Tomorrow morning we’re off to Prague (or Praha, as it is known here) – just two more countries to go. It’s hard to believe that we only have ten days left in our six weeks of travel.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Budapest. Yesterday we heeded Rick Steves’ (our travel guidebook) advice and spent several hours relaxing in the public baths. It wasn’t really as intimidating as we first thought. In fact, the atmosphere wasn’t much different from a public swimming pool in the states. (And yes, people were wearing swimsuits.) It was definitely a hot spot for the locals, with old, pot-bellied men in Speedos gathered around chess boards in the water. We spent most of our time soaking in the large, outdoor bath located in the center of the building pictured above. There were a bunch more saunas and baths of varying temperatures inside, though.
The second photo was taken today inside the House of Terror museum - the former location of the Nazi's and (later) the Communists' Hungarian execution headquarters (they called it the House of Loyalty). The photo shows a wall in the museum covered with the faces of those who were murdered there. Communism wasn’t overthrown in Hungary until 1990, so it was a fairly new – and very powerful – museum. It would have been even more fascinating if we’d been able to understand the numerous video clips of victims recounting their horror stories (in Hungarian, of course). Still, it made for a sobering couple hours – especially the part when we watched a video describing the prison conditions and executions as an elevator slowly took us to the basement where the prisoners were held in cells, tortured and murdered. We visited Mauthausen (a Nazi concentration camp in Austria) a few days ago, but that didn’t make the House of Terror any less shocking.
Speaking of shocking, we saw a dead body tonight. Curiosity got the best of us when we noticed people gathered along a bridge with fire and police cars parked nearby, lights flashing. Sure enough - firefighters were standing in the shallow water around a dead man. Eventually, news reporters showed up. Too bad we can’t read the Hungarian newspapers – I guess we’ll never really know the full story.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Budapest. Yesterday we heeded Rick Steves’ (our travel guidebook) advice and spent several hours relaxing in the public baths. It wasn’t really as intimidating as we first thought. In fact, the atmosphere wasn’t much different from a public swimming pool in the states. (And yes, people were wearing swimsuits.) It was definitely a hot spot for the locals, with old, pot-bellied men in Speedos gathered around chess boards in the water. We spent most of our time soaking in the large, outdoor bath located in the center of the building pictured above. There were a bunch more saunas and baths of varying temperatures inside, though.
The second photo was taken today inside the House of Terror museum - the former location of the Nazi's and (later) the Communists' Hungarian execution headquarters (they called it the House of Loyalty). The photo shows a wall in the museum covered with the faces of those who were murdered there. Communism wasn’t overthrown in Hungary until 1990, so it was a fairly new – and very powerful – museum. It would have been even more fascinating if we’d been able to understand the numerous video clips of victims recounting their horror stories (in Hungarian, of course). Still, it made for a sobering couple hours – especially the part when we watched a video describing the prison conditions and executions as an elevator slowly took us to the basement where the prisoners were held in cells, tortured and murdered. We visited Mauthausen (a Nazi concentration camp in Austria) a few days ago, but that didn’t make the House of Terror any less shocking.
Speaking of shocking, we saw a dead body tonight. Curiosity got the best of us when we noticed people gathered along a bridge with fire and police cars parked nearby, lights flashing. Sure enough - firefighters were standing in the shallow water around a dead man. Eventually, news reporters showed up. Too bad we can’t read the Hungarian newspapers – I guess we’ll never really know the full story.
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