Monday 29th March 2004

Location: Semelweiss utca – 8:25pm Local Time

I have not been writing for a while and I lost track of the days. This city really keeps you engaged and keeps you going.

Let’s start from Saturday 27^th. After a lazy morning and a nice lunch at home, we decided to spend the afternoon in the National Múzeum (museum, of course) since the day was grey and a little bit rainy. The museum was divided into four floors. The first one was called Lapidarium, a collection of Roman gravestones and ornamental ruins dating back to first century AD. This was location in the basement together with another small upper floor containing medieval gravestones and statues. The ground floor held a section on Prehistoric Hungary, but it was closed. The left wing of the building was dedicated to the Royal Mantle, the same since 1013 AD, and golden jewellery across the centuries. The first floor could be reached thanks to a beautiful neoclassical staircase which leads to the history of Hungary from Prince Arpád (895 AD) to the end of the Communist regime (1991). Interesting since I knew very little about Hungary, but above all well organised and well presented!

Once we visited the museum, we went to see Nyugati palyaudvar, designed by Mr Eiffle, and it looked like a portrait from the Belle Epoque, although its surroundings were too modern (McDonald’s, shopping centres, night clubs, big rush hour traffic, too many flashing lights). We had dinner at McDonald’s which has a whole wing of the station, a whole art nouveau room, mainly because it funded the restoration of the building.

Before going back home, we planned to walk along the side of the river Danube by night from the Parliament[1] to the Chain Bridge, which was a dream, a masterpiece, an enchantment, a shape of lights walking on this dark river, witness to many centuries. A symbolical bridge from the West to the East.

On Sunday we woke up very late and went to the Széchenyi gyógyfürdő [Sēciegni ghiōghifūrdō], the baths of Széchenyi, to experience the warmth, relax, health and satisfaction of Turkish baths. The ticket price included all sorts of things, from sauna and outdoor baths at 38C, while the outdoor temperature was 5C, to steam rooms. We would have like a solarium, but we had to pay for it and time was not enough. We were out by 2 pm and walked back across Varosliget [Varoshlighet], a big park, then Hösök tere, and then the underground to Vörösmarty ter to taste some typical Hungarian food. I had roast ham, paprika sausage and potato salad with sour cream. Very nice!

We then went back home and had a nap. We had a small early dinner and then went out for a walk at Lisz Ferenc ter [Lis Ferenz ter] near Oktogon. It is a long square full of coffee shops both traditional and modern. This time I had a hot chocolate with coffee and cream and a big ice-cream. We walked back home (no underground this time) and the sky was finally clear above the decorated buildings now a little bit old but still watching the silver moon among the starts on a dark blue velvet sky.

Monday morning was in a rush. We got out of bed at 8 am and went to the indoor market as soon as possible, because we had to be at the university in the early afternoon and there were things to be done in the morning. Built in 1897, the indoor market still maintains the metallic structure typical of the Industrial Revolution. The ground floor is for grocery; the first floor is for touristic souvenirs at a cheap price. We bought items for our families among which a T-shirt, some paprika, some Hungarian salami. Then off home and onto Nyugati to get the train for the university. The weather was milder than the cold wind we experienced last time we came. The new thing we did this time was to go and see the college where my friend stayed for the first month in Hungary. The path was very rough, and I cannot imagine how you could manage with ice, snow and cold. From the bridge separating the campus and the college, the Iosephinium, you could see a fast road running underneath (perhaps the motorway) and you could see the small and simple village of Piliscaba.

After our last Hungarian lesson, we returned to Budapest, went home and then out again to see two interesting locations: the Opera and the Szent István Basilica (Saint Stephan’s Church). The former was grand, not big but grand. The inside was very elegant, a reminder of older days when men were gentlemen and women the symbol of well-mannered love, a reminder of the progressive society with no fear of the war and changes ahead. The latter was sublime: a great architecture to celebrate the first Catholic king of Hungary and the saint patron of Budapest. The inside was huge and so was the square outside. I had to walk far away from it to take a picture of the whole sacred monument. It was time for a prayer and later it was already time to go home.

VOCABULARY:

Written	Pronounced (Italian phonetics)	Meaning
a / az	a / az	a / an
repülo	repulo	aeroplane
Magyarorszag	Maghiarorsag	Hungary
Olaszorszag	Olasorsag	Italy
Görögorszag	Gōrōgorsag	Greece
Anglia	Anglia	England
Amerika	America	America (USA)
Kina	China	China
Nemetorszag	Nemetorsag	Germany
Franciaorszag	Franziaorsag	France
Spanyolorszag	Spagnolorsag	Spain
orszag	orsag	country / nation
jó	ió	good
finom	finom	good / nice
rossz	ross	evil
sör	shor	beer
ekes	echesh	golden
kronika	cronica	History
-ba / -be		(going) in
-ban / -ben		in
-böl		(going) out
-re / -ra		(going) to
-en / -on		on[1]
-röl		(going) from

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[1] [from table] There are exceptions where you use on / at to say Magyarorszagen (in Hungary) and palyaudvaron (in the station)

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[1] [from text] very similar to Westminster, the British Parliament, with the same architecture, same position but no Big Ben though!