Monday, May 18, 2009

HUNGARY - BUDAPEST







Up early (just for something completely different) for the drive to Budapest. We stopped off at the Citdel (it’s something to do with the independence of Hungary - I think, the photo is of Rimi obviously doing an impersonation of the statue behind her) & then did a driving tour of the city & had dinner at the hotel. While the hotel was pretty good (although Kate & I had to share a double bed - we each got our own doona though) it was in a bit of a dodgy area. So no walking around on my own at night (as if I would anyway).
The second day was a free day & 5 of us organized the things we wanted to see & got going early(ish) to make the most of the day. We were going to take public transport but found it slightly confusing so decided to walk instead. It was probably a good thing as all that exercise meant we could justify all the crap we were eating. Well it’s not really crap (except for all the snacks on the bus) it’s just that you seem to eat more than you normally would. We walked alllllllll over the city & were trying to figure out how far - someone said 10km & others thought it was way more than that. All I know is that at 6pm when we got back to the hotel, my feet were killing me.
So anyway the first place we went to was the “Terror Haza” which is the House of Terror. In 1944 it was the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis & then from 1945 to 1956 the AVO & AVH both of which were communist terror organisations. It is now a museum that commemorates & documents these two periods in history & what the victims lived (if they were lucky) & died through. Notice how informative & accurate that sounded & that I didn’t write “I think” at the end? Well that’s because I was taking the info off a brochure instead of relying on my memory. Perhaps I should do that a bit more.
The second photo is of the outside of the building. The part that is sticking out has a cut out of the words "terror" & when the sun hits it at certain times of the day, the word is reflected onto the side of the building. The last photo shows part of a wall in the museum which is just line upon line of victims' names. It was an incredible place - the basement where the cells were was very eerie with a strange smell. It certainly had the feeling that a lot of bad things had happened there.

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