Notes on our trip to Hungary

 

Note: In 2020, our family planned a month-long trip to Hungary that was canceled due to Covid-19. It would have been nine years after our first three-week visit in 2011. We own a home now in a Hungarian city and hope to visit soon, perhaps next year even. I was thinking a lot about our trip recently almost 10 years ago, and searched Wayback for a blog I did for StandardBlogs about the trip. I found it and am very pleased to share it again. It includes a family visit to the local branch in Kaposvar, Hungary, where my wife, Kati, grew up. -- Doug Gibson

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For most of the last three weeks, our family visited Hungary, a first experience for myself and the kids. We spent two and a half days in Budapest (at the bottom floor of photo above) and then the bulk of our time in the city of Kaposvar, where my wife, Kati, grew up. Besides cleaning and starting the renovation of a condominium, we got to know the city and made side visits to Lake Balaton and Pacta, to enjoy a medieval fair.

The following are diary entries from the trip, which lasted about 17 days and included forays into four airports and three flights, between SLC and Chicago, Chicago to Zurich, and Zurich to Budapest, and back. (Forgive the typos and other mistakes, some due to my inexperience with a Hungarian keyboard) We took more than 1,000 photos, a few of which may yet get on this blog.

JUNE 9: Switzerland and Hungary so far. Amazed at the large swaths of very high, dense forest areas that abut residential areas and farms. You can literally go across the street and get lost in the forest. … Hungary, Budapest: With family in a ground floor apt rental of the old school. Has an iron gate that leads into a court with four floors of apartments that are accessed by a winding stone stairwell and each floor squares the building a tiny fence and narrow passage way! … in Budapest, just bought horse sausage at market, yum. The market below.

JUNE 11: Saturday we visited the House of Terror museum, which is the site of the secret police headquarters of both the fascist WW2 and the communist security operations. It is a somber place. It is several stories, connected by a winding stone staircase. The courtyard has a huge 1950s tank, the type that the Russians used to invade Hungary in 1956. Wallpapering the several floors are pictures of the victims of the 1956 uprising. Each floor is devoted to a portion of the 19th century history, whether it is World War II, the later communist invasion, the propaganda techniques, media and art included, the judicial system and how the show trials were conducted. Besides the many videographed testimonies, there is a communist propaganda film, complete with English subtitles, that is used to justify the Soviet invasion. The basement is heart-wrenching as you see the torture areas, two floors of cell after after cell, the completely dark punishment area and the execution room. I admire the Hungarian people for having this museum not only as a way to show that evil did not last, it was indeed condemned after a few generations, but also those Hungarians who participated in this evil are acknowledged. There are infamy rooms with hundreds of pictures of major Nazi and communist leaders as well as minor participants in the oppression and cruelty. Scores of these people are still alive and it must be a huge, albeit deserved disgrace to be so noted. My own nation should emulate such self introspection. I’m not sure that we do. Below is the Iron Wall memorial, outside the House of Terror.

JUNE 12: Budapest is an active city; comprised of 22 districts and split by the Danube River. It’s fast-paced with pedestrians moving quickly, sharing space with bicyclists, cars move through streets, most narrow. There’s a perpetual smell of tobacco in the air; far more people smoke here. The streets are well stocked with side-by-side businesses, vertical in style, mostly independent, although there are Burger Kings and McDonalds spotting the area. The Danube features several bridges that connect Buda to Pest.  Below is a photo in a park across from Heroes Square where our family greets the statue of the long-ago court scribe Anonymous.

The currency is forints, and 183 F equal a dollar. Due to a VAT, you pay the price as marked. They have TRAX, buses and a fantastic subway system called Kontroll, or metro. It’s a small city in itself and there are several lines. Small billboards dot the metro and there are long escalators that the kids love. The subways run every minute or so. (If you want to see the Budapest metro, see the film Kontroll. It’s easy to rent. The architecture is classic for establishment building. Homes are courtyard style, several floors and Soviet style multiple floors. Lots of balconies. Also lots of museums and statues. We visited Heroes Square, the Parliament Building (during tour we the 1,000 year old crown that is on Hungarian coinage. We also enjoyed a late night meal at a restaurant that mocks the communism era. It included Soviet style appliances and an iconic photo of Breshnev and Honecher (East German leader) smooching each other like lovers on the lips.

JUNE 13: (after taking the train to Kaposvar, about a three to four hour journey) Im falling in love with this small city Kaposvar, Hungary. The mid-sized city is literally filled with scores of parks, which is apt because there are thousands of tall trees with lots of leaves, the type of trees that lean together over narrow streets. (At left is a photo of the town square) And the streets are filled with symphonies of birds singing. There is music on the street where our condo all the time. When it comes to dining, we follow Andrew Zimmern’s advice and go where the locals go. We favor a small cafe with more than 50 types of pizza and great Hungarian soup. The people in Budapest and Kaposvar dress far more casually than in the U.S.. shorts, T-shirts and sandals are very common. Today we went to a water park, not much different than what we have in Utah except the diving area was a stone 4 meter deep small pond with three stone ledges jutting out from stairs … short, medium and high dive. … One more observation — there are more public displays of affection, particularly between 20 somethings. I remarked to Kati that it seemed persons marry early here and she said that very few under-30s get married. They live together. Apparently the marrieds are too busy chasing kids to be publicly affectionate. I suggested to Kati that we pretend we were living together by leaving the kids in the apt. and go out to the street to make out. A photo of the front of Kaposvar's city hall is below.

JUNE 13: Forgot to mention — the first people we met after checking into Hotel Kaspo and going for a walk was a couple from Spanish Fork with their daughter and missionary son, Elder Clark, whom they were picking up as his mission was concluding. Small world, they approached us due to my U of U hat. … Today, walking the streets, I noticed steel grates under many windows. They provide ventilation for the gas heating — old fashioned — in the buildings.

JUNE 15: In Kaposvar, Hungary, noticed that most of the trees are chestnut trees. Nuts are a few months from being ready. Had lunch at Kati's cousin's home — several courses, including a delicious Hungarian soup with yarn pasta, chicken broth and boiled chicken with carrots — also culled more antiques from the condominium, including an 1854 hymnal, an 1874 Biblical geography — It hasn't reached much more than 80 and the humidity stays around there, not unpleasant. We visited Tescos, a hypermarket like Walmart. I found a DVD of the cult film "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" very cheap, less than 3 dollars in ftz, so I bought it. We bought a copy of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix in Hungarian at a small bookstore; very expensive, roughly $35 in forinz. I have noticed that Kaposvar has as many residents as Ogden, Utah. Land size is smaller due to style of housing, inherited from Soviets, of very tall housing that extend 10 or 11 stories with small condos jutting upward.

JUNE 17: (A trip to Lake Balaton) We visited Lake Balaton in the Hungarian countryside today. It began with a two hour bus drive to Kesathely, a small city. There we first toured the Festetics Castle, which dates from the late 18th century. Its an amazing building. (See it below paragraph) I think I enjoyed the library the most. It had more than 90,000 books, many first editions from the 18th and 19th century. We also toured the castle grounds which included a carriage museum, with carriages dating to the early 18th century. Back in Keszthely we ate lunch on the square. One new food was langos, Hungarian fried bread, and we walked a mile or so to Lake Balaton It was great. I waded into the lake as far recreational swimming was allowed, a few hundred yards. The water went up as far as my chin. There was a healthy crowd there, most German and Austrian tourists. There were a couple of water slides that emptied into the lake. After that we discovered our bus back to Kaposvar was not running, so we grabbed a slow train back to Kaposvar. It must have stopped 20 times, including very, small remote interesting villages. Long day, but worth it and memorable. The kids and Kati and I learned so much.

JUNE 19: (a trip to a medieval fair in Pacta, Hungary) We went to a medieval fair in the village of Patca on Saturday, about 15 miles outside Kaposvar. The bus winded its way through a few small towns and the road was at times sided by forest. The fair is at a ranch called Katica-Tanya, which is in the middle of the countryside. There was a castle/fort where battle-clad reenactors laid siege and fought sword fights and infantry arrow assaults. There was a large catapult that thrust its weapon a few hundred yards. Reenactors had also set up living arrangements in period tents and we could go visit them and they would teach us how to duel with padded weapons and shoot arrows. The fort had three stories that included a very, dark, dank dungeon. We all enjoyed it (we were with relatives) but Joe and Boti, the five year old son of Kati's cousin's daughter, just had a great time. We ate lunch there. Some of the cooking was done over slow fires in bell-sized cauldrons of that era. A couple of things to notice is that children's playgrounds here are mostly constructed of wood and quite sturdy. I can play on them. We too the bus back where Joe and Boti fell asleep during the 25 minute ride. I sure am glad that we have taken public transportation everywhere while in Hungary, rather than taxis or renting a car. Its very cheap, convenient and provides a more realistic vacation for all of us.

JUNE 20: Sunday in Kaposvar we walked about a mile to the largest cemetery and visited the graves of Kati's father, Tibor, Kati's grandma and her grandpa. The cemeteries are quite interesting. They are dense with large tablets of stone and large gravestones abutting the tablets with the names of the families interred. It's very peaceful ad a history lesson to walk among the graves. Later we went to the small Kaposvar LDS church branch. There were four missionaries (one Elder Jared Johnson, is from North Ogden) and about 23 or so members in attendance. The missionaries spoke and Kati gave the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting. Afterwards, went to the Csima family, friends of our family, for a long lunch that included Hungarian vegetable soup, chicken paprika, homemade jam pastries, homemade syrup juice drinks, and cherries from their backyard. Their son, Zoltan, speaks English and we chatted a long time and now are FB friends. Later we went to Kati’s cousin Eva's home in Kaposvar with her kids Dora and Esther, her spouse and their son Boti, and enjoyed lecho, a Hungarian pepper dish and Hungarian pancakes. Today, Monday, we started the job of clearing out the condominium. (see its balcony at above left) Lots of work sifting the rare jewels from a lot of junk. Kati's dad was a hoarder and he seemed to never throw away anything. I was sifting through what seemed like 41 years of mail and newspapers and magazines. There were even several Standard-Examiners in the condo. We filled up our rented Dumpster in a couple of hours. Lots more still to do. (Above left is the balcony of the condo. It is renovated now and we own it.)

JUNE 24: (Thoughts on our last night in Hungary) The prices in Hungary are about equal with the US; but salaries are lower. There is an overall bit of pessimism among any Hungarians that the system is stacked against them and things won’t get better. … The homes are beautiful and old; most people endure minor discomforts that we are not accustomed to as much, such as no factory air conditioning and far smaller apartments or homes … Virtually no windows have screens, most are open and doors nudge open a bit vertically to provide air … The lack of screens, even in hotels, leads to very minor problems with flies, mosquitos … the streets are beautiful, most homes and businesses have prominent balconies … few apts and business complexes have  elevators. Instead, be prepared to walk several stories. Businesses tend to have circular, winding stairwells and apartment complexes have standard right-left upward identical staircases. … The Kaposvar government building was beautiful, with marble, ornate, grand staircases, detailed art work on the ceiling, and classic art several hundred years old, including art of Jesus Christ …. There is a sense in business and government areas in Hungary that the customer is not always right. Hungarians stoically wait in line for long periods. Line cutting is an art in Hungary, as my wife pointed out. No offense is taken if you use your body to block out a line-cutter … at stores, by the way, bags cost extra, don’t expect one if you don’t pay for it … at some areas, particularly Lake Balaton, using the restroom costs about US 30 cents … don’t expect free water in restaurants, a half litter costs about US 1.75. … The most ugly buildings are the communist-era Soviet style 10 to 15 story balconyless apartments that must be boiling hot in the summer in the upper floors. … Hungarians smoke at about the ratio that Americans did 40-plus years ago. It’s probably good to be getting back, since I’m starting to actually enjoy the tobacco scent a little. … There must be hundreds of playgrounds in Kaposvar and thousands in Budapest. It’s great that so much is provided for kids. Most playgrounds are made of wood, although older, metal ones are still around. Kati pointed out a metal twirling teacup (moved by steering wheels) that used to make her ill 30-plus years ago.

Can't wait to return later this decade.