Last week, Aji and I packed our backpacks and took off to Budapest for 5 days. These days, “packing a backpack and taking off” is not as maverick as it sounds. Its mostly driven by economics of low cost, short haul airlines. In any case, the point of note is that we were transported from London to Budapest, Hungary.
Our life recently, in keeping with the general pace and perils of living this era, has been a bit overwhelming to say the least. Work is relentless, the outside world is really a bit of a dumpster fire, and whole thing seems to spinning rapidly out of control and in 4 dimensions. Travel, I have found, is usually a good antidote to most things.
When we landed in Budapest on the Wednesday morning, the sun was shining without holding back, which coming from London, for me is a winner, hands down. Our hotel was right on river Danube – the second longest river in Europe (and I learnt later, also the world’s most international river, passing through 10 countries!) and we used most of that day to walk up and down the river along the promenade, till something stopped us in our tracks – The shoes on the Danube bank!
Shoes on Danube
I had read about this and knew I will see this while in Budapest, but it appeared in front of me before I was ready for it. Its one of those moments that holds a mirror to the human in you.
The exhibit itself is harmless – its 60 pairs of iron shoes – of children, women and men, on the bank of the mighty Danube. The enormity of what it signifies is what weighs you down – it represents nearly 24,000 people, mostly Jews, who were shot into the Danube, by the fascist group Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-45. The shoes are shown on the bank, because the victims were forced to remove their shoes, a valuable item during the war, before they were shot into the river. It felt like a punishing gust of wind was blowing across my face making it difficult to breathe. Danube shone red from the setting sun.
The sunset cruise was not easy to get through – the spectacular display of colours in the sky and a raw reminder of what I had just seen at the bank, kept me company through the cruise.
Back at the hotel, I spent some time learning about Hungary’s history and its several painful chapters. I wondered about this current period appearing in history books decades later – mistakes repeated, atrocities inflicted upon vulnerable minorities and this time all under the bright light of the internet and an eerie silence from the world. We are going to have to prepare ourselves for some tough questions by our grandchildren.
After a breakfast enough to last a week, we set out to Memento Park, about 45 min away from the city – holding memories of another chapter in Hungary’s past – the communist takeover, that happened right after the war and stayed till almost 1990. The park is an open-air museum that serves as a home for monumental statues and plaques from the country’s Communist period. When the regime fell, instead of destroying all evidence of it, the country chose to move it to an open area outside the city to serve as a reminder and record of what had happened. Its an hour or more well-spent – walking amongst these gigantic statues and thinking about the time at which these statues and the inspirations behind each of them were alive. Like individuals, I don’t think countries ever get to escape the shadows of their past and even when not apparent and explicitly cited, the memories recorded in stories, photos, movies and statue parks remain the tinted glasses through which the future is seen and made. This would mean preserving memories is serious business, to be dealt with by objective, educated, responsible and empathetic adults. More on that later.
The bronze monument depicts a Hungarian worker and a Soviet soldier shaking hands, symbolizing the alliance between the two nations during the Communist era.
The seamless public transport network in Budapest made for breezy transfers. I loved the bright yellow, retro-looking trams. Seeing as how I planned the sightseeing on this trip, there was absolutely no geographical reasoning for the order in which we were seeing places each day. I have realised that often my sense of direction is not just poor, its non-existent. Thank God for the open travel pass for 3 days that allowed limitless travel.
Over a few buses, trams and walking like there is no tomorrow, we got to the Buda Castle, a sprawling castle and palace complex, first completed around 1295. Stunning is the word. We saw it in the evening light and for the second time that day, I found that the sculptures, statutes and palaces in Budapest are only half the story – the rest of it is written by the mighty Danube and the vast, blue skies. We spent the next few hours walking through the castle grounds and towards the Fisherman’s Bastion, another grand fairytale-like terrace, serving as an excellent viewpoint across the Danube to the Hungarian parliament, and the Pest side of the city. It took a second read for me to believe that this was built as part of the celebration commemorating Hungary’s 1000th birthday!
I remember reading a quote on Instagram some time ago – “travelling allows you to become so many versions of yourself”. I am often surprised and delighted at the versions of myself that I meet when I travel. I don’t know whether it is the recycled air on airplanes or walking for hours on end in a new place or eating at all hours of the day, something unlocks in me when I am away from home ground. When I was in Iceland, I remember feeling so in awe of the live experiment that earth was running in this little island – volcanos, glaciers, sulphur springs, northern lights, black sand beaches, basalt columns – all strewn all around. I read and read and read about each of these geographical wonders with so much interest. Hello! Never ever before and never after, such an interest in geography.
In Budapest I became a person fascinated by statues and drain-hole covers!
It was not without reason, though – Budapest is known to have an exceptionally high number of visible statues and sculptures on its streets and parks, when compared to other European cities. In this city, if there is something that compels you to take your eyes of the spectacular statues, it must be intricately designed historic drain-hole covers. What a treat, as someone who is equally fascinated by both!
After another killer breakfast, we walked through the grounds of the Vajdahunyad castle, modelled after the Transylvanian castle, where legend has it that, Count Dracula lived. With its gothic, baroque and renaissance architecture and overlooking a lake and weeping willows, I could almost see Dracula there.
After walking for what seemed like eternity, we took another tram back to city centre and then walked to the Jewish Quarter. The Dohany Street Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world. We spent around a couple of hours there, walking through with a guide. On site is a cemetery where bodies of over 2,000 Jews who were starved to death or murdered in the Budapest Ghetto. While the synagogue itself is beautifully designed and maintained, it is an uncomfortable portrait of a people who were wronged. The Tree of Life, a sculpture located in the rear courtyard of the Synagogue serves as a humble memorial to the more than half a million Hungarian Jews killed during the holocaust.
The Synagogue also has a museum that chronicles Jewish history and is not to be missed.
The synagogue and the city in general, also has reminders of angels among humans – like a nod to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who designed and issued Swedish protective passports to thousands of Jews, identifying them as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. It is important to take note of these stories when you leave places like this, so you can find a reason to carry on.
The Dohany Street Synagogue
Despite the heavy cloud of its history, much of Budapest and definitely the Jewish quarter, has so much to offer. Beautifully designed public parks, clean streets, a very well-equipped city-centre, abundant choice for food, shopping and everything else. We spent the rest of the evening, jumping in and out of cafes, gelato places and restaurants. None of this prepared me for when I stepped foot into a ruin bar – one of the many – nightlife spots set in derelict pre-war buildings, characterized by eclectic, flea-market decor, and vibrant, bohemian atmosphere. Just another world! The one we walked into, Szimpla Kert, happened to be the most iconic. Walking through rooms, hallways and stairwells to no-where, with a bizarre record playing in the background, I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit-hole – like I was in a fever dream. We enjoyed it for the short while we spent there. I am not a ‘loud, dancing, drinking lots’ type nightlife person and so had to hurry back to the quietness of my hotel room before nightfall.
We did a lot more than that over the 4 days we spent in this beautiful city, but they are all the things you will see mentioned when you first search for Budapest on Google or your AI assistant of choice. The fact that it is known as the “City of Spas”, with a few hundred natural thermal springs; the Hungarian Parliament building standing majestically on the banks of Danube, a UNESCO world heritage site; all the goulash, langos and chimney cake you can eat and oh!, definitely the Hungarian dessert wine – all of this and much much more. But…
But beyond all that Budapest is an amazing place for us to look to for a lesson in history, walk through its pages, in their shoes and really reconsider our thinking.
Streets of Budapest
Tree of life at the Synagogue
Vajdahunyad Castle
Stalin’s Boots at Memento Park in Budapest are a symbolic, artistic recreation of the boots remaining on a pedestal after the massive Stalin monument was toppled during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
