Budapest, Hungary

Thurs 12th – Mon 16^th June

I'm trying to promise myself that I will not remember Budapest as the city where our first theft occurred, and I think there's a pretty good chance that our stolen bikes will be out shined by this city's wow factor.

Yup, our bikes got stolen. Thieving greedy bastards! (Oops – didn't work.)

Three heavy-duty locks on the busiest street in Budapest and three hours later, all that was left was my cable lock sawn in half, lying on the pavement. Weirdly those locks had survived 2 years in London, but they didn't survive 3 hours in Budapest. Another 3 hours in a Hungarian police department and the only evidence that we ever owned 2 mountain bikes is a few pieces of paper with an alphabet of letters I barely recognise.

Despite the theft drama, Budapest is a fascinating city and one that is embracing its past and more than willing to share it with tourists. I'd been here a few years ago with a few friends for a girls' weekend so Bevan & I decided to opt for a tour that was off the beaten path and focused on life in Budapest during the Soviet occupation.

Replica of Stalin's boots - a national symbol to the Hungarians representing the 1956 Hungarian Uprising when Stalin's statue was toppled in Budapest and Hungary stood up to the Soviet Union dictatorship in a bloody street battle.

Budapest is one of the only cities that decided to hang on to all of the statues that were erected throughout the city during the Cold War. Most European countries that were behind the Iron Curtain had them destroyed or they were so heavily vandalised following the Soviet's departure that they ended up in a pile of scrap metal. However, Budapest residents decided they didn't want to destroy this important period of their history – but also didn't want to stare at them on a daily basis either. So they ripped them from their pedestals across the city and carried them off to a deserted hilltop about 30 minutes outside of Budapest.

Statue of a Soviet soldier in Memento Park. He used to stand at the foot of the freedom statue overlooking the Danube River, as a symbol of how the Hungarian people would always be grateful to the Soviets for their liberation from the Nazis.

Now known as Memento or Statue Park, visiting this bleak corner of Budapest feels cold and neglected even in mid-summer. Adam, our tour guide, explained that they didn't want the park to be beautiful. It should represent the neglect of the communist government towards its people, and the fact that several of the statues are corroding after only 30 years further emphasises the false guise that the communist workers were producing only the finest products. Adam was 41 years old and had spent most of his life under Soviet occupation, and strongly encouraged us to stomp on the grass in anger towards the lies of communism.

Republic of councils monument - A worker in flight resembling a 1919 poster proclaiming "Fegyverbe! Fegyverbe!" meaning "To Arms! To Arms!" Children were pulled aside by police and questioned for even throwing a snowball at such statues.

Adam had a story for nearly every statue in the park, which mostly revolved around the horrors the communist leaders had committed and how the Hungarian people were banned from showing any disrespect towards these dominating, larger than life iron faces which supposedly represented how the Hungarians would be forever grateful for their liberation from the Nazis by Soviet soldiers.

Soviet-Hungarian Friendship statue. The statue symbolises Hungary's gratitude for their liberation from the Nazis. Notice the Hungarian worker on the left is dressed in plain clothes and slightly smaller than the Sovient soldier on the right -- a common propoganda tool to demonstrate Soviet strength.

The statues were fascinating, but the part of the tour that I'll always remember involved a tiny room in the basement of an apartment building in the centre of Budapest. The tour company, Absolute Walking Tours, had converted a basement room into a replica of the communist block apartments that the Hungarian population called home from the 50's – 80's. Still today, over ½ of Hungary's population resides in the communist built state housing.

An old Trabant - the East German people's car on display at Memento Park. Our guide said the average waiting time for your car was 5 years and this is what nearly everyone drove in Budapest.

Walking through the strings of beads hanging over the doorway, Adam welcomed us to the 70's and it literally felt like you were stepping back into time... but a time that you'd only ever read about or heard about on the TV. He walked us around the apartment, explaining his own childhood memories with each of the items in the room. For example, the furniture in all of the apartments was exactly the same, but you were allowed to choose from 3 colours. Old vinyl records fell into three categories:

1. Songs about national pride, a.k.a. Soviet marches. These records were highly encouraged for every family to own.

2. Songs that were 'tolerated', such as the Beach Boys or other good clean music from the west.

3. Songs that were 'banned' and therefore a risk to be caught with in your home.

He showed us old magazines and the “west section” in the back which explained news around the rest of the world which mostly consisted of beauty pageants, and more frighteningly, the old passports. Each citizen was given a red passport, for travelling between other communist countries with relative ease, and a blue passport for travelling abroad. Adam explained that very few people ever got to use their blue passport, as it was nearly impossible to save enough money to travel. Families could apply for a travelling stipend of around $25USD to use on their travels, which of course is nowhere near enough money to travel to another country, much less buy a plane ticket. Since wages were relatively the same for the population it would have taken years to save up enough money to leave the USSR and the only way most people left was by visiting their family in other countries who would pay for most of the expenses. The application process was also extremely difficult with letters from family members and hotels to prove your travelling intentions.

Children's board game - pretty much the exact opposite of Monopoly. Instead of earning hotels and money, it teaches children values such as 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation and 8 hours of rest to succeed in life. Being a hard worker earns you furniture, bikes, etc. and it basically explains the principles of communistic life.

The stories really brought home how lucky we are today to be able to travel freely between countries that were so recently locked down by a paranoid, unwanted communist regime. And how lucky we were to be on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

View Budapest Photo Album