Tuesday 5 July: Around midday today we docked in Budapest.Budapest is made up of two cities on either side of the Danube River that merged in the 19th century, Buda nestled into Hills on the eastern side, and Pest spreading across flat land on the western side. You may already know this, but it was news to me.
We had another excellent guide in Erika, a native of Pest. Although Budapest has only one and a half million people, the impression it gives from the river is that it is much larger. There are many impressive gothic buildings visible from the river, particularly the mammoth house of parliament. As with Flip yesterday in Vienna, Erika had her share of anecdotes and humorous aside. For example the traffic was pretty chaotic and she said that “in Hungary there are no pedestrians, only survivors”.
The first part of the tour was in Buda, around the St Mathias church. The original church was converted to a mosque during occupation under the Ottoman Empire, and was converted again to a church following their defeat.The interior decoration (redone) still retains elements of the Ottoman design. About 5,000 churches were pulled down or re-purposed by the communist regime. For balance, all statues of Lenin and Stalin have now been removed to a site outside the city.
Budapest has many beautiful buildings, not so much because of unique architecture, but of execution and quantity. The main boulevard is modelled on the Champs Elysee, and so has a very French feel.
Again, like in many former eastern bloc countries, because of minimal development under communism, restoration of the historic buildings and streetscapes was much easier. Most of the construction under communism was of a utilitarian nature, apartment buildings and factories. Approximately 30% of Budapest was destroyed in the Second World War, and a number of buildings have been completely reconstructed in the last 60 years, particularly since the fall of communism.The reconstruction that has taken place is an important part of the tourist industry, which in turn is an important part of the economy. Tourism grew by 18% last year and they are expecting it to increase even more this year. Salaries and Hungry are about half of the salaries in neighbouring Austria, but manufactured goods and food costs the same as in Austria. There is however a very generous paid maternity leave system and very good completely free education system including university, at least for the 1st degree. Unfortunately many graduates leave for Austria or Germany for the higher salaries.
Erika remembers life under communism, and when asked did she feel deprived, she said that it was democracy or freedom was like a cake you had never seen or eaten, and therefore did not miss it. Under communism, information was so controlled that the population had no knowledge of what was happening apart from what was presented by the state owned media – 2 radio stations and 1 TV channel.
For example when she was giving tours to US travellers in 1989 after the fall of communism she bought their tourist guides which had historical information about Hungry that she had never heard about, for example the 1956 uprising – this year being the 60th anniversary and there is a special exhibition about it. Outside the museum is a metaphorical Iron Curtain. Photos taken out of the window of a moving bus!
Erika said she learned English as a young girl, because she wanted to understand the Beatles songs lyrics. She also said to never ask a Hungarian how they are going. They will commence by telling you a listing of their illnesses, medication they are taking, treatments that they are getting, the impact of the weather, etc. however after about 15 minutes when they have detailed their conditions, you can then have a normal conversation.
She said Hungry is particularly proud of their soccer team who made it into the European cup this year for the first time since 1972. Like Iceland, after being knocked out of the competition, the team was welcomed home as heroes.
Before we leave Budapest, I’ll leave you with another couple of anecdotes from Erika. She likes to ask anyone under 15 what the red thing is in the photo – most of them have never posted a letter.She said that if necessary, we can fund public toilets in the city, usually controlled by an old grumpy woman. Free for men and half a Euro for women. She said not to expect to share any pleasantries with her, and anyway it’s not as if you have to marry her! FYI, Budapest has 2 manhole covers.
Later tonight we leave Hungary and pass between Serbia and Croatia and dock in Vukovar in Croatia.
After dinner we were treated to a Hungarian performance on board. The first part was some excellent Hungarian music, and Hungarian versions of some classics.The second part included traditional thigh and foot slapping, stamping Hungarian dancing. I can possibly see why Hungarian dancing hasn’t set the world on fire or set any dance trends.
They tried hard, but it was similar to the Goral dancing we saw in Zakopane.
The best part of the evening was a slow cruise along the Danube through Budapest which is lit up at night.
There were also many other boats on the water enjoying the evening, so a quite popular activity.
