On a beautiful sunny morning, 23 years after sitting in a dorm room and dreaming of traveling to Prague, we gave it a final glance and said "ahoj" as we boarded a (very comfortable) bus destined for Budapest. Neither one of us had ever thought about traveling to Hungary until this trip, but were excited to experience another new place and culture. As we rode along, Etelka shared so many great tidbits and stories, as she herself is Hungarian and lives in Hungary. Traveling through the Slovakia countryside showed a side to the country that mirrored so much of what we have in our own midwest, and brought a smile to our faces as we felt a little bit of home in a foreign land. We made a scheduled stop for lunch, and were so pleasantly surprised that this lunch was as delicious as many of our meals that we'd had on our trip, and was from a PETROL STATION!
It was at this point where we received news that our trip was going to have a pretty unique addition to the itinerary...Harley Davidson's 120th Anniversary Festival for Europe, Middle East & Africa was occurring in Budapest while we were there!! Now, some of our tour-mates were skeptical about what this meant, but as an avid HD owner and rider, Tina reassured everyone that THIS would bring another amazing element to their travels! However, it also slowed things down a bit, as the traffic and road closures detoured us a little bit. But hey, who can complain when you're traveling in a luxury coach after a delicious meal at a gas station!?!
As we arrived and made our way to our hotel rooms, we quickly dropped our belongings and met up with our Budapest guide, Andrea. For all the charm that Prague had, Budapest had style. Sleek buildings and streets, perfectly manicured natural elements, and beautiful pops of color and old-world buildings peppered in. As we walked through the Pest side of the city we listened to the history of the Hungarian people and their pride in Budapest. Our first pit-stop was St. István's Basilica (St. Steven's), where we learned the interesting fact about The Holy Right Hand, which we will let you Google that one. Many beautiful buildings and monuments were noted as we walked on. As we approached an area that seemed to be a playful city water feature (perfect, as Budapest was experiencing a record heat wave) Andrea shared that it was in fact a monument that the Hungarian government created in attempts to cover their involvement in the Holocaust and WWII. However, what stood out the most was the deeply moving protest by the Hungarian people, who did not want anyone to forget the part that the Hungarian government played, because if it is forgotten, it can happen again.
As we arrived and made our way to our hotel rooms, we quickly dropped our belongings and met up with our Budapest guide, Andrea. For all the charm that Prague had, Budapest had style. Sleek buildings and streets, perfectly manicured natural elements, and beautiful pops of color and old-world buildings peppered in. As we walked through the Pest side of the city we listened to the history of the Hungarian people and their pride in Budapest. Our first pit-stop was St. István's Basilica (St. Steven's), where we learned the interesting fact about The Holy Right Hand, which we will let you Google that one. Many beautiful buildings and monuments were noted as we walked on. As we approached an area that seemed to be a playful city water feature (perfect, as Budapest was experiencing a record heat wave) Andrea shared that it was in fact a monument that the Hungarian government created in attempts to cover their involvement in the Holocaust and WWII. However, what stood out the most was the deeply moving protest by the Hungarian people, who did not want anyone to forget the part that the Hungarian government played, because if it is forgotten, it can happen again.
We continued walking through the bustling city and arrived at the ever-impressive, and MASSIVE, Parliament building at Kossuth Lajos Square. Andrea spoke of the Hungarian's desire to be seen as a big-player in the world, and despite the fact that it had never reached that goal, they still strived to "look the part" and therefore created grandiose buildings and statement structures.
As we walked the tremendous square surrounding Parliament we came to what seemed to be art sculpture of metal and bullet holes. This was merely the staircase down to the memorial and exhibition of the Hungarian Revolution. We learned that unlike Prague's peaceful and victorious Velvet Revolution, on October 25, 1956, Hungarians had their own peaceful protest against Soviet forces, that lead to Soviet troops and secret police opening fire against hundreds of protestors and sparking a two-week long revolution which ended with an unknown number of citizens who died. October 25, 1956 is known to most Hungarians as Bloody Thursday. It wouldn't be until 1989 that communism would fall in Hungary.
After completing this walking tour, we took the ever-easy-to-navigate Budapest tram to dinner-which was absolutely delicious!
As we walked the tremendous square surrounding Parliament we came to what seemed to be art sculpture of metal and bullet holes. This was merely the staircase down to the memorial and exhibition of the Hungarian Revolution. We learned that unlike Prague's peaceful and victorious Velvet Revolution, on October 25, 1956, Hungarians had their own peaceful protest against Soviet forces, that lead to Soviet troops and secret police opening fire against hundreds of protestors and sparking a two-week long revolution which ended with an unknown number of citizens who died. October 25, 1956 is known to most Hungarians as Bloody Thursday. It wouldn't be until 1989 that communism would fall in Hungary.
After completing this walking tour, we took the ever-easy-to-navigate Budapest tram to dinner-which was absolutely delicious!