Latvia - the land of the midnight sun

Heading to Riga for the 2 days that surround the summer solstice was possibly not the best of timing due to the fact that given how far north the country is, there is almost 24 hrs of daylight - the sun didn't set until close to 11.30 and it didn't really get dark until 1am and then at about 1.05am, it started to lighten up again - all in all a very weird experience. The photos were taken between about 10.30pm and 11.30pm so it gives you an idea of what the light was like

What made it all the more strange was the fact that the city was like a ghost town - so many people had taken the week off to celebrate the fact that it was the summer solstice that the government had awarded an extra day off and so people were all in their summer houses at the beach or near the lakes - but not one stoned hippie insight (unlike Stonehenge) although the sight of Hell's Angels in garlands of spring flowers and Oak leaves which is the tradition is slightly odd to say the least, as was the bus covered in leaves

Apparently, in Latvian, it is called the festival of Jani - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%81%C5%86i

special cheese, special beer and indigestion seem to be the main benefits of the festival

A little bit of Hungarian culture

In 1848, there was a revolution against the ruling Hapsburgs - the flashpoint which has assumed mythical status, a little like the storming of the Bastille in France, was the reading of a poem called 'Nemzeti Dal' (National Song) by its author Sandor Petofi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petofi) on Vorosmarty Square in the centre of Budapest. This uprising is celebrated on the 15th March every year but has recently been hijacked by the Magyar Guard and other unpleasant extremist parties but the sentiments that it inspires are still
worth reading - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemzeti_dal

He was killed at the battle of Segesvar although like all heroes, people refuse to believe that he was killed there and he lived to a ripe old age and died having seen the autonomy for Hungary under the Austro-Hungarian empire

A piece of his poetry I found whilst waiting at the airport in one of the many pseudo-Irish/British pubs that seem to exist in this part of the world expresses sentiments that seem to be so revolutionary, but romantic at the same time that they are worth repeating

Szabadsag Szerelem
e ketto kell nekem
szarelmemert folaldozom az eletet
szabadsagert folaldozom szerelmemet

Having surprised a Hungarian colleague at 7.30am over a coffee by reciting this, she happily translated it for me

Freedom and love
These two I need
For love, I sacrifice life
For freedom, I sacrifice my love

Written on the 1st January 1847 - just over a year before his most famous performance and the start of the chain of events that led to his death

The spirit of Petofi lives on in Hungarian day to day - almost any adult can recite some or all of his Nemzeti Dal, whilst he is commemerated in countless streets and squares, a bridge in Budapest and even a national radio station - can't imagine us listening to radio Byron/Kipling or Wordsworth but there we go!!

Heroes Square (Hosok Tere), Budapest

Heroes Square is the entrance to the City Park and comprises of a column topped by the Archangel Gabriel and surrounded by the great and good of Hungarian nobility - the rather scary figures under the column are the 7 tribal leaders of the original country of Hungary, led by the King Arpad. The people in the larger ring around their statues are the statues of other Hungarian kings and rulers who have led and inspired Hungarian victories across the history

In front of the column is the Cenotaph to those who have given their lives for Hungary over the centuries and about 200m to the right is the new memorial to the victims of the 1956 uprising

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%91s%C3%B6k_tere

Vajdahunyad Castle, City Park, Budapest

Designed by the same man who designed and started to oversee the building of the Parliament building - it was originally built as a cardboard, wood and cloth castle as a frame as a backdrop for the Millenium Exhibition of 1896 but was so popular, it was rebuilt in stone and has become the backdrop for an ice-skating rink in the winter and a funfair at various times in the summer

The castle makes up part of the fabulous architectural background of the City Park including the Szechenyi baths and Budapest Zoo with its art nouveau animal houses - all of which is accessed through Heroes Square

Parliament Square bullet holes

During the protests of the 1956, Government troops opened fire in a crowd of demonstrators outside the Parliament building - hundreds were injured and several 10s were killed - in their memory, the bullet holes have been marked by metal balls as a poignant memorial to those who were killed and injured on that day

The Parliament building itself is the most incredible mix of gothic architecture which looks very much out of place in the city of Budapest which is not a gothic city - it would be more suited in a city like Prague - it took 19 years to build and the architect sadly went blind and died before it was finished in 1904 and he never saw his final masterpiece although he did also design some notable buildings in the city


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Parliament_Building
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Steindl

Raoul Wallenberg memorial park in Budapest

The Synagogue in Dohany Utca has a garden in the back with a statue in the shape of a weeping willow tree with the names of the people killed in the Holocaust inscribed on the leaves - it was designed by Imre Varga in 1989

It is a quiet piece of land behind the main synagogue with a series of stain glass windows looking out on to the courtyard where the statue is in the centre of the garden

Raoul Wallenberg, after whom the park is named, was a Swedish diplomatic based in Budapest who issued false passports to the Jewish residents of the city to prevent them being deported - in an act of incredible brutality, he was kidnapped by the Soviets in January 1945 and subsequently died in captivity - there was no reason for his arrest save for the fact that he had protected people against one oppressive regime so they must have feared he would do it again - so he was murdered.

Later on, he was made a member of the Righteous Amongst Nations by the Jewish people in recognition of the work he did to save Hungarian Jews - he was also twice nominated for the Nobel Peace prize

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

He was one of many Gentiles who protected the Jewish population in Hungary, many of whom paid the ultimate price for their help to the protect the victims of the discrimination that was implemented under the Horthy, Arrow Cross and Nazi regimes

Budapest before the war - a video tour from 1938

Needless to say, it looks a little different now