House of Terror/ Dohany Synagogue/ Basilica Concert - Budapest

10/20/2012

Mid week  Kevin's sister, Mary & Austin joined us for a tour in Hungary and then to Prague for a family history tour.  Of course we toured  around Gyor and then headed Budapest as a must see city.  Kevin contacted another Fulbright Scholar assigned in Budapest as a History Instructor to join them with a guided tour of Buda Castle and the surrounding historical sites.

House of Terror - Budapest

Chain Monument to the Iron Curtain

Ryan, Carmen and I headed to the House of Terror with Peter Ihasz (Frankie's son who is in college in Budapest).  Peter was an excellent tour guide throughout the exhibit, providing additional tidbits not included on the printed material.  The House of Terror  is a Museum on Andrassy St. in Budapest, the former Headquarters of both the Nazi & Communist Party. The museum follows the history of Dual Occupation of Hungary by the Nazi's and then the Communists before acquiring freedom in 1989.

http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/index_2.html

Peter Ihasz, Ryan & Carmen

We were also able to walk to the Dohany Street Synagogue - the Largest Synagogue in Central Europe and the 2nd largest in the world. http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_syn.html

We arrived after closing but the architecture of the building is amazing and we were able to see into the courtyard  as well as behind the building where the Weeping Willow Memorial http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_wall.html  is on exhibit.  It is dedicated to those who were victims of the Holocaust in Hungary. Each leaf is etched with the name of a person from the Holocaust.  

Here are just a few pictures of our visit. 

Dohany Synagogue - Budapest

Window - Dohany Synagogue

Weeping Willow Memorial - Budapest

Memorial to those who Died in the Holocaust in Hungary

We finished the day with a concert at the St. Stephan's Basilica featuring Ryan's Saxophone teacher, Erzsebet Seleljo in a duet with the pipe organ.  It was amazing to hear the music of Vivaldi in the incredible acoustics of the Basilica.  The church is named after the 1st King of Hungary, Stephan, and is the third largest church in present day Hungary.  Beautiful, amazing and photos do not do justice to the incredible detail in every aspect of the church  Baroque interior.

http://bazilika.biz/

Szent Istvan Basilica at night

Altar w/ St. Stephan 

Carmen, Karyn, Mary, Austin, Kevin & Ryan @ St. Stephan's Square

 A full day to say the least - Next stop Musical : Jekyll & Hyde in Gyor

Monumento Park - Budapest

10/17/2012


Ok, this post is mostly pictures.  Ryan & I headed to Budapest for him to take the PSAT at an American School.  After the test we stopped at the Monumento Park.  We had a great time taking pictures with the statues representing communism during it's peak.  There is a park where many of the monuments are preserved.  I don't know the story behind many of the statues so if you want more info  check out the weblink below.  Also there was a film in the barracks on " The Life of a Secret Agent".  Interesting looking back on the technology of the past and where it is now, almost comical in reflection, but scary during the 50's. Check out our new ride the Trabant!!

 http://www.mementopark.hu/pages/home/?lang=en

http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/budapest-statue-park.html

Red Army Statue w/ Ryan

Republic of Council Statue

Youth Recruits

Super Star Ryan !!

Council of the Republic 

Martyr's Monument to the  1956 anti-soviet revolt

Hungarian - Soviet Friendship 

Hanging out w/ Lenin

Ryan on Stalin's Grandstand 

Big Stalin Boots

Ryan's new Trabant

Ryan let me drive his new Trabant

Next Stop -  House of Terror in Budapest

Wine Tasting & Sopron Tour

10/13/2012

So much history to share and cram into 2 days.  First Esterhazy Palace, Grand Lunch, Pan-European Picnic Reunion, now onto Wine Tasting w/ tour of wine cellar and City of Sopron Tour. Sopron is a city in western Hungary that is near the Austrian border and not far from the 1989 Pan-Euro Picnic from previous post.

Raspi wine bottles

Raspi Wine Cellar

 http://www.raspi.hu/fotogaleria.html

Raspi Vineyard has a Restaurant along with their vineyard and since this was arranged by our wonderful Fulbright tour guide (English/Hungarian speaker) we were treated to a tour of the Wine Cellar with the Hungarian speaking owner.  Delightful, informative, passionate, and down to earth are just a few of the words that come to my mind about the owner during the wine tour.  Dinner was also amazing, fresh squash flowers adorned the presentation of our food.

Csaszar Csirkemell (Warm Caesar Salad) w/ squash flower

Castle Wall protecting the original city and Church

The WalkingTour of the Town of Sopron in West Hungary is loaded with Historic Buildings, Castle Walls, Catholic Churches, Jewish Getto with a portion still preserved, Princess Courtyard, Roman Road Ruins just to name a few of the sites we visited.  The Roman Amber Road was the main transportation for Amber from the South all the way to the Adriatic Sea.   Our tour guide was able to give us the background on all the historic buildings in such detail.  She did a wonderful job of sharing detailed facts and giving us an opportunity to visit inside many of the buildings.

Roman Ruins & Roman Amber Road on the right Side of picture

 Jewish population in Sopron has existed since the 13th century and has  been tumultuous, sometimes favorable and at other times exiled from living in the city.  Treated as second class citizens their houses and synagogues had to be built set back from the street fronts.  We were able to tour inside the maintained Medieval Synagogue and Mikveh built in the early 14th century.  Women were not allowed in the same space as men and had to view the services from narrow slits in the next room.  This kept the men focused on the prayer services.

For more details see - http://www.cometohungary.com/sopron-medieval-synagogue.html

Gate to Historic  Jewish Synagogue in
 Sopron, Hungary

Niche scrolls in Mikveh

Narrow openings for women to
view the prayer services 

Medieval Mikveh

Then we headed to the Catholic "Goat" Church which is reported to have been given the money to build by a Goat herder whose flock found a bag of coins. This is the church were several Hungarian Kings were crowned during their coronation. 

Robed Madonna on the Facade of the "Goat" church

Baroque style inside the "Goat" Church

We finished the day with a bus drive to the Pannonhalma Benedictine Abby in Pannonhalma, Hungary just 20km south of Gyor.  The Abbey was founded in 996 A.D. and is magnificent to see in person. Words and pictures cannot adequately describe the intricate detail of the Baroque decor of the interior of the Basilica.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonhalma_Archabbey

Pannonhalma Abbey sits on a hill above the city of Pannonhalma

Kevin w/ King St. Stephen 

Stained Glass windows inside the Basilica

Entrance to the Basilica at Pannonalma

One of the side altars at Pannonhalma Abbey

Next Stop - Monumento Park w/ Ryan

  

Pan-Euro Reunion - Iron Curtain Memorial

10/12-13/2012

Open Door Memorial at the Border of Austria/Hungary 

After leaving Esterhazy Palace we headed to the Iron Curtain Memorial a location just outside of Sopron on the Hungarian/Austrian border where the 1989 Pan-European Picnic was held in August 19, 1989.  Over 600 East Germans escaped to Austria during a protest picnic on the Hungarian side of the Iron curtain. We were joined by the Austrian Fulbright Scholars and their guides.  It was amazing to be standing together, US Fulbright Scholars stationed in Austria & Hungary reuniting at a Historic place where the 1st crack in the Iron Curtain occurred.  We had a speaker relate the events of  8/19/1989 who was present when the East Germans ran across the border.  Our speaker,Dr. Laszlo Vass, was the First Secretary of the Minister of State in  Hungary at the time and was sent as an emissary to represent Hungary and encourage civility at the picnic.  Little did he know that several East Germans who were in Hungary had heard about the picnic protest and planned to rush the gate to get to Austria and freedom.  It was very emotional for the speaker since he has not been back to this location for over 20 years. At the time 1989 there were still orders to "shoot to kill" anyone who crossed the boarder.  It was a key point in the change for democracy and the 1st crack in the Iron Curtain, the guards turned their backs and did nothing to stop the East Germans from leaving that day.


http://thevieweast.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/cracks-in-the-iron-curtain-remembering-hungarys-pan-european-picnic/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-European_Picnic

portion of the Iron Curtain 

Dr. Laszlo Vass & Finn family

Austrian & Hungarian Fulbright Scholars
 w/ Dr. Laszlo Vass

Next Stop - Wine Tasting & Sopron Tour

Esterhazy Palace Tour

10/12/2012


Two days of travel with the other 10 Hungarian Fulbright Scholars and their families. The Fulbright program sponsors 3-4 events per year for the Scholars to network as well as learn about other areas of the country in which they are stationed.  Many have teaching assignments in Budapest, a couple in Pecs (Page), and Debrecen which is South of Budapest at a Medical University.

This was the first of the sponsored programs for the 2012-2013 academic year. We traveled together to Fertod, Hungary where we had a guided tour of the Esterhazy Palace (The Versailles of Hungary) which was one of the Palaces built during the Hapsburg Empire.  Magnificent! seems hardly enough to describe the over the top grandeur of this building which has been restored to its original plan.

http://www.esterhazy-palace.com/en/history/the_esterhazy_family.html  - if the words show up in Hungarian -  right click your mouse anywhere on the page & choose translate to English or possibly chose English from the top right hand corner for language on the page.

Esterhazy Palace - Fertod, Hungary

Inside the Palace is amazing and trimmed in gold everywhere.  The Palace was once restored during the 2nd Golden Age.  After WWII the palace was left to deteriorate with much of the furniture being removed & the Gold trim taken away during the war. Reconstruction began in 1959 preparing for the possibility of tourism.  In 2009 the Hungarian government began funding for a full scale restoration encouraging tourism to the area.  The funding is ongoing and the results are Amazing!!  It is worth the effort to travel to this small town in Western Hungary for a visit to the Esterhazy Palace and nearby restaurant.

Esterhazy Palace - Entrance Ceiling 

Amazing intricate gold trim is everywhere in the Palace

As a person who is always cold and with the Hungarian winters as cold and snowy as Iowa, I wondered how they heated such a large space.  The answer is in the Stone Corners of the rooms.  The rooms of the Palace are strategically place so the the 4 corners join together and are heated with Stone Alcoves connected to a coal, or lumber burning furnace in the basement.  The Corner Statues serve both as aesthetic beauty as well as functional heating from the base of the Statue.  The stone alcoves help to radiate heat toward the room and protect the walls as well.   The guide told us that several of the alcoves had been discovered under plaster walls during reconstruction.

Esterhazy Palace - Corner House Heater

It's past 2pm - When do we eat Lunch?

Just across the Street from the Palace was a wonderful restaurant that served authentic Hungarian style   (Big) lunch.  Starter: Majgombocleves (Hungarian Liver Dumpling Soup) in a clear chicken broth with carrots and onions.  Main Course: Pork Tenderloins wrapped in bacon with rice and pickled veggies.  Dessert: palacsinta (hungarian pancakes) with chocolate syrup & fruit filling.

Next Stop - Pan- European 1989 Reunion Picnic & Sopron tour

Lake Balaton & Tihany Abby

      10/10/12

We have the rented car for one more day so after a night of rest in our apartment in Gyor - Kevin gets up early and wants to head to Lake Balaton before it gets too cold.  Soooo, wake up and prepare a picnic lunch for a day at the lake.  The sun is shining and it looks like a promising day for a 1.5 hr drive.

Info from the brochure "The center of the district is the Benedictine Abbey, which was founded in 1055 AD by András (Andrew) I, who is buried in the crypt. (The founding charter of this abbey is the first extant record of Hungarian language, preserved in Pannonhalma Benedictine Archabbey.) The church itself was rebuilt in baroque style in 1754. The still functioning abbey is a popular tourist attraction due to its historical and artistic significance. It also has the best view of Lake Balaton."            http://www.hungary-tourist-guide.com/tihany.html

Kevin has been here before during the warm months when the sailboats are busy on the lake.  Unfortunately for us it was chilly and windy.  We were not dressed for this kind of weather brrrr. We sat on a bench shivering and quickly eating our sandwiches.  I did snap a couple of pictures while we walked around the Abby and nearby shops featuring local crafts.  We then headed to the marina for Kave and Hot chocolate then back to the car for a warm ride back to Gyor.

Tihany Benedictine Abby at Lake Balaton, Hungary

Checking out the locally made pottery in front of shop

Locally made Tihany Pottery on display in Balaton

Next Adventure = Sopron & 1989 Pan-Euro Picnic