel at about 7:30 this morning. The place was hard to find, but not impossible, but the real problem was that the buzzer didn’t work, so I had to call the main number and I think I may have woken up the girl at the desk. Oh well, her own fault for not being up at 7:30 when someone was coming in. I got myself straight, changed pants and shirt and headed off across the river to the Buda side.
First, I was eager to climb Gellert hill, a hill associated with St Gellert just off to the south of Castle Hill. It was a nice hike up to the citadel there past a small waterfall and huge statue of Gellert. Like in Brasov, the citadel itself was not all that impressive, but it did have its plusses. It offered spectacular views of both Buda and Pest, with the Danube River flowing between the two. I asked a woman to take my picture in German (the German I know came in very handy here, btw), but she - like most people you run into - had no idea how to frame a picture. So there is a fine picture of me, but you have no idea where the hell I am, as you can make out nothing behind me. The citadel also had a great exhibit on the effects of the 2nd World War to the city, focusing on the physical destruction and impact on the population at large. The Jewish community was not ignored, but was not the main focus, either.
Next, I was off to Castle Hill after a quick bite. It is a great walk up there to the castle, approaching from the south. Most people approach from the east, which is with the river to their backs, but I was afforded a view dominated by the lower battlements on the southern side of the hill. Though this was not the main attraction of the hill, it did give me a chance to see that part of the hill in relative peace, as most people don’t even go that far south. They were your typical, medieval stone walls - very impressive, but the more impressive thing was the welcoming, open space on that end where students were reading and people were playing with children and dogs. As I went further north and up the hill, I encountered more and more of the touristy areas, with the palaces and art museums and whatnot. From here, the views of the river and Pest were amazing, too. This is, of course, the part of Castle Hill that had been rebuilt into the more modern and embellished form, as well as where the hotels and cathedral were - and, of course, the tourists. I ended up spending the better part of the afternoon here just wandering around and checking out the buildings, even stumbling upon a military memorial service for the Revolution of 1848(?), which convinced the Hapsburgs to give Hungary some significant autonomy and to change the name of the Empire to Austria-Hungary.
After Castle Hill, I walked back south along the river through a lovely neighborhood and some hidden churches that were quite pretty. Then I was off across to Pest, giving me a chance to swing by the Parliament building, an absolutely gorgeous, massive and thoroughly impressive structure. It has wonderful spires and sits majestically along the river across from Castle Hill - everyone, even the locals, says it is a must-see. From there I just kept wandering around that part of town, coming across a statue of Teddy Roosevelt on a little footbridge over a pond (I have no idea why that is there). I eventually came across a lovely cathedral on a massive square. Gorgeous building inside and out, but there was just one problem: the tower (I’ve had an absolute dearth of cathedral towers I have been able to climb this trip) was closed. Normally you could climb it, but not just then.
So I decided to head back to the hostel. On the way was crossing a square and was hailed over by an old guy on a bench. He had a chessboard with him, and after easily losing a Euro to him, I continued on my way. Fact of life: even if you lose, it is always fun to play chess with a random geriatric Hungarian with three fingers communication only in the little German each of you knows.
Back at the hostel I met 2 University of Colorado girls who had been traveling for about a week after studying in Spain for the semester. One was an Austenite and we had a good laugh and remembrance of the town. The other was a real Coloradoan and was excited for their next stop of Salzburg, mostly because of the mountains (her Sound of Music obsession didn’t hurt, either). Later on, a group of 4 guys (2 US, 2 N. Ireland) came in and we played a bit of poker before the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea. Good enough game, and it ended up being decided on kicks at the end - Chelsea should have had it won (and their manager’s job with it) but blew the final kick of the first set that would have won it - but the real entertainment was Dom, a guy from Miami who was going absolutely nuts. This was probably based more on the fact that he had $2000 riding on Man U back home and kept claiming that he would not be able to go home as he couldn’t pay it off. He was very relieved when United won and they went out to celebrate. Before they went, however, he kept talking about how much people get annoyed with him personally and Bolivians (his ancestry) in general, almost in a bragging sort of manner. With my eyes still deliciously red, I went to bed.

Thursday, May 22nd:
Up and ready to get out of the hostel at 10:30 and set off for Eger, when Dom comes back from his night out covered in his own blood. I guess he was right, people really don’t like him. All he remembered from the night before was getting his ass kicked. I am so glad I was there to see him get back.
Just a 2 hour train ride from Budapest, even after helping an older Irish couple figure out where they could go on their day trips out of the city, Eger is a wonderfully different town. Small and baroque, it has a neo-classical cathedral at the northern end of the main part of town. Not what I am used to cathedrals looking like on the outside - it appeared more like a museum with bell towers - it was a typically large, open structure inside, appearing very much the Catholic cathedral it is. After that I walked around town a bit more, heading up through the narrow lanes to the castle (or what’s left of it) that once protected the original cathedral and housed the bishopric of Eger. The best part of the castle was the views of the city, as there is not much up there to speak of ruins-wise and the museums in the existing, more modern buildings are only in Hungarian. The cathedral is also all gone. There are, however, a few long tunnels along one edge of the fortifications. These are, unbeknownst to me, only accessible from one end and by a guide with a key. I ended up following in a school group and shot past them as they were being lectured on the history of the tunnels or something. After making my way pas the displays they have of the original stone carvings and rose window pieces to the end of the tunnel, I headed back past the kids to the entry gate…which I found to be locked. Having no intention of remaining locked in the castle of Eger, I waited by the gate for the next few minutes until the next tour group came around and I escaped.
Making my way down from the hill with the eventual target being the Valley of the Beautiful Woman (vineyards and wine cellars), I stopped by the Archbishop’s Palace. It is a lovely, baroque structure from the outside (I couldn’t get in for whatever reason). The minaret next to it, however, is the real attraction. The mosque itself was destroyed about 150 years ago, but they left the now-lonely minaret for some reason. For a few Fotnit, I climbed up the inside of the very, very narrow tower. I was scraping my shoulders and backpack (the camelback, not the full pack) the whole way up, and had to actually take my backpack off on the way down to actually fit through. Here, I got a very cool view of the city as I stood wedged between the tower and the railing at the top.
As I was now finished with the town of Eger itself and the day getting on, I decided to make my way out to Szepasszonyvolgy ("The Valley of the Beautiful Woman") for the wine cellars. Ok, this was the real reason I had come out to Eger. If you're walking out here, and it is a very do-able walk, be prepared to think you're going to the wrong place and in the wrong direction. One guy I asked for directions even said it was about 5km, when it was really 1, which frustrated me to no end. There are no busses that run out that way, and I never did see a cab, but eventually I made it there. The first 2 cellars I came across were closed, but eventually I found a restaurant where I could get some food and taste some of the local flavor. Good place, if a bit over the top on the whole wine-valley thing, and the local Bikaver ("Bull's Blood") red was great. Not too expensive, either. After dinner, I hit a real wine cellar for a good number of tastings at 100 fotnit ($.70) each. The place I found was cooccupied by a Canadian couple and their Hungerian cousins. Very nice people, and we struck up a conversations for about an hour or so about the country, Hawaii (they vacation there often) and the general state of things. I think they ended up buying more wine than they could possible take home, but good luck to them.
After a bit more tasing, I saw that I needed to get a move on to make sure I caught the last train back to Budapest so I high-tailed it back to the station and slept off the wine on the 2.5-hr trip. I ended up getting back to the hostel at about midnight, and to my srurpise, everyone was still there. The 4 guys from the night before and a few others were finishing up a game of poker and then heading out to a club opening on the island in the middle of the river to the north, so I let them run off and I showered and got ready for bed. At this point I was the only one in the hostel - except for the voice of the very excited neighbor woman who was having a very, very good time with her male friend - until another American came in and we talked for a while about our travels and what the plans were for each of us. At about 2am, though, the entire hostel (the 4 guys from before and a group of 6 students from Dublin) bust into the place within a total of 10 min and we all ended up spending the night shooting the shit and drinking cheap wine from the 24-hour place downstairs until about 5am, at which point I decided I needed sleep. On a victorious note, despite the fact that I had what was by far the cheapest wine (it tasted like nothing), mine was still the best of all the bottles bought that night.

Friday, May 23rd:
Ok, up and going relatively early (considering the fact that I had only about 5 hours of sleep last night), and decided to keep the glasses look going with the continued high-pollen count. As I was getting myself out of the hostel, though, I find that the 2 Tasmanian girls from Brasov had just shown up to check in - to be fair, it was them who had told me about the hostel from another pair of girls who had been there about a week earlier. G-d, I love hostel info-trading. So I said “hi and bye,” and made my way around out to put my luggage in storage at the train station and check out Pest.
After dropping my stuff off and having a total mix-up getting my mandatory reservations to Berlin via Prague (European trains often do this, they make you buy a ticket - or pass - and then decided you need to pay a few extra Euro/Fotnit/Zloty/etc to have a reserved seat), I headed 80% of the way back to the hostel to start my day at the Jewish Museum of the city. The museum part itself is nothing particularly special; its collection mostly consists of little bits of Judaica from around the former Hungarian empire and much the remainder of Central Europe. There were some cool bits, like the synagogue “tapestry” that was actually a mosaic of Hebrew writing made to look like pictures of men studying. The 2 other parts of the area were much more impressive, though. The synagogue that the museum is attached to is the largest in Europe and lavishly decorated (more actual gold than the parliament building). It actually has much the look of a cathedral with the pair of preaching pulpits mid-way down the main seating area. If it were not for the standard singe-line (no transom/nave/etc) shape and the 2nd floor for the women and children - and the Jewish themes all around - one could almost be excused for thinking it was a church. Also in the same venue is the memorial to the Holocaust and the Budapest ghetto. This area, not particularly spacious, is very impressive as it is built around a sculpture of a weeping willow that they are slowly filling in the names of all the Jews forced into the ghetto onto the leaves. It also prominently features a memorial to the righteous gentiles of the city, with particular note to those who were caught and lost their lives at the hands of the Nazi’s. We were very fortunate to have a great tour-guide, too, as she really knew her stuff and was actually the daughter of a Jewish woman who had survived in the ghetto and a Christian man who had saved over 200 Jewish lives during through his dry-cleaning business.
From there, I decided to keep the laughs rolling by making my way to the museum known as the House of Terror. It was the building used as both the HQ of the Arrow-Cross Party (the Hungarian Nazi’s) and then the Hungarian version of the KGB after the communists took over. It really is a wonderful exhibition of how these two periods of absolute horror and terrible destruction inflicted on the Hungarian people affected the country for 60 years, and really still do today to a small degree (even though the country is clearly recovering quite well). The whole thing is in Hungarian, but there are guide pages all around and an audio-guide, and since you can go at your own pace, I got a great feel for the message and details of the museum from the kangaroo-courts and torturous interrogations in the basement cells to the political and social penetrations of the two groups.
My last stop of the day before heading back to the train station for the exit was the baths at the north-east end of the city. Located right in the city’s largest park, they were a great walk up a beautiful boulevard from the House of Terror. On the way is a wide-open plaza dedicated to the heroes of Hungary, which is actually a cool space with its very neo-classical motif and the feel of a large, almost Mediterranean plaza. In the park there is also what, I think was once a smaller palace for the kings of Hungary. It’s a beautiful building with gardens and ponds around it, none of which can be found on Castle Hill.
The baths, though, were an absolute treat. Very cool. As the day was getting along, they dropped the price for the last hours and I got in pretty cheap (not that they’re that bad anyway). It’s a very impressive structure on the outside, but the foyer makes you feel like it’s a locker room at the JCC. Once you have changed and make your way out to the baths, though, it is a completely different story. They are teeming with people and are grand (still somewhat sterile-looking in the inside areas, though), particularly the three out-door pools. One is tepid, one cool, and one at least 90-degrees Fahrenheit, and all three are for swimming. The hottest actually has some chess boards with people playing in while standing in the water, and the tepid has a little area at the center where it pulls you around in a circle like a river at a fairly good clip - lots of fun, especially for the kiddos.
Finally, it was off to the train station (after stopping at the market to get myself some food for the very long journey to Berlin).

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