I got artsy-fartsy with my phone photos, using the black-and-white and sepia setting.
I walked around the Pest side of the city for another hour or so, just enjoying the view. I walked into a park on the Pest side of the city and did a double-take. Is that...a statue of Ronald Reagan?
Sure enough it was. This statue was erected in 2011 in Budapest's Freedom Square to honor President Reagan's work to help end Communism. Good to know that I wasn't hallucinating dead presidents.
By this point, I was cold and getting a little peckish. I stopped into a place called Farger Kave. I ordered soup, which is always nice on a chilly day.
With the first slurp, I was initially disappointed to realize it was a cold soup. That brief disappointment turned into an "oh wow" sensation. This cold soup had apples, raisins, nuts, cinnamon, and some citrusy flavor, possibly an orange. It was delicious.
I also ordered chicken. The chicken is under there somewhere.
After I finished lunch, I popped into the ladies room. These were, by far, the best "his" and "hers" signs I've ever seen on bathroom doors. One is seated, one is not. Seated, please.
And now, it was time to go meet up with the free walking tour of Jewish Budapest at 3:30.
Our tour guide told us, among other things, that during the 19th century when many countries in Eastern Europe organized anti-Jewish pogroms, Budapest did not. In fact, it seems as though Hungarian Jews didn't face threats during this era until the Nazis were in power.
Now, if you've ever been to Europe in the winter, you'll know that the sun goes down at about 4:00 p.m. As our tour guide was talking, the sky was getting darker, but the Christmas lights came on, yay!
One of the stops on our tour was the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest synagogue in the world.
The architecture, you may notice, contains elements of Moorish and Gothic styles. This was a real point of contention with Orthodox Jews at the time, for in their minds, a synagogue should not look like a mosque or a church. The synagogue was badly damaged during World War II. Actor Tony Curtis and businesswoman Estee Lauder, both children of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, spearheaded fundraising campaigns to rebuild the synagogue.
Around the block, at the back of the synagogue is the Holocaust Memorial, also known as the Emanuel Tree, a weeping willow made of metal with one name inscribed on each leaf in memory of Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust.
I would be remiss if I talked about Jewish Budapest in World War II and did not mention Raoul Wallenberg. I heard that name for the first time in 1999 when I went to Washington D.C. and visited the Holocaust Museum, at 100 Raoul Wallenburg Place. I had no idea at the time that he saved so many lives by issuing protective passports and assigning some buildings in Budapest as safe houses for Jews.
During this walking tour, I learned that Wallenberg was only 34 when he died in 1947, allegedly of heart failure. However, there's more to the story than that. By January of 1945, Budapest was in the hands of the Soviet armies. Wallenberg was taken into custody by the Russians and was never seen again. TWELVE years after he disappeared, the Soviet government produced paperwork, supposedly from 1947, saying that Wallenberg died in July of that year "probably from a heart attack." He was 34, not exactly the prime age for heart attacks.
I was leaving for Prague the next day, so I went to the store and got something for dinner as well as some bus-friendly food for the long 7-hour bus ride. Dinner that night has brought to you by Premium Smack noodles, when you just gotta have some smack for dinner.
