A day in Budapest

So off we set, and whilst cooped up in the station, the sun has come out! I spy a Decathlon shop across the road so despatch MF to buy himself a water bottle to replace the one he has lost somewhere between Australian and Poland whilst I ordered 2 coffees at Starbucks - probably the most expensive thing I will buy all day!!!! MF reappears with drink bottle which cost the princely sum of 750 HUF local currency - about $A4.50!

We bought a ‘book’ of 10 Metro tickets to save our feet during the day and immediately ran into a problem - the Metro wasn’t working here at Nyugati station so we had to go back up into the street to catch a replacement bus.

We needed to eat, so we headed off to the place I had chosen in District 13 (Újlipótváros) down near the Danube River - a lovely restaurant in a very nice area, Sarki Fűszeres. It was really yummy and we had the mimosa cocktail which came with it as an option to coffee: sparkling wine with orange juice!



It was a very pleasant walk afterwards through District 13 past other nice (and hip-looking) cafes, restaurants, shops, etc.

Along the way we caught a tram (using our book of 10 tickets) and arrived at Parliament House which is amazing! From here it was just a short walk down to the river and the memorial established in 2005 called the ‘Shoes on the Danube’.

‘Shoes on the Danube’ is a memorial created by film director Can Togay and sculptor Gyula Pauer; it takes the form of 60 pairs of shoes cast in iron and anchored to the ground, to honour the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. Different styles and sizes can be seen, showing that nobody was safe – not men, women or children. Today, candles are placed in the shoes, flowers are laid alongside them and a plaque reads:

“To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45. Erected 16 April 2005.”

Very moving.

We had a private group tour booked at the Dohány Street Synagogue so returned to Parliament and took a Metro. MF's Sygic map app is working reasonably well.

The Dohány Street Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe.

There is much to see here including the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park, the Tree of Life Holocaust Memorial funded by Tony Curtis the late American actor, the Heroes' Temple dedicated to the Jewish soldiers of WWI, and the Holocaust Cemetery. It also gave us free entry to the the Hungarian Jewish Museum which was most interesting.

There was this wonderful quote from Arthur Koestler in the museum:

“There is no other example in history of a community which has been chased round the globe quite as much, which has survived its own death as a nation by two thousand years ...”

Not far away, in the Jewish District 7, we went off in search of Szimpla Kert – a “ruin bar” (romkocsma). These are makeshift bars inside dilapidated pre-war buildings, furnished with quirky furniture. It is touristy but we did it anyway just to do it - enjoyed an Hungarian beer here before finding a place down the road to use up the last of our florints on goulash and a red wine for (early) dinner.


It was a really interesting walk to the Metro through the Jewish district around the Madách Imre tèr area whose history goes back 100 years.

The Metro was a replacement bus again back to Nyugati station where we collected our bags from the locker and the amiable man there. The young blokes congregated around the doorway drinking this morning have gone and there is a huge bag of bottles and cans on the grass. At the main station entry are blokes looking very seedy drinking. This sight has been common throughout the day.

Almost 16000 steps today.