Hi friends!
On Saturday, May 17th, we took the metro to the West End Shopping Center. It was interesting to note that the music being played throughout was all in English, with all the popular tunes being played, like "No One" by Alicia Keyes. It seems that the kids like the Tee Shirts with English on the front. Sometimes we percieve, and maybe rightly so, that we are not very liked in Europe and around the world, but the residents of these countries sure seem to like our culture.
The Hungarians that we have met from Budapest hae been very reserved and somewhat formal. They have a penchant for being sad and having the "blues," probably due to their difficult past. Their suicide rate is 60.1 per 100,000 people (UK 15.1, USA 21.7). They have a very low life expectancy, by European standards, of just over 68 years for men and almost 77 for women. Hungary is a highly cultured and educated society, with a literacy rate of over 99% among those 15 years and over. Their economy is slow growing, but many foreign countries pick Hungary for their factories because their workforce is considered flexible, skilled, highly educated, and realtively inexpensive. They are on course to be a world power in manufacturing consumer electronics.
The Thermal Spas here are world class and we ventured over to the Gellert Thermal Spa They have separate areas for men and women. We had a nice soaking and felt invirgorated. The water was 36C in one pool and 38C in another pool. After leaving, we walked up to the top of the Gellert Hill and had a nice overview of the city.
Today, May 18th, we went out for a delicious buffet breakfast, at a hotel nearby, since it was too early for the regular restaurants to be open. We then took the tram to the metro and went to the House of Terror, thus named, due to the Nazis and Communists, who used this residence to torture and kill hundreds, if not thousands of Hungarians, leading to the uprising in 1956. It was vey sad, but educational, since we have also been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
We then headed up the line to the Heroes' Square, where the statues commemorate the most important figures of one thousand years of Magyar (92% of which are Hungarians)
History. They also had the tomb for the Unknown soldier.
So, that was the day today and we are heading out for a bite to eat. Here are some pictures.
All the best,
Marc & Anita
Sorry for all the typos last time, managed to spell my name correctly this time, ha, ha.
1 comment:
Hi Marc & Anita.
A little bit of history of Hungary.
The CANDUSSO family lives in Friuli, the Eastern region of Italy. In the year 999 a.C., the Friuli suffered its worse invasion of its history just by the Hungarian people.
They destroyed everything and killed a very big amount of local people. They (the Hungarian) was going to conquer the (at the time rich) city of Venice - and they crossed our region (Friuli) during the trip. In old documents, you can read "... the Friuli country was white because the big number of the bones' killed persons", but the worse matter was the way those persons was killed: in very Barbaric way!
Well, enjoy your vacation.
Pierino & family
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