HUNGARIAN HOLIDAY
Hungary
When I look back at the time I visited Hungary in 2017, I can’t help but think that I must’ve possessed superhuman strength at the time. I had been living in the city of Munich then, in a student dorm. After 3 years of living in the dorm, I was no longer a student and had to move out of what had been my beloved home for so long. I’ll cut to the chase without getting too sentimental about it. I moved all my belongings, of which I had accumulated a great amount over the years, to a couple of friends’ places in a span of 2 days or so. All this required a lot of manual labour.
My friends and I had to carry very heavy boxes from point A to B countless number of times. This involved a lot of walking, going via metro, more walking and climbing lots of stairs, since most old buildings in Germany shockingly don’t have elevators. To top it off, we had to finish it fast in order to catch the overnight bus to the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
We finished up just in the nick of time. I hurriedly made and packed sandwiches for me and my friends and we rushed to the station to catch our bus. It was only after we finally boarded the bus that we sat and relaxed after 2 whole days. Physically drained and ravenously hungry, we tore into our sandwiches and settled in for the night. Unluckily, my seat was extremely uncomfortable and I got no sleep during the 10 hour journey.
Budapest greeted us early in the morning and the 4 of us groggy friends piled out of the bus, eager to straighten out out our limbs. I wasn’t as tired as I ought to have been, hence, the reference to my aforementioned superhuman strength. Now, as I’m writing this, even thinking about it is making me feel tired. I’ve surely lost my youth in the span of a year.
Getting back to our Hungarian escapade, we took the underground metro to get to our Airbnb apartment. Metro trains of different countries have their own quirks. The one we took in Budapest that morning appeared to be a vintage train and its old world charm really appealed to me. The old overhead lights cast a dull yellow light, not in a depressing way but in a rather cosy, warm manner. Budapest’s underground metro is the oldest electrified underground railway in Europe and the 3rd oldest in the world, a fact I Googled later that day.
“.. for many centuries, ‘Hungary’ was believed to have been derived from the Hun empire. But now, according to the new theory, the origin of the name is said to come from a Magyar tribe called ‘On-Ogur’ of the Bulgar alliance of Bulgaria, who came to this region in the 7th century AD and ruled over it under their leader Arpad. ‘On-Ogur’, meaning ‘Ten Arrows’ in Bulgar-Turkic, is now thought to be the origin of the name ‘Hungary’..”
There are two theories about how Hungary got its name. One of the them is that after the fall of the Roman Empire in the region in the 5th century, the first invaders to arrive there were the Central Asian nomadic tribe, the Huns, in 435 AD. Under their leader, Attila the Hun, they set up the fearsome Hunnic Empire. So for many centuries, ‘Hungary’ was believed to have been derived from the Hun empire. But now, according to the new theory, the origin of the name is said to come from a Magyar tribe called ‘On-Ogur’ of the Bulgar alliance of Bulgaria, who came to this region in the 7th century AD and ruled over it under their leader Arpad. ‘On-Ogur’, meaning ‘Ten Arrows’ in Bulgar-Turkic, is now thought to be the origin of the name ‘Hungary’.
Jumping back to 2017, we found the key to our Airbnb apartment on the window sill as instructed by the owner. A Hungarian word I picked up was ‘utca’, pronounced as ‘ootcha’, meaning ‘street’. Our apartment was located on ‘Nyari Pal Utca’, a name we found quite amusing that day. Since a bright, sunny day awaited us, we freshened up and headed out, armed with a map and my newly acquired selfie stick. The streets were bustling with people. Flowers of all colours bloomed in abundance from the flower pots hanging from the lampposts and balconies. I spotted a lot of shops selling handmade Hungarian dolls and lace, which seemed to be a local specialty.
Later that day, we had lunch comprising of their typical Goulash soup and red, hot paprika sauce with bread. Fiery red paprika being sold in big bunches is a common sight there. Paprika was introduced into Hungarian cuisine by the Turks during the Ottoman empire in Hungary in the 18th century. It’s an important part of their cuisine now. Another Turkish dish we absolutely loved eating was Lángos, which is now part of their cuisine as well.
It’s a crispy, soft, deep fried dough with a lot of cheese and other toppings. It’s like a fluffy pizza but ten times yummier. For dessert, we tried out a traditional classic called Gundel pancake, which is a pancake filled with a mixture of ground walnuts, raisins and rum, served with dark chocolate sauce. It was heavenly! We observed that the portion sizes here were bigger and the food cost much less than in western European countries. Also, don’t be alarmed when you see prices like 3000 Hungarian Forints (HUF) on the menu. 1 euro is approximately 326 HUF, which was great for us! We ate a lot during our stay there.
We leisurely ambled about and arrived at the Liberty bridge, a beautiful, green coloured bridge across the Danube river, connecting the sister cities of Buda and Pest. We were on the Pest part of Budapest, the more active and interesting half.
We stepped off the bridge and sauntered into Buda, with me chattering about historic facts about the places we were going to see. I like to read up about the places I visit beforehand and then I tend to annoy my travel mates later. The first item on my list was the Cave Church, which is actually a cave on one side of Gellert Hill and it served as a hospital for wounded soldiers during World War II. We didn’t go inside because there was an entrance fee and we didn’t feel like parting with our money yet. My inability to use the selfie stick was also lauded by my friends in front of this church. Having clicked a ton of cringeworthy selfies, we hiked up to the Citadel at the top of the hill. Citadel translates into ‘fortress’ in Hungarian and was built during the Austrian Empire to be able to attack both Buda and Pest in the event of a war.
The first view we got of the Citadel was that of the ginormous Liberty statue, commemorating those who died for Hungary’s independence from Nazi Germany in World War II. During the war, the Soviets took over the fortress in 1945, fired down into the city and managed to attain victory over the Nazis. The walls of the fortress, riddled with bullet holes from the war, is a stark reminder of this historic time. I had never seen so many bullet holes from so close before! On a more pleasant note, the view from up there is mesmerising and despite being blinded by the sun, we could see all the seven bridges linking Buda and Pest.
Some more terrible selfies later, we walked back across the Danube to Pest to catch our free walking tours. I love taking walking tours whenever I visit a new city. They’re usually very informative and one has to give a small amount as a tip to the guide at the end. There were 2 tours that day at the same time, one was a tour of the Jewish settlement and the other was about the Communist history of the city. Since my friends and I were divided on which one to take, I took the Jewish tour and my friends went for the Communism walk. It was a 2 hour long walk, starting off at a public square, the name of which eludes me at present.
Budapest has the largest diaspora of Jews in Central Europe, dating back to 200 AD. Back in the day, they made up the bourgeoisie of the society and played a major role in the region’s economic and industrial prosperity. During our walk in the Ghetto (Jewish quarters), we came across the world’s second largest synagogue on Dohany Street. I wanted to go inside, but as luck would have it, it was the last day of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and the synagogues were closed to non-Jewish people.
On this day, Jews break their fast at sundown and spend the day praying inside the synagogue with the doors locked to the outside world. Standing in front if it, as I observed a small boy peeping down at us from the balcony, our guide explained to us that women and children stay/pray on the 1st floor and the men on the ground floor. In 1944, during the second world war, the Jews were forced to relocate to a small locality in this part of Pest by the Nazi Hungarian government. This locality was called the Nazi ghetto back then.
Now it’s simply known as the Ghetto and is the most hip and happening part of the city with the coolest ‘ruin’ bars, restaurants, graffiti and the like. This present-day ‘Mecca of Cool’ is the main hangout and partying place for youngsters. In fact, I happened to meet up with a school friend of mine in one of their more frequented clubs called Fogas. But one can still see the dark remnants of their sorrowful history behind all the colourful graffiti.
“Other major inventions that the country produced during the pre-World War period were Vitamin C, the hydrogen bomb, binoculars, the electric motor, colour TV, the telephone exchange etc. I was quite mind blown with all these facts and at my own ignorance! Since the country was on the losing side in both the world wars, Hungary suffered massive damage and was reduced to the poorer of the European countries. At the height of the Jewish persecution by the Nazis, thousands jumped into the freezing Danube river in the peak of winter and attempted to swim across to the other side, Buda, to escape being shot.”
Prior to the World Wars, Budapest was at the forefront of science and technology, with a lot of discoveries being made here. At one point of our walk, we came across a large graffiti of a Rubik’s Cube, covering the entire expanse of one side of a building. Ernö Rubik, a Hungarian inventor, was responsible for introducing this puzzle to the world in 1974. Our guide claimed to have met his son on a few occasions and informed us that the old inventor still lives in an apartment in the Ghetto. The ballpoint pen, known as Biro after its inventor, also came out of this region.
Other major inventions that the country produced during the pre-World War period were Vitamin C, the hydrogen bomb, binoculars, the electric motor, colour TV, the telephone exchange etc. I was quite mind blown with all these facts and at my own ignorance! Since the country was on the losing side in both the world wars, Hungary suffered massive damage and was reduced to the poorer of the European countries. At the height of the Jewish persecution by the Nazis, thousands jumped into the freezing Danube river in the peak of winter and attempted to swim across to the other side, Buda, to escape being shot. Our guide narrated the story of one such man who managed to swim across the river. A couple of Nazi patrol officers found him on the banks of Buda, almost frozen to death, but instead of killing him or turning him in, they took him to a hospital in secrecy. He was said to have recovered thereafter. After the Soviets defeated the Nazis in 1945, the Communist regime set in.
Our next day’s adventures took us back to Buda, crossing the bridge again. Our plan for the day was to conquer the Buda Castle, a castle built by the Hungarian kings, conquered by the Turkish empire in the 16th century, followed by the Austrians, attacked by the Nazi and then taken over by the Russian troops in the 20th century. It would’ve been great to go down in history as a group of 4 Indians being the latest conquerors of the castle in August 2017. Sadly, our efforts only resulted in yet another series of bad selfies and this article.
We climbed up the hill and entered the castle premises. An important part of this huge castle complex is the Fisherman’s Bastion, which caught my fancy the moment I laid eyes on it. What gives it the fairytale-ish look are the seven turrets around it, representing the seven Hungarian tribes who founded the Hungarian empire in 895 AD. Fisherman’s Bastion (‘Halaszbastya’ in Hungarian) derived its name from the belief that during the Middle Ages, this part of the castle walls was protected by a guild of fishermen who lived in the Watertown, Vizivaros, below the walls.
During peaceful periods, they would fish and sell their catch in the fish market in the castle premises and during war, they would climb up to the castle and take part in protecting their town. Apart from the turrets, the other aspect that stood out were the bright and colourful roof tiles of the Matthias church there. I had seen these tiles on a couple of other old buildings in the city as well. I hadn’t seen such beautiful tiles laid out in this particular pattern in any other European country before. I had managed extract some information about this from our guide the previous day.
These are a special type of Hungarian ceramic tiles called Zsolnay tiles, which are acid, frost and fire resistant. Yet another Hungarian innovation! These pyrogranite tiles made their first appearance during the world war and soon became very popular across the continent. This company was the first in the world to introduce the ‘eosin’ process in the making of ceramics, making them highly resistant.
Later that evening, while we were walking around looking for the Parliament building, we were very surprised and amused to come across the former US President, Ronald Reagan. It would’ve been great to meet him in the flesh but at least we got to meet his bronze version. His statue was erected there, in front of the American Embassy to recognise his efforts to end the Cold War, which eventually led to the fall of the Communist regime of the Soviets.
The Hungarians seem to like him for that. Funnily enough, it faces the Soviet Obelisk honouring the Red Army. Another interesting bronze figure that we chanced upon was placed on a tiny bronze bridge, facing the Parliament. We didn’t know who it was at the time, being the ignorant tourists that we were. Later, when I typed ‘bronze man on bridge’ into the Google search bar, I learnt that the man I took a photo with on the bridge that night was Imre Nagy. He was nominated by the public to be the Prime Minister during the uprising in 1956. But when the Soviet troops came in, he was arrested for treason and later executed. He was buried in a mass grave thereafter.
After having seen what is perhaps the most beautiful Parliament building I’ve seen till date, it was time for dinner. Despite being famished, we didn’t settle for any of the regular McDonald’s that came our way. We wanted more out of our dining experience, something that would make us feel like the rich and elite but at a students’ fare. It was time to treat ourselves at the ‘World’s fanciest McDonald’s’ at Nyugati Palyaudvar. This luxury-version of the fast food restaurant is built inside Budapest’s western railway station which was designed by the Eiffel Tower’s designer, Gustav Eiffel. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Eiffel Tower but this restaurant was picture perfect. There were indoor trees, real plates & silverware there!
We left Budapest the next day, wishing we could spend a few more days there to enjoy mingling with Hungary’s warm and friendly people and its interesting nuggets of history and art.
Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking.