We left rather early that morning and to my surprise stopped in the country of Slovakia on the way to Hungary. During our first weekend in Olomouc there was a wine festival in the square and I tried a sweet black currant wine that I absolutely loved. Dr. Murphy told me then that we'd be visiting the city that makes this delicious wine, so I was excited to learn it was in Slovakia. Of course, we didn't stop there strictly for me to get another bottle of black currant wine, our destination was Devin Castle at the confluence of the Morava and Danube Rivers in the capital city of Bratislava. During the time of communism, this castle was opened to the public but because Austria (a non-communist country) was literally right across the Danube River, the land surrounding the castle was a restricted military zone.
After lunch in the sun and a wonder sunburn on my shoulders, we got back on the bus and were anxious to get to Budapest. However, our luck turned sour and we found ourselves with a broken down bus on the side of the road. The fan belt had broken (or something along that line) and we sat a small restaurant and played cards and read books for nearly 4 hours. Little did we know that this would be a bad omen for the rest of our time in Budapest.
We finally drove into Budapest when the sun was setting and were dropped off just in time to board a boat for a night cruise on the Danube River. Although we had no idea what buildings we were looking at, Budapest at night was definitely something to see. To top it off, and to kind of make up for our broken down bus, we enjoyed the most delicious hot dogs (topped with chili sauce and crispy onions) and met two little old women from Oregon who kept us laughing on the cruise. Our hostel was located in what is known as the Jewish quarter of the city and we were all exhausted and ready for bed as soon as the cruise was over.
On Saturday morning we tried to go to the Citadella on a hill overlooking the city but soon found out it was closed for two months for repairs, but I was still able to get my WWII fix in when Dr. Murphy pointed out the bullet holes along the fortress walls. We made our way back down the hill and headed to our next stop, the House of Terror.
Although it may sound like a bad horror show, the House of Terror can now be added to the list of my favorite museums that I have ever been to. Much like the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., this museum started on the top floor and told a story as we went down. In each room there were handouts in English and I thoroughly enjoyed reading over the material as we went.
The museum contained exhibits that related to the fascist (Nazi and Arrow Cross Party) and communist (AVH - State Protection Authority) regimes of the 20th century in Hungary. Not only did it explains how these regimes impacted the history of Austria, it memorialized the victims of those individuals who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the historical building. The most touching part of this museum was in the basement where there were the original cells where individuals were held and tortured into giving the AVH information. I believe that Americans sometime forget the horrors that Central Europe faced during both the WWII and Communist eras and seeing this first hand was definitely eye opening.
(An Iron Curtain statue in front of the museum)
(a piece of the Berlin Wall)
Sunday was my favorite day in Budapest, mainly because it was centered around so much WWII history. We started the day in the Hungarian National Museum before making our way back into the Jewish Quarter and in front of the Dohany Street Synagogue. It is also known as the Great Synagogue because it is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It was built between 1854-1859 and has a 2,964 seat capacity.
(map of the Jewish Ghetto - our hostel was located near the top right at #10)
The Jewish Museum was opened within the synagogue in 1930 and has a Holocaust room within. It was so strange to walk around the Holocaust room and see all of the pictures of the Jewish quarter surrounding the synagogue knowing that I was staying and even standing in the exact spot of a some of the places.
The most notable aspect of the Dohany Street Synagogue was the Jewish Cemetery that makes up the courtyard. By 1944 the synagogue was apart of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest and over 2,000 Jewish individuals who perished during the winter of 1944-1945 are buried in the courtyard's ground. Over 70,000 Jewish individuals had been relocated to the Ghetto of Pest during 1944 and roughly 10,000 of those individuals perished within the ghetto until its liberation by Russian forces on January 18, 1945. A beautiful memorial tree is just behind the courtyard with the names and tattoo numbers of the dead or disappeared. It am truly thankful that I had the opportunity to view such a meaningful part of history.
(the same courtyard - the right upon liberation, the left today)
Lunch followed the synagogue and a stop at an art museum and Memento Park was the only thing left on Budapest's agenda. Memento Park, or Statue Park as we dubbed it, was quite ironic. This park is solely dedicated to the old communist statues from 1949-1989. Lenin, Marx, Engels and Stalin were a few of the many communist statues that stood in the park. All of us were quite slap happy and we had fun taking silly pictures and making bad jokes about these communist leaders!
(I got his nose…haha)
We all piled back onto the bus and were very anxious to get back to Olomouc for the night…and this is where the problems started, again. We made it about an hour outside of the city before our bus driver pulled over at a rest stop and all of our faces dropped at the mention of bus issues. After waiting for another new part for roughly an hour, Dr. Murphy gave us the bad news…we'd have to wait another 6 hours before a new bus from the Czech Republic came. After reading until my eyes were sore, I curled up in a ball and fell asleep until the new bus came. At 3:00 a.m. we loaded onto another bus and FINALLY made it back to the Hotel Gol in Olomouc at about 7:30 Monday morning. Granted, Budapest was beautiful and full of some intriguing history, but I sure was thankful to be back to my little twin bed in Olomouc on Monday morning!
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