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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Hungarian Freedom Fighter

We made it to Budapest, the last week of this portion of our flash packing trip, island hopping, and beach lounging, now we have made it to the capital of Hungary where we will fly back to the US for a few weeks before Pucon. I have to say, six weeks of travel was extremely fun, but we are both ready to grab our snowboard bag, NF duffle, head to the mountains, and be in one place for a while, well after kicking back in awesome Michigan for a few weeks that is!

But, for 8 days we are in Budapest, and WOW what an amazingly beautiful city! Every street corner we walk around holds another beautiful building, statue, church, and other amazing pieces of European architecture of a style I have never experienced before. Most of all, Budapest is an amazing cultural city from a literature and arts standpoint, and you can feel that presence here.

Budapest also holds an amazing place in history from the Cold War due to the influence of communism and the USSR. While we are walking around I cannot stop thinking about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Scratching back in time to remember my college Central and Eastern European Politics from ~1950 to 1990 class, and using Wikipedia to fill in the gaps, I refreshed myself on the events that occurred leading up to the revolt. I am not going to go into details, but I am in awe of this place. Everywhere I go I visualize a street corner in '56 with a bunch people like the ones below.



The first few days we spent walking around, exploring, and eating. Right around the corner from our first hotel was a plaza of buildings that looked familiar. Cross referencing the location I found a photo from 1956 on a Wikipedia article of that same location. The area being the Corvin Passage, home to the Corvin Cinema which is still operating, and site of one of the lengthiest and most brutal fights of the resistance in 1956. Read the article if you want more info. The old photo on the left has a Hungarian flag with the communist shield cut out.


3 comments:

Ron said...

That would be the photo on th right.

L. and J. said...

What a remarkable description of the uprisings of 1956. We well remember when this was in the news.
It's special that you brought this to our attention again.
Love you!

Jason Vander Meer said...

right, the right not the left.