This one wild and precious life!!: Budapest Day 1: Music and Mayhem

4/5

I may have mentioned this before, but the stupidity of it bears repeating—before we left on the trip from Purkersdorf, we weeded out some of our excess stuff to leave at Shiri’s rather than carrying it around with us from city to city. Unfortunately, as we realized on the train from Purkersdorf to Vienna, the brand new Rick Steves Budapest guide we bought for the trip, and were planning to read on the bus rides remained in the red carry-on bag in Shiri’s room! Thankfully, Shiri has a friend from W & L who is studying abroad in Vienna and agreed to accompany us on our first day there, and help us to get the lay of the land. She also had a guide someone left behind (from 2000—but better than nothing; really made us appreciate the Rick Steves guides!), so we met up with her at the Metro station near our house and had a small breakfast. The weather was pretty cold and quite cloudy, threatening rain, but we headed to the center of town to get the free walking tour of the Pest side of the city. (As you may have guessed, the city is divided into two sections, Buda and Pest, by the Danube River which flows through the city.) We arrived at where we thought the tour was going to begin, but they told us that the 10:30 tour is in fact on the Buda side, which was over the bridge and up abut 200 steps at the top of the hill. We made it on time (supposedly) but couldn’t find the tour, and so the run had been for naught. But we began wandering around using the book as a guide, We started at the St. Matyas Church, a beautiful neo-Gothic church originally built in the 13^th century. We explored the small streets and alleys of this charming part of the city high on the hill, enjoyed the somewhat cloud-bedecked views and quaint streets.

Museum of Applied Arts, right near our U-Bahn stop

Matyas Cathedral

Plague monument

View of Parliament

Streets near the castle

By this time, it had begin to rain, and at just the right time we passed a place with a sing identifying it as the Music History Museum. The fees were low, the rain coming down harder, so we thought, “why not?” I’m so glad we did! It was wonderful—one exhibit with a collection of Hungarian Folk Instruemnts, another the Bartok Archives, some modern instruments made by Hungarian craftsmen, and finally a room where you could actually try out a clavichord, cembalo and piano. It was awesome!

Awesome music stand for chamber music!

Look how much bigger the name of the patron is than the composer!

Shiri trying out the hammer dulcimer

Liszt lived here

Once we got out of the museum, we headed up to Castle Hill, first passing by the Church of St.Mary Magdalene, built in the 13^th century. It was destroyed a number of times, finally during WWII where all but the tower and gate were destroyed. They remain today, along with a restored Gothic window.

We continued down the Lord’s Street (conncting St. Marys to Castle Hill) and passed the Residency of the President of Hungary just in time for the modest changing of the guard ceremony. Since the rain was coming down harder, we decided to come back to the Palace (which now houses the Hungarian National Gallery) at a later date, and headed back to Pest to the Museum of Terror.

Changing of the guard--in the rain!

I don't envy him his job!

President's Office

Castle (now and art museum)

Photos weren’t allowed in the museum (I snuck a few anyway) but it was a really intense place, commemorating the plight of Hungary in the 20^th century. They were squeezed between the Nazis on one side and thr Communists on the other. While there were probably many leaders who sought to tread the fine line of pleasing both sides (mostly with below average success), the average Joe was pretty much doomed no matter which side wound up winning. The exhibits included a Soviet tank, a wall of remembrance commemorating the victims of the struggles, and other exhibits recounting the plight of the citizens under both regimes, everyday life in Hungary during the war, Soviet Propaganda, and the plight and conditions of different religions during the time. Many of the rooms had video screens with running interviews with survivors of the Nazis, the Soviet Gulags and Labor Camps and the Budapest prisons. In the basement was the prison itself--the conditions simply unimaginable! I wonder every time I hear the stories of the survivors, how it would have been possible to survive such brutality, and live to tell the tale. It was sobering, thought provoking, and very moving.

Memorial to victims of Communist and Nazi Terror

Soviet and Nazi Uniforms back to back

"Everyday Life"

We had a delicious dinner, sampling many Hungarian and other international foods in a buffet recommended by our host, wandered home in the drizzle past Franz Liszt Square, the Opera House, and the Great Synagogue, and, despite the dismal forecast, hoped for better weather the next day.