Finishing Up
Let me finish talking about the day I started.
So as soon as I'd finished posting this morning's post we headed out to lunch then to the Budapest Synagogue. It's the largest synagogue in Europe. I had to wear a little hat and we paid 600 forints (about $3) to get in.
We've visited a few churches this trip and you keep having to pay admission to get into the churches here. At least the nice ones. I don't really like it. I think church should be free. Even if it is just too look at the pretty walls and take happy snaps it should be free admission.
Anyway, we looked around the synagogue and it was about how I expected it to be. Like a cathedral with no Jesus. And a balcony for the women to sit in. Christians don't have dress circles. Except for when they stick the choir up there. Lucky choir.
After the synagogue it was off to the Holocaust Museum. That was a good building. Very nicely designed with lots of sand stone, glass, and big doors. I like big doors.
The Museum was very well done. It led you through the 8 stages of the Holocaust for Hungarian Jews and Gypsies as they were deprived of all their rights and eventually were killed. It's always sad to consider. And scary. While I know that if I lived in the time I would be one of the Jews, I identify more with the strong majority. The ones who just watched the atrocities happen. I wonder if I would have been brave enough to speak up. I wonder where I need to speak up now.
Humans, we can be so terrible. If only we learnt how to behave.
Once we got kicked out of the museum because it was closing time Grandpa took us to the place where he first saw a Russian as they liberated Budapest in 1945 (he describes the day here). It special to see the place for real. After our detailed explanation of events over lunch I was taken to the place. I stood where the Russians set up their field gun and looked down to where the German barricade was. I looked across the road to where the Russians had gathered and to the other side where the had played with a Voltswagon they had found. It was probably the place where I have connected with my Grandfather's experiences of World War 2 the most this trip (of course I haven't talked about all the rest yet, cause in the blog catch up I haven't even made it to Hungary. I'll get there.) I wasn't as moved as I have been other days, but today it lived in my imagination. And getting some idea of the past of my Grandfather is the whole reason I am here in Hungary.
After the visit to the Russian first sighting site and to see a block of flats Grandpa lived in during the war, we went to dinner at a little restaurant that Jo and I had eaten in a few nights before. I had Pork Cutlet "Good Woman" style. Don't ask me what "Good Woman" style is, I just ate it for its name. It wasn't too bad though.
After dinner we raced to the square across the street from our flat to watch the World Cup final on the big screen. We were an hour late. We thought the game started at 9pm, but it started 8pm. But no worries, we saw most of the game. It was so tense by the end. I really didn't want Italy to win, but I guess the Italians weren't interested in what I wanted, because they totally ignored my wishes and won anyway.
Oh well. It'll be Australia winning next time.
Subscribe to:
Comment Feed (RSS)
Blogs I like to read:
Blogfeed
Howie's Blog
David's Blog
Jenny's Blog
Lesley's Blog
Jem's Blog
Ryan's Blog
Mil's Blog
Gem's Blog
Nathan's Blog
Jo's Blog
Chris' Blog
My Preaching Blog

Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(396)
-
▼
July
(42)
- Genesis I had small group tonight and we were stu...
- Hungary These are the Hungarian photos. This is t...
- Lag The jet lag hasn't been too bad. It just tend...
- Russian Photos These are the last of my Russian p...
- Pad Thai! I'd been craving Pad Thai since I was i...
- I'm Home Ok so there were no airport blogs becaus...
- Leaving Soon We're leaving here at 3:15am to driv...
- Billy Elliot and the International Air Guitar Star...
- U2 are Coming! - Again! November 10th and 11th (1...
- Me too "Don't believe me, when I say I've got it ...
- We spent most of the day on trains again. But we m...
- Actually I lied. Yesterday was only the hottest ...
- Did you know... Yesterday was the hottest July da...
- Trains the Way to Go We made it to Sudbury Suffol...
- Doing the Toff After an extended sleep-in we (Jo,...
- I just ate a cereal called Cinnamon Grahams. I ate...
- James Makes my Life Look Good This is James' phot...
- Fame When I woke up this morning and I got a mess...
- All About Towns I'm wearing smelly socks in Oxfor...
- I love Superman Now Jo and I are staying with our...
- I'm in Vienna again with their crappy keyboards! A...
- Hunger Buster I know that's a dodgy title but I n...
- Greatest Hits
- I listened to Jamie Cullum today while I was blogg...
- Salman I finished reading The Satanic Verses toda...
- More Colouring In Here are some more photos. I'v...
- Busted So today didn't have a lot happen. We caug...
- For Ben If you don't like long posts, here are so...
- Hit Parade Alright so I’m going to give up the wh...
- Iron Men and Jolly Men We got up real early today...
- Finishing Up Let me finish talking about the day ...
- Italy Ruined My World Cup Just watched the final ...
- Closing the Gap Well I know that this whole tryin...
- Late Night Logging
- You may be interested to know that after reading m...
- My Brain Hurts My brain hurts. I was already to w...
- Yo Ho Ho, I'm in Pest That's the Pest half of Bud...
- Airport Blog Alright all those of you who think I...
- From Russia with Love We're about to leave Russia...
- Twoday I wonder if every Russian lives a life th...
- We saw a dancing bear today. Although it wasn't da...
- A Day Down the Mines Hoi I’m tired. We spent the ...
-
▼
July
(42)
