Status: trying to catch up
Where: very cold krakow
Am a little behind in the blogging thing so apologies for that. Time
has gone so quickly I cant believe we are getting ready to leave for
Warsaw and I haven't even talked about Hungary And Prague let along
warsaw. So this will either be very long or way too short.
Hungary was a beautiful city so different to Romania which is strange.
It was the different mentality that really shone out.
Upon leaving romania we not only left our baggage (some kind people
ran after us) but we got on the wrong train. We were help and all
worked out in the end but we met a romanian who was living in canada.
He needed to return to help his parents and he was annoyed that he
actually had to come to romania to fill in The forms. While in other
counties and email would have done. He sad that Romania was stuck in
the past. They had to do it this way because that is how it has always
been done. No mater that an easier way was readily available. He also
said that it was the romanians who put a cross through the number 7
when writing it because the 7th commandment says though shalt not
steal. And to Romanians this is impossible.
Enter Hungary and we are in this hostel which is like someones house.
There were a few people staying. 2 Australians 3 kiwis with new tatoos
and and a German called felix. We all got on well which made the
hostel, small and and possibly bed bug ridden though it was really
good on our eyes.
Budapest was lovely we did a walking tour runs by students who only
work for tips you pay what you feel and that gave us the insite to
Hungarian mentality. While she freely admitted that over the last
century things have gone wrong for hungary they were all optimistic
that having joined the EU things wod be better this century. A real
difference in thought.
We then spent a few days looking around and loving the scenery. We did
a hungarian bath. No where near as good as the Turkish one. We had no
idea where we were supposed to go. We had no towels. It was a rabbit
warren and no one spoke enough English to explain it. We ate lunch on
the presidents front lawn. And saw more rocks in the museum. It was
really great.
We got back to the hostel on the second last day and planned our last
day. When I was small I knew a lady who was an Hungarian Jew who not
only survived auschwitz but also the Hungarian uprising and I wanted
to see the Jewish museum while Simon wanted to see parliament so we
agreed to go our separate ways.
Then we found out it was a public holiday but we maybe lucky and it
will be open. So we left in the morning separately and the street
were empty... Except for the 1000 or so fully armoured police. This
was interesting. As I walked to the museum there were people putting
up a stage and some others with flags, and a lot police who could win
a robocop lookalike competion.
My museum was closed so managed to sneak onto someones wireless
emailed Si that I was having a tea and decided to go to the house of
terror afterwards.
10mins later Si walks in with the same problem. So off to the house of
terror in hope.
The house of terror is the former building belonging to the secret
police who had a lot of control during the communist era. When I was
in Russia I had my passport details taken down by the police because I
was to close to the building belonging to the secret police. But they
more objected to us taking photos.
In Hungary, despite it being placed incorrectly on the map, is easy to
find as it is surrounded by photos, candels and flowers. Each one the
photo of a victim of the people who ran his awful place. They have
turned it into a museum and as the national holiday was to commemorate
the fall of communism entrance was free.
The first thing you see is the massive tank infront of a wall of over
1000 people who where innocent victims. Simon has already posted that
picture. The museum first talks about the Nazi occupation but quickly
deals with life under so soviet rule. It is all very interesting
untill you get to the basement.
There is the wall of the victimisers. People who tortured, spyied and
generally used their power to repress the hungarian people. It was
like a wall of shame.
Next was the Hungarian uprising which was brave and horrific but it
led you to the cells.
In each cell there were pictures of the people who were once held
there. The was a toture room with a drain under the chair. There were
cells which were the worst. One cell was pitch black and 3 foot high.
Another was designed to be ankle deep in water. And one was about 50
cm square so all you could do is stand. One was padded and one pitch
black. All these designed to torture and break.
It was a great museum though awful at the same time.
The the next day we went to parliament but got there too late and the
tour was full. So we pottered until it was time to leave for Prague.
Sent from my iPod
No comments:
Post a Comment