Budapest, Hungary Day 3

Budapest, Hungary Day 3

We met Josh at the National Museum. It was 10am and raining. The line outside was full of hard core museum enthusiasts waiting to see what was inside the massive building. Once inside, we headed to the bottom of the building to see the early Roman artifacts. There was a great amount of them and some had pre roman carvings. It was interesting that the Greeks did not make it up this far, and what was here was only Roman items. The rest of the museum was set up chronologically, with a special area for the history of Budapest. We spent over 3 hours in there, then decided to head to the House of Terror museum, which was quite far away.

Our lunch break was at a kabab hole in the wall restaurant along the way. We wanted something cheap and quick and they had a good deal going. Kebab restaurants have the meat skewer that you can always see, but this time instead of having a rotary electric shaver for the meat, the woman used a large knife. Hmmmmm? We had not seen them use large blades since the Turkish kebab places. In Slovenia and Hungary, they were all about the electric shavers to get the meat off the skewer. Also, we noticed a cool coffee maker in the corner as well and 3 nargile pipes. All right. Then the dead give away was the Turkish Eye in the doorway to the office. Those are blue and white with a black pupil and seem that they are always looking at you. We were in a Turkish kabab restaurant in Hungary. How cool! Normally, it would be rare to see these cultures among each other, but here we got lucky, and it was one of the best kababs we have had. I guess it would be a Turkish-Hungarian Kabab. Very good.

Next, we had a little walk that brought us to the House of Terror museum. This is a modern new museum that displays the secret police in Budapest after the second world war. After the liberation from the Nazis by the Russians, this force was established to keep order by any means necessary. They were called the Arrow Cross group. The museum is actually in the same building that the group used for interrogations, tortures, and killing. It was mostly a multimedia setting and had some neat artifacts. The job of the Arrow Cross was to keep the communist order and if you spoke out against them or the country, notes were taken. After a few of those, you would be brought in for questioning. Everyone at the time was under suspicion while these leaders of the Arrow Cross did whatever they wanted to get answers. It was a free for all. They killed many and started doing so under their own pretexts. We saw records and files galore, and if they needed dirt on you, they could make it. Many people were Jewish and they did not stop there. Others were taken if you did not agree with their policies. The Arrow Cross was so powerful, they started to need more floorspace to house all the prisoners. In the end, the basements of the entire block were joined into one huge prison. The building that we saw had the offices and rooms above, but the real chiller was the basement. Down there were the torture rooms, cells, and the hanging areas. There was also a padded room with the floor padded as well. One scary one was the room that was so small, all you could do was stand. I couldn't imagine being there for a week. This place was popular among the tourists, but not unbearable. We got in at 4pm and left when they closed at 6pm. This was yet another addition to the wonderful collage of human's capacity for evil. I am sure there will be more when we visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz.

After that eerie experience, we got a bowl of goulash with Josh and headed back to the chain bridge. We were looking to get some night pictures of the city. Normally, I like to be back at the hostel resting up and typing blog entries in the later hours, but this time we wanted some different pictures. On the way to the bridge, we stopped by the Basilica and people watched for some time. The night crew is totally different than in the day and that easily provided the entertainment. We would sleep in the next morning and head to the Baths. Well, at least that would be the plan.

Katherine and Andrew were able to get a Skype session with their parents, even though we forgot and missed the appointment. They filled them in on the days events and then it was time for bed.

Good day.