Budapest Day 2

Well, day 2 in Budapest was quite sobering, solemn, and educational.

We first had to get packed and have our bags outside the cabin door. We then had our last breakfast and final time with the staff members we had come to appreciate so much. And then it was over. A taxi whisked us away. Remember Vicki saying she was not comfortable with the level of service at the start? She became comfortable, and now it was back to our norm. I do not make up the room twice a day, bring her cappuccinos or cocktails (although I am quite willing), provide eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, give her an audio tour of Asheville, or amaze her with the number of hours I work on each trip. The river cruise was delightful, and I am glad we did it.

Out taxi driver took us into Budapest to a luggage storage facility where we locked up our suitcases and backpacks until the check-in time for our apartment. Then we set out to see Budapest. Well, mostly Pest this day. (Vicki: I think that most of our friends know that Budapest is historically two cities: Buda - the hilly side - and Pest - pronounced "peshed" and the flat side. From our tour guide on Monday, we learned that there is quite a lot of competition between the cities. Pest people think that Buda is "bougie," and Buda people think that Pest is "pesty.") Our first destination was the Shoes on the Danube bank. 

Wikipedia says this sculpture was created to honor thousands of people massacred by the fascist Hungarian militia belonging to the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest during WWII. Victims were ordered to take off their shoes (shoes were valuable and could be stolen and resold by the military after the massacre) and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The memorial represents their shoes left behind on the bank.  

 

If that wasn't enough evidence of man's inhumanity to man for the day, we went to the House of Terror, which is in the former police building where the Nazi-sympathizing Arrow Cross, Nazis, and Communists headquartered - and was where they took some of their victims. 

Also from Wikipedia:

The House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy Avenue 60 in Budapest, Hungary. It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured, or killed in the building.

If you guessed that this was not a Disneyland kind of day, you are correct.

We did walk by the Opera House on the way to the museum. Amazing building, nice Christmas tree.  

 

To cap off our day of damning history, we visited a wall. It was a fragment of the wall from the Jewish ghetto.

 

From Atlas Obscura (a wonderful website, by the way): The wall surrounding the Jewish ghetto was erected in November 1944 and destroyed in 2006. However, the 30-meter section that sits at the back of the courtyard at 15 Király Utca was reconstructed in 2010 (minus the original barbed wire) to serve as a permanent reminder of the tens of thousands who were forced to live in the area. 

I took this picture of a balcony next to the wall because I like the red of the umbrella and the flowers below.  

I forgot lunch! It was in there somewhere.We ate in the market - a potato pancake with paprika chicken and a German grilled sausage. Good, but then we looked at the credit card and found out that we had spent over $60 on lunch. Won't eat in the market again!

 

 

 

We ended the day with dinner in a vietnamese restaurant, a wonderful pistachio creation in a dessert spot nearby, and a short river cruise with Lyn and Peter. 

After the cruise, we were headed up the gangplank when a holiday drone show appeared over Buda. First I had ever seen in person, and it was cool.

 

 

 

Finally, we ended the evening with a nightcap with Lyn and Peter. Those two have more energy than I do. We crashed on the hardest bed I have slept on since boy scouts. 

~~~~~

Vicki:

 

Shoes on the Danube

This one broke me. It was impossible not to personalize this, to think of our sweet Jewish grandbabies and what it would have been like for any child to face this end. Dan noted that perhaps if more people personalized these things, then there may be less of them. 

As Dan said, our second full day in Budapest was quite sobering. The Shoes on the Danube memorial resonates with sadness and tragedy and the terrible things that humans do to one another - and for what? These kinds of things make me hope for a hell where the souls of people who do these things are tortured, although I don't know how much torture would be enough. 

Other photos to share:

At the Shoes on the Danube memorial. It says, 
"Land of victims shot and murdered
by Arrow Cross members from the forgotten ark
1944-1945
May their memory be blessed
Established on 7th Nissan 5765"

A tram decorated for Hanukah?

A sewer cover

A map of the 0.1 mile Jewish Ghetto, where 70,000 Jews were placed in November 1944. 

More than half of those sent ot the ghetto were sent to camps. No one and nothing could come into the ghetto; no food or supplies were allowed. And no one could get out. The dead lay on the streets or were piled up in front of bombed buildings. Garbage could not be removed. Typhoid and other diseases spread. 

From the time of the Nazi occupation in March, 1944 until the Soviets took the city in March, 1945, the Jewish population in Budapest went from 200,000 to about 20,000.

This is one of many information sheets from the House of Terror. I hope that you can read it. It sounds frighteningly familiar to the Trump playbook. 

*A* wall of victims at the House of Terror. They also display photos of the "vicimizers," complete with names. Those people were never held responsible for their crimes against humanity. 

Not sure if this what they serve...

One of the many side streets near city center

This little guy is on the Liberty Bridge. It is Franz Joseph lounging in a hammock. Created by Ukrainian artist Mihály Kolodko, who created several mini "guerilla" statues around the city.