Crossing the border from Austria to Hungary was a stark reality of entering a post communist country.  The whole was bleak and gray.  I began to question our decision making in going further east than we’d ever been.  I started to imagine people asking us why we went to Hungary…….I couldn’t come up with an answer.  Was it simply that it sounded cool to say we went to Budapest?  In our planning there was some pull on our hearts to go to this land and so that was what we were doing, following our hearts.

The drive through the heart of the city, where we chose to say, was a bit brutal but Den hung tough.  The streets lined with run down buildings, dotted here and there with newer, modern structures.  We parked our car on a narrow street as the shopkeepers looked on.  We couldn’t get our car to the apartment because of the pedestrian streets, so we followed the GPS and walked to our neighborhood.  Graffiti decorated the buildings.  It was unnerving until we started to walk through and see all the nice restaurants and hear the happy hum of people dining.   We called the host and he met us on the street.   Norbert was so very friendly, he walked with Den to get the car and drove him as close to the apartment as he could get.  We entered the questionable building.  It seriously looked like it should be abandoned.  The elevator had a door that had to be pulled open and then the maximum of two people can enter and then there are double doors that were closed from the inside.  When Norbert opened the door to his apartment we were so relieved.  It was very modern and cozy.  The most lovely place we had stayed yet.  Just as we shouldn’t judge a book by a cover, nor shall we judge an apartment by the graffiti on it’s neighborhood walls.

We didn’t have to search far for dinner.  Being in the heart of the city lends to many options.

There were also beautiful fountains in our square that changed colors with the lights all evening.  We were feeling quite thankful.  Raleigh wanted to draw a heart on our picture because he loves me so much, so sweet!

Hungary is in the European Union but has not switched their money to the euro yet so we got to use Forints.  There largest bill is a 20,000 but it is only worth 80 U.S. dollars.  Our money stretched  much further in Budapest.  We had a lovely breakfast of fresh squeezed orange juice with lemon.  Our eggs came with fresh cut cucumber and tomato.  Paprika is their national spice and they seem to use it instead of pepper.

The owner of the breakfast shop had the smallest kitchen I have ever seen. She only had one burner and room enough for one averaged size person–and that was it!  She commented on the cute kids and then congratulated me on their beautiful hair.  I had to chuckle at being told congratulations on my red heads.

We felt like we flopped a little in our two previous cities, so we committed ourselves to two different 3 hour walking tours of Budapest over the next couple of days.

Our first bit of education on communism started with the Beauty and the Beast.  Beauty being St. Stephens Basilica and the Beast is the government building on the left.  Hungary was liberated from the Nazi’s by Russia in WW2, except Russia forgot to leave and stayed to occupy Hungary making it a communist country until 1990.  They turned the beautiful square in front of the cathedral into a parking lot and built this huge building next to it to show that government will always have more power than the church.  They also developed a 5 year plan to destroy all the churches.  Baptism was not allowed and church-going certainly wasn’t either.  The rural areas were not as regulated, but mostly people met in their homes.  Any type of professional was not allowed to practice religion.  Our tour guide’s grandfather attended church and he was also a professor of science at the university.  The government could not replace him so they let him attend church but punishment came in the next generation.  Our tour guide’s mother had the highest scores in her class but was not permitted to attend college because of her father practicing religion.

Many “functional” apartment houses were put up quickly in the city and only meant to last a few years.  Multiple families had to live together, each family getting only one room and sharing one bathroom and kitchen.  One leader  of the home was chosen by the government  to report on what each person talked about and did.  Friends and neighbors were pitted against each other and made to spy on one another or risk being sent to Gulags (Soviet forced labor camps).  It was hard to trust anyone.

Travel to non-communist countries was not permitted unless you were a leader in the government or an Olympic athlete.  On a rare occasion one might be permitted, but it took more 5 years to get the travel Visa and your family and valuables could not go with you.

If one wanted to purchase a car, they had to pay cash and wouldn’t get the car until 3 years later.

In the 1956 Olympics the Hungarian athletes were allowed to travel but had armed guards, not to protect the athletes, but to prevent them from escaping their communist life back home.  The Russians and the Hungarians were in the finals in water polo.  The Russians were beating them at home but the Hungarians won the Olympic Gold Medal.  The pool was a literal blood bath!  Afraid for their lives upon returning home, the Hungarian water polo team found a way to defect–never to return to their communist homeland.

Thank God for our freedom!