Day 52: Budapest

We started Tuesday in good spirits. While Monday morning had been a downer, we bounced back nicely on Monday afternoon and ended up having a pretty great day. Tuesday was to be busy: a 12km (7.5 mile) run in the morning, including a middle section of difficult aerobic intervals, then the House of Terror Museum and an Opera performance in the evening.

We got out of the house in good time and on our run. It was bloody cold outside, around 1 C when we set out. Daryl set a new path through City Park, the large green space to the east of us and we actually managed to avoid most of the crowds while experiencing some lovely trails. We were off to a great start.

After showering and having a post-run snack, we set out down Andrassy Ut, an iconic boulevard near our house that is lined with mansions and townhouses. The House of Terror, which is along Andrassy Ut, is now a museum but was once home to the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis during WWII, and then the communist terror organization, the AVO, between 1945 and 1956. The museum commemorates Hungary's victims of terror.

The tour began with the Nazis occupation of Hungary in 1944. Hungary sided with the Nazis during WWII and fought alongside them early on, regaining many of the territories they had forfeited as a result of losing WWI. However, after suffering heavy military loses the Hungarian government attempted to surrender to the Allies. As a result, Germany occupied Hungary beginning in 1944. Many innocent civilians were tortured in the House of Terror. Most Jewish Hungarians were deported, mainly to Auschwitz. Other Jews were shot along the Danube, plunging into the river. At the end of the war, approximately 6.5% of the population had been killed.

In 1945, Hungary ended up under Soviet occupation. This led to many years of torment. Citizens were deported to the Gulag (Soviet prison camps). In these camps, mostly located in Siberia, prisoners were forced to perform hard labour in cold temperatures under inhumane conditions; between 600,000 and 700,000 Hungarians were sent to these camps. Other citizens were accused of political crimes (approximately 71,000) and questioned, tortured, and sometimes executed. Civilians who were not ethnically Hungarian were deported, including 230,000 Germans. Property and land were nationalized. Food and other necessities were sparse. Soviets tried to brainwash the public into accepting and promoting Communism through various forms of propaganda (some of which are shown in the picture below).

*Poster disparaging America, the apparent cause of a beetle outbreak in Hungary which is killing crops

In 1956, the Hungarian people staged an uprising. It began with a student gathering to articulate 16 demands against the Communist regime. One protestor cut out the Soviet insignia from the middle of the Hungarian flag. A popular rallying slogan was Ruszkik Haza! (Russkies go home!). While it initially looked like they were making headway, the Soviets eventually quashed the rebellion, killing 2,500 civilians and injuring 20,000 more. This uprising did eventually lead to a softening of the Soviet regime, which would eventually be ended in 1989.

Near the end of the museum is an emigration room filled with postcards representing the 200,000 Hungarians that fled the country after the 1956 uprising. Needless to say, it was a very informative museum and made us appreciate how lucky we are to have grown up in a peaceful country. The Hungarian people have suffered greatly in the 20th century.

After the museum, we stopped by a shopping center to look for socks (for Daryl) and a warmer cardigan (for me). We were successful and then headed home to prepare for the Opera (here we are ready for the opera...while not underdressed, we wished we had fancier clothes to wear).

The Hungarian State Opera House, which is just around the corner from our apartment, was opened to the public in 1884 and is considered (based on beauty and acoustic quality) to be among the finest opera houses in the world. We got some good pics of the lavish interior from our seats.

We saw Simon Boccanegra, an opera about the first doge of Genoa. Apparently, it is a pretty standard opera and is performed regularly around the world. We are happy that we read the plot summary on Wikipedia ahead of time, because otherwise we would have been lost (the Danish couple beside us did the same, but unfortunately the Aussies beside them were not quite as wise). The show was performed in Italian, with Magyar (Hungarian) subtitles displayed above the stage. Unfortunately, the summary on Wiki was pretty sparse. We knew the general takeaway from each scene (e.g., scene where Boccanegra and daughter are reunited), but each scene would continue for about 15 minutes, so we obviously missed some details. All in all, it was a good time.

After the show, we walked back to the restaurant around the corner where we had previously dined on Friday evening. I once again ordered the venison ragout while Daryl enjoyed the duck. It was a fine finish to a great day.