Day 13 (19 June): Taking to the Waters
There is a lot to do in Budapest and we took on a lot of that today.
We started with the Szechenyi Bath--which are natural thermal baths both indoor and outdoor at 6 different water temperatures housed in a very ornate art deco building--in the city´s large park. Since we wentrelativelyy early on a Saturday morning, we found a lot of men with some impressive beer bellies in speedos, but later in the morning that began to change.
We then proceeded from the park down Andrassy Boulevard, which is Budapest´s 5th Avenue, to the ´House of Terror´ Museum which was in the building used by both the fascists and the communists at varying times aprisonsiotortureture center, etc. The museum documented the history of the city and country under the variregimesemes. It was interesting to compare to the Communism Museum in Prague as it took a very different perspective on the topics. Pragueauge, I remember seeing the quote "thanks for having undergone communism, because without the pain, we would not ask questions," putting a positive spin on some bad times; however, in Budapest, the museum took much more of a victim type approach to the topic.
From there we climed to the top of St. Stephen´s Basilica where there are some excellent views of the city. We continued across the river, back to Castle Hill where we perused the city museum. Later we indulged in wine tasting at the ´House of Hungarian Wines,´ before heading back across the river for dinner and bed.
Economic observations:
1) Beef is Eastern Europe is of terrible quality. We found this out at a very cheap restaurant for dinner, that was describedtruly´truely local place´in our guidebook. Its surprsing that such a staple product in a meat and pasta/potatoes type country, can´t be of at least a similar quality to low end meat in the US.
2) There is a reason why I´d only heard of two varieties of Hungarian wine (Tokaji desert wine and Egri Bikvar) before the wine tasting. Most of their other wines aren´t something to aspire to.
3) Pricing of Hungarian wines in the US is fair. When I looked into shipping some Tokaji back, and then added in shipping charges, I realized that the price per bottle in US stores would be exactly the same as what I´d pay.
4) Merged cities. Budapest is actually the merged independent cities of Buda, Pest, and Öbuda as the three cities grew together and now have one government. Zagreb was similar, in that it was the product of two merged cities, now with one government. Are we heading in that direction in the US as our cities grow? Washington-Baltimore, San Francisco-San Jose, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles-Orange County, etc.
5) Magyar is a nearly impossible language to learn... That explains more and more why they all speak English. Its pronunciation is harder than Mandrin, we learned during a conversation with a shopkeeper after failing to pronounce ´thank you´about 100 times. He also told us the grammar is more complicated than French.
6) Hungarians seem to be very good at adapting to external circumstances and taking a practical view on politics and religion: e.g. they change their religions quickly and do the same same with the economic regeimes. They´re smart, after all this is where George Soros came from.
We started with the Szechenyi Bath--which are natural thermal baths both indoor and outdoor at 6 different water temperatures housed in a very ornate art deco building--in the city´s large park. Since we wentrelativelyy early on a Saturday morning, we found a lot of men with some impressive beer bellies in speedos, but later in the morning that began to change.
We then proceeded from the park down Andrassy Boulevard, which is Budapest´s 5th Avenue, to the ´House of Terror´ Museum which was in the building used by both the fascists and the communists at varying times aprisonsiotortureture center, etc. The museum documented the history of the city and country under the variregimesemes. It was interesting to compare to the Communism Museum in Prague as it took a very different perspective on the topics. Pragueauge, I remember seeing the quote "thanks for having undergone communism, because without the pain, we would not ask questions," putting a positive spin on some bad times; however, in Budapest, the museum took much more of a victim type approach to the topic.
From there we climed to the top of St. Stephen´s Basilica where there are some excellent views of the city. We continued across the river, back to Castle Hill where we perused the city museum. Later we indulged in wine tasting at the ´House of Hungarian Wines,´ before heading back across the river for dinner and bed.
Economic observations:
1) Beef is Eastern Europe is of terrible quality. We found this out at a very cheap restaurant for dinner, that was describedtruly´truely local place´in our guidebook. Its surprsing that such a staple product in a meat and pasta/potatoes type country, can´t be of at least a similar quality to low end meat in the US.
2) There is a reason why I´d only heard of two varieties of Hungarian wine (Tokaji desert wine and Egri Bikvar) before the wine tasting. Most of their other wines aren´t something to aspire to.
3) Pricing of Hungarian wines in the US is fair. When I looked into shipping some Tokaji back, and then added in shipping charges, I realized that the price per bottle in US stores would be exactly the same as what I´d pay.
4) Merged cities. Budapest is actually the merged independent cities of Buda, Pest, and Öbuda as the three cities grew together and now have one government. Zagreb was similar, in that it was the product of two merged cities, now with one government. Are we heading in that direction in the US as our cities grow? Washington-Baltimore, San Francisco-San Jose, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles-Orange County, etc.
5) Magyar is a nearly impossible language to learn... That explains more and more why they all speak English. Its pronunciation is harder than Mandrin, we learned during a conversation with a shopkeeper after failing to pronounce ´thank you´about 100 times. He also told us the grammar is more complicated than French.
6) Hungarians seem to be very good at adapting to external circumstances and taking a practical view on politics and religion: e.g. they change their religions quickly and do the same same with the economic regeimes. They´re smart, after all this is where George Soros came from.
posted by Traveling Brian at 5:03 AM
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