Budapest

   

Quads and lungs burning, I raced against the descending escalator, regretting not having left my heavy backpack with Joan at the bottom. The girls -- Johanna and Joan’s daughter Sarah -- stood at the top of the escalator, blocked from following us down by two Hungarian Metro guards. Apparently, we didn’t have the right tickets, a fact which the guards had failed to catch when they let Joan and me go by, but had managed to notice with our daughters. Had I been thinking clearly -- or been in a remotely familiar place -- I might have looked for an easier way up. As it was, I just wanted to rescue the girls by the shortest route possible. Thankful for early morning hill repeats -- and a fairly short escalator -- I reached the top. If you’ve never run up a down escalator, my advice for you is to beware the end, where it flattens out. I didn’t quite trip, but it would have been a painful fall if I had. We found the right tickets (not without trying several broken machines first), and made our way back down to the platform, where we boarded the blue metro toward Budapest.

          Had a similar scenario unfurled in Geneva, I think the guards would have let the girls follow us, trusting that we would all return to spend the proper amount of forints on our tickets. Geneva is a trusting city in a way that others -- Rome, for example -- are not. In Rome, I think the lack of trust may have to do with a fear that someone really would run off with an ice cream cone without paying. In Budapest, I wonder if the fear is bred more from close to a century of trouble. The city (and country) found itself on the losing side of both World Wars, then under communist oppression until 1989. It hasn’t had that many years to rebuild and re-imagine itself. I can’t speak for how life might have changed for a real citizen of Budapest since then. I can only say that, in those few years, the city has become a vibrant tourist destination.

         Our trip to Budapest was, technically, a “Voyage d’Etude,” or study trip, organized with another mother and daughter who homeschool. The girls raised money for the trip by holding two bake sales, one at the Rive Market in Geneva’s center, and one outside a grocery store. It’s a mark of the generosity of Genevans -- and their comfort level with bake sales and study trips -- that the girls raised enough money to cover flights and lodging. The lodging was outstanding, in location if not in luxury. We stayed in a small apartment right next to St. Stephan’s Basilica, in the center of the Pest side of the river. Saint Stephan, as it turns out, was Hungary’s first king, crowned in 1000 AD. He also gave Hungary its start as a Christian nation (hence the “saint’ part of his name). The basilica, like so much else in Budapest, was a large and impressive structure. Budapest seemed like a large city to me -- meaning that the things in it were large, at least compared to those in Geneva. The Danube is wide, the buildings are huge, even the blocks used in construction are massive. 

St. Stephan's Basilica by night

The first night in town we walked up to the Castle District, the part of the city that was originally Buda. Here, we learned a bit about King Mátyás, who lived in the 1200s. He apparently liked to hunt and was in love with a peasant girl named Ilonka. He also built a beautiful church. We descended from the area on the Siklo, which is a funicular offering a great view of the river and buildings lining it. Our apartment was on the hot and noisy side, but I slept well enough that I have no idea if the St. Stephan’s bells chime between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

The Mátyás fountain, which shows the king  as a hunter. Ilonka is on the right.

The Chain Bridge by night, as seen from Castle Hill.

 

       The next day, Johanna and I ran across the Chain Bridge, along the Danube, and back across another bridge. We made the exciting discovery that not only does Budapest have a McDonalds, but that it is open for breakfast. We made plans for an Egg McMuffin run the next morning. Our first real educational event was a visit to the Hungarian National Museum. I have no pictures because one has to get special permission to take them, but there were lots of picture-worthy items. Jo and Sarah liked the costumes best -- garb and weaponry of the tribes that, one after another, inhabited the area to dresses from the Hapsburg Era and military uniforms. The last tribe before St. Stephan was the Magyars, which explains why that is the Hungarian word for “Hungarian.” Hungary is called Magyarország. This confirms my opinion that every country should be universally called by its name in the native language of its people. Otherwise, it is just too confusing. Who would ever guess, for example, that Germany, Deutschland, and Allemagne are all the same place? In a further spurt of educational spirit, we toured Parliament. If the Hungarian parliament is not the most impressive political building in the world, it has to be among the top.

A hallway in Parliament.

The chamber where sessions of Parliament are held.

Brass cigar holders in the hallway outside the meeting room. They're numbered so representatives could find their cigars between sessions.

Parliament and the Danube -- both massive. The Parliament is entirely symmetrical.

      After so much learning, clearly it was time for a shopping break. We headed to Váci Utca, the main retail street in town. Besides the standard fare of C&A, H&M, and Claire's, we browsed souvenir shops selling handpainted wooden ware, embroidered peasant blouses, and lots of paprika. He also found a lovely store that sold dried flower arrangements (a bit difficult to transport on Easy Jet) and scented soaps (the better gift option for our backpacks). And no vacation is complete without ice cream. I will not share how many times we ate ice cream during the trip, but it was quite an impressive number.

Our favorite ice cream place made the ice cream into flowers on the cones.

Johanna with her ice cream.

Johanna with her ice cream and my ice cream.

       I had to leave Budapest the next morning. Johanna stayed with our friends for another day, and they were able to visit the Terror Háza (not terror like horror movies, but terror like Nazis and communists). Johanna said it was very interesting, if upsetting. They also checked out the Central Market, which us a more traditional shopping experience than Váci Utca. And they ate more ice cream.