We were still pretty exhausted, especially since our trip had been going on for a bit. We only did the market and walked around the river up to the massive Parliament building the second day. The second night there, we were going to try and have another stab at the soup at the bar but it was completely packed. Apparently Tuesday night is the night to go this bar. Instead, we decided to attack one of the various Western eateries we had seen on our walk in which included BK, Mickey D’s, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC to name a few. Burger King was also packed for some silly reason and prices seemed high. We settled on Pizza Hut and were soon terrified. Pizza Hut in Budapest is like some sort of sit down place! I couldn’t even glance at the menu in the huge room for the prices before I was being ushered to a seat and encouraged to take my jacket off for the coat hanger. I didn’t even know if I wanted to eat here but it seems we were trapped. We each ordered a medium and three guys (yes, 3) came out with our pizzas and served the first slice onto our plates for us. I can’t say anymore, the experience was just bizzare. I fear for any Hungarian who goes to a Pizza Hut in the States expecting all that.
The third day there we visited the Terror Museum, a building that is now a monument and the previous headquarters of two different terror regimes: Hungarian Nazis and then Soviet Communists. Walking through was pretty rough at times. They had movies of people telling their experiences and images from both regimes. The museum even reconstructed the old holding cells in the basement and gave people a chance to experience what prisoners experienced including a room filled with 2 inches of water, a room that had a ceiling 4 feet off the ground so you couldn’t stand up straight and a room barely larger than your body so you couldn’t even sit let alone lay down. We were there for several hours just absorbing everything. We even sat for 15 minutes and watched the tapes from the war crimes trials. It was hard to believe of course that this building had been the headquarters but it had been and instead of tearing it down, the people preserved it as a legacy and a reminder of how things should not be.
We grabbed a bite to eat and then took a brief siesta before traveling up one of the largest roads in Budapest that led to the Heroes Square. This giant pavilion area looked like it could host two farmers markets every Saturday. 14 huge statues commemorating the heroes of Hungary partially encircled a central pillar that stood watch over a tomb to unknown soldiers and heroes. I’ll include the large picture soon. Two museums, for art I believe, mirrored each other at each end of the pavilion. It was already dark by the time we got there so we did not stay out long. We grabbed food stuffs again from the market and had a snack dinner of cheeses, bread and meat with the remainder of some palinka and wine we had picked up earlier.
The next morning, we were already packed up and ready to go to the train station. Interestingly enough, it had snowed and was still snowing as we left for the walk. I’m certainly glad it waited because it was cold and dreary. It’s probably a given that we will try to return to Budapest in the future and this time in a better time of the year. I will say it was nice to not have a whole host of tourists around and that has been a defining aspect of our trip. The train station greeted us as it always does and we got on what was the nicest train so far. It was warm and had comfy seats. We bid farewell to Hungary and continued to the final location in Slovakia. More as always in the pictures once they’re up. Cheers!
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