In Budapest we visited Memento Park, which is a collection of Soviet monuments that were built during Hungary’s Communist period. Ian has already demonstrated that Soviets knew how to make a statement, and the monuments here were just as impressive in size and theme. Observe:
Tiara for scale
This was on display at the MOCAK contemporary art museum in Krakow. Apparently it was done with cooperation from Lego.
Photographs showing the lego concentration camp set.
Unfolded boxes for the lego concentration camp sets.
The holocaust is such a hard thing to understand on a personal level; the scale is just too big. Different approaches can help make the problem relatable for different people. The combination of mass produced children’s toys and assembly-line genocide was surprisingly powerful to me.
Entertaining yourself is important on long bus rides. On this trip Ian was proud to make a lady out of crackers:
We checked out Fortuna Brewery’s Komes Baltic Porter at our meat-filled bash on a Polish farm. It was the highest rated thing we could find in the Polish grocery store.
Why hello table full of alcohol.
There are a lot of pictures I’ve earmarked for blog posts that just don’t have enough meat to stand on their own. Here’s a photo dump of quirky things we’ve seen across our trip.
I could have used one of these on my last trip when the bridges were washed out from the floods
Pretty sure a strong wind would blow this thing on its side. It looks amazing though. (more…)
Visiting the thermal baths is one of those things you have to do in Budapest. There are countless spas to choose from, and swayed by its pretty yellow buildings, we chose Széchenyi. Also, it’s the largest medicinal bath in Europe, so there’s that. (more…)
Bryk is the last bar we’ll be covering in Berlin. We were a little skeptical heading in, from the outside it has a touch of that “ultralounge” vibe that defines the eurotrash experience. Thankfully the drinks were on point, though they often veered into molecular gastronomy territory.
OK, truth time: We were really not feeling Budapest at first. We’ve learned that during long-term travel it’s important to have a few places where we spend extended periods of time. This helps us re-establish routines for exercise, cooking at home, etc. During our Asia trip, we rented apartments and spent a month each in Bangkok and Hong Kong. Here, we’ve taken longer stays in Paris and Berlin, and we also decided that Budapest would be a good place to slow down, so we booked two weeks there.
However, when we arrived in Budapest we were disappointed. The heat wave still hadn’t broken so it was too hot to explore for most of the day. All the food we had was heavy and really not good. And, this was the first time our research had led us astray in terms of location. The neighborhood we chose, Terézváros, was full of touristy restaurants and bars, and just seemed like a place people went to party. Somewhere along the way, we realize, we got old. Also, we’d travel to a destination only to find this sort of thing happen…constantly:
Fortunately, Budapest started what Ian called its “win back” campaign about 5 days into our stay, and we started to change our minds about the city, so much so that by the time we had to leave we had grown really fond of it. (more…)
I keep wanting to call this place Beckett’s Kampf. Kampf means “struggle” (as made memorable by a certain infamous book). Kopf, on the other hand, means “head.” Here is the sign from Beckett’s Kopf. Maybe it will help me remember the distinction:
In my defense, Beckett looks like he’s been through a lot
