Daniel Mezger

First full day in a new European city so guess what…free walking tour time!

We had a great sleep in our hostel despite the nearby music and made our way to the parliament building where we met our tour and commenced an introduction to the history of Budapest. Oue tour guide's name was Orsi and she has lived in Budapest her whole life. We started with some brief facts about Hungarian history, including:
- There are 10 million people in Hungary with approximately 2 million in Budapest, the country’s only metropolitan city. There are around 15 million Hungarians (5 million live today in bordering countries which were previously part of Hungary prior to the loss of two-thirds of its territory following WWI). The Hungarians who live overseas can apply to be citizens, vote in hungary and can apply for government benefits such as maternity leave. Interestingly, the government's policies aim to benefit all hungarians (whether actually in hungary or not).
-Hungary achieved its independence in 1896, on the 1000 year anniversary of when the seven original tribes settled in the area from Asia.
- Budapest contains the older cities of Buda and Pest as divided by the Danube River.
- Much of Pest (the side which contains the Parliament building and other significant buildings) was built in 1896 for celebrations for the independence of the country.
- The parliament building was built in this year and is a symbol of the anniversary and of the country. The dome is exactly 96m high, there are 96 stairs to enter and 365 towers on the roof to symbolise the parliament being responsible every day of the year.

We then walked to Liberty Square and learnt about the more recent 20th century history of Hungary: 
- At the end of WWI, the Austrian-Hungarian empire was not invited to the negotiations in relation to the dividing up of country's borders and Hungary lost two thirds of the country area. This was a shock to Hungary and led to discontentment and unrest.
- In WWII, Hitler promised Hungary to help get back its territories and so Hungary sided with Nazi Germany, resulting in mass Hungarian Jewish casualties. However, in 1945, when they realised that Hitler would not get their land back, Hungary signed a secret deal with the British which angered Hitler and led to Germany taking over Hungary as an unfriendly ally. Sadly, this led to huge deaths of Hungarian Jewish people.
- The Soviet army arrived in Budapest in 1945 and assisted in liberating the country from the Germans. There is a Soviet memorial in Liberty Square commemorating Soviet soldiers who freed Hungary from German oppression in 1945. This is the only remaining Soviet statue and Hungary agreed to Russia to keep this statue.
- The Soviet Army didn't leave after 1945 and what followed was a period of over 40+ years of Soviet oppression. Hungary only came out of communism in 1989 and moved all Soviet statues to one museum away in the countryside called Momentum Park.

We visited a statue about the German oppression in Hungary. The statue depicts the eagle (Germany) attacking archangel Michael (Hungary). When the plans were announced for this statue, people protested and stated it was not a fair depiction of history as Hungary was not the victim, in fact, many Hungarian people accept that it is important to acknowledge the role of Hungary and without Hungary peopl and army's assistance, the mass deportations and murder of Hungarian Jews would not have been possible. However, the government ignored this protest and overnight in July 2014 erected the now controversial monument which most Hungarians detest. In response, people have hung photos, posters and objects depicting Hungary's role in the deportations and very sad and personal stories from this period. We found this very interesting - clearly, based on what our guide said, the sentiment is that most Hungarian people think Hungary should acknowledge its responsibility for the horrific events (to, of course, ensure this never happens again) but the government doesn't want to acknowledge this (with some posters claiming Hungary is attempting to "rewrite history").

We then proceeded to St Stephen’s Basilica, to learn about the Christian influence in Hungary:
- The Basilica was named after St Steven who was the first king of Austria-Hungary in the year 1000. Since then Hungary has been predominantly Christian.
- The dome is 96m high (just like the dome at Parliament to commemorate 896 and 1896. It also represents that state and religion should have equal power).
- Around 67% of the population is Christian.

We learnt that only 2% of the population is Jewish but Budapest contains the biggest synagogue in Europe and second biggest in the world and has a growing Jewish population.

We also saw some cute little miniature sculptures by Mihály Kolodko. There are over 30 across the city and we enjoyed seeing a little Kermit the frog, Mr Bean's teddy bear at the old British embassy (prior to Brexit) and some other more political protests.

The final stops of the tour were in the Elizabeth Square (a bustling square in the centre of town which is named after Princess Sisi) and along the banks of the Danube river where we finished with a few fun facts about Budapest:
- Hungarians receive 3 year maternity leave per child, with an average pay of 50% across the 3 year period.
- The ruin bars are a huge attraction in Budapest. The first one (Szimpla Kert) was opened about 15 years ago when a young entrepreneur bought a dilapidated building because it was cheap and decorated it which started the ruin bar theme which is very prominent around Budapest. Given the traditional Hungarian attitude is quite negative, the older generations are pleased to see a much more positive attitude of younger generation.
-Budapest had the first metro line in continental Europe (the first one in all of Europe was in London).
- Traditional Hungarian food includes langos (flatbread often with sour cream and cheese) and hungarian chimney cake (which is actually from modern day Romania).

We gave ourselves a break in the park for lunch to have some sandwiches we had previously bought after our morning tour. We then headed over to the more hilly ‘Buda’ side of the Danube river, crossing the famous Chain Bridge (constructed in 1948 as the first connection between Buda and Pest and only very recently opened for pedestrian access again after renovations).

We walked around a little bit before our afternoon tour. The afternoon tour was shorter and had some overlap from the morning tour, but we still learnt some very interesting things about Budapest, including that:
- Buda was always the rich side and looked down up the ‘pest’ working class side of the river.
- Hungary got lots of money from Austria to fund construction of the buildings and now the whole area is under UNESCO protection so can’t be modified.
- Buda comes from Slavic word for water because many people died due to unclean water before proper water chlorination was put in place.
- There used to be a castle in 13th century on the Buda side which is why it is called the castle district but there is no castles there anymore.

We visited the iconic Fisherman's Bastion which overlooks the Danube river has seven towers representing the seven tribes from the year 896 and used to be a fishing market. It is such a beautiful spot with great views over to the Pest side. We even saw a bride and groom getting their photos at this spot!

We also admired the Mathias church which is named after one of the first kings of Hungary. The Hungarian pygramic roof is fire resistant and so shiny that dust doesn’t collect. It never needs to be cleaned!

We also learnt a very interesting fact about horse legs on European statues (which would have been useful to know earlier!) The position of the front legs tells how the person riding the horse died: If the horse has two legs down, it means the rider died from natural causes; if the horse has one leg up, it means the rider was injured in battlefield but survived; and if the horse has two legs up, it means the rider died in battle.

After having plenty of information thrown at us, we headed back to the hostel to chill out before our night party cruise along the Danube.

We walked along the Danube for a bit before boarding our boat to enjoy a night of drinks, dancing and amazing views! We had booked the drinks package and definitely took advantage of the 20 euro unlimited drinks! The lights along the river illuminating the buildings was spectacular and the parliament building was particularly very impressive!!

We arrived back into the port after midnight and made the obligatory post-drinking McDonald’s stop on our way back to the hostel for a much needed sleep.Read more