We went for walk into the Varosliget Park today and the first point of contact was Hero’s Square. A 36m high column topped with a statue of the Archangel Gabriel and around this there are two quarter circles with statues of the hero’s of the millennium since the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin. A very impressive memorial.
Beyond the statues lies Varosliget Park, and one of the features of the park is the large lake. But instead of a lake we were greeted with the sight of several groups of obvious tourists (Maps and Guidebooks in hand) looking very perplexed. Because in front of us where we thought there ought to be a lake, was a large slab on concrete. From the best that we could guess, they flood this lake in winter for ice skating and ice hockey. But in summer this is definitely an eyesore looking over towards the Palace (Vajdahunyad Var). An interesting looking building that now houses the Agricultural Museum. Eventually we found some bits of water that belonged to the lake, after following the trail of little row boats for hire, that were left high and dry on the concrete. But they led the way to the duck pond, and a desperate man and his fishing rod. I have no idea what he was trying to catch, but I think he would have had more luck paddling through the water and trying to beach the said fish on the concrete.
After this Justine went to the Hungarian State Opera House for a tour, while I went into the ‘House of Terror’ Museum. The Terror House was the old headquarters of the dreaded secret police. The inside gives an eye opening account of the dark side of what happened here under communist rule after WWII. Very scary stuff, and very sobering. Down in the basement are the rooms, cells and torture rooms where so many people lost their lives. And upstairs were the rooms where those decisions were made. I am sure that the Opera House was a much more cheery experience.
Built in 1884 in an Italian Renaissance style, the opera house seats 1264 people. It was designed by the same person that designed the St Stephen’s Basilica not far away. It has the second best acoustics of any Opera house in Europe (as proven by committee). The first example of air conditioning in Europe was included within the design here. Surrounded by pink marble, glittering chandeliers, wooden floorboards, and gold. The gold is all 24 carat, and there is lots of it. Around the stage area there is an iron curtain that can be drawn, so that if a fire broke out backstage it would protect the patrons for four hours and give them time to exit. The Austro-Hungarian emperor, Franz Joseph gave permission for the opera house to be built on condition it wasn’t better than the one in Vienna. He only ever attended the opening performance and he left that half way through because the acoustics were better. His wife Elizabeth kept coming back though, although the ruling of the time was that she could not sit in the ‘Royal Box’ unless he was there too, so the ‘Royal Box’ still remains empty.
We have been very impressed with the hostel here. As per our first impressions, these people go out of their way to do what they can to help and make you comfortable, even at their own expense. You see some very high maintenance kids here using the receptionist like she was their mother. They really need to go home and grow up, before offloading their attitudes on the world. As for us, she even provided us with a ‘Soviet Union’ clothes drying rack. She was very apologetic because it was basic, functional, but tended to collapse. Funny that :-) But it had indeed come out of the Soviet Union.
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