Buda buda buda buda pest!

Oh man! Go to budapest! We spent an awesome four days there and there was so much to do it was mindblowing!

I'm not sure how up to date any of you are on euro weather....but it has been f&%§ing hot! In fact, most people are saying it's been the hottest summer on record. Ever. Budapest was no exception. It was sweltering...dc humid! Hungary is on the end of a long flat plan that extends from the Russia's western border from the Urals and on the other side are the Alps, so although generally very mild, it is not uncommon for weather systems to get stuck, as it were, before making it over the mountains to Austria, hence the hot hot heat and humidity. DC, I know you've been roasting the last couple days....it was about the same temperature here, with no ac =( Needless to say Mike and I enjoyed regular afternoons naps!

There are some great museums in Budapest and the opera house is really gorgeous, but I was super interested in the history!
So the Hungarian empire used to be massive but after WWI (they were the baddies) Most the of the territory was taken away, so they went from being one of the biggest euro powers with tons of coastal territory to an itty bitty land locked state. They were also invaded by the Nazis after a huge siege and then the Nazis and the soviets fought a massive battle for Budapest at the end of WWII, so the city has been blown to smithereens a number of times -although- and this is a tribute to Hungarians, they always rebuild it exactly the same! So there are these beautiful Gothic and Romanesque buildings that are only 60 years old bc they had to be rebuilt. The Hungarians were then oppressed by the commies for another 40 years - they have the highest suicide rate in europe and I blame the Russians!

Somehow though, the people are lovely and friendly and super eager to make you like budapest as much as they do. We went on a super awesome segway tour of the city (donations are currently being accepted for my pwn personal segway) and our guide, Aggie, was keen to show us the beauty of historical budapest, and she did a great job. I was super keen to ask her about the fall of the commies...she is my age, so she had sort of spotted memories. But some of you may be surprised to learn that her older relatives (according to her) are nostalgic to communism. She explained that they felt there was more dignity then. Keep in mind, that although they didn't have freedom of speech, they did have a place to live and food and fuel to keep warm in winter, none of which is guaranteed now. Perhaps it is because of the 50 years of oppression, but Hungarians take their democracy very serriously. Parliment is mostly repected and they aren't above confidence votes if they aren't happy with government, although they have had the same PM for 7 years, he has had to form almost as many governments!

Hungarians are a little bit desperate for you to taste their wine and sing it's praises, it is delicious and you should! They do so many things, music, art, architecture, wine so well it seems as though they are keen for the rest of us to acknowledge it!

Although the entire trip was fantastic, I think the most important thing we did was go to the secret police museum. It is housed in exactly the building where the secret police work from and the exhibits are incredibly chilling. It covers the horrific parts of Hungary's recent history. In one particularly moving video memory, a gulag survivor tells of how the men were starving and given barely enough calories to survive. They were forced to work 12-18 hours a day and at one point he said to the soviet guards, if you just gave us a little bit more we would be able to work twice as hard for you. The guard replied...we don't care about the work, we just want to torture you. There were also personal accounts of the great rape....although most of the (elderly) women broke down much before that point. Essentially, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians were hauled off to work camps by the Russians and less than 500 ever returned....to this day there are disproportionate numbers of men and women. Although it was quite gruesome and unpleasant, it was also fascinating and I firmly believe it is one of those places that I think everyone should go to.

There are also some awesome places in the city - its wicked old - and we were able to tour underground caves and secret passage ways in and out of the castle, which doesn't exist anymore! They even built a hospital in the cave systems during WWII so they would be able to continue treating people...another very cool exhibit.

I think perhaps the most surprising thing about Budapest was not the delicious wine, but the delicious food. I was quite expecting not to like it as meat meat meat potato potato potato...but what they did with it...YUMMY!