Category Archives: Hungary

99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall

The Beer Man

The Beer Man

People come to Europe on extended vacations for all sorts of reasons. I read in Conte Nast about a man that spent months on the continent searching for the perfect Sachertorte. Another fellow spent his entire summer holiday seeking out every topless beach in Europe. Noble as these quests may have been, they didn’t inspire me. I came thirsty for a premium beverage. Alas, I never found the perfect beer. Try as I may, once I thought I had finally discovered the Holy Grail of Hops, that beer would be followed by one that was equally as good and most often even better. You can only imagine the pain and disappointment. Undeterred, I trudged on for hundreds of kilometers and four countries. I have tried beer on mountain tops where it was as cold as a well diggers posterior and at beachfront cabanas were it was as hot as Hades on a sunny day and I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that the best beer will always be the next beer.

Beer1T Beer2T Beer3T Beer4T Beer6T Beer7T Beer8T Beer9T Beer10T Beer11T

Beer5T

More Useless But Interesting Facts

The Andy Kaufman Routine:

The highly repetitive and ultimately boring nature of “99 Bottles of Beer” means that only a child or a lunatic will actually finish it. Comedian Andy Kaufman exploited this fact in the routine early in his career when he would actually sing all 99 verses. Kaufman was deliberately provoking the audience. Once they realized that he actually intended to sing all of the verses, catcalls, booing, and sullen silence were common responses. Toward the end of the sketch, Kaufman would feign recognition that the audience was not enjoying the material, and he would leave the stage with only 5 or 6 “bottles” to go. At that point, the audience would begin calling for him to return to finish the verses.

“Infinite bottles of beer on the wall.”

Mathematician Donald Byrd wrote this song “Infinite bottles of beer on the wall, take one down and past it around, now there are infinite bottles of beer on the wall.” Repeat. “To Infinity & Beyond”.

I’ve got to go. 

Urinal






The Wendi Files – Austro-Hungarian Version

For Wendi the Austro-Hungarian mindset is slightly different, a little less sunny then Spain, a lot more sober then Ireland, much more serious then Holland and considerably less frenetic then home, but still pretty silly and just as unpredictable.

At the Belvedere

At the Belvedere in Vienna.

Gargoyle imitation in Budapest

Gargoyle imitation in Budapest

Buddyng up to Lenin at the Momento Park in Budapest

Buddying up to Lenin at the Momento Park in Budapest

Overly concerned in Munich

Overly concerned about air quality in Munich.

Not happy with my windy day Gondola decision in the Alps. Nice Teeth!

Not happy with my windy day Gondola decision in the Alps. Nice Teeth!

Braced against the wind at the top of Grossglocker.

Braced against the wind at the top of Grossglocker.

Not exactly sure what's on the plate.

Not exactly sure what’s on the plate.

Never tell a lie in Vienna.

Never tell a lie.

Ready for a beer in Munich.

Ready for a beer in Munich.

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Rattenberg, Austria

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Elevator inspection in Budapest.

Tyrol

With a Tyrolean Hedgehog

Bottoms up in Budapest.

Bottoms up in Budapest.

Budapest

After a great dinner at Gerloczy in Budapest.

Put the GD camera away!

Put the GD Camera away!






A Few Frayed Ends

Our landlord at the Liesel/Pierre gave us lots of great visiting tips that turned out to be indispensable. In regards to sightseeing, he indicated that the old inner city was small and compact enough that we might want to avoid the numerous commercial touring schemes and set out on foot to explore.

This turned out to be great advice, but in terms of picture taking it has lent itself to a lot of this and that. So that’s how we’ll finish up our trip to Budapest, in bits and pieces with a few frayed ends.

Call Home

Call Home

Meaning “satellite” or “companion” in German, the Trabants were produced in East Germany. Originally, you’d pay for the car then be put on a list and wait for as long as 6 to 8 years for delivery. This meant that used Trabants sold for more then new ones. The downside was they ran like crap, were smokey as hell and produced 10 times the pollution of conventional cars. The upside was that they were manufactured, almost entirely, from recycled materials. The Trabant was regarded with derisive affection as a symbol of the extinct former East Germany and the fall of the Eastern bloc.

The Lada

The Trabant

I have absolutely no idea what any of these people are selling.

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Budapest19

Public baths were introduced by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire and are a huge part of popular culture. They are great facilities that have swimming pools (with three different temperatures), saunas, thermals, restaurants, cabins and anything you might need to have a great day. Two of the most popular are the Gellert Baths at the luxurious Hotel Gellert and the Szechenyl Baths at the city park. We spent the day at Szechenyl.

Szechenyl Baths

Szechenyl Baths

Szechenyl Baths - 98.6 F

This pool is 98.6 F. A little like floating in an embryonic sack.

Hotel Gellert

Hotel Gellert

Hotel Gellert

Hotel Gellert

The Great Synagogue or Tabakgasse Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe.

The Great Synagogue

The Great Synagogue

Shoes on the Danube Bank is a bronze sculpture that honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. It depicts one of the saddest stories in modern Hungarian history.

Budapest98

Budapest100

Read More.

All the rest.

One World

One World

Football is huge.

Football is huge.

River Boat Ticket Office.

River Boat Ticket Office.

Kaczian Tie Shop

Kaczian Tie Shop

American Style Chicken?

American Style Chicken?

Airplane Engine Museum

Airplane Engine Museum

Airplane Engine Museum

Airplane Engine Museum

Home

Home

Animal Vet

Animal Vet

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The Jester

The Little Princess

The Jester

The Little Princess

Lets top it off.

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That’s all for now. See you in Austria.

 












Riding the Rails

I love public transportation. Perhaps because, at home, we have so little of it and what we do have seems so grossly inefficient, which is something we can probably blame on constant lobbying efforts by the automobile industry, but I digress.

NewMetro

In Budapest, between trains, trams and buses, there isn’t a location you can’t get to within a block of. If you weren’t in the delivery business, I can’t imagine why you would want to deal with a car.

We purchased 7 day passes that allow us to use any trains, trams or buses and cost only about $3 a day, half that if you are a EU citizen. We have used it constantly. This is the best sightseeing buy in town.

The trams are great fun. A little old fashioned, they are all above ground and wind their way through the old city center giving you passing views of all the city’s most fascinating locations. The #2 line, which hugs the Danube from one end of the city to the other and affords great views of monumental government buildings, palaces and bridges, is my favorite.

Line 2

Line 2

Line 2

Line 2

Line 2

Line 2

The Hungarian Parliment from the #2 Line

The Hungarian Parliment from the #2 Line

The Buda Castle from the #2 Line

The Buda Castle from the #2 Line

The Budapest Metro is particularly interesting. It is the oldest electrified underground railway system on the European continent, and the second-oldest in the world, predated only by the 1890 City & South London Railway. Its iconic Line 1, completed in 1896, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002.

Postage

Line 1

The Metro has expanded over the years by renovating and adding new updated lines while preserving and restoring it’s older historic parts.

Line 1 Entrance At Szechenyl Park

Line 1 Entrance At Szechenyl Park

Line 1

Line 1

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Kodaly Korand Stop On The #1 Line

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Circus Poster

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Old School Leather Straps

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The Opera Station

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Old Style Ticket Booth at the Vorosmarty Stop

Lines 2 and 3 are newer but still date from the at least the 60s.

Line3

Line3

Line 3

Line 3

Line 2

Line 2

Stations on the 4 and 5 Lines represent more state of the art.

Line 4

Line 4

Line 4

Line 4

Line 4

Line 4

Line 5

Line 5

Line 5

Line 5

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Hurry the door’s closing.

Market Mania

Quick Currency Conversion

Quick Currency Conversion

My wife is flea market crazy. I don’t mean that she likes or is slightly interested in flea markets. Oh no, she’s completely and totally bonkers, nuts, out of her ever lovin’ skull, just can’t get enough of, crazy about flea markets. She has dragged me to the most God awful, disgusting, trashy yard sales, jumble sales, boot sales, garage sales and impromptu street markets in broken down Grange Halls, dilapidated industrial sites, abandoned warehouses, trash strewn vacant lots, very scary dead end streets and deserted parking garages in every city we have ever visited just so I can have the immense pleasure of gazing upon and fondling acres of other people’s useless and discarded junk.

Junk

Budapest has proven to be an exception to this otherwise nightmare scenario. Wendi has coerced me into two flea markets here and, I have to admit, they are terrific. Big, sprawling old school Markets, untouched by the tidal wave of cheap third world tshirts and trinkets. These are Markets were you can still find hidden gems and long forgotten items for a bygone era. Exactly the kind of Markets that made them popular to begin with.

Our first stop was at the Szechenyl Market is the middle of the large city park. The smaller of the two, Szechenyl has a bit of a yard sale feel but was still really interesting.

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Will you hurry up!

Will you hurry up!

Have to get one of these.

Have to get one of these.

Our last visit was at the Ecseri Market and it is the pièce de résistance. Located in the suburbs southwest of Budapest, getting there required two Metro transfers and a 20 minute bus ride, but was well worth the effort. A truly terrific treasure trove.

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Ecseri Market

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Wash Station

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Better hurry, this kind of market is rapidly disappearing.







The Secessionists

Take my word for it, Secessionist Art is really cool. It was one of the Art Nouveau disciplines that was popular between 1890 and 1910 and slightly predates Art Deco and was huge in Budapest. This modernist artist group included the likes of Gustav Klimt and Karoly Lotz,  They were renegades who separated from the support of official academic art and its administrations during this period. 

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt

The Kiss – Gustav Klimt

Woman Bathing - Kaloty

Woman Bathing – Karoly Lotz

Budapest, like both Berlin and Vienna, was a hot bed for this new and exciting art movement. Some of the country’s most famous architects designed buildings in this style. Some of them were inspired by traditional Hungarian decorative designs, Transylvanian traditions, or Far East (Indian or Syrian) styles.

One of our favorites is the Museum of Applied Arts, designed by Odon Lechner and Gyula Partos from 1893 – 1896. It is the third oldest applied arts museum in the world. It is currently showing a very exciting exhibit of Hungarian Posters from the 1920s called Bolder Than Painting.

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AppliedArts12

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AppliedArts10

AppliedArts9AppliedArts8AppliedArts6AppliedArts5AppliedArts4AppliedArts3AppliedArts1More Art Nouveau Architecture


The Cold War

25 years ago this poster would have landed you in prison.

25 years ago this poster would have landed you in prison.

For most Americans, unless of course you happened to work for the CIA or were unfortunate enough to have friends or relatives behind the Iron Curtain, the Cold War always remained a sort of conceptual notion, like the Boogie Man hiding in the closet that could burst forth at any moment and annihilate us all with hundreds of unseen thermonuclear devices, more of a threat then something real and tangible.

Not so for the Hungarians. After the Soviets drove the Nazis out at the end of WWII, the Communists held this place in a grip that was total and absolute and lasted over 40 years. In Hungary the Iron Curtain was not some scary ethereal miasma. Here it was very real, fashioned out of guns, spies, interrogation, propaganda and fear.

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Capitalism, with all it’s pluses and minuses, is now the system du jour and virtually all signs of Soviet domination have been eradicated with a few notable exceptions. Flea markets, where the sale of Soviet era paraphernalia, i.e. coats, hats, pins, etc., is an ongoing enterprise, and two museums, the House of Terror Museum and Momento Park, stand as constant reminders of life under the Communist boot.

The House of Terror, located at Andrássy útca 60, is a memorial to the victims of the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in this building.

The House of Terror

The House of Terror

Pictures of victims stretch the length of the building.

Pictures of victims stretch the length of the building.

 The Nazi’s took possession of this very fashionable location during WWII. When the Soviets and Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party took over, they expanded it to include almost the entire block and converted the basement into a labyrinth of cells and interrogation rooms.

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Iron Curtain Sculpture

Memento Park is an open air museum about 20 minutes southeast of Budapest. It is filled with monumental statues from Hungary’s Communist period (1949–1989).

Main Entrance

Main Entrance

Cubist monument of Marx and Engels.

Cubist monument of Marx and Engels.

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Onward Comrades

Memento14

Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Memorial

Memento22

Together we will dominate the world.

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Monument to the Martyrs of the Counter-Revolution

Memento15

Break Free of Imperialist Tyranny.

Memento20

The Republic of Councils Monument

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The Republic of Councils Monument

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The Hungarian Fighters in the Spanish International Brigades Memorial.

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Red Army Soldier

Memento17

Lenin Relief

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Soviet Heroic Memorial

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Soviet Heroic Memorial

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Most notably absent are any statues of Stalin. Apparently all of them were destroyed after the Soviets fled in 1989. All that remains are Papa Joe’s boots.

Stalin's Boots

Stalin’s Boots

And finally, just for scale.

Wendi is unintimidated.

Wendi is unintimidated.