Budapest

(6-27-06)


We checked out from the hostel early, grabbed a quick breakfast, and hopped on a bus for St. Stephen's Cathedral (Szent Istvan). This was the largest basillica in Hungary, named for the first Hungarian king to be baptized. He subsequently converted the rest of the country to Christianity "by hook or by crook" before his death. Legend has it that his hand is still preserved in the cathedral in a hyperbaric chamber similar to the one worn by David Decovney in the movie "Zoolander." Unfortunately, public viewing of the hand didn't open until 1330, so we had to forgo witnessing this miracle of taxidermy in order to move on with our tour of the city. We climbed to the top of the Basillica's tower, where we were able to see an excellent view of the entire city. From the tower it was easy to appreciate how the Cathedral had been built in the city's highest point, constructed after a flood wiped out the rest of the city in the mid 1800s, prompting its residents to pray for God to spare them and promising to erect the cathedral if their prayers were answered. We then visited the "liberation" monument, climbing to the top of a hill where the citadel was located across the Danube. The citadel was built in 1849 by the Austrians after defeating the Hungarian rebellion. The freedom statue was built after the communist takeover in the 20th century, during which time the Russian artillery shelled the city for several days from the citadel.

Having the opportunity to visit these sites with Sam (who had previously lived in Budapest for 6 months) was a tremendous enrichment to my experience, even if he did disagree with my claim that the word "Budapest" actually stems from the German word for "a whale's vagina." We had a quick lunch and then visited the Szecseny Furdo Turkish bath house, which was notable for a huge collection of pools which ranged in temperature from Big Trout Lake in April to McDonald's coffee. There were also a number of saunas and steam rooms, and on a cultural note, PDA seems to have been perfected in Hungary (if it wasn't invented here). We ate dinner on Andressi St. where I inhaled a bowl of Hungarian goulash before racing to the train station to catch the evening train to Venice.