April 18th starts early with a van ride from Vienna, Austria to BudaPest, Hungry. With us were couples from England, from Czechoslovakia, and from Peru. The border crossing certainly reminded us of the cold war as we crossed a large area, known as "No man's land", where your were not in either country and it could easily serve as a shooting range. As we saw, it is possible to get passage into this area without guaranteed passage out of this area, as one couple was allowed to leave Hungary but the Austrians were not letting them enter. They were still very clear about not taking pictures in this area.
Budapest is actually two cities, with Buda on the West bank of the Danube and partially on a hill, while Pest is on the East bank and on pretty flat land. The air was so polluted that you could look directly at the sun without even a squint. The Danube had become very polluted with industrial waste and any thing else that proved to be cost effective for the dumper. In both cities, there was much evidence of some neglect during the communist years and also, much evidence of the change asstatues of communist greats had been either removed or defaced.
In Buda we visited Gellert Hill Fort, Liberation Monument [with it's missing Lennin statue], Buda National Gallery and Museum, Matties Church and Castle Hill. We shopped in a small, hard to find area that was one of the few places open on Sunday and had a great Hungarian three course lunch, in a beautiful little restaurant that provided great service. Near Matthias Church, which is on top of the hill, you could see for miles and was a great place to get your bearings and take a few photos. A Gypsy organ grinder, with monkey, provided great background music.
In Pest we saw the Pest Parliament, State Opera House, City Gate in Becsikapu Square, Hosoktere [Hero's Square], St. Stephen's Basilica, shopping plazas and the Szepmuveszeti Muzeum [Fine Arts]. Hero's square contains their unknown soldier and was the site of many communist parades, etc. The Pest Parliament is very pretty along the Danube and reminds you of England's Parliament along Thames. The Szepmnuveszeti Muzeum was featuring Henry Moore, as advertised by a hugh banner that hang vertically in front of the building. We took a small walk around a pedestrian mall where locals were entertaining each other, then grabbed a cup of coffee while people watching.
The ride back to Vienna was uneventful and included a small detour to miss the heavily backed up traffic at the major border crossings. Our driver knew of a semi-rural crossing where the line would be much shorter and less time consuming. Along the way, we stopped to see a Castle (very pretty) that had been turned into a Casino. We also stopped by a lake, near the border, the Neusiedle See, that was miles across but were told that it was shallow enough to walk across. The sight of Old Vienna was a welcome sight as it had been a great, but long, day. |
