Friday 26th March 2004

Location: Semmelweiss utca – 6:25pm Local Time

Firstly, happy 28^th birthday to my sister back in Trieste. Secondly, we had a lazy morning and left at 12 pm for our daily tour.

We went down to Kossuth Laios utcs [Cosciut laios uzza], a long and fast toady name after a famous 19^th century reformer. It ends near the main pedestrian zone called Váci utca [Vazzi uzza] and the Erzsébet hjd [Ersēbet hid] which means Elizabeth Bridge. We turned into Váci utca full of market stalls, touristic shops and high street shops. We stopped at Vörosmarty ter [Vōrōshmarti ter] anf there were some stalls offering local meat dishes and sweet specialities in honour of the Spring Festival who has just started. We had a look at the very expensive Austro-Hungarian patisserie Gerbaud (French name, not Hungarian) and we also peedked in the M1 underground station. It has been renovated but they kept the art nouveau style of the early twentieth century. The M1 is first ever underground service on the European continent.[1]

After we walked along the large Danube river, fascinating even though the weather was grey. Northwards we could see the great Széchenyi Lanchid [Sēcegni Lanzhīd], the Chain Bridge. It was built in 1840, destroyed during World War Two and rebuilt in the 1940s. Across the bridge, you arrive in Buda, exactly at the feet of Castle Hill. We walked up there and saw the Royal Palance, the Mátyás-templom [Mātiásh-templom]  or Matthias’s Church, dating back to the Mongul invasion of 1241, and the Fishermen’s Bastion, so named because it was the section of the Medieval castle walls assigned to the Fishermen’s guild for defense.

Around 3 pm we descended Castle Hill and went to Moskva ter to get a delicious palacsinta [palacinta], a sort of pancake which you can either fill with something sweet or salty. I had a palacsinta with apple and poppy seeds…yummy!

Later, we caught the undergound to the Millenary Monument, Hösök tere [Hōshōc tere]. Italian president, Azeglio Ciampi, was supposed to stop there for his conference at the Academy or Arts. Loads of black cars, police guards, traffic stopped – we only say him for a couple of minutes walking from the car to the entrance and then we left.

We caught the M1 finally and it was great fun! Apart from being aesthetically beautiful, they also played a funny song at every stop!

Our last part of our daily tour was the House of Terror, near Oktogon [Octogon], a square shaped like an octagon. It was an infamous house at the address Andrássy utca 60, having been the headquarters for the Arrow Cross (Hungarian Nazi party) in the 1940s and the AVH (Communist State Security Authority) until the 1980s. In this place cells and death rows (or should I say ‘torture rows’) were built to repress opposition or enemies to the regime. It is a chilling story through black and white footage, relics and reconstruction of the prison.

Now, because we are shocked by history, it is time for dinner and a quiet evening.

VOCABULARY:

Written	Pronounced (Italian phonetics)	Meaning
nap	nap	sun
hogy vagy	hogli vagli	how are you?
finom	finom	good / nice
boldog születesnapot	boldog sūleteshnapot	happy birthday
húszonegy eves vagyok	husonegli eves vaghioc	I am 21
tej	tei	milk
kávé	kavé	coffee
sonka	shonca	ham
szalami	salami	salami
sajt	sait	cheese
utca	uzza	street
ter	ter	square
igáz	Igás	true
hamis	hamish	false
dío	Dio	walnut
burognya	burgognia	potato
fehér	feher	white
piros	pirosh	red
vörös	vōrōsh	red (for wine)
ez	es	this
az	as	that
hjd	hid	bridge
enni	enni	eat
inni	inni	drink
étterem	etterem	restaurant
egesegedre	eghesheghedre	cheers! good luck! enjoy your meal!
To Be: en[1] vagyok te vagy maga vagy (polite) ő van[2] az van mi vagyunk ti vagytok maguk vagytok (polite) ök vanak[3] azok vanak		To Be: I am you are he/she is it is we are you are they are they are (things)

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[1] [from table] the pronoun is optional like in Italian and unlike English and French

[2] [from table] ‘van’ is omitted in sentences and implied

[3] [from table] ‘vanak’ is omitted in sentences and implied

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[1] [from text] The oldest in the world is London making Budapest the second oldest