so i know i owe everyone the second 1/2 of the budapest post, but things have gotten rather hectic since returning to work and everything else that's been going on. i'll get the rest of it finished; i promise.
in the meantime, i'll toss in a word or two about my laser eye surgery. simply put, it's awesome! my vision has always sucked pretty hard...like not seeing the big E on the chart. so it's pretty amazing that i can now see just about everything without the old spectacles.
the surgery also kept me away from the computer for a while too...which contributed to the long delay between blog posts. anyway, i need to get going....
2011-01-27
2011-01-04
budapest (part 1)
budapest is the result of two (or three) cities merging: the city of buda on the west bank of the danube, and the city of pest on the east end of the river. a good portion of the city also rests on top of natural caves and aquifers. in the couple weeks i spent there, i bounced around and got to see a few cool sites.
on the buda side, there is what we referred to as castle hill on which buda castle rests. we didn't tour the inside of the castle, but the outside is impressive enough. there are statues scattered around the grounds and courtyard that are quite interesting. from a historical perspective, adolf hitler was in the area, and i passed under an archway he was pictured walking through. on a more recent note, contemporary music fans might be interested to know that katy perry fimed her 'firework' music video in buda castle's courtyard.
while we were at castle hill, we went to a rather unique world war two museum: the cave hospital. buda hill is one of the places in the city with natural caves under it. during the war, the hungarians and nazis modified the natural caves to function as a hospital. it serves its purpose particularly well as it's protected from bombing. it can also function as a retreat for a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack. the whole facility can be shut off from the rest of the world, and uses air filtration systems, stand-alone generators, and water storage tanks to help ride out the first few days after an incident. in addition to all that, they also have a good deal of world war two era medical equipment. and perhaps the most impressive thing of all is every piece of their decades old equipment still functions just as well as when it was brand new. i could fill a good deal more space with this but i really need to move this post along....
also on castle hill, we checked out a cathedral that's name escapes me. it was utilized by the royal family. the interior walls are covered with artwork, family seals, and decorative architecture. old hungarian and turkish (from when the ottoman empire ruled hungary) styles and themes can be clearly seen throughout. they've also added a few descriptive plaques for tourists. it was pretty cool to be wandering through this historical gold mine...to stand where kings of the mighty austrian empire had been crowned.
on the pest side, we visited what i'll refer to as the synagogue in budapest (because it's name is long, and i'm feeling lazy). it's physically the largest synagogue in the world, and is the second largest in terms of seating. the design is an interesting mix of traditional jewish and european themes. the jews in budapest integrated, and felt at home in hungary so they made it look like a european cathedral without sacrificing any jewish symbolism. for example: in the front center there is a free-standing structure that is the holy of holies; it doesn't touch any of the rest of the church, but is a far cry from what we typically think of as a veiled off section.
housed on the synagogue grounds is also a museum. it consists of various memorials outside and a large collection of jewish artifacts inside an adjacent building. the memorials mostly center around the world war two era when, as one of the signs says, people lost their humanity. the synagogue was on the corner of the jewish gheto in budapest, and provided shelter for thousands of jews when the nazis and arrow cross (hungarian nazis) were trying to deport or otherwise exterminate them. over 23,000 jews died behind the synagogue's barricade. i hate to imagine how many more would have if it hadn't held out against forces of evil literally on their doorsteps.
the last museum stop we made was to the 'terror house'. the entire building is dedicated to the atrocities of world war two and the lingering socialist state that prevailed all the way through the 1980s. anyone that thinks socialism is a good idea needs to visit this place. during the socialist reign of terror 1 in 3 families had someone that was hauled off for crimes against the state. the socialists held as an example of true patriotism a boy who informed on his own father. religion was also a popular target for the socialists; though they had to be careful and come up with charges other than being religious to convict people. they recognized that socialism and many religions preach diametrically opposed messages. socialism is all about the state taking care of the masses; while many religions emphasize the individual's responsibilities to aid the down trodden.
on the buda side, there is what we referred to as castle hill on which buda castle rests. we didn't tour the inside of the castle, but the outside is impressive enough. there are statues scattered around the grounds and courtyard that are quite interesting. from a historical perspective, adolf hitler was in the area, and i passed under an archway he was pictured walking through. on a more recent note, contemporary music fans might be interested to know that katy perry fimed her 'firework' music video in buda castle's courtyard.
while we were at castle hill, we went to a rather unique world war two museum: the cave hospital. buda hill is one of the places in the city with natural caves under it. during the war, the hungarians and nazis modified the natural caves to function as a hospital. it serves its purpose particularly well as it's protected from bombing. it can also function as a retreat for a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack. the whole facility can be shut off from the rest of the world, and uses air filtration systems, stand-alone generators, and water storage tanks to help ride out the first few days after an incident. in addition to all that, they also have a good deal of world war two era medical equipment. and perhaps the most impressive thing of all is every piece of their decades old equipment still functions just as well as when it was brand new. i could fill a good deal more space with this but i really need to move this post along....
also on castle hill, we checked out a cathedral that's name escapes me. it was utilized by the royal family. the interior walls are covered with artwork, family seals, and decorative architecture. old hungarian and turkish (from when the ottoman empire ruled hungary) styles and themes can be clearly seen throughout. they've also added a few descriptive plaques for tourists. it was pretty cool to be wandering through this historical gold mine...to stand where kings of the mighty austrian empire had been crowned.
on the pest side, we visited what i'll refer to as the synagogue in budapest (because it's name is long, and i'm feeling lazy). it's physically the largest synagogue in the world, and is the second largest in terms of seating. the design is an interesting mix of traditional jewish and european themes. the jews in budapest integrated, and felt at home in hungary so they made it look like a european cathedral without sacrificing any jewish symbolism. for example: in the front center there is a free-standing structure that is the holy of holies; it doesn't touch any of the rest of the church, but is a far cry from what we typically think of as a veiled off section.
housed on the synagogue grounds is also a museum. it consists of various memorials outside and a large collection of jewish artifacts inside an adjacent building. the memorials mostly center around the world war two era when, as one of the signs says, people lost their humanity. the synagogue was on the corner of the jewish gheto in budapest, and provided shelter for thousands of jews when the nazis and arrow cross (hungarian nazis) were trying to deport or otherwise exterminate them. over 23,000 jews died behind the synagogue's barricade. i hate to imagine how many more would have if it hadn't held out against forces of evil literally on their doorsteps.
the last museum stop we made was to the 'terror house'. the entire building is dedicated to the atrocities of world war two and the lingering socialist state that prevailed all the way through the 1980s. anyone that thinks socialism is a good idea needs to visit this place. during the socialist reign of terror 1 in 3 families had someone that was hauled off for crimes against the state. the socialists held as an example of true patriotism a boy who informed on his own father. religion was also a popular target for the socialists; though they had to be careful and come up with charges other than being religious to convict people. they recognized that socialism and many religions preach diametrically opposed messages. socialism is all about the state taking care of the masses; while many religions emphasize the individual's responsibilities to aid the down trodden.
*continue reading about my trip to hungary in part 2. clicky, clicky the linky...here.
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