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Published: September 11th 2006
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The Terror Museum
A somber way to start the day. After our quick breakfast, we debated whether we should get some sleep or go sight-seeing. We all agreed that we would probably not be back to Budapest for years, so we decided to give up comfort (and sanity?) to start our wandering. The first stop was the Terror Museum, a museum dedicated to the hardships the Hungarians experienced under the Nazi and Soviet occupations. The whole experience was very moving and included exhibits on Soviet tanks, the tiny cells where dissidents were held, and the gallows where political prisoners were executed. It was probably an unnecessarily somber way to start a two day trip to a new city, but considering that most of the people we encountered on the trip had actually experienced Nazi and/or Soviet terror, it seemed fitting to understand the national psyche.
Now is a good time to talk about the Hungarians who, as a group, may be the nicest people I have ever met. They lack the snippiness and the angry glares of the Czechs and were always smiling. Unlike the Czechs, who stare at Americans with disdain, the Hungarians were more than willing to help a group of often loud and obnoxious Americans. In general,
Heroes' Square
The square is enormous! I would say the Hungarian people are more Greek or Italian than Eastern European. They are warm and expressive and seem to value food and family. When we asked an elderly couple how to get to the metro station, they motioned for us to follow them and took us almost the complete way home. Although they spoke about two words of English, we somehow managed to have a whole conversation with them in broken German, French, and even a little Spanish. Later that night, we asked a random Hungarian guy where a certain club was. He did not know about the place, but went on to ask about six other people for us, in Hungarian, until we found where we were looking for. Great people.
Back to the sight-seeing. After the Terror Museum, we walked to Heroes' Square, a beautiful and immense monument at the end of the historic, swanky Andrassy Boulevard. It is made of white marble and encompasses a huge half circle, filled with huge green statues of Hungarian heroes and a giant column topped with an angel. It was a truly awesome sight unlike anything I have seen before. After the square, we decided it was
Me in Heroes' Square
You would not believe how huge these statues are... a necessity to eat goulash as soon as possible (when in Hungary...). We went to a great outdoor cafe where we drank a few bottles of Hungarian wine (the red was sweet and cold, the white was not good at all) and enjoyed bowls of Hungarian goulash. In Prague, goulash is a meaty, saucy dish consisting of pork chunks and sausage with the occasional vegetable thrown in. It is covered in a soupy gravy and served with bread dumplings. In Hungary, on the other hand, the goulash is a soup - bright red and spicy from paprika - which contains chunks of beef and potatoes. It is served with crusty bread and spicy pepper relish that tastes like those cherry pepper things. It was really tasty, and I would love to cook it (or have a grandmother or mother or aunt cook it for me) when I get back to the states...
After the goulash fiesta, we went to the labyrinth under Castle Hill. It is a series of natural and man-made caves that have been used as shelter during World War II and as homes in prehistoric times. You have to take a train up the side of
The Wine Fountain
What a trashy picture! the mountain which houses the castle complex, and it offers amazing views of the Danube River and the town of Pest (the castle is in Buda on the other side of the river). After 7:00, they shut off the lights in the labyrinth and give you oil lamps to maneuever through the pitch blackness. One of the coolest (and trashiest) tourist sights in Budapest is the wine fountain that sits in one corner of the labyrinth. Covered in ivy and decorated in unpolished stone, the wine fountain is exactly what it sounds like: a hole in the wall of a cave where you can drink red wine for free. Of course, there is no way to avoid getting the wine all over yourself. And obviously wine flowing through a rock is not of the highest quality, but it was still a fun experience (if only for the novelty of it). It is almost easy to forget that the wine has dripped down countless people's chins and has been mixed with spit before filtering back through the pump...
For dinner we went on a mission to get more goulash and ended up in a very traditional Hungarian pub, where we ate more meals drowned in paprika - so surprisingly good. They sat us at the end of a long table with about twenty youngish looking Hungarians at the other end. About half way through our meal, we found out that we were sitting at a Hungarian kid's surprise eighteenth birthday party! We thought it would be uber-uncomfortable, but it ended up being a lot of fun, as we spoke to all the kids about what it was like to live in Budapest. They ended up really liking us and wanting to buy us shots, but we had already been awake for about two full days and decided to pass.
More Budapest in the next installment...
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