Bratislava at night

Came to Bratislava today - didn't know what to expect as the only people I know who have been there are Czech and tell me that it is part of Czechslovakia that they didn't want but I think, having wandered about, that that is a little unfair - apart from getting seen off by a taxi driver and drinking too much Zlaty Bazant beer - it is a beautiful little city - even in the dark.

Arrived by train, doing the green thing, having crossed a very snow bound Hungary to get here - beautiful trip down by the river and through some of the vineyards to a city that seems to be haunted by random statues (napoleon surveying the city centre/paparazzi photographer and a weird chap crawling out from the sewers) as well as a lovely Town Hall

Staying in a hotel right in the city centre - about 5 mins walk from the Danube and next to the Philharmonic and despite the 3 ft of snow that seems to be piled everywhere, this seems to be 1 hell of a city


www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratislava

Snow in Budapest

It has snowed, and snowed andd even 5 days later - it is still snowing!! But it means I can see how many visitors I have of an evening, which cars have moved and which balustrades to like to make my tongue stick to the railing

Warsaw doubles for Gotham City

Apparently, in the early 1950s, Stalin thought he would help with the redevelopment of Warsaw, a city that he has overseen the destruction of by refusing to allow his armies to come to the aid of the Polish Home Army in early 1945 - so by means of an apology, he gave them a replica of one of the six buildings he was having built in Moscow - The Palace of Culture and Science.

The irony being that this building was, despite its attributes of being the 8Th tallest building in Europe, was also the first headquarters of Coca-Cola after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War - now it houses a night club and a cinema so the 'Culture' is well off the agenda.

For a first time visitor to Warsaw, it is a pretty impressive building - just never mention that to anyone from Poland as they are liable to take offence as they see it, understandably, as a monstrosity on the skyline of their country

More importantly, it is a wonderful double for Wayne Towers in Batman

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science,_Warsaw

Another place to buy fat pills

There is another major market in the city which is as attractive as the main market - just in a different fashion

Revision of history

After the end of WWII, many of the streets in Budapest had their names changed to fit with various communist luminaries - obviously, after the end of the Cold War and arrival of democracy in Hungary, names were changed again to something less antagonising to the citizens of Budapest but in some instances, the old signs are still there, just not always too well hidden - especially in some of the more off the beaten track districts - like the VIIth

The person this street was named after originally was Sajakoiskij but there doesn't appear to be anything relating to them on the internet

The new name is Kiraly utca - Kiraly means King although I would like to the think that it is more than that and maybe one of these 2 is a possible candidate

Bela Kiraly - a member of the Hungarian Revolution and later a democratically elected member of Parliament

Ede Kiraly - World and European Figure skating champion and Olympic Silver medalist in 1948

but you decide

Inside Bar Instant

Funky rooms and wacky mobiles hanging from the ceiling whilst in one of the other rooms, all the furniture is glued to the ceiling

Budapest Parliament building

The Parliament building in Budapest is pretty spectacular both inside and out - set on the bank of the river, facing the Fisherman's Bastion. The halls have some pretty spectacular stain glass windows and also some interesting touchs which the Palace of Westminster does not have - like cigar stands for MPs (picture 2) so that they don't take them in the voting chamber. The anti-chamber has some pretty spectacular giant ceramic pots between the rooms on a rather luxurious carpet

The front of the Parliament is where there is an eternal flame to the 1956 Uprising and is also visible from the statue of Imre Nagy

A little bit of culture

The first one to be visited was the Holocaust Memorial Centre which is situated on Pava Utca, just off Ulloi Utca in the 9th District and is a truly moving history lesson. Set in an old synagogue, the museum relates the persecution of both Jewish and Roma peoples in Hungary through the late 1930s till 1945. One of the shocking facts is the numbers involved - 1 in 10 people killed in the Holocaust and 1 in 3 of those killed in Auschwitz was a Hungarian, but the plight of Hungarian Jews is less reported on than those from Poland and other parts of Eatern Europe. The museum is structured in such a fashion that you follow the story of 5 families in the face of persecution - 4 Jewish (both from Budapest and the countryside as well as differing classes)and also a Roma family. The scale of the devastation that befell Budapest is also explained and presented so you are made to understand the implications of the war in Hungary.

www.hdke.hu/index.php?changelang=eng

The other Museum that I have visited recently is the Museum of Applied Arts (what I thought was the Design and Textile museum which the beautiful green roof.) In all honesty, it was a little disappointing once you are insight as the museum was seriously damaged in both WWII and also the 1956 Uprising so it appears somewhat empty although the 2 bits that I went to see, the Treasures of the Esterhazy Princes and the Turkish Carpets were interesting enough but the star of the show is the building itself.

www.imm.hu/angol/index.html