Mahalaya

You Indian? Me Gypsy. Come let me take you to Vienna.

The Turkish Airline flight flew low preparing to land. In the green landscape with buildings and roads popping up, I had my eyes trained on the Danube when suddenly a lush green island came into focus and grew bigger with every passing moment. ‘Margit Island,’ I said in hushed tones for I had just done a low flight over the same stretch sitting at home with Google Earth on my desktop. Cars sped over the Margit bridge (or Margit hid as I learnt later) towards Aquincum or so I imagined for that was one destination on my agenda. Tucked into the curve of the Danube was Pest, where we would stay, and hugging the outer convex margin was Buda – the castle district.
Turkish Airlines Economy Discounted Delhi to Istanbul:Departs Delhi 4.20 a.m.Arrives Istanbul 8.45 a.m.The Turkish Do&Co Mutfatka - the restaurant in the clouds served an average breakfast of omelette, rolls and coffee, but made up for it with a fabulous lunch comprising Turkish styled minced beef on a bed of bulgur rice / herbed prawns and rice (a grilled chicken something was also a choice.) andchocolate mousse for everybody Departs Istanbul 11.45 a.m.Arrives Budapest 12.45 pmThis time round they do not serve anything knowing full well that the passengers have gorged on free Turkish delights at the Old Bazaar in the airport.The return flight cost us a grand total of INR 29524/- per headDeparts Budapest 1.45 pmArrives Istanbul 4.40 pmDeparts Istanbul 6.45 pmArrives Delhi 3.10 amNow for the really grand total: airfare + 4 nights and complimentary breakfasts and spa facilities at Queen’s Court – INR 45000 per head

The plane had landed. We were in Hungary: not named after the Huns, I am told, but after the Ugrians of the Finno-Ugric group of whom the Magyars (pronounced as. Majyars) are a part. They are the Hungarians of today having displaced the ancient settlers of the half-a-million year old Carpathian Basin: Neanderthals who took on the mammoth, buffalo and the reindeer; Indo-Europeans who rode in on their horse drawn carriages bringing copper tools and weapons; Illyrians and Thracians and Scythians who brought in iron; Celts who worked with glass and crafted beautiful gold jewellery in the 3rd century BC; Romans who came at the start of the Christian Era and established Pannonia and Aquincum; Atilla who came in with his Huns and razed the Roman buildings but retained the fort re naming it after his brother Buda (it became Obuda or old Buda once the new city of Buda was constructed); Ostrogoths, Gepids and Longobards had their century here before being replaced by the a Turkish tribe, the Avars, in the 6th century AD; Charlemagne incorporated the region into his Frankish Empire by 796 AD.

The Magyars had reached the Carpathian Basin, as a part of various mercenary armies, around the mid 9th century AD. ‘Save us, O Lord, from the arrows of the Hungarians,’ became a common Christian prayer through Europe. It was during this time that the sacred turul, a mythical hawk like bird, impregnated Emese – a Hungarian girl –and to her a son was born. But it was her grandson, Arpad, who claimed his divine right to rule. The house of Arpad, however, had before them an important decision to make: who would they seek as their ally – the Holy Roman Empire to the west or Byzantium to the south-east? In the end Rome was chosen and Geza and his son Vajk became Christians. Vajk was crowned as Christian King Stephen I on Christmas day in 1000 AD and his crown came from Rome, sent by Pope Sylvester II.

The modern day Magyars are a hospitable race ever willing to wave their arms about and give, despite their rather perplexing tongue, succinct directions and instructions.

I had changed some money at the airport and was pleasantly surprised by the generous amounts poured into my hands. One Indian rupee buys four Hungarian Forints or hufs as little Urvi put it, as she exchanged her Euros. She is bringing up her mother (my classmate from medical college) well.

Queen’s Court had sent a taxi to pick us up. The taxi driver spoke no English but that did not matter.
‘Queen’s Court?’
‘Queen’s Court.’
And we were on our way. We had booked a European five-star hotel for the first time in our lives but of course we were aware that the opulence taken for granted in India would not apply here. We were soon trundling down narrow cobbled roads running between buildings, which appeared to have been left over from the time the last world war movie was shot. We came to a stop outside a red door that said Pertu Café. It was shut. All heads turned to the right. A brass plaque announced we had reached our destination.

Classmates who have become mothers tend to lounge and sigh: ‘Oh! The sofa is soft. I could do with a flat like this, this kitchenette, that bathroom and those beds.’
‘And this wallpaper Mama,’ Urvi ran her hands along the grainy ivory walls.’
‘… let’s go, go, go …’ was all I had to say. We had to make the most of the daylight hours.’
(Pic1) Looking out of our window (to the right) onto Dob Utca (call that Utza). The road going off to the left is Kurt Utca, which leads onto the really pretty street called Kiraly Utca. CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOGRAPHS


(Pic2) Out of the window again (looking left) onto Dob Utca.

Map in hand we stepped out. Now which way to the river? Which way is north? How do we hold the map?

‘Duna? Down Kurt Utca, turn left on Kiraly and go straight … From India? I love India.’

We followed the directions past the many distractions at Deak Ferenc Ter (ter = square).
(Pic 3) Cox Combs growing at Deak Ferenc Ter



(Pic 4) Concert at the Deak Ferenc Ter. No open area is left unutilised. There are performers at every square.
(Pic 5)Artists at Deak Ferenc Ter.












Past open air cafes eyeing the roast duck and Hungarian goulash. (Note the menu for we were to come back here for a dinner of roast duck …ummm and a kiss on the top of my fingers … all for the princely sum of INR 500/-) (Pic 6)


(Pic 7) To Vorosmarty Ter : Street side artists

(Pic 8) A pretty flautist playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

(Pic 9) Past ornate Baroque styled buildings


(Pic 10) A musician with a set of glasses

(Pic 11) Offers of a rickshaw ride


And at last

(Pic 12) The Duna (I am, by now, as Hungarian as I can get). Buda Castle stands across. The Duna levels have risen with the water flooding the street. The Blue Danube may be the grey Duna now but it is still beautiful.





Day 2


The double decker Hop-on-hop-off bus is a neat way of getting familiar with the city. The tickets are available with the hotel concierge. We set off down Andrassy Utca, past the Opera House, looking for the Autobusz.

(Pic 14) The Opera House patronized by Wagner and family.


(Pic 15) We are off; head phones set to English
(Pic 16) First stop: Heroes square built in the Roman fashion. The statues of Lenin and Stalin have long been removed.


(Pic 17) Past the Railway Station – Keleti Palvaudvar. Notice the word dvar! Incomprehensible as it sounds, there is a method to the language I am sure.

Past
· Semmelweis Museum, where Ignac Semmelweis was born. He identified puerperal or childbed fever and was responsible for saving the lives of many new mothers.
· The Astoria Hotel where Hitler’s army, under Adolf Eichmann, was billeted in March 1944. The German army had come to tighten its grip over the Hungarian regent – Admiral Miklos Horthy, who labouring under the mistaken notion that Hungary had had enough, had been trying to come to secret understanding with the Allies! Horthy? Now there is another story. Since 1919, Hungary, one would say, had begun to go through a roughish patch: Bela Kun, a Transylvanian journalist, seized power in March 1919 and embarked on a reign of terror; the Romanians decided to do Hungary a favour, invaded the kingdom driving out Bela Kun and his minister of culture – Bela Lugosi (later famous as Count Dracula); having plundered and looted with gay abandon the Romanians took flight in November that year the moment Admiral Miklos Horthy, the hero of the battle of Rijeka, appeared in the city riding a white stallion. Horthy had then stood for the first general elections in the kingdom and had been declared regent. And President Franklin D Roosevelt had summed it up thus: Let me see if I understand you right. Hungary is a kingdom without a king, run by a regent who’s an admiral without a navy?




(Pic 18) The black and gold domes of the Dohan Synagogue at the end of Dob Utca – the second largest synagogue in the world.

(Pic 19) The Holocaust Memorial. On the leaves of the ‘metal tree of life’ are the family names of some of the 400,000/- victims. It includes the names of those who lost their lives in the infamous mass murder of doctors and patients at a hospital on Maros Utca.

(Pic 20) The memorial for Raoul Wallenberg – revered as one of the ‘most righteous gentiles’ around the world. The Swedish diplomat and businessman rescued as many as 35,000 Hungarian Jews in WWII. When the Soviet army entered Budapest, he was arrested for espionage and sent to Moscow. No one knows what became of him. It is assumed he was executed by the Soviets.

Over the bridge across the Duna to Buda

(Pic 21) Past the 0 kilometer point at the Clark Adam Ter
(Pic 22)The funicular leading to the castle



(Pic 23) The fisherman’s bastion – named because it was maintained by the fisherman’s guild

(Pic 24) Here stands the statue of Stephenus Rex or King Stephen I or Saint Stephen, the first Christian King of Hungary. His mummified right hand is preserved at the St Stephen’s Basilica and his Crown, a living symbol, in the Parliament House. Both relics had been ‘kidnapped’. It was Empress Maria Theresa who returned the ‘hand’ and the government of the United States the ‘crown’ which had made its way through Austria to Fort Knox to finally makes its way home in a major ceremony in January 1978.

(Pic 25) The Church of our Lady (being renovated) built by the Transylvanian general (later king) Janos (pr Yanosh) Hunyadi who stopped the Ottoman Turks at Belgrade in 1456. Hungary was declared the Christian bulwark of Europe and the pope ordered the church bells be rung through out Europe in celebration of Hunyadi’s victory. Hunyadi’s son Matyas became the greatest of the medieval rulers of Hungary. He married Princess Beatrice here and the church was called thereafter the Matyas Church.

In 1526, the year in which Babar conquered India, Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent occupied Hungary. Ambitiously, he moved northwards to add Vienna to his kitty quite forgetting that winter was approaching. He had to abandon his plans and in his hurry left behind bags of coffee beans. Coffee was introduced to Europe! The Viennese bakers celebrated by baking bread in the shape of the Islamic crescent moon – the croissant! Austria had been saved but Hungary was not so lucky. It remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until the 17th century when the Austrians drove out the Turks and made Hungary a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.





(Pic 26) Take a ride but keep our castle district clean.

(Pic 27) Souvenir shops and embroidered boiled egg holders

(Pic 28) Handmade lace



(Pic 29) To Buda Castle. The underground wine cellars to the right have been turned into a wine museum and to the left lie the remains of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin and Saint Sigismund. Budapest had been bombed during the world war and much of it has been rebuilt trying to preserve the old style as far as possible.


(Pic 30) Buda Castle
(Pic 31) Lions guard the entrance

(Pic 32) For many years no one used the palace until Empress Maria Theresa requested that rooms be kept ready for her.

A long walk down the hill to Clark Adam Ter where hypoglycaemia drove us to wave frantically at our bus. The lady driver waved back equally frantically. ‘No need to kill yourselves,’ she seemed to be saying … But she did pick us up all the same.

(Pic 33) Our driver and conductor were the prettiest people we had laid eyes on that day.




(Pic 34)And to the Citadella.

This was built after an uprising against the ruling Austrian Hapsburgs. Every Hungarian was made to pay or work on it. The message was driven home: if there was ever a second uprising the guns from the citadel would blow up the city. As it happened, after the Hungarian independence, some of the walls of the citadel were symbolically blown up.



(Pic 35) A view of the Parliament House across the Danube taken from the Citadella.

We then made our way past Gellart Hill on top of which stand the statue of Bishop Gellart. He was brought by St Stephen to preach Christianity but the pagan Magyars bundled him into a barrel filled with nails and rolled him down the hill into the Duna! A waterfall beneath the statue symbolizes the fall. The area abounds with natural springs and ‘taking the waters’ is considered beneficial for health.


(Pic 36) St Stephen’s Basilica bathed in evening light.

A concert with church music and pieces from the Baroque period: the perfect way to end the day. Hungarians are serious about their music and frown upon high-tech camera noises. It was 10 p.m. by the time we left and the street lights had come on. People walked their dogs – variations between petite and tiny. Young and old sat about chatting and smoking. Sas Utca, the street in front, leads directly to Kiraly Utca. ‘Chalaa Chalaa ke maar daalegi’ said Amita as her daughter and I tugged at her arms giggling all the while. We had to make it back to the hotel before the Chess Restaurant closed. Back in the room Amita held up her socks for all to see. ‘A brand new pair!’ she claimed. She tried her best to glare at us but the luscious lamb chops, made from contented lambs … as an old friend would put it, were already nestling within. They – the socks, you guessed it right, were ridden with holes.




Day 3

Catch Tram number 4 (a magnificent yellow colour) from Erzsebet Ter, down the road from Queen’s Court, and head off to Margit hid. Then catch the train to Aquincum. All tickets are available with the concierge.
(Pic 37) Yellow tram.



(Pic 38) Check the graffiti in the subways

(Pic 39) The Roman ruins at Aquincum. Be sure not to go on a Monday for the museum is closed!

Catch the train back to Margit hid. The island has been developed into a large garden with fountains. Then get catch Tram number 2 which runs along the water front. So long as you do not get off you can keep sitting for as long as you want. We rode it up and down one-and-a- half times.

(Pic 40) Lady with the palm frond – the Hungarian Statue of Liberty taken from the tram.


(Pic 41) Got off the tram for lunch at Duna Corsa, a delightful open air café by the riverfront.









(Pic 45) Look at the amazing prices! But remember to check for service charges. If it is not included in the bill, hand over 10% of the total to the steward.



(Pic 46) Round off the lunch with a cake at Gerbeaud (pronounced as Gurbo) in Vorosmarty Ter.

Now catch tram number 2 to Vigado Ter, which is the last stop on the route and walk along the shopping areas to the Hungarian version of Palika Bazaar – West End City Centre. Catch tram number 4 to go back to Erzsebet Ter. Tram number 2 and 4 have the longest routes past some of the most scenic spots of the city.


As it happened we ended up riding tram number 4 all the way, in the opposite direction, over Margit hid to Moskova Ter and back again past West End City Centre to Erzsebet Ter. The day ended with a luxurious swim in the Hotel pool and would you believe we succeeded in making a little nook available for the roast duck and Hungarian goose liver curry in Queen Court’s Chess Restaurant?