Budapest: Military Fun & Repression

Another day of exploring ahead👍

We discovered a “festival” in the huge city park near to our apartment. More of a recruitment fayre for the Military & Emergency Services! Fun, yet mildly disturbing at the same time.

A beautiful and calming new House of Music venue raised the tone, followed by a walk up a magnificent edifice over the new Museum of Ethnography.

The Police motorbike display team were outside, showing off their skills, & we took a quick visit to check out the nearby Széchenyi thermal baths: looked fancy, but somewhat pricey. A walk across to the Vajdahunyad vára lakeside fairytale castle before we finally tore ourselves away from all the action to walk to town.

Seeking nourishment, it was nice to relax in the Scandi-feel of the A99 cafe, even with the instagrammers giving the place a bad name around us, posing and pouting 🤣🤷‍♂️

Realised we would pass the infamous House of Terror, we felt we should pay it a visit.
What a sobering experience 😳

Fascinating yet terrible at the same time: so much repression over so many decades, first briefly by the Nazis, then by their “liberators”, the Soviets.
Some harrowing tales on many video screens around, before slowly descending to the basement where so many were tortured and hung 😔

This is the only place where the perpetrators are called out: there was no equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials for all the wicked deeds done 😡

After a solid 2 hour visit, we needed some air, so continued our way to the other tourist hotspots.
Works at the Parliament Building meant limited access, but visits to Heroes & Liberty Squares and of course the Danube raised our spirits on a pleasantly warm day. Interesting Reagan and Bush statues surrounding the Communist memorial….& a small frog statue also found rapidly by Christine!

Liberty Square also hosts a “Memorial to the victims of the German occupation”. A controversial memorial the current Prime Minister Orbán had deployed during a night in 2014 to attempt to “white-wash” the terrible State choice to allow the Nazis in, the decision that resulted in the massacre of almost half a million Jewish, Gypsy and Hungarian homosexuals before the end of WWII 😳
Nearby, we found a curious nuclear bunker vent….all interesting evidence of another era.

The day was rounded off with a delicious traditional Goulash & Septoni beer at the Blue Rose restaurant, alongside some animated Greeks before a final slow amble home 👍Read more