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Showing posts with label hungary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hungary. Show all posts

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Travel Tales: Shoes on the Danube Promenade

Remembrance in Budapest


The beautiful city of Budapest
is divided in two by the Danube
River.  One side is called Buda
and the other Pest.


On the Pest side near the
Hungarian Parliament is a
haunting tribute to the Jews
who fell victim to the Arrow
Cross militiamen during
World War II.


Sixty pair of period-appropriate
shoes made of iron rest along
the banks of the Danube.


The tribute shows the shoes
left behind on the bank from
victims who were shot and
pushed into the river.  This
was easier for the militia, since
they did not have to deal
with burial of the bodies.

The victims had to remove their
shoes since they were considered
valuable at the time.  Sadly, their
lives were not considered valuable.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Outside My Window: Budapest, Hungary

Kalvin Ter


Getting to Europe from the non-hub airport
that I fly out of is never easy but when we
were traveling from Indianapolis to Budapest
we had no idea just how long it would take us.
We arrived at the airport in Indy a little over
two hours ahead of our flight.  They told us
Newark was starting to back up and since
we were flying on to Budapest that evening,
they would put us on an earlier flight.
For us that meant leaving the beautiful
Indianapolis airport where we planned to
have lunch and instead having to spend
two extra hours and have a terrible dinner
in the horrible Newark airport.


We like to fly Lufthansa if we are going
through Germany because they are always
on time.  Well, I guess no airline can be
perfect and when we arrived in Munich
we had to go through customs and security
and arrived at our gate with 5 minutes to
spare and were told, in German, that the
bus to take us to the plane had left and
we would have to wait 6 hours for the
next flight to Budapest.


And as Murphy's Law would have it,
it snowed all day... and night.
As we waited for our flight we could see
the departures boards showing cancelled
flights.  By the time our flight was supposed
to leave at 5pm our flight was the only one
that was not cancelled on our board.
After another two hours they finally told us
we were going and we headed out.


When we arrived in Budapest nine hours
late, we were thrilled to see our driver
waiting for us.  I told him I was going
to kiss him!
Then he took us through the beautiful
Budapest to our Piano Suite.


I was exactly what I wanted, an old
building with 14 foot ceilings and huge
windows and old furniture including
a piano.  There were french doors with
squeaky hinges and old door knobs.


And in the morning, I woke up to
the beautiful old buildings just off
Kalvin Ter.


Each day I would wake up early
and sit on the window sills and
admire the architecture.


Some days I would throw open
the windows and take photos of
the surrounding buildings.

And I can't wait to go back...



Sunday, December 5, 2010

Szentendre, Hungary

A Country Village in Hungary


Szentendre is a small village outside Budapest.  It is home to many artisans and craft people.  We visited on a bitterly cold day, the coldest for that date in 40 years. We navigated the cobblestone streets to find some treasures to take home.  In the square is a Christmas tree and the village children were gathered to await the arrival of St. Nicholas.






As a quilt designer, the main thing I was looking for while I was in Hungary was traditional blue-dyed Hungarian fabric ~ a folk craft in itself.  I found it here, the Kovacs family has been producing blue-dyed products since 1878.  Their website is: http://www.kekfestokovacs.hu/




The lovely woman in the shop allowed me to photograph the interior of the shop including the antique implements used to make the designs.





I can't wait to create something with my new fabric!