Barnett Vicarious Adventures: Wednesday, September 8, 2011

The train departed Vienna, Austria to Budapest at 8:04 and arrived at 10:49 a.m. We exchanged some Euros for Hungary Forints (HUF) $1.00 is 200 HUF. Little difficult to convert when you something for 10.000 HUF that would be about $40.52 USD.

We learned the most interesting thing in Budapest. There is a city named "Buda" on the west bank of the Danube River, and a city named "Pest" on the east bank of the river. But for years, they have been combined into one word - Budapest. The name "Buda" means "Water". It was the word used for water in the language of the area that covered Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. The town of Buda got its name because of all the mineral baths and hot springs that are in the city. There are dozens of health spas using the mineral baths and hot springs. So, the Romans who inhabited the area named it "Buda" ("Water").

They also told us when we are touring around the city if you are walking on hills you are in Buda. If you are not walking on hills you are in Pest.

This is a first time for us inside a former Iron Curtain country. People are wonderful, but the city can be a little depressing after 40 years of communism. As a fellow in a bar told us, "They pretended to pay us, and we pretended to work!" So things fell apart or were poorly constructed. But progress is being made.

Edward in the train compartment – we had the compartment all to ourselves for the trip.

The Budapest train station.

We started our day walking toward the river and went by the Old Jewish Synagogue and then we took a Budapest City Tour

Information for the Jewish Synagogue

The Jewish Synagogue – it not other Synagogues we have seen anywhere. This one is very colorful outside and inside. Usually synagogues have a very conservative décor. This one is the 2nd largest synagogue in the world. Holds 6,000 people. There are about 10,000 Jews in Budapest but they do not all live in this District now. At one time there were more than 100,000 all living in District VII.

Jewish Memorial - It looks like a willow tree with the trunk and limbs appearing as a menorah bent over.

The leaves have names engraved on them in memory.

The memorial. The fence of the Synagogue

A Hungarian Police car.

Heroes Square

The Beer Bike – work off your beer belly as you drink beer. These guys were having a good time.

Palace of Art – Museum of Ethnography

Elephant House at the Budapest Zoo

Lake in the park.

Budapest is called the city of spas, and the Szechenyi Bath and Spa was the first thermal baths on the Pest side. Back in 1881 they were called "Artesian Baths.

River Boat on the Danube.

In 1956, protesters knocked down a statue of Stalin and used it as a barricade against Soviet tanks. All that was left of Stalin was his jackboots. Today, even those are gone. In their place stands the new commemorative statue. The House of Terror effaces part of the Hungarian involvement in Communism; the new statue pretends Stalin’s jackboots were never there.

Pest from the top of Buda.

View of Danube River with Buda on one side and Pest on the other.

Stairs by the Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion - The Bastion takes its name from the guild of fishermen that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages.