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| The Fisherman's Bastion as seen from the Castle. The original Bastion would have been that part of the city wall that would have been defended by the Fisherman's Guild. This one was rebuilt in honour of that tradition |
Poor Budapest, like Tallin, almost everyone has a had a try at taking it over - first the Romans in about 9 B.C. , then the Bulgarians in about 829 A.D, next the Mongols in the C13th and the Turks in 1541. Although an international force - the Holy League, took it back for the Christians in 1686, the city was completely destroyed and incorporated into the Hapsburg Empire. The city flourished during this period of peace and prosperity, and most of its grand buildings date from this era.
In 1918, when the Austria - Hungarian Empire lay in shambles, Hungary declared its Independence but its new government was immediately overthrown by the Romanian Army and the country was taken over by the Russians. In World War II, Budapest was occupied by the Germans and up to 40% of its large Jewish population perished. Towards the end, most of the city was destroyed by allied bombing. In 1949 it declared itself a communist republic but in 1956 minor demonstrations were brutally crushed by Soviet forces and 3,000 people were killed. Until the thaw in the 1980s, things remained pretty quiet and many of its fine building, the Metro and the bridges have been restored and are now World Heritage Listed (Wikipedia).
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| Buda Castle |
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| A nifty "ratchet - wheel" railway takes you up to the castle. Opened in 1870, it is in fact a funicular with ropes and pulleys, but the brake system makes it sound like wheels and tracks |
Technology
Budapest was technologically very advanced for its time. It had Europe's first Metro in 1869 - after London's and was also home to Nicolas Tesla for a while (1881 - 1894), before he headed to New York to revolutionise the electricity sector with Thomas Edison and Westinghouse. It was here while working for the Budapest Telephone Exchange that Tesla got the idea for the rotating electric field which underlies today's electric vehicles. [I didn't know what that meant then - I added this note in 2026, now that electric cars have become popular].  |
| Pest and the Houses of Parliament as seen from Buda |
The Chain Bridge
Originally these were two towns, Buda with its Castle on the Western side of the Danube and Pest - the administrative and commercial centre on the other side. Previously only connected by ferries, the chain bridge built in 1849 unified the two towns and was another engineering marvel of its time, being the longest suspension bridge in Europe and the first one on the Danube in Hungary and showed how progressive it was. While I was here I didn't understand what the fuss was all about as I found it rather ugly, but it was not only a unifying force but a symbol of Hungary's resilience, despite the vicissitudes of history - bombed into oblivion during World War II, but restored and still going, much like the Hungarians themselves. |
| The Chain Bridge |
While the buildings here haven't all been restored, there always a flamboyant touch. It is a very creative place especially when it comes to fine art - jewellery, ceramics, glass and fashion design and it is also rich in history and culture.
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| Mephisto is playing in this theatre - Franz Liszt gazes down from the School of Music |
Museums
There are literally hundreds of museums here usually housed in stately buildings– A National Museum, an Ethnographic one and at least one each for Military History and Sport, a National Gallery and the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, there are several Jewish Museums and many devoted to Hungary’s industrial past such as the Obuda Museum, The Electrical Engineering Museum, The Foundry Museum, Transport, Railway and Underground Museums and many other unusual ones such as the Semmelweiss Museum of Medical History, The National Television Museum, The Ambulance Museum, The Fire Service Museum, The Telephone Museum, The Postal Museum, a Pharmacy Museum a Museum of Hungarian Commerce and Catering, Actors and and Actresses, Crime, Geology, Flags -even one for Royal Wines, and they were just the ones I can remember. Old manuscripts are revered too and there are whole areas devoted to antique bookshops and retro clothing.
Culture
This is also a café society. There were already 500 at the beginning of the C20th and now there are probably fifty times as many. There are also wine bars, bakeries and ice cream parlours. You simply can’t escape! It is also a melting pot of several different cultures – Turkish, Roman, Russian and Asiatic. The Mongols left their language -related to that of Estonia and Mongolia, the Turks left fabulous baths in the hot springs under the city and the Austrians brought their architecture. It is a place where things mix, coalesce, fall down and come together in new ways. Perhaps that is why there is so much emphasis on preserving the past, providing not only a sense of continuity, but also inspiration for things which haveyet to be created.
I found myself looking for the ephemeral – the Street Art, the theatre posters, small ads, clothes that people were wearing, the little courtyards and occasionally the shock of the new.
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| Lots of shops sell traditional handcrafts |
Fashion and Style
One of the trendiest shops takes your average St. Vinnies clothes and restyles them - just sewing apparently random t-shirts onto old frocks (and yes, they are frocks) but I like their verve, though there are plenty of brand name and high end fashion shops too. One of the things I particularly noticed about Hungarian women, rich or poor, dress with attitude and style, happy to mix eras and textures so long as its bold and individual. A skirt may be old, the jeans might be patched and second -hand is even better, but they'll be worn with daring accessories and dash.
Music
Music is big here as well - though less headbanging and techno and more dance music based on folk and gypsy music. It also has its share of old rock stars - A craggy Jerry - Lee Lewis, looked down from a poster dated July 20th. and Mark Knopfler (ex Dire Straits) who has Hungarian roots, seems to call by often and Kiss and Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister, were here too. In subways and restaurants there are strains of soulful violins.
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| A violinist plays requests in a restaurant in the Fisherman's Bastion |
Food
There is also an enormous covered food market here though I didn't actually find it it until I was on my way back. I think this is where all the sausages went! There was plenty of Hungarian salami and pate, pastry - loved those cherry strudels!, wine, fruit and spices. There was excellent but expensive leatherwork, many standard embroidered blouses in traditional designs and a few interesting odds and ends including ex Soviet military gas masks and uniform items. That is, I presume they were ex though the stallholder wasn’t keen on me taking photographs, but most things were fairly expensive and none of the stall holders would bargain. I had an excellent glass of wine here, courtesy of a lovely American woman and some hot, rich goulash soup* in one of the cafés which I chased down with exquisite icecream at one of the street stalls.
*There's a simple recipe for it here, if you want to try it yourself on some gloomy winter's day:
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| Market Hall |
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| Wonder what would happen at Border Control if I took one of those gas marks home as a souvenir |
As with Russia, I kept thinking what a great tragedy it was that we had been kept apart from warm, intelligent people for so long and I wondered what the world might be like now if so much wealth had not been expended on keeping us all apart and arming both sides to the teeth, throughout the long years of the Cold War.
There were a few grey and gloomy days here, as you may have noticed from the pictures and that seemed to have seeped into my soul. Though in many ways, Budapest was exactly my kind of city - a bit scruffy around the edges, a bit intellectual and creative- I felt strangely distant and disconnected. Maybe it was knowing that my adventures were coming to an end and thoughts of family and home were getting in the way. Either way, I took the train east and continued on to Romania." Be careful of those Romanians," everyone said, much as they had about the Russians before I went to Russia. I am pleased to report that those fears proved to be unfounded also, at least in this case.
There was one thing which intrigued me. It was the doors. I wondered what they meant. Apartment blocks may have been drab or run down, but the doors were nearly always beautiful.
There was one thing which intrigued me. It was the doors. I wondered what they meant. Apartment blocks may have been drab or run down, but the doors were nearly always beautiful.
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| What's with the doors? This is just one photo of many |
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