Budapest Parliament Building

Day 81, Thursday, November 14, 2019

We take a river taxi this morning and finally get onto the Danube River. There are all sorts of boats on the river…
including very long barges… river cruise ships, and whatever this ship is.
Our taxi is quite nice, with tables and chairs on the top deck and a dining room on the main deck with white table cloths. Not what we expected for a river taxi. The ride is only four stops in the winter months so we also ride it back to where we started, just to spend a little more time on the river sight-seeing. There is a great view of the Buda Castle… and an interesting row of houses on the Buda side of the river. We pass right under the Chain Bridge heading back towards the Parliament Building. The workers washing the sides of this river cruise ship waved to me when they saw I was taking pictures. The river was very calm and the sun was still low in the morning sky. We could just make out the Liberty Statue we visited yesterday on top of the hill in the distance. We return to our stop near the Parliament Buildings and I get a great shot of this enormous building. The Budapest Parliament building is the third largest Parliament building in the world. It has 691 rooms, 20 kilometres of stairs and at 96 meters. It is the same height as the St. Stephen’s Basilica. We decided against visiting the interior in favour of spending our time outside. This is our water taxi. We saw several others but none of them looked as nice as this one. I think we were just lucky and happened to catch the best one! The guards in front of the Parliament stand on opposite sides of this big flag pole and then every once in a while they march together round and round the flag pole. We both think it must be quite tedious. We catch a bus back towards the Indoor Market. I forgot to get a photo yesterday. We were looking for the ‘For Sale’ Pub, but when we walked in the waitress told us they weren’t open and refused to let me take a photo. So here is one off of Trip Advisor. If you have something for sale you write it on a piece of paper and stick it wherever you can. This started before there was internet and now people pin whatever they want to the walls. There is straw and peanut shells all over the floor and candles on the tables. Seems like an accident waiting to happen to me!

We walk from the market area back towards our apartment passing a variety of interesting buildings. Some of them were in need of restoration…
and others were well cared for. We stopped to see the University Library. It is in an old palace, and we wandered about checking out the rooms. This was the most interesting one, with its balcony, but I didn’t climb up to it. The stairs were behind the librarian’s desk and I didn’t want to disturb all the people studying. Take a look at this corner…there are big bean bags for reading, or napping! We see flower boxes still in bloom in the middle of November, lots of these grey and black birds (they are Hooded Crows), interesting art work in shop windows, and this sign which translates to One Psalm. No idea what that means.There are so many gorgeous buildings in this city…
it is easy to take too many building photos! After lunch and a rest we are back on the streets, looking for a puppet theatre. We pass several buildings with wooden scaffolding, made with big timbers. There are a lot of buildings that need work, and we see quite a few that are boarded up along one of Budapest’s main streets.
The puppet show is in Hungarian but we know the story and thought it would be a fun things to see. The theatre was full of school kids who really enjoyed the show. We did too. Here are some fo the cast taking a bow at the end of the play… and some of the displays in the lobby. I did some drawing during the play. These drawings were done in the dark so I couldn’t see what I had drawn until the lights came on. Can you figure out what the play was? There is a pretty big clue in my drawings.

I peek into this book store as we walk home after the play. I love book stores that look like this!These photographs were on the wall outside the House of Terror Museum. According ot Wikipedia “It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building.” We pass this rather odd couple on our walk home, not far from the House of Terror.

Day 78, Monday November 11, 2019

I posted part of today on Remembrance Day, and now I am adding the rest of our day’s activities. Here is the rest of our November 11 walking tour.

Bob has organized a walking tour of Budapest today. As we started our walk I noticed lots of people hanging out on this balcony.
We are staying in the Old Jewish Quarter and the roads are very narrow and crowded. As we leave this area, the roads widen and there are many pedestrian-only roads and big plazas. This large ornate building is the first large building I see on the main Street near our apartment. We walk towards the nearby Christmas Markets. There are lots of small wooden ‘cabins’ filled with beautiful crafts. I loved these dried fruit ornaments, but I am sure that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring these through Canadian Customs. Too bad, they are lovely and smell wonderful.There are several stands with all sorts of candies… beautiful felted hats, that are priced starting at $150.00 CAD.
This our first Christmas tree of the year. This ‘Little Princess’ is the first of many statues we see on the streets of Budapest. Another ferris wheel, but we decide to pass on riding this one. St. Stephen’s Basilica is in the centre of Budapest. The inside off the church has lots of gilded ornamentation and a beautiful dome.The main attraction in this church is the thousand year old mummified right hand of King Stephen. If you want to see this relic, deposit a coin and a light comes on to view the hand.
These two borzoi dogs looked like they needed a bath and brushing. There are lots of dogs here and they live their lives on pavement. I kind of feel sorry for them.
The Fat Policeman Statue represents how hearty the Hungarian foods are, and rubbing his tummy is supposed to bring good luck. There are many ‘good luck’ statues on the streets of Budapest.The Hungarian government erected the ‘Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation’ statue in the middle of the night in July 2014.

A ‘Living Memorial’ was added in front of the statue as a protest against the government’s message that it was only the Nazi’s who committed crimes of genocide, ignoring the wartime Hungarian governments involvement and responsibility for the Nazi’s occupation.

This ‘Living Memorial is a collection of photos and newspaper clippings about the victims of the war and the Hungarian government’s collaboration with the Nazis.

It is believed that this statue is part of the government attempt to ‘revise’ history. The war may have ended 74 years ago but it is still very much a part of life here in Eastern Europe. Some seed pods from one of the trees near this statue are interesting. There is a statue of Ronald Reagan in this plaza as well because of his efforts to end the Cold War. There are so many ornate buildings here… like the Parliament Building! It is so big I can’t get it all into one photo.
Across the river we can see the Buda Castle. Bob takes a moment to sit with the Hungarian poet Attila József… and then we walk onto the Chain Bridge with its guardian lions for a view of Budapest from the river. This is the Pest side of the river, the side our apartment was on… and this is the Buda side. These two cities were united in November 1873, and the name ‘Budapest’ was given to the new capital. I don’t know what this building is but it had delicate golden trim that sparkled in the late afternoon sun. We find a statue of Roskovics Ignác, a famous Hungarian painter, on our walk along the Danube River. Walking through the Christmas Market on our way home I notice this jar of pickled onions! They made me laugh!