Budapest - Day 2

Last night’s dinner was really good and interesting- They served a carrot course that tasted like pastrami!

They also poured many, many Hungarian wines which were all very delicious. I especially liked the sparkling.

We woke up today and it was raining. So we thought it’d be a good day to start with something depressing like the Holocaust.

We visited the Jewish Quarter and went to the Great Synagogue. It’s the largest in Europe (and second in the world!)

Men have to wear something to cover their heads so they give out these cute cardboard yarmulkes. Mike just put on my hat (thanks, Chris Bohn!)

Even though they supported Hitler - Hungary didn’t kill their Jews. They just took their rights away and forced them to live in the ghetto. Hitler didn’t like Hungary’s wishy washy behavior so once the Nazis occupied Hungary that’s when the killing started. The synagogue has a memorial to the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who died. 

This weeping willow sculpture has leaves with names on them. 

Budapest was still a communist country less than 20 years ago so a lot of things are still being built or refurbished. This memorial is like that - it was just started in the 90’s so they’re still adding names/leaves every day.

The memorial also honors non-Jews who helped the Jewish people. We learned about this Swedish playboy named Wallenberg who was like Schindler. He saved thousands of Jews by getting them Swedish passports.

Don’t worry! It’s been late, but Mike is having his espresso!

Budapest is actually 2 cities - Buda and Pest. We’ve been hanging out in Pest this whole time! So this afternoon we went to the other side of the Danube River to Buda.

This is Pest across the river...

And Buda looks more like this...

Buda is doing even more rebuilding. Even before the Nazi and Soviet occupations Hungary was always fighting someone - Ottomans, Habsburgs...

All this is to say that this is like the eighth version of the Royal palace.

And the same number of rebuilds for this church...

This church was nicknamed Matthias’ church because Matthias is the Hungarians’ favorite king.

Here he is celebrating hunting. Matthias is at the top but I like his squire just hanging out on the lower left.

Tomorrow we’re going to Parliament - It’s that beautiful palace looking building in the cruises advertised on PBS. It’s behind our heads here...

Here’s a better photo

Now we search for more Hungarian wine!