1999 Biking East Europe

Tuesday, September 7 – Budapest, Hungary – Catarina Hostel, 3 000Ft

We are in Budapest. Arrived along the cycle path from Szentendre late yesterday afternoon. We lost the path some time after entering the city outskirts, took a random left to the river, circled round and picked it up again. Asked once for directions near a cobblestone square in which four or five statues of windblown women carrying umbrellas against a non-existent rain stand incongruent in the hot sun, and cycled essentially without let or hindrance right to the centre of this city in which two million Hungarians (1 in 5) live. Pedalled tired but happy to Andrassy Ut and Catarina’s Hostel where we are bedded down for the next two nights. Bedded in one double and one single under a wooden platform on which a couple are resident and beside the dorm of 18 or so bunks. Our open-ended room fronts the entrance hall through which everyone has to pass – through a very noisy door – to their rooms. But we are paying only 3 000Ft per night and despite the traffic slept well in our comfortable beds. Currently we are in McDonald’s having coffee and fries. We have brought our toothbrushes to use here to avoid the congestion at Catarina’s. The hostel is situated on the third floor of an 1878 building on classy Andrassy (classy but jaded around the edges). This building must have been incredibly beautiful for despite years of obvious abuse it retains some elegance. The entrance, through a huge old door with a smaller man-size door cut into it, is all marble and high ceilings and discreet frescoes and fantastic stonework flowers and an impressive chandelier. The central courtyard is pebbled and the ironwork on the stairs and lift a pleasure. Nobody seems to be renovating these places yet, but I assume as time goes by and the sense of ownership and pride and value is restored, so too will Budapest be. Charl and I were trying to work out how much Catarina earns. With 25 beds in the centre of the city at $7 per night each, assuming she fills them 150 times a year....

This morning I discovered a fever blister starting (a la our Durban trip on day three or four of which I also developed a blister). We went to the Opera Patik (pharmacy) seeking a solution. An 1889 room all in wood with a mezzanine balcony overhanging the counter with a curved narrow staircase and small drawers and stained-glass window cupboards. In the room behind the counter a computer etc. A helpful lady provided me with a space-age bottle that subsequently and efficiently did the trick – after enquiring discreetly if it was “erpees” from which I was suffering. While waiting to be served the carpet cleaner arrived, lifted the carpet from the floor and replaced it with a clean one exactly the same – eminently practical!

At the MAV office to which we went this morning to book our train to Brasov (Romania) there was a ticket dispenser with three buttons: local tickets, international tickets, information. Press the button, get a ticket with a number on and await your turn. Simple and effective. Paid about $60 each – more than expected even at the return discount rate of 70% – an old hang-over and rather odd system which applies if you buy a return ticket to a former communist country.

Many people in this city own and walk dogs – often muzzled in iron. On the main streets they seem to clean up behind their dogs, but in the side streets one must avoid piles of pooch poop.

We spent some of the day on Castle Hill in Buda – admiring what remains of medieval Budapest. We particularly enjoyed the Matthias church which is absolutely stunning. Neo-gothic (rebuilt in 1896) with high vaulted ceilings, and everything painted in muted mustard, maroon, navy and tan. Stained-glass windows depicting scenes from the Bible, ancient flags hanging from curved section pillars. All walls ceilings and pillars painted and patterned – busy yet strangely restful. One wall broken by the large windows mentioned above, other windows flower shaped with floral stained-glass images. A plain stone floor.

The contiguous homes on castle hill reject simple white and are painted pale green, mustard, ochre, teal grey, tan, faded peagreen or off white. Pleasing to the eye.

We did not enter the castle itself – only looking bemused at the bullet-scarred walls and strolling the outskirts overlooking the river. And had two disappointments: the national gallery which we had planned to visit was too expensive for us, and the cake shop museum is closed on Tuesdays.

So we took the bus back to Moskva on our travel pass. And asked a tram driver how to get to Szoborpark (Statue Park): Gigantic Memorials from the Communist Dictatorship – also advertised as Tons of Socialism, this park contains communist-era statues removed from Budapest’s streets after the “change”. He radioed someone to make enquiries and then got out to direct us onto a tram and bus. He also looked at our brochure of the park, pointed at Stalin’s statue and said with disdain ‘idioot’. When Charl laughed he looked to him to confirm his assessment. Amusing.

Tons of Socialism is a great idea (which would work well in post-apartheid South Africa where statues of past oppressors, along with road names, are being willy nilly removed), but too far out of town to be effective. Despite a pretentious, pompous design and huge entrance gate as gung ho / intended-to-be-stirring as the various statues, the statues themselves are too spread out to make the desired en masse impact, unfortunately. However, each statue in its own right was pretty impressive. We could not afford the guide book so did not get as much out of the experience as we would have liked, but thoroughly enjoyed the collection nonetheless. Huge and emotionally appealing / stirring. Charl put a crushed coke can in the outstretched hand of a particularly self-satisfied individual – reducing him to his rightful place!

We shopped in the early evening with enjoyment at a supermarket near Catarina’s for bread and butter (had to ask someone to identify this), camembert and salami, brandy and coke. Which we drank surreptitiously on the stoep outside Catarina’s door until Charl’s joke (I said tomorrow we are going to Romania, he said he thought we were going to remain here) seemed outrageously funny. Dined and slept well.

Budapest’s people are friendly and helpful communicating via English or German or sign language. There is a good and complex public transport system: buses, metros, local trains, trams. On the bus back from the statues sat a muttering man who spent the entire journey reducing his newspaper to smaller and smaller carefully torn sections and filing these in his carry bag.

There are many beautiful women in the city, often too sexily dressed. Charl says there is a feeling of the 60s i.e. a new sense of and expression of freedom rather than a simple desire to be sexy.