During our visit, we have been staying round the corner from two buildings. Firstly Magyar Radio from which a final plea from help came on 4 November 1956 when 1000 Russian tanks rolled into Budapest at dawn. By 8.10am they had destroyed the Hungarian army and captured Magyar Radio. Hungarian people fought them with machine guns. Some 4000 Hungarians were killed fighting the Russians. Wanting to know more we found this clip https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihS_D0Bta z8
The other is the Hungarian National Museum which we wanted to visit as some of its treasures were shown in a recent documentary about the ‘Dark Ages’.
We saw the coronation mantle of St Stephen which is beautifully embroidered with silver thread and kept in a darkened room, then a floor showing the history of pre-Hungarian peoples with lots of beautifully crafted metalwork including a cauldron from the time of Atilla the Hun …
… and lots of gold!
It was so interesting to learn about the movement of people in Eastern Europe, the richness of their art, from a time and place we certainly didn’t cover at school, and which certainly can’t be called The Dark Ages. The second floor covered later history but we were already experiencing museum-wilt by this time and couldn’t give it our full attention. The museum is excellent and when we return to Budapest, we will definitely spend more time here.
We stopped at Hollo Folk Art shop and learnt about the patterned eggs in all the shops. Traditionally they were made of goose or duck eggs, blown and decorated with wax then dipped into red dye. In the Spring festival, the boys would spray the girls with water as part of a fertility ritual and they would give the boys the red eggs which they would hang from the fresh green branches of Spring. Despite this, we have bought one with a traditional design to hang from our Christmas tree, a promise of Spring to come and a souvenir of our trip.
Turo Rudi bars, in their spotty wrappers, have been favourites of Hungarians since the 60’s and we’d seen them advertised around town, in fact you can even get a spotty McFlurry so we had to give them a go! First problem was to find them, as we tried several shops without success, until we asked and were shown to the chill cabinet as they have a chocolate coating round a curd centre.
We picked up two, not knowing the difference but one said Pottyos Turo Rudi on the wrapper, meaning ‘Spotty Curd Bar’ and the other said Hajra Magyarok which means ‘Hungarians Go For It’ referring to sponsorship for the Rio Olympic Team. One had a milk chocolate covering but we preferred the plain, and both had a sweet, creamy centre, a bit like a chilled yogurt bar.
Our next stop was the Dohany utca Synagogue, the largest in Europe, built in a Byzantine-Moorish style popular in the 1850s, and showing the patriotism of the Hungarian Jews, with the brickwork in the same colours as the Budapest coat of arms. It belongs to the Neolog denomination of Judaism which accounts for 80% of Hungarian Jews today and has been recently restored.
Budapest was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe before WW2 but around 600,000 were killed during the Holocaust. Of these, 2281 were killed by the Arrow Cross and buried in 24 mass graves here, now covered with myrtle and ivy. Outside is another Holocaust Memorial, the Tree of Life, shaped like a weeping willow, with each leaf engraved with a family killed by the Nazis.
Passing a mural celebrating Hungary’s win over England 6:3 at Wembley in 1953 …
… we then stopped for lunch at a very busy little restaurant which seemed filled with locals, but had a daily menu in English including a white bean vegetable dish. Together with a shared tomato salad and fish gratin for me, it did very nicely for just a fiver for us both!
We found ourselves in time for the afternoon tour of the State Opera, and having seen the opulence of the foyer, couldn’t resist seeing more. The city were told the opera house could not be larger than the one in Vienna, but no one said it couldn’t be more beautiful, which the Hungarians believe it is! In its heyday, a ticket cost the same as two horses, so it was only for wealthy who went to see and be seen, and Sisi, the Empress Elizabeth, was a regular patron. It was one building that luckily escaped damage despite the conflicts Budapest has seen, so all is original, and we even got a song at the end.
This is definitely the smart part of town, full of theatres and smart shops. We looked into the foyer of the Tivoli Theatre …
I … and Mai Mano House, once the shop of a society photographer (spot the cherub with a camera) and now a museum.
There was also the facade of the once very smart Parisi department store …
… and the Liszt Music Academy.
There have been quite a few buildings we have passed with some architectural detail or other worth a picture that we couldn’t identify, so here is a selection.
After all those buildings, definitely time for our last Aperol o’clock, sitting in a pretty cafe people watching again!
Later we had dinner at Vendiak Etterem, not far from where we are staying, just off a pedestrian square, where it was warm enough to eat outside. We shared dips to start then Chris had porcini pasta while I had a local speciality of roasted goose leg with mash and red cabbage – another excellent meal.
Tomorrow we have a bit of a lie in, but off to the airport after breakfast for our 2pm flight. We’ve had a wonderful time in Budapest, and really thought 8 days would have been enough to see most of it, after all we managed to walk around 8 miles every day, but there seems so much left to see. In fact we’ve made a list of what to see on our next trip – Budapest History Museum, Museum of Ethnography, a better look at the Hungarian National Museum, twilight boat trip on Danube, Margaret Island, inside of St Matyas, Church, Szent Gellért tér Metro Station, Miksa Roth Museum, Cave Church and Citadella in Buda, the zoo to see the architecture, tour of the Vigado Concert Hall, Ruins of Aquincum, Memento Park and day trips to Visegrad, Esztergom and Godollo.
Köszönöm … Thank you Budapest for a lovely time and thank you for reading.
Off Travelling Together 