Day 82 What I Learned in Hungary

Hey all! I’m writing this from Berlin, but since so much has happened since I updated, I decided to pre-date it so as to keep things simple!

We made the same mistake as we had in Bratislava... forgot where to meet! It would have been a lot more disastrous in this case though if we hadn’t also forgotten what time to meet... and shown up 30 minutes early. David and I along with the two Canadian sisters, Jaimie and Lauren, parted ways after our failed attempts to find the group. As we headed back towards the hostel, David and I passed by a church we’d seen earlier, only to discover the tour! Our discovery was compounded by recognizing an Emirati couple we’d met on the Bratislava one... seriously the traveling world is TINY. Our guide was a really cool Hungarian woman, who wore the most eclectic mix of coloured clothes that I could never pull off, but that really went with her personality.

A large "bird" and some demonstrators crossing the street.

St. Stephen’s Basilica.

We started (finally) at St. Stephen’s basilica, dedicated to the first king of Hungary who converted to Christianity. He made the switch (as most did back then) for political reasons. Hungary was at the time (1000 CE) the only pagan country in the region, and this fact made it susceptible to attack from the surrounding armies. There are many statues and buildings dedicated to him in the area, and our guide insisted that if we were to forget everything else, we should at least remember his name. The basilica was only completed in 1904, though it looks centuries older. That was the favoured style for a while of Hungarian architects, and the Parliament, completed a year later, is also deceivingly built. The Art Nouveau style of building was introduced not long after as a reaction to this style, as many builders began to feel that their buildings lacked authenticity. One good example is the Four Seasons, which we viewed next, and which is one of the most posh hotels in the city. It’s really strange though how many ugly blocks of communist era apartments still exist and are in use! They were constructed in the years following WWII to fill the holes left by devastating bombings, and so the city is a patchwork of styles. Even the same edifices can have a mixture of styles - for example those with little shops on the ground floor are restored up to their upper levels. The owners are responsible for restoration only of their floor, and since the country’s cash flow doesn’t allow for more work, the top remains pockmarked with bullet and bomb holes.

A remaining bomb hole.

View from the castle!

Our guide, whose name we missed due to our late arrival, also told us about Hungarian food. I didn’t pick up quite as much information about this, as I can eat none of it, but I did register that a serving generally contains about 2000 calories! Woah! I found the most interesting part of the tour the portion about the Hungarian language. Hungary (known by the locals as Magyar) has a distinct language from all the countries around it. It is from a grouping called "Finno-Uric", and is one of the 5 most difficult to learn. She postulated that this is why there are many smart Hungarians -  more neural connections are built in learning more difficult languages. Honestly it makes sense, us bilingual Canadians are way smarter than the Americans, no? (just kidding, couldn’t resist! David hates my jokes...) The alphabet has 44 letters, as does the longest word, whose meaning would take 22 words in English to properly convey. It’s one of those languages to which an endless number of prefixes and suffixes can be added for clarification. She gave us a few phrases, but of course I only remember 'ageshegadra’ which means ’cheers’. She had us remember it by telling us to say "I guess you can drive", which any drunk Hungarian would recognize. The language is also known sometimes as the Jedi Language, as it was what writers translated Yoda’s lines into, and then back again, to form his distinctive word order. We actually say one Hungarian word everyday, ’hello’! Turns out that when improvements were being made to the telephone to remove the need for operators, Hungarians were making the most advancements. In order to check their progress, one end of the line would as "can you hear me?" and the other end would reply, "I can hear you." This last phrase is actually pronounced in such a way as to sound like hello! This caught on, obviously, and may be the reason Alexander Graham Bell’s initial intent for the word Ahoy to be used failed... though that’s just my theory!

On the Chain Bridge, Parliament in the background.

There are many famous Hungarians, and going back to the smart comment, 14 Nobel prize winners originate here. On the celebrity side there were a few surprises, such as Drew Barrymore, and of course Yoda.

I find it interesting how certain countries have such different names in different languages. I think it has to do with globalization: the more connections each country builds, the more likely that a global name will be established. In Europe, where civilizations have existed for centuries, people were more ethnocentric, and so each developed their own names for the others. In this way, you get "Allemagne", "Deutschland", and "Germany", versus the commonly understood, "Canada". Our country is known as such all over, as it was only founded once the process of globalization had begun in earnest. I love my homeland, but the long history of Europe is so cool!

The '0' point from which distances are measured.

Hungary was founded by 7 tribes in the 9th century, who came together in a blood pact and moved from the Uric mountains to the present location. The territory they occupied used to be much larger, but after their defeat in WWI it was severely cut down. This left much of the population to wake up in a different country from one day to the next. The Hungarians unfortunately have a long history of occupation, but they have resourcefully managed to weather the situation. In the early days the Ottoman Empire came knocking, and although they were staved off initially, they were eventually successful. Luckily for us today however, they brought their bathing culture with them, and combined with Hungary’s ubiquitous sulphuric water, the Baths were born. I know I loved them the other day! I learned later on that the reason hot springs are so common is that the Earth’s crust under Hungary is about 15 km thinner than the global average. This is due to a large amount of tectonic activity, which is also responsible for the Buda hills and the Pesth plains. The many caves in the area are a result of the water’s chemical makeup, which was better able to dissolve the rock, creating extensive systems that range throughout, the longest of which is 30 kilometers!

The Hungarians were eventually free of the Ottomans, only to find themselves under Hapsburg and Austrian rule. For decades there were wars for independence, until in exasperation the Hapsburgs suggested a dual monarchy, and the Austro-Hungarian empire emerged. The money given to Hungary from the spoils of this alliance allowed for extensive building and beautification, which luckily has been either protected or restored from the war. It’s amazing how much damage it did all over Eastern Europe, sort of a constant reminder. After their defeat in WWI, the Austro-Hungarian Empire ceased to exist, and a vastly reduced Hungary had a short stint by themselves. Their next occupation would come from Nazi Germany. In an attempt to regain that territory which the Treaty of Triannon had taken from them, they believed Hitler’s promises of restoration. These promises came to nothing however, and instead the country was occupied, and subsequently freed by Soviet Russia. The only issue here is that they decided not to leave, and so began the Communist Era.

Since no one’s here, I’ll be on guard!

Though most of Eastern Europe was touched by communism, the Hungarians got certain things others did not. These select privileges included the ability to watch American TV, to have some freedom of the press, and to wear jeans. These were all doled out as a result of a big Revolution, which while ultimately unsuccessful, was large enough to warrant an attempt to prevent another. We happened to be doing the tour on the same day as the anniversary of the Revolution, and there were tons of Hungarians out and about. It’s a tradition for political rallies and demonstrations to happen on this day, even by skinheads, who we saw many of. Needless to say David was a little uncomfortable... After the fall of the U.S.S.R. a democratic state emerged and free elections are held every 4 years. Like Canada, everyone thinks the other parties can solve problems which the current government are failing to, and power flip-flops after each election.

St. Mathias Church.

Statue of the famous St. Stephen.

The tiles on St. Mathias’.

We crossed the Chain Bridge, the real name for the gorgeous structure we used to reach the castle a few days before. It has massive arches, and lion statues, which are pretty imposing! We climbed up to the other side of the castle this time, and were there to see the changing of the guard in front of the building where the country’s leaders work. Pretty cool how traditions like that are still upheld. They left no guards in their place though, and the guide explained that this is because of the political insignificance of the country -  no one really cares enough to assassinate the leader, so why bother guarding him? We wandered over to St. Mathias’ church, another pretty structure with a multi-coloured tile roof. On the castle hill are two caves, one which used to be used as a bunker and hospital during the wars, and one that is known as the Labyrinth. We decided to forgo entering, and planned instead to visit an extensive one the next day.

View of Parliament with Chain Bridge in the background.

Our guide left us all with "survival guides" near the Fisherman’s Bastien, a large structure with seven tours that gives a great view of the city. She also warned us about pickpockets, and it seems to me that there are many in the city trying to rip people off... cab drivers being the worst. When we had arrived at Retox our check-in included a warning about their being mob run, which turned out to be really true. One of the people at our hostel, a fellow Canadian even, had stupidly (and drunkenly) taken a cab to the hostel, after which he was asked for the equivalent of $275, or 60,000 HUF. Obviously confused and unwilling, he was then held at knife point by the driver and robbed of his cards and iPhone. He has travel insurance and actually may come out on top financially, but he was pretty freaked, and is so lucky he got away unhurt. This city is for sure one to walk in, even late at night. David and I are a good team though for that reason especially... it’s nice to know someone has your back and is watching out for you.

To break this up a bit, I’m going to leave you with all this info for now! If you ever travel, seriously do the free tours. They’re all tip motivated, and have so much good info (obviously!)#

Ageshegadra back home! Miss you all!