Budapest

Have you ever walked around a city and felt and instant connection to it? Just felt like it was where you were supposed to be in this point and time, in this place in your life? That’s how I felt about Budapest. I don’t know what it was about it, but I just felt so instantly comfortable despite having never been there before, not understanding the currency, and definitely not knowing the language.

We got into Budapest after our 9 hour bus ride and were immediately faced with the daunting task of navigating the public transportation to our AirBnb. All I can say is thank goodness for John and Brynna because I have zero sense of direction. We, or rather they, found the apartment and soon I went out in search of our first late arrival, Kevin. When our group was all together again we walked around our new neighborhood on the Pest side of town and ate dinner in the upstairs portion of a little pizza place. Having three philosophy majors and a philosophy minor there greatly influenced the conversation and by the time their debate started to wrap up, the restaurant was closing and we were kindly shooed out by the owner.

Brynna, John, Kieran, Kevin and I went out that first night and visited one of the many ruin bars around Budapest. So many of the buildings were destroyed during the world wars, and instead of completely flattening them and starting over, the people of Budapest decided to use the ruins to create a certain atmosphere for their bars. The one we went to had several bars in different rooms, each specializing in different things (cocktails were downstairs, craft beers were upstairs, the shots were in the back corner behind the courtyard). We spent a lot of the night exploring the building and Brynna and I had a blast dancing with some fellow travelers we met there.

The next morning, we had planned to start our morning with another free walking tour, which we promptly missed. We did, however, manage to color coordinate our outfits accidentally so there’s always a give and take. We hung around the square where we were supposed to have met our tour and took some family pictures until we saw a giant group of people coming our way. When we heard them speaking English, we realized that this was our tour coming back through the square and we quickly joined the back and hustled along.

We walked around and saw a few churches and neighborhoods of the city and after about an hour arrived on the Buda side of our beloved Danube. We sneakily ditched the tour group at this point in favor of climbing up the hill and visiting the castle. We walked around the historical part of town towards the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Matthias Church, popping in briefly to look at the labyrinth along the way. The Bastion was beautiful and view spectacular. The Matthias Church’s roof tiles should have been an indication, but I was still floored by the amount of detail on the inside. Floor to ceiling, everything was painted, tiled, or sculpted and the colors were so bright the space really felt alive.

After our little tour of Buda, we made our way back to Pest where we ate a delicious lunch at a vegan restaurant that specializes in traditional Hungarian dishes made vegan. We spoke to the owner and her husband and she told us about her struggle as a gluten free vegan to eat her own traditional cuisine and the vegan empire she’s built around that struggle. She has a cooking show, several books, the restaurant where we ate, and a blog dedicated to her cause. While I’m not vegan, Mazie is, and it really was a struggle trying to find places where she could eat more than a few sides or some bread. The food and this woman were both amazing, and it was a really unique experience to get to interact with a local in that way.

After lunch, we visited the Parliament Building and the Shoes On the Danube installation. The installation is a tribute to the Jews who were told to step out of their shoes and then executed along the Danube for easy clean up during the second World War. This horrific time in history is remembered by brass sculptures of shoes placed along the river where these massacres took place. It was a harrowing experience, and a reminder that although the city is beautiful, it has a dark history like so many other cities in Europe. I personally found the flowers and ribbons tied to some of the shoes a reminder that, although this time was awful and we shouldn’t forget it, there is hope and that we are in a different place now. The candy placed by the children’s shoes were especially heartbreaking, not made easier by one little girl who put her own feet next to the sculpture. I could hear her excitedly telling her dad in German “Look Daddy, my shoe’s the same size”. She couldn’t have been older than three or four, and obviously didn’t understand the weight of her statement, but for me as an onlooker I have to say is was gut wrenching.

We sat along the river next to the installation for a while, reflecting on the magnitude of it, before walking back towards our AirBnb. As we walked, Kevin and I talked about some of our favorite feelings in the world to bring us back to the present. We talked about the feeling of sunshine on skin, jumping into a pool, driving with the window down and feeling the wind. It did the trick and by the time we got back to the AirBnb for a little down time, we were laughing again and the rest of the night was spent joking and with a little house party after we decided going out was going to be too much hassle.

One thing Budapest is known for is it’s thermal baths. They’re supposed to be very healing and relaxing, so naturally, our hungover selves decided it was time for a day at the baths. We checked in and started exploring. There were several pools, all with different shapes, temperatures, and purposes, and our group drifted apart as we each went about the building at our own pace. Kevin, John, and I stuck together for the most part and had a blast testing out saunas, steam rooms, burning hot water, then water so cold the ice cubes wouldn’t melt in it, the salt room, and of course the rooftop pool. The roof was definitely my favorite part of the day. After Easter, the weather changed dramatically and it truly felt like spring, so sitting in the warm water with the breeze coming by every so often as we looked out on the Danube and the city was truly one of the best parts of exploring Budapest.

This leg of our trip we seemed to do a lot of balance. We had such a goofy beginning to our day that going to the House of Terror shocked us right back into balance. The House of Terror is a museum dedicated to remembering the horrors of World War Two and the Socialist Regime in Hungary, but instead of being victim based like most museums, especially in the US, are, this museum was perpetrator centered. From an art administrator wannabe’s point of view, the museum itself is incredible. Every surface was used to tell the story of what happened in these halls and visitors were allowed to move at their own pace with the paper sheets of information in both Hungarian in English that were found in every room. There were rooms where the floor had a map printed on it and the display cases acted as location markers, there were rooms where the videos timed themselves so that you moved from one end of the hall to the other, there were rooms set up to look like socialist official’s offices, a labyrinth of pig lard, an elevator with a video that explained the next floor, and finally the cellar which held the cells of the victims of the regime. It was horrifying and yet fascinating to learn about.

Kieran, John, Kevin, and I spent so long in the House of Terror that they all but pushed us out of the door. Not done talking about the subject yet, the boys and I sat down in a little hole in the wall shop to talk and eat dinner. This, by far, was the best meal I had in Budapest. This little shop was owned by a father and son who cooked different traditional Hungarian dishes each day and helped us choose by recommending things for us to try. Our massive portions allowed us to sit and talk until long after dark and we headed back to AirBnb. That night was much calmer than the last. John taught me how to play chess, another philosophical debate popped up, and we all went to bed rather early knowing we were heading to Vienna the next morning.

Not ready to leave without one last little adventure, Kevin and I got up earlier than the rest of our group and crossed the river to the Buda side so that we could look at the Parliament building from the opposite bank. I am so glad we went to do this and can only recommend it. Up close, the building is beautiful and impressive, but you can’t take in the full effect until you’re on the opposite side and can see the whole thing. I took my favorite pictures of Budapest here and it was great to hang out with Kevin for a bit one on one after so many days of constantly being in such a big group.

We returned to the apartment and got all our little ducks in a row and moved on to Vienna. As we left, I got the sense that this wasn’t a permanent goodbye. This city spoke to me in a way that very few cities do, so I said “goodbye for now”, and we got on that FlixBus anxious to reach Vienna.