Where hello means goodbye

Palabra del día: Hello

In Hungary, people use the word “hello” as a greeting and as a way to say “goodbye,” just like “ciao” in Italian means both “hello” and “goodbye.” To complicate things further, the Hungarian word for both “hello” and “goodbye” is pronounced “see-ya.”  So in Hungary, it’s perfectly normal to greet someone by saying “see-ya” and to say goodbye with the word “hello.” All of this confusion explains why Annie and I chose this song as our Budapest theme song:

Comida del día: Lángos

Our tour guide described this food as “communist pizza,” which seems pretty accurate to me.  It’s the same idea as a pizza except the dough is fried and it is usually topped with sour cream and cheese.  Apparently during the communist era they needed to make cheap food quickly, and this was one way to do it.  I tried it, but I wasn’t a fan – I would much rather have Venezian pizza!

Other foods that Hungary is known for include goulash (a beef stew), paprika, and strudel, though Hungarian strudel is very different from Austrian strudel since it has more filling and less dough and can be filled with apples, plums, poppy seeds or even cabbage.

Foto del día: 

On the way to Budapest, we stopped for a day in Vienna.  We did the Rick Steves walking tour of course, then we saw a museum with a great collection of old instruments and armor, then toured the opera house and ate some great Viennese cakes.  Here’s a picture with me and my good friend Mozart.

When I got off the train in Budapest, my first thought was, “I’m not in Kansas anymore!”  Except that in this case Kansas was Italy, or maybe even all of Western Europe.  Budapest is very, very different from anywhere I’ve ever been.  After going to three very touristy large cities, it was immediately clear to me that Budapest is much less for tourists and much more for real people.  When we got off the train, we had no idea how to find the metro and there were no signs in English or any maps to help us out.  Additionally, the Hungarian language is like nothing I’ve ever heard before; the currency is called forints and a typical bill has at least three zeros; and according to the Center for Disease Control website, the water in Budapest isn’t safe to drink.  Once we found our way to the AirBnb apartment, figured out the conversion rate, and bought some bottled water, though, we were ready to explore Budapest’s unique tourist attractions and discover its authentic charm.

I was surprised to find that many aspects of Budapest felt more like the US than, for example, Spain.  The daily schedule and the pace of life, with people rushing around with their to-go coffee, was definitely different from the laid back siesta lifestyle in Spain and Italy, and the numerous cafes all seemed brand new and boasted strong wifi connections. I was a bit confused about this modern feeling because “modern” isn’t generally a word I associate with Europe.  But then I learned that much of Budapest is brand new, built within the last two decades after communism ended in Hungary in 1990.  I hadn’t quite realized how recently Hungary had become a democratic country, and after learning this I was impressed by how much had been rebuilt in such a short period of time. 

One of the most informative sights I went to is called the House of Terror, located in what used to be Budapest’s communist headquarters.  The museum now serves as a way to educate people about communism and as a memorial to its victims. It was disturbing to walk through the jail cells in the basement, and at the end of the exhibits there were hundreds of photos of Hungarian communist police who still hadn’t been brought to justice for the atrocities they had committed, serving as a reminder of how recently communism was present in Budapest’s history.  I was especially interested how communism had affected religion: religion was virtually banned during that time period and instead people were expected to worship their communist leaders.  Although it affected people of all religions, I was especially interested in learning about Hungary’s Jewish population due to my personal connection and the fact that communism ruled Hungary directly after World War II when so many Jews were wiped out in the Holocaust. 

After visiting the House of Terror, I toured the largest synagogue in all of Europe (and the second largest in the world after a reformed synagogue in New York City).  Budapest’s Great Synagogue was built in 1859. It survived World War II but was severely damaged by four bombs, and stayed damaged until 1990 when it was finally fixed up.  The synagogue is unique because it has many elements of a basilica, since the people who first built it were trying to create a Hungarian-Jewish identity for themselves rather than just a Jewish identity.  It’s the shape of a basilica, and has pulpits and even an organ!  The synagogue also has a cemetery next to it, which is rare since Jewish cemeteries are usually far removed from synagogues.  However, this cemetery holds the bodies of thousands of Jews who died from terrible living conditions in the Jewish ghetto, and it was impossible at the time to create proper burial sights. 

The organ in the Great Synagogue

Part of the Holocaust memorial behind the synagogue

 But Budapest has come a long way since its Communist era.  Now, the Jewish district is one of its most entertaining neighborhoods, with tons of unique bars and international restaurants.  The buildings that were ruined in the war have been converted into “ruin pubs,” and their concrete floors and mismatched furniture make a perfect setting for a fun night out. 

Despite its recent history, Budapest to me felt like a fun city that was growing rapidly and offered unique experiences.  In one day, Annie and I managed to go ice-skating in City Park in the front yard of a beautiful castle.  Then we went to the Schelenkyi baths, got massages, relaxed in a few cafes, and went to the opera!  The baths are probably what Budapest is best known for. There are a few of them in Budapest, but the ones we tried had indoor and outdoor pools in a variety of temperatures and are used by tourists as well as locals simply as a way to relax.  In one of the outdoor pools there were even people playing chess! Even though it was 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) and cloudy outside, I couldn’t feel the cold at all while I was in the baths – only when I was running from one pool to another!

Going to the opera was also a highlight, since Budapest’s opera is known as being almost as good as Vienna’s and much less expensive.  Since the tickets were only $7 (for seats on the ground floor!) we decided to go two nights in a row.  I was worried I would get bored with this much opera, especially since it was sung in Italian and the supertitles were in Hungarian.  However, I made sure to read synopses beforehand, and shows were so different and entertaining that I was able to thoroughly enjoy six hours of opera in two days.  The first night we saw a modern Hungarian opera that had premiered two days earlier called Spiritiznák, which had great costumes and set, and the next night we saw a more classical comedic opera called Don Pasqual.  I also enjoyed sitting in the theater and admiring this gorgeous ceiling:

And now that I’ve said “hello” to Budapest, it’s time to say “hello” to Prague!  Or, as they say in Czech, “ahoy!”  Maybe a pirate themed song will be our next city’s theme song?