A Tale of Four Cities Part I: Budapest – Erich

I apologize for getting behind in my blogging responsibilities. Lately we have been on the move a great deal. April saw us visiting four European capital cities (five if you consider that we were leaving out of Athens.) Taking it all in has been a lot of work. But let me describe those cities in a series of posts, as well as other impressions of them.

From Athens we made our way to Budapest. We arrived at night and took public transportation to get from the airport into the center of Pest. It always felt safe. There were a lot of young people in the metro (the subway) and walking in the streets. A friendly young woman even helped us find the right street to walk along on our way to the apartment in which we were staying.

The not-so-blue Danube

Budapest is two cities, Buda and Pest, that united some time ago. They are separated by the Danube River. You know the famous waltz, the Blue Danube? Well there are a few ironies there. First, it is a major tribute to Vienna, though the Danube doesn't flow through the center of Vienna, but more along its outskirts. (Today, Vienna has grown to encompass the river, but when Strauss wrote the piece, the city wasn't so big yet.) But it does go right through the heart of Budapest.

Another irony, the Danube isn't blue. (There's actually a Spike Jones song all about this fact.) And it wasn't blue in 1866 when the waltz was written. I learned that the song has lyrics. Two sets of lyrics. The first set was written by the poet of Vienna's Choral Association and it makes fun of Vienna and the fact that the Danube isn't blue. The second set is more properly patriotic and is called “Danube so blue”, so it ignores the basic greenness of the river.

But back from the tangent of music history to city present.

Do you think people cover their heads when they enter the door

Budapest is interesting in its architecture. First, it is quite varied and often beautiful. Second, you will sometimes see something strikingly modern next to something intricately old. Consistency is not the goal in Budapest, but spectacle may be.

I love the bulbs at the tops

At times as you walk through Budapest you happen upon fascinating street art.

Under arrest for... well, you decide the crime

In this picture, you see an escort by the guard. But it's bad news. We learned that the guard wears his sword on his left side, so he pulls it out with his right hand. If he has you walk on his right, that means you are an honored personage that he is escorting, because he can more easily defend you with his sword. But if you are walking on his left, it probably means you're in trouble. Also, notice the reflection of the sun on his bulging gut? He really has a fire in his belly.

Elephants. In hats.

I'm not playing with angles. This sculpture truly goes up the wall.

Budapest has held onto much of its heritage. The area was founded by seven Magyar tribes who sailed up the Danube. And though Hungary has been controlled by the Prussians, Austrians, Germans, and Soviets over the centuries, the people still hold onto their language and identity as Magyars.

Part of Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion is built upon Castle Hill, a high hill on the Buda side that overlooks the Danube. The long structure has seven peaked roofs, one for each of the Magyar tribes. I also found statues of six of the great chiefs of those tribes. I couldn't find the seventh, nor any explanation as to why there were only six. But notice the individuality of these six men. One of them even has a raven on his shoulders.

We are chiefs

So are we

The Hungarians still use their beautiful castles, now for governmental buildings. Some have needed to be rebuilt as they were destroyed in wars, but others have survived reasonably unscathed.

Palatial, right?

Before World War II, Hungary had a rich Jewish tradition. Even today, there is a large Jewish District in Pest, though far fewer Jews live there. During World War II, Hungary did constrict Jews to certain districts, to ghettos. There was a great feeling of antisemitism. However, the Hungarian government resisted Germany's attempts to deport the Jews from Hungary to concentration camps for quite some time. Eventually when Germany fully occupied Hungary, those Jews were deported and many killed.

In the Jewish district there is a striking monument to those deported and killed in the form of a sculpted willow tree.

The Willow Sculpture Monument

The food in Hungary is delicious. Of course, you have to try goulash, which is a soup. We didn't realize this. It surprised us. But we tried many other dishes. Carver, who is quite a fan of fried and roasted chicken, declared Hungary as one of the great chicken making nations of the Earth. But we ate many other dishes such as sorrel stew and sirloin strips to name some that I can name. However, one of our favorite meals came at a hole in the wall place in which we didn't know the name of anything we were ordering. We just pointed at the dish we wanted, paid, and said kozy (which is short for koszonom or thank you.) But the food, full of meat and vegetables was incredible. And filling!

Overall, Budapest is clean, friendly, lively, but not crowded, well laid out, and easy to get around. It has large spaces for work and for play. I enjoyed it immensely and I was quite comfortable there.

Could you play both sports at once?

Plus, the Magyars are highly efficient and practical. Check out what we saw in a local park. Combination basketball/soccer. Who wouldn't love this place?

I ♥ NY for When I'm not in NY – Erich

My title may lead one to a false conclusion. So to be clear, I love New York City when I'm there too. But my post today is about how living in New York City and its environs has made me a better traveler. Or perhaps saying I am better overstates the matter. Let's say it has made me a more confident traveler.

Travel days are the worst. Times are thrown off. Meals are thrown off. You have to make it to the airport two or maybe three hours ahead. When you land, you have to figure out how to get to the place you are staying, often in a place with an unfamiliar language. And then you have to hope that whoever you are meeting to get the keys to the place is there. It's stressful!

I know, I could just take a taxi in each new city. Sometimes, that is necessary, but rarely is it the most cost effective. We do not object to public transportation, but you do have to learn the system.

I'm getting to my point. When we arrived in Rome, we had to get tickets for a bus to take us from the airport to a metro station. It was nerve wracking at first. We didn't know where we were. Would we find the right bus? The right train? But once on the bus, it was just riding on a bus. And when we were descending the escalator into the metro station, I was totally at home. I was in a subway!

We arrived in Athens. It was hard to figure out how do I get here? How do I get there? Finding information was a challenge because of the different languages. But once we saw the bus routes and the subway routes, it was easy! Their public transportation is well laid out and comprehensive. And again, compared to New York, it was easy to navigate.

Now we are in Budapest. Again, we had to take a bus to a metro which we took to a different metro line to get near our apartment. And once I looked over their maps, it was no trouble. They have four metro lines that connect in only a few places. Four lines! Each line has only two unique endpoints, so you don't have to worry about which train to catch. It's not like, well, at these hours the F train goes to this location, but in other hours the F train goes to some other location. And weekends, fuhgeddaboutit.

And it's not just subways and buses. I walk through the streets, and no, I don't know how they all connect. But I'm there, surrounded by big buildings, just like in New York. There are public parks that take up an entire city block, just like in New York. Many places where multiple streets come together, that's called a square (or a ter or a piazza or a πλατεία,) just like in New York.

And that familiarity helps me. I don't think it makes me overconfident, though I could be wrong. I still remember there is crime. I keep myself aware of who is near me and when some alley clearly is not a place to go.

Instead, I think the familiarity makes me just the right level of confident. And because I don't feel so nervous, I can better navigate, make decisions, or deal with things when they go wrong. Or if none of those benefit materialize, at least I'm not getting ulcers at every new step of my journey.

Soon, London is coming. And that will have a lot more than four subway lines and a plethora of buses. The good news there is that I've been to London before. I don't remember it, but I think that will also give me some of the confidence I need. Plus, I will have the additional benefit of the signage all being in my language. Other than spelling on a few words.

So, coming back to my thesis, as my high school English teachers would desperately want me to do, I'm glad I lived and worked in a big city for awhile. I hope my kids will have that chance one day too. And really anyone who dreams of travel, it doesn't hurt to have made yourself familiar with the ways of a big city in your home country. Because once you have, those big cities are a little bit littler.