Warning--this is a LONG post!
Last weekend was a weekend of holidays in Greece (St. Demetrius Day-the patron saint of Thessaloniki-on Friday, and Oxi Day-the day Greece said no "oxi" to fascist invasions by the Italians during WWII). Because of this, we had off Friday and Monday! We joined up with a life long friend of mine, Ryan (who lives in Germany). We decided to meet halfway in Budapest, Hungary for the weekend.
It was a super packed two days. We left Thessaloniki on Friday, but because of the airport being quite small despite the city's size, flights kind of stink. So, we couldn't get a flight until the evening. We arrived in Budapest around 6:30pm. Once we had made a quick stop at the Airbnb to set our things down, we headed out to find a good, traditional supper. Which was not hard to find, all of the food we had over the weekend was excellent!
We were much too tired from traveling to do much more than eat supper, so we headed to bed early Friday night so we could pack our day as much as possible on Saturday. And, let me tell you, we PACKED Saturday full of good sight seeing.
Budapest is a city divided by the River Danube. One side of the river is the Buda side and the other is Pest. These were originally two kingdoms. When the Queen of Buda married the King of Pest, the city became Budapest. We stayed on the Pest side, so on Saturday we explored Pest.
We started at the Parliament, because Ryan really wanted to do a tour. Unfortunately, we couldn't get tickets for Saturday (thankfully we did Sunday, so stay tuned to hear about Parliament).
When we couldn't get tickets, we decided to just wander around the city and enjoy the beautiful buildings. We walked along the Danube River and saw the Danube shoes. This is a memorial to the Jewish people that were deported and killed during WWII, specifically those the Nazis lined up along the Danube and shot into the river simply because they were Jewish. Before murdering these Jewish people, they were asked to remove their shoes, as the Nazis considered their shoes valuable (shoes were expensive at the time), and their lives worthless. Each metal shoe is a replica of a real pair.
Shoes on the Danube memorial
As we walked along the Danube, we ended up at St. Stephan's Basilica. St. Stephan is the patron saint of Hungary, as he was their favorite king. The basilica is beautiful. It also holds a case with St. Stephan's right hand in a case.
St. Stephan's Basilica from the outside.
The alter area of the basilica.
That is St. Stephan's hand in the case.
After the basilica, we stopped for a quick snack, chimney cakes, and then headed to my pick for the weekend: the House of Terror. Before I move into the House of Terror (no it is not a haunted house or anything Halloween themed), a quick note about chimney cakes. Chimney cakes are a must if you are in Hungary. Hungary doesn't have too many foods that it calls its own, but chimney cakes are one of the few. They are specific to Hungarians from Transylvania, so the cake is popular in both Hungary and Romania. It is made from sweet, yeast dough that is spun around a cone and then cooked. Once it is cooked, it is coated in sugar.
Chimney cake
Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent at the House of Terror. The House of Terror is a museum located on Andrassy Ave 60 in Budapest. This address is important, because the museum is located in the exact spot (in the original building) that the fascist and communist regimes in Hungary had their headquarters. It's part museum to teach about these two times in Hungarian history, and part memorial to the huge number of victims from this time.
During WWII, Hungary, like many other European countries, was taken over by Nazi Germany. The headquarters of the Nazis was Andrassy Ave 60. It is from there that they gave the orders to murder and transport to concentration camps some 424,000. Towards the end of WWII, the Soviets came to Hungary, fought the Nazis and "liberated" Hungary from their regime. At the time, the Hungarians were extraordinarily thankful and thought it was amazing they had stumbled into such luck. That quickly changed.
The Soviet Union, with help from very radical Hungarians calling themselves the AVH, set up a communist regime in Hungary. This regime was built on fear and torture. While the Soviet's were in Hungary (from after WWII until 1991), Andrassy Ave 60 became their headquarters. They tortured and held prisoners in the basement often based on baseless accusations. The regime deported around 600,000 civilians to work camps in Siberia based on fake accusations. It is estimated that at least 200,000 of these people died.
It's unknown how many people were kept, tortured, and killed at Andrassy Ave 60, as the building was never officially used as a prison, interrogation, or execution site. However, it is obvious that many were. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum, but the basement of the building was kept as it was during Soviet control (a prison). The cells were left exactly as they had been, small, wood benches for beds, a whole to go to the bathroom in, and windowless. The torture chambers also remained: There was a room that was barely large enough for a grown man to stand in (not big enough to sit down) where a light would shine directly into the prisoner's eyes. There was also a room where the ceiling was lowered so that even I (at 5'4") had to bend completely in half to stand in. This room could have the air supply cut off to so that the prisoner would be gasping for air. Another room was completely padded, no light, and was used as a solitary confinement. We learned of a woman who was held in the room for two years...years!!! Finally, a "traditional" torture room with buckets for water boarding, electrical torture, and torture with tools. The final room in the prison was an execution room set up for hangings. Many of the people executed at Andrassy Ave 60 were executed weeks before their verdict from the court came through.
In 1956, Hungary had a uprising where they fought back against the Soviets. 2,500 people were killed and 20,000 were wounded. They lost. Hungary would not be free from Russia's control until 1991. However, Russia had been severely hurt during the uprising and from 1956-1991, its control slowly slipped away.
The outside of the House of Terror Museum. When it is sunny the word Terror appears as a shadow on the building.
The museum was so interesting, and based on how much history the Soviets had in Hungary, it was very good we visited. However, afterwards, we needed something more light, so we explored Hero's Square and some of the surrounding buildings and parks. Here are some pictures below.
This is the famous Budapest Chain Bridge that connects the Buda and Pest sides.
Ben, Ryan, myself, and Miller posing by the chain bridge.
The Buda side of Budapest from the Pest side.
I woke up early (okay, not that early, it was 7:30) the next day so that I could shower before everyone else and so that we could head out to Parliament nice and early and hopefully nab tickets. I was sitting on the couch for what felt like a really long time, when I glanced at my phone. My phone said the time was 7:15, which it couldn't be, because my watch had woken me up at 7:30...how could the time have gone backwards? It turns out that European daylight savings time had occurred that night! My phone adjusted its time, but my watch hadn't. I had actually woken up at 6:30. So, I did a lot of reading while I waited for everyone else to get up and get ready.
We made it to Parliament in time to take four of the last nine tickets left for a tour in English. The tickets were for one of the last tours of the day, so we headed to the Buda side of Budapest to explore.
The Buda side of Budapest is SUPER hilly. So, naturally, the first thing we did when we crossed the bridge to Buda was the climb the largest hill on that side to see the Citadel. Unfortunately, the Citadel was under construction, so we couldn't see any of it. However, we did get some awesome views of Budapest and a very beautiful view of a waterfall.
This is a beautiful monument at the bottom of the hill to the Citadel. It was so nice to see the fall colors, because there aren't any in Greece. The statue was of a saint none of us had ever heard of before: St. Gerard Sagredo.
A great view from Buda, across the river of Parliament on the Pest side.
The left side is the Buda side and the right side is the Pest side.
Great view of Budapest. Left side is Buda and the right side is Pest.
We checked out the Buda Castle after the Citadel. We didn't pay to enter the actual castle, because each piece of the castle is utilized as a different museum. However, we did get some cool pictures of the castle and the surrounding churches and buildings.
A view of Buda Castle.
A church on the grounds of the Buda Castle. It is amazing how detailed it is. Its so hard to imagine that this was all made by hands in the 1600's!
Another church nearby had this beautifully made roof!
The last thing we did before heading to Parliament, was to take a quick walk on Margaret Island. I don't have any pictures from this part of the day, it was nothing photo worthy. However, I HIGHLY recommend a visit to Margaret Island if you go to Budapest. The island is a giant park for the residents and visitors of Budapest. It has running trails, walking trails, biking trails, picnic areas, large green areas for running and playing, a small petting zoo, nightly light shows, soccer fields, free gyms and tracks, and more. It was such a cool thing for a city to have!
At last, our feet basically falling off of us, we arrived at our Parliament tour. It did not disappoint!
Miller in front of Parliament.
The Parliament building began its construction in 1885. It was designed by Imre Steindl who oversaw its entire 17 years of construction. He was at the construction site daily, even after going blind about halfway through the 17 years. Unfortunately, he died less than two months before it was completed, so he never saw his finished work.
When Nazi Germany took over Hungary during WWII, the government of Hungary hid the amazingly ornate stain glass windows in the basement so that they could not be harmed. Thankfully they survived and were brought back out after the Soviets "liberated" them.
The Soviets tried to change parts of the building to make it look more communist, but the Hungarians fought back against this, and were able to keep Parliament safe. It was badly damaged during the uprising against the Soviets in 1956. After Russian occupation of Hungary ended in 1991, the Hungarians fixed all the damages to their building minus one part. They left the bullet holes in one section of the building to remember the uprising in 1956, all the people who died, and how Hungary would never allow another country to impose fascist or communist regimes on them again.
You can faintly see the holes in the side of the Parliament building that were caused by shooting during the uprising of 1956.
This is the meeting hall of Parliament. It was set up for a big European Union conference that was held the next day.
All the gold three meters above the floor and higher was real gold. Let me tell you, that's a LOT of gold and most of the walls and ceiling were gold. The gold below three meters was just gold colored paint. This was so no one stole the gold.
This is the officially entrance hall into Parliament. Because of its tricky security situation, it is only used when there are important delegates visiting.
After Parliament, we called it an early night. The next day (Monday-also known in Greece as Oxi Day), we took at 6:00am flight back to Thessaloniki. Despite being exhausted from having to get up at 3:00am to catch our flight, we walked to see the Oxi Day parade. It was nothing like we had experienced before. The parade was a military parade in which Greece showed off the full might of its military. It was simultaneously amazing, cool, intimidating, and scary. Check it out for yourself below.
Some of the military lined up. They had ALL the branches wearing their official combat gear. That was neat to see as the snow brigade even carried their skis!
A medical vehicle.
A truck carrying drone bombs.
A tank.
A video of all the tanks rolling down the street.
The parade even included all the sea and air gear, like these helicopters.
The soldiers marching.
Thessaloniki's Oxi Day celebrations concluded with an hour long airshow. We wanted to go, but were just too tired. Luckily, we did catch some of it as they flew right by our apartment.
A glimpse of the airshow.
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