Day 9: Budapest

Day 9:  Budapest

We were advised to leave one shoe each ouside our cabin door before we went to bed last night, in the expectation that we may find a surprise in the morning.  Sure enough, when we opened the door there was a large, chocolate, fairly grotesque figure, the meaning of which I am still not sure, but he/it brings small gifts of fruit or sweets to those who leave out a shoe.

As we awoke thismorning, we were sailing into Budapest.   The ship was breaking through iceflows several centimetres deep.  It was really a stunning sight with the ice, the fog and dare I say steam?- at least evaporation misting up the river bank.

Roger had a relapse of the tummy bug, so stayed in bed all morning while I went out on the shore excursion to see Budapest and its Christmas market.  All my disappointment with Vienna was washed away with the stunning beauty of Budapest – beauty of its architecture, its layout and geographical situation but also beauty of the spirit of its people.  The guide on my bus (there are usually 3 buses that go out each time), was a woman about my age.  Like the guide in Prague, she was so poignantly able to describe life behind the iron curtain and the difference now that they are free.   I will finish writing the blog and then maybe  I’ll  l pen a bit more poetry which is forming in my mind.

As a young child, when I was a keen stamp collector, the Mayar Posta (Hungarian) stamps seemed to be different somehow and I still can recall their design.  They all had a group of people with scarves or caps on their heads, all facing, I think to the left, but that is an unimportant detail.  Each denomination was a different colour but the design was always the same and the colours were all very washed out.  I thought of those stamps today and thought how totally oblivious I was at the time  to yet another story of pain and hardship within a beautiful city.

Today’s guide, Maria, described how, as WW11 was drawing to a close, the people of Hungary, imprisoned and oppressed by the Nazis, just waited for the allies to come and liberate them.  However, the allies never arrived,  just the Russians- the result of the pact between Churchill,Roosevelt and Stalin.  With the coming of the Russians, there was great rejoicing, people came out of hiding and there was dancing in the streeets.  But that only lasted for about three weeks before they gradually realised that with the Russians came Socialism and a new kind of oppression.  They were dispossessed of their property and deprived of their freedom.

The city buildings had mostly been built around 1900, in a neoGothic  or neoRenaissance style.  There is a uniformity about them, with limits to the height being three storeys.  Most are  constructed of sandstone and so in their original condition are a beautiful light golden colour.  To keep their beauty as the pollution and acid rain of the industrial age enveloped them, continual maintenance is required.   However, the Communist government allowed no money to be spent on maintenance and so one by one, the buildings fell into a state of disrepair and grey ugliness.

She described the resistance movement of 1956, after the Russians left Austria and the students – again the students- of Hungaria tried to put pressure on the Communist government to get out of Hungaria.  Several students were shot and later those who took part in the rally were severely punished, but for about two weeks, the iron curtain was relaxed and hundreds of thousands of people were able to flee Hungary for USA, Australia, Britain etc.  Was this, I wonder, the period that Damien’s mother’s family left Hungary?

Then of course, came 1990, when the Communist era came to a close, the Iron Curtain came down and the Russians left the Eastern Bloc countries.  Since then, there has been a gradual cleaning up and renovation of the buildings.  As funds are raised for renovation,  the government contributes a subsidy.  So it is that, on driving down the beautiful wide streets, it is common to see a beautifully clean building right inbetween several blackened and ugly ones.

The main streets of Budapest are wonderfully wide boulevardes.  One particular one, leads to a most beautiful monument, the Heroes' Monument, which honours two particular groups of people: firstly the seven original nomadic tribes who came from the Mongolian region to settle here around 900AD.  They are honoured with a statue in the centre of an immense  paved area.   In a semi-circle surrounding this paved area, is a wall on which are statues of all the kings of Hungary over the centuries.  It is a wonderful monument, built to coincide with the 1000 years anniversary since the tribesmen first settled here.

Budapest is divided in half by the Danube, with Buda on one side and Pest on the other.   They were two separarte cities until 1872, after a bridge linking the two cities was built.  Six more bridges have been built since then.  Buda, the more picturesque and hilly side, contains  more residential areas and also the castle district on top of a hill overlooking the city.  Pest on the other hand, is flat.  This is the commercial district and now the area of government buildings.  The photo below is of the houses of parliament.  It is a magnificent building on the banks of the Danube.  We haven't yet seen the British Houses of Parliament yet of course, but I think this building surely rivals that in grandeur.   Adding to its effect is the fact that it stands more or less alone and is not crowded by other buildings.

The Christmas market here was in some ways the best of the lot.  There were no mass produced things and most of the goods were sold by the people who made them.  It has been fascinating to see the diversity of Christmas decorations and hear the diversity of Christmas traditions in what is really such a small geographical area.  We have travelled no more than six or seven hundred kilometres, and yet the food, the traditions, the decorations and the key dates very so much.  The one common link of course, is gifts, but even who brings them differs.  In Prague, it was St Nicholas, in Germany and Austria it was Kriskindle – Baby Jesus.  I have to admit that it has been refreshing to have a whole Christmas season without “Ho, ho, ho,’ from Santa!

I can’t leave the Christmas markets without mentioning all the food at them – again diverse, according to the country.  Every second stall seems to be a seller of food of some kind and the big big thing is gluwine – a hot spiced red wine.  Gluwine is probably the only thing common to every market we have gone to.   They are crazy about it and people wander the markets drinking it to keep warm.   There is even a pot of it waiting for us when we return to the ship.  To our shame, neither Rog nor I have been tempted to even try it – it just smells too spicy.   In fact, we have not eaten at the markets at all, except for a very ordinary chicken kebab on the first day in Prague.

We both relaxed in the lounge in the afternoon and then around 5 oçlock, a group of musicians and dancers entertained us.  It was wonderful – the only one of the several such groups that we have seen because other nights it has been after dinner and we have been either too tired or too sick to go.

We had the company of an American couple with whom we have become quite friendly for dinner.  We swapped email addresses and found out that their surname is Hart!  We have dined with a variety of people over the week – mostly some of the 13 Australians amongst the 120+ Yanks.

At 9pm the ship started up again and we were treated to a wonderful cruise of the city.   It was wonderful and must include one of my shots of it.   I am very happy with my choice of camera, by the way.  I can zoom in on almost anything I want and almost never need my flash.   I just download each night onto this little computer and am ready to go again the next day.