It’s Friday December 6 and today we’re having a day off. We planned this earlier in the week when looking at the weather. Today was scheduled for sleet, it has in fact, just started snowing. This is exciting for us, but not for the workmen in our apartment block who have been doing some serious construction this week – jackhammering and angle grinding at 0830. Nice start to the day…

When searching for spots of interest this week, I happened across an article about a guerilla sculptor, Mihaly Kolodko, a Ukrainian citizen with Hungarian heritage, who has mini statues across this city. We used the guide as a way to discover the city of Budapest, whilst searching for the hidden statues. It’s been a fun (and frustrating at times!) way to keep us all engaged.

Monday – Liberty Square, Parliament, Margrit Bridge, St Stephen’s Basicila, Christmas Markets & Dohány St Synagogue.

We were greeted with crystal clear skies when we left the apartment Monday morning. Rod had spent considerable time reading about the (complicated) public transport ticketing system, but we decided to take advantage of the weather and walk. We headed in the general direction of the Parliament, but took a few detours along the way. We pass through the gardens of Liberty Square, with a few statues of American Presidents (George W and Reagan) and pass along the back of the Parliament. It is one hell of an impressive building. Walking towards Margrit Bridge, we come across a statue (there lots of monuments and statues in Budapest) dedicated to Nagy Imre. Rod and I are trying to decide if he was a good guy or not. Initially he was in the Communist party but then tried to establish Hungary’s independence from the Soviets, which of course didn’t end well for him. History has judged and deemed him worthy of reverence. Oh and he was the PM at one stage. It can be confusing here with the history, but one thing that isn’t confusing is the depth of the scars on Hungarians caused by war and communism.

We head along the Danube, which is blue today. We walk past the ‘Shoes on the Danube’ memorial to Jewish people lined up and shot by the Arrow Cross (Hungarian based, Nazi backed strong arm in Budapest in WW2). There’s loads of people taking photos, but I don’t feel like I can. Hamish doesn’t want to look and distracts himself by trying to get Rod to laugh. I hiss at them to “stop being idiots” and we leave. By this stage we’re all famished (and one of us is cranky…yes it’s me) and find an ‘Asian Fusion’ restaurant that looks Chinese but serves Thai food too.

St Stephen’s Basilica is just around the corner (it’s hard to miss) and as is tradition, Christmas markets. We get some vanilla almonds – they remind me of my Grandfather Johnson, he always had some sugar coated almonds on him! The bag costs a small fortune, but we delight in their sweet-salty taste as we saunter back home through the streets.

As mentioned earlier, our apartment is in District VII. Towards the end of WW2, Jews were forced into a ghetto in this district – so many people there were 14 per room. Our street, Dob utca (utca is street) was part of the ghetto, but not up the end we are staying in. The Dohany St Synagogue is the largest in Europe – it has a very grand facade – it bordered the ghetto in 1943. We walk to it on our way home (there’s also a mini statue there to find).

Once home, Rod and I head to the closest Lidl to get some groceries. It’s about 5pm and the little market is packed, the aisles are one person wide, the staff are scary (maybe it’s the accent) and we vow never to go back (although we do go back, we go back twice thinking it might be better at different times of the day. It’s not.). I am delighted to find excellent fruit – the double punnet of blueberries is gone after breakfast the next day! Hamish has a sore throat (again) so I’m trying to increase his vitamin uptake!

Tuesday – Varosliget Park, Vajdahunyad Castle, House of Terror

Hamish still has a sore throat, but not sore enough that he can’t inhale 2 bowls of cereal. I suggest we go for a short walk to find 3 mini statues which are in the streets parallel to ours. He thinks he can manage. After finding those, he says “we’re actually close to these ones too – why don’t we keep going?” So we set our sights on a large park to find some more mini statues. We find what I like to call the ‘Hungarian Stair Master’ which is kind of a look out built into either end of the Enthographic Museum. Hamish does not hesitate to walk up there so we follow. It is actually pretty cool and gives us a great view of the park and the surrounding streets. The park is huge and houses lots of different sporting fields, ice skating rink, thermal baths and dog park. We frustratingly don’t find one of the mini statues after walking around and around the park, so we stop for a hot drink and a sit down. The next mini statue is easy to find so we get our photo and walk home.

In Vienna, Rod and I were discussing which museums, if any, we were going to visit. After 10 weeks of travel, we have learned not all museums are created equally. Museums can be great. Museums can be dull. This cannot be said for the Museum of Terror, which Rod and I visited Tuesday afternoon. Only a few streets away, this museum is dedicated to the thousands of Hungarians who were imprisoned, killed and tortured in this building by the Nazi and Soviet Regimes from 1944 to 1991. It is four floors of hell.

Top floor (Arrow Cross Danube shootings, Hungarians being transported to labour camps, Jews transported to death camps, hospital massacres, Nazi’s blowing up the bridges in Budapest, Russians replacing Nazi’s).

Middle floors (war crimes trials, Gulag deportations, dictatorship, communism, Arrow Cross morphing into the secret police (AVH) , public arrests in the middle of the night).

Basement (torture cells, perpetrators, retaliation, emigration).

I have been to Auschwitz and I felt as drained as I did after that day.

Wednesday – Chain Bridge, Furnicular, Buda Castle, Funnel Cakes & Hot Chocolates

With a new found respect for Hungarians, we walked to the Danube and crossed the beautiful Chain Bridge (not at all looking like the pictures we’d seen of it yesterday in the museum). We caught the furnicular to Buda Castle. The ticket seller was a bit frightening (yelling at me when I didn’t understand what she said) and further when she yelled at a group of women who were delaying getting in the carriage: “Get in the car! Move! You are holding up everything! Get in the car!” See? Scary. We found our little statue and walked around the grounds of the castle admiring the view. It was actually pretty cold and miserable so I suggested we pull the pin, get warm food and drinks on our way home and settle in. Hamish said, “but those other statues are soooo close” So we persisted and found more of our statues before heading to the market for hot chocolate and funnel cake.

Thursday – Fisherman’s Bastion, Mr Bean’s Teddy statue, Ferris Wheel of Budapest.

The last of the statues we were keen to find was Mr Bean’s teddy, entitled ‘Brexit’ gosh he was hard to find! Crossing the Chain Bridge again, to find the Fisherman’s Bastion this time, we were glad of our warm gear with the temp about 3 degrees. We didn’t need the warm gear for long as we had to negotiate about 400 steps! But gee the views make it worthwhile. We hung around the Starbucks for a bit to use their toilets (you have to buy something, your receipt gets you into the toilet) and then headed back down, a different way, with less steps this time. The Ferris Wheel was a cutesy thing to do, but I realised, as we dangled hundreds of meters in the air, that I don’t actually like them.

Wrap Up

Our week here has been fab. We’ve walked and walked and walked – about 15km a day actually, so it’s good to have a down day. Rod had a hair cut. Hamish is still in his PJs. We’ve enjoyed watching the snow fall from our warm, comfortable apartment today. It’s quite a novelty for us. Tomorrow we head to Linz in Austria for a few days before a week in Munich.