There’s so much of interest in Budapest that we’re lucky to have about an extra week than we had planned. While our days here began under a bit of cloud, all is now good.
After our arrival we rest up until evening, and then the guy at the front desk of the charming older Corvin Hotel, our first hotel of four in Budapest, directs us to the nearby Raday utca for a good selection of outside dining choices. It’s a narrow and mostly-pedestrian street that’s filled with many fine options under the warm summer sky, and we’ll return there often. And maybe linger to enjoy a second drink and a good jazz combo.
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One warm evening we relax after dinner on a bench in a nearby plaza to savor the moment, and admire a small and well-lit church. Soon a friendly young lady asks to take our picture. She said, “You both just looked so nice sitting there.” Her name is Kinga and she’s visiting from Warsaw. Good things like that just happen sometimes whenever we travel. She’s surprised when we mention that we live in Mexico, and we hand her one of our cards. For some reason, most people think we’re from the US.
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It’s a new day and another very good food stop is the spectacular old Market Hall, with its colorful roof tiles that remind us of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and other examples throughout Europe. (Another roofing masterpiece lies atop the decoratively over-encrusted Royal Postal Savings Bank by Odön Lechner, but it’s visible only to the birds and other angels).
There are two floors of food and memento shops in the Market Hall to fill your morning stroll and your market basket until it’s time to indulge in a hearty lunch with some of the country’s famous signature cuisine under a colorful ceiling treatment of hanging dish towels. And even enjoy a violin concert while you dine.
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And then in the evening we may decide to share a simple dinner in our room. We’ll set the table with excellent local cheeses, olives, bread, fruit and wine while Carolyn’s iPad provides some fine background music.
In the morning, fresh croissants, jam, fruit and coffee will do us just fine. And maybe a crossword puzzle before we start the day.
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So yes, Budapest has food. Lots of it, and it’s good grub too. From Serbian chicken rolls and apple pie, to anything Italian, and even a platter of gourmet quesadillas.
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There are dogs. Lots of them. And even statues of dogs. What is it about those little fuzzballs that makes us want to tickle some stranger’s bewildered mutt? The Hungarians seem to have an especial affinity for their pooches, and the pooches reciprocate their love by taking their people for long walks every evening to sniff out the latest dog news. And leave a signature on the wall. Come rain or come shine.
That last little guy is tiny! He was just sitting there, well anchored in, on a stone bench beside the walkway. You just have to wonder who put him there!
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Laundry is forever, and sometimes it’s really nice to find a nearby launderette and not just wash things in the sink and have them hanging around the room. Each laundromat can be different from the last. Some take coins, but for others you have to buy tokens. And I even have a laundry app on my phone now that was required at one operation that did everything digitally. Ah, progress in the laundry world.
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TRAVEL GEAR TIP
A few years ago I had mentioned carrying a 4-outlet Euro-style extension cord and adapters because in older accommodations there is often only one plug. And there’s a lamp or something using that plug. So here’s our recent situation – a lamp, an iPhone, and a computer – as an illustration. If you’re going for a long stay you can get a cord at a European hardware store. Look for the US-to-Euro adapters in airports or tourist areas.
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A SIDE TRIP TO SZENTENDRE
The winding lanes of artistic Szentendre are only a short commuter train ride to the north, so we break off for a few days away from the city. And the cobblestone alleyways by the Danube are a refreshing distraction. We had planned to return to Budapest by riverboat, but we took a midweek break and they only run on weekends. Alas, the only boat running is the frequent little ferry that serves a dock just across the river. It runs about every 15 minutes.
We find 0ur way through the curving streets to a sweet little hotel and spa we found on Booking.com.(More about that later.) And then we just spend a couple of days wandering and enjoying what is obviously a beloved tourist escape from the bustle of Budapest...
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ACCOMMODATION BOOKING TIP
We mentioned finding a place on Booking.com, and maybe it's time to give them credit. After all the recent negative and rather scary reports about AirB&B, we've used Booking.com almost exclusively to find great places to stay. (We also must admit that we pulled our own rental places in Bahia de Kino off the AirB&B platform because we were very uncomfortable with their practices.) Actually, Carolyn has been using Booking.com quite often for several years, and by now we have Level 3 Genius ranking, which gives us substantial discounts. It's quick, safe, reliable, and always offers great selections, from hotels and hostels to B&Bs and apartments. No, we're not getting endorsement fees! We just think they do a great job and you should know.
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As our extended stay in Budapest nears its end we board one of those antique yellow trams that rattle their way through the city, and we take it to the end of the line just to get a broader picture of the city, an unedited-by-the-tourist-bureau view of things. And we find there are plenty of nice leafy neighborhoods out there.
But we return to our real destination, the gorgeous old wooden funicular that promises the best views across the river from the Buda heights. And the view truly is spectacular. We tried to buy one-way tickets but only returns are sold. Whatever. We’ll walk back down anyway.
After lingering for that fine view we avoid the crowds heading to the Palace (It’s amazing how many ‘must-see’ sites we haven’t bothered to see in our wanderings.) and found our way down the tree-shaded back stairs to a lower terrace where couples are dancing to salsa music with one of the world’s finest views as a scenic backdrop. Carolyn and I stop in for a twirl or two before heading down to catch the tram back across the river. And then enjoy another fine wander through the back streets of Pest in search of dinner.
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Budapest has known plenty of drama in its long history, and the anti-soviet revolt of 1956 is one of the more recent. There are simulated bullet holes in the metal surround. I can recall that Zsa Zsa Gabor, in Hollywood at the time, declared that, “I too am a freedom fighter!” Ok, Zsa Zsa. Duly noted.
But among the more tragic and poignant memorials is “Shoes on the Danube” marking where Jews were forced to remove their shoes before being murdered by Nazi sympathizers during the war, and then thrown into the river. As the country descends into another bout of authoritarianism, it will do us well to recall that’s how the Nazis began their reign of terror.
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These shoes are a powerful reminder of the places we have visited around the world recalling atrocities throughout time, both ancient and recent — war memorials, granite walls etched with the names of thousands of victims, photos of loved ones lost, piles of flowers, handwritten letters and stories of injustice — the ever-developing history of humans' senseless inhumanity to our own kind.
In Ayacucho, Peru, where I served in the Peace Corps in the 1970s, we returned to see lines of white coffins lining the plaza, representing those lost in the violent struggle between the Sendero Luminoso and the brutal Peruvian military in the '80s. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, we sto0d with the grandmothers of the disappeared in the Plaza de Mayo where they have gathered for decades asking for justice and the return of their children. We've noted plaques on the walls in Paris and many other European cities marking the loss of lives to wars and persecution. I could go on.
It's tough to hold all this when your heart is committed to peace and you've spent a good portion of you life working for it. It makes you wonder if it's making any difference. But it's also a reminder of the need to keep on. Without resistance it surely would be worse. So while it is difficult for me to visit these places, I am grateful for them. We must not erase the evidence of our mistakes; we must simply get better at learning from them.
And that's another reason we travel.
—Carolyn
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A fitting way to end our stay in the complex, compelling, and conflicted city of Budapest may be to share a fragment of poetry from native son Jozsef Attila, a victim of pre-war right-wing terror who committed suicide at the young age of 32.
1936
By the Danube.
1.
As I sat on the bottom step of the wharf,
A melon-rind flowed by with the current;
Wrapped in my fate I hardly heard the chatter
Of the surface, while the deep was silent.
As if my own heart had opened its gate:
The Danube was turbulent, wise and great.
Like a man's muscles when hard at his toil,
Hammering, digging, leaning on the spade,
So bulged and relaxed and contracted again
Each single movement, each and every wave.
It rocked me like my mother for a time
And washed and washed the city's filth and grime.
And the rain began to fall but then it stopped
Just as if it couldn't have mattered less,
And like one watching the long rain from a cave,
I gazed away into the nothingness.
Like grey, endless rain from the skies overcast,
So fell drably all that was bright: the past.
But the Danube flowed on. And the sprightly waves
In playful gaiety laughed at me again,
Like a child on his prolific mother's knee,
While other thoughts were racing through her brain.
They trembled in Time's flow and in its wake,
Like in a graveyard tottering tomb-stones shake.
Translated by John Székely
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As we wrap this dispatch, we are joining a tour. The first of our traveling experience. As you know by now, we like to free-wheel it. But because our riverboat trip from Budapest to Bucharest was cancelled due to low water in the Danube (which subsequently exposed numerous scuttled WWII German warships on the bottom!), we decided to try an Intrepid Travel tour to do the job. We look forward to taking y0u along with us on that marvelous back-country trip.
—PRW