Day 6 – July 2: House of Terror and Castle Hill

 The first order of business today was to do something about the fact that Jim was without anything to wear except for the clothes he traveled in for 24 hours (and none of us wanted that).  Besides, the heat would be a killer if he stayed in jeans while waiting for his luggage to be found and delivered.  We walked a few blocks for breakfast near the mall and, while Julia guided Jim back to our hostel for a shower, Rachel and I went to the GAP to get him shorts and a t-shirt.  While food has been relatively inexpensive on this trip, clothes were just as pricey if not more so.

Once we got that settled, we headed to the House of Terror, a recommendation high on Tina and Andrew’s list. The building served as the headquarters for both the Nazis and the Communists during the “double occupation” of Hungary.  No photos were allowed inside, but it was an excellent museum of the terrors that came with this long and recent part of Hungary’s history.  Though Hungary sided with Germany in order to avoid war, the Nazi-affiliated Arrow Cross Party forcibly took control in 1944 and immediately started killing Jews, many right in this building. Shortly thereafter, the Red Army invaded and in a devastating siege took Budapest in February 1945.  The Soviets didn’t leave Hungary until 1991 and during that time this building was the headquarters of their secret police, who by the time they were done had “imprisioned, abused, or murdered one person from every third Hungarian family.”  Particularly powerful was the wall of the victimizers, many of whom are still living.  I was around 20 years old when this all finally ended here – which means that people my age grew up in a totally different world than they are living in now. 

There is a lot to take in at the House of Terror and we could have spent even longer than we did, but it was after 2 and we needed to move on to lunch and our next stop, Castle Hill.  Rachel had read about some restaurants she really wanted to try and so we went to one that was in the right direction, Café Kor. We got a table, but when the waiter read us the specials from the board it was one meat dish after another.  We decided to try instead another of her picks – the highest rated Indian restaurant in Budapest.  But, by the time we arrived it was 3:00 and they were closing for the afternoon; we made a reservation to come back for dinner instead.  We ended up a little cranky and hungry (or at least I was) at an delicious Italian place on the street leading up to the Basilica. 

After being set right by food, we walked over the Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge to span the Danube and part of the great unification of Pest and Buda.  It was built in the 1840s and rebuilt after the Nazis destroyed it during the war.  

We took the funicular up to the Palace which was once one of the greatest Renaissance palaces in the world, but is now a post-WWII recreation of a combination of several past versions and with some new add-ons like the great green dome.  

 It did provide some great views of the Pest side.  Most interesting to me was the topographical differences on the sides of the river.  Buda is on what is considered one of the last foothills of the Alps but immediately across the river in Pest everything is totally flat, beginning the great plains section that leads to Asia, making the Danube the perfect natural border for Europe to some.  By the time we headed inside to the Hungarian National Gallery we learned it was only going to be open for 30 minutes longer, so we skipped it and the History Museum and continued along Rick Steve’s walking tour of the area.   (So happy Jim brought that book with him – we’d missed traveling with Rick.) 

We learned that the hill we were on was actually full of miles of natural caves used by people in the area for centuries for different reasons.  Jim is not one to miss a cave, so when we got to Matthias Church we took a detour to see the Hospital in the Rock – a secret military hospital and nuclear bunker. 

We arrived at the secret entrance just in time for the last English tour of the day at 6:00 pm .  Again, no photos were allowed inside but we enjoyed walking through the caves-turned-hospital (the decrease in temperature alone was welcome relief).  They have done an excellent job of displaying the hospital as it was with many still working machines and wax figures (a little creepy but really made the viewing more vivid) in every room.  I think more museums should go this route.

We went back up the Matthias Church and hopped on the bus (going in the wrong direction to start but figured out our mistake quickly).  We returned to the Indian Restaurant and had a great meal (though we’d rate our neighborhood place higher) followed by a lovely walk on the Danube as the sun was setting and the lights turned on. 

It was 10 pm by the time we got back to the hostel and we just assumed Jim’s bag would be waiting…but it still hadn’t been delivered.  We watched the second half of the Germany vs. Italy Euro 2016 game and by the time the PKs were finished, the bag had arrived.  It was the first 20,000+ step outing on the new hip and Jim seemed to do just fine – though the other one will probably suffer more from this trip.  Sadly, the new hip will keep us out of the baths – one of the places Jim really wanted to go.