Memento Park

Another even longer tram and bus ride took us into the Buda hills and to Memento Park. After the fall of communism here, some enterprising souls gathered together what they could of the colossal communist monuments and statues and placed them all together in what is now called Memento Park. As with the Museum of Communism in Prague, this is all displayed with some humor, although the underlying story, especially of Hungarian resistance and rebellion, is tragic. But even the people who lived through it all seem able to laugh, a little, triumphantly now, at those years.

"Our founders" (this is socialist realism?)

Comrade Lenin

Alas, most of it is untitled

But speaks volumes

Must be thirty feet high

Vicki made me do this; I have leftist

sympathies, but not that left

"I am the Walrus"--Donnie, TBL

"Let's us Ruskies and Hungarians be pals, comrade"

Pretty well sums it up, machine gun and all

Esceri Piac

Esceri Piac must mean "street market" or somesuch.  But this is no mere flea market. We've seen a few recently. This one attracts antique dealers and has some wonderful stuff (as well as the usual flea market fare). It took us more than an hour on buses to get to it, right on the southern outskirts of Pest.

Entrance on a gray day; it's actually a large enclosed 
area, with some permanent stalls and shops, the rest 
on tables all over

A cimbalom

Stall interior

More

In one of the galleries

Interestingly, unlike Germany and Austria, there was a good bit of Nazi 
memorabilia for sale, reminders of how market- oriented Nazism was--they 
were continually producing trinkets and other items, covered with their 
symbols and slogans; the owners would not let me take pix of most of

it, but I did snatch a few

Presumably there's a black market for this stuff; one wouldn't want so much 
as to touch it, however

Big Indoor Market

At the end of Daci Utca is the Lszamu Vasarc Sarnok, which, we figure, means "big indoor market."

There it is

At first sight, outside, I thought it had to be the Budapest

train station; it is humongously huge, three floors

Much of what is sold is paprika

And other local goodies

Garlic for those contemplating a trip to Transylvania

Fun (in English, too)

As well as goose liver

Vaci Utca

We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around, as is our habit, first to a craft-market near the synagogue, then down toward Vaci Utca, one of the main pedesrtrian shopping areas.

Fixer-upper Art Deco

Nice Art Nouveau all around, although not as prominent as

in Prague

All kinds of nice buildings to look at

Vaci Utca; we have, at length, figured out that

utqa means street; ter means plaza or square;

fortunately, many people, especially younger

(as is always the case), speak pretty good

English

Which is good, since there is not so much as a phoneme in

the signage or spoken language we can understand

The central tour bus port in downtown Budapest

Looking across the Danube, the giant Liberty statue

Budapest Synagogue

Our first stop, in what is turning into a week in Budapest (it's a long story), was the Budapest Synagogue and Memorial in the Jewish Quarter.

Facade of the Budapest's Dohany St. Synagogue, built 
in mid-19th century, said to be Europe's largest

Interior; a beautiful place, not much defaced by the Germans

The style is Moorish Revival, but with many of the trappings of a Christian 
church...pulpits, organ, etc.

Dome

Vaulting

Definitely Moorish-looking

Silver tree memorial to Hungary's half a million Holocaust victims, in the 
synagogue courtyard; the tree was a gift of the American film actor Tony Curtis, 
whose father was among those murdered

Nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews were deported and 
murdered in May-June, 1944

In the neighborhood; the philosopher Spinoza actually 
has a cafe named in his honor; he resided in Budapest 
for a time, evidently

Two Years on the Road

Two years ago, today, we left dear Missoula, after selling, donating or storing nearly everything we owned, and after an especially frantic day and night of final packing and storing. But we made the plane to San Francisco, and then, after a less than one day visit with Rebecca and Jeremy, we made the next plane, to Tokyo, and then another, to Beijing. And so our retirement travels had begun. Nearly 800 posts on this blog as well as many entries on our website chronicle these two years. It's interesting to reflect that no previous years of our lives have been so well chronicled.

Many other reflections come to mind. We have seen many sights, met many people, touched on five continents, endured a few minor difficulties, and had many interesting and edifying experiences. The reflection that most readily comes to mind is that, even after two years of this traveling routine, our mindset--both of us--is still in "vacation" mode. Particularly as September rolls around, both of us, former educators, think about going back to work or school. Every day we have to remind ourselves that we are not really in a hurry, that we can spend another day or week if we want, that this is our lifestyle. We do miss having a home, and particularly our family and friends, but we'll get back to those things soon enough.

Meanwhile, if there are not enough castles, museums, cathedrals, and standing stones to see, or food and drink to savor, there is always the quotidien even of travel. Currently we are at a nice-enough campground in Pest (as in Budapest), two tram stops from the Danube. We have enjoyed touring this great capital. The weather today is grey and cool and threatening rain. Our particular challenge this morning is finding tires for our campervan. It is a Sprinter, made by Mercedes, and the tires are Conti's, whose world headquarters is in Vienna. But we have not been able to find these tires anywhere in Austria or Hungary. We have a lead back in Vienna and may have to back-track 160 miles there to get the tires. We need them before heading out of the EU/Schengen countries, into Rumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. But we're still having great fun and great experiences. Stay tuned for year #3.

Continental "VancoFourSeason" 245 75 R16, load range E,

120/116Q; got any?

Still More Vienna, 3

We had a good stay at Camping Wien; very helpful staff; 
out near the Wienerwald (aka Weenie World)

The gist here, I think, is that it will cost you

36 euros if you don't pick up your doggie's

droppings

Don't mind the gap: on selected Vienna subway cars, a little

ramp extends for baby carriages, wheeled luggage, etc.

Futbol fans; the Vienna Rapid plays in a stadium near our

subway station; costumery and paraphrenalia are similar

to American football fans

In the station by the opera is the Vienna Opera Toilets,

where, for 60 cents, you can answer Nature's call to the

strains of the Danube Waltz

Interior view

I spent too much of my youth and young adulthood reading
and puzzling over the writings of the Austrian philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein

And so had to see the Haus Wittgenstein at 18 Parkgasse;

after publishing the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in

1923 or so, and figuring, modestly, he had solved all the

problems of philosophy, Wittgenstein designed this

(Bau-) Haus for his sister (with the architect Paul

Engelmann); the Wittgensteins were incredibly wealthy

Austrian industrialists; that's another several stories...it's

now the home of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute;

sic transit, Gloria....

I'm (still) taking suggestions for a caption...

Still More Vienna, 2

Vienna is where cafe society was born, and Hawelka's
was perhaps the most famous

I had a coffee, melange, and a strudel, and lamented
that the day of the smoke-filled cafe, writers and
artists, is now gone; they're all down at the Starbucks,
I was told, for the wifi

In 1989, we had the Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher

This time, we thought we'd try the other "authentic" source,
Demel; Vienna is the capital of the pastry world, they say, 
and Demel is the capital of pastry in Vienna, they say; 
therefore...

One of Demel's showrooms

We had the little Sacher Torte that afternoon

Our subway passed by the Schloss Schoenbrunn, the
summer palace of the Hapsburgs; we had gone there
in 89 and so skipped it this time; too much Austrian
official yellow paint can be hard on the eyes