It was lovely to be completely spoiled by the Laci's-we
spent 10 days touring this beautiful city, guided by constantly
available Laci and Zsuzsa on their cell phones, tasting a fine
selection of delicious Hungarian whines and getting to know the kids-
Beni and Rebus. We were fortunate to experience Budapest not only as
tourists but through the many stories and lived accounts from our
gracious hosts. My favorite activity in Budapest (in addition to whine
tasting and playing with the kids) was going out shopping for delicious
local bread and cheese and fruits at the market.
Budapest is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, even
though the Eastern European/Soviet gloom on the faces of people is
going to take some time to erase. One memorable example of Soviet gloom were
militant old ladies in the National Museum, who constantly eyed Teodora
and I with suspicion, ready to blow a whistle on us (I felt as if I was
hiding an original of one of the famous Hungarian painter in my
underwear :-) )
This
is a view on the amazingly opulent(for a small country) Parliament
(from the Fisherman's Bastion). It is not really lit from the outside,
all the tonnes of gold used for its decoration is shining in the night!
This is a typical Hungarian lady in a supermarket, searching for the eyes of a sales woman....
It seems that many Eastern European countries are expressing the
anguish of their transition to a "civilized" society in extensive
graffiti (see Bulgaria). Here is a fine example of this: use of a
found object-telephone booth.
One day we visited an interesting Park just outside Budapest, where a
small field contained a fine collection of Soviet Hungarian sculpture.
I found that compared to Russian Soviet style, Hungarian
sculptures had more meat on their bones so to speak and overall were
more artistic. The picture above depicts Stalin's boots, which were
carefully and calmly sawed off his paranoid body.
Here is another monument in memory of Soviet crash of the Hungarian Revolution of 1958.
Overall,
it was soo good to see our friends and to experience the life they live
in a vary different environment-we even spent some time at Laci's
favorite Internet cafe, e-mailing him from there.....
you can view more of my pictures (and comments) from Budapest at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69781927@N00/sets/72157601820991859/
