Our 20 minute walk to the House of Terror helps work off our soup and sausages. It’s an easy walk really – all flat and large surface streets – and we walk right into the museum – which turns out to be a bonus!
No pictures here – so just narrative – this is the collective history of both the Nazi and Soviet occupations. It’s a little narrowly focused is all about the Soviet occupation – which was bad – don’t get me wrong – but they totally gloss over the Nazi occupation which came first. The Nazi occupation was horrendous, and the then the Soviets came to “save” Hungary, but in doing so, they almost recreated the Nazi occupation. So it’s a little odd in that respect.
There is s brief mention of Hitler and the occupation in the first room – then it is all Soviet all the time. Just odd. But moving on – it is an incredibly detailed and nasty depiction of Soviet times here in Hungary. Even though they welcomed the Soviets with open arms – it still turned out to be brutal and this museum is a testament to all the philosophy, propaganda and terror the Soviets inflicted upon Hungary.
We spent a long time walking through all the exhibits, collecting the English fliers that explained all the exhibits (no need for the audio tour guide) and reading the sub-titles on the survivor interviews. It is hard to put into words – we focus so much on the Nazi invasions – and for me, I never think of the horrors and hardships that the Soviet regime brought to Hungary and other nations. Then you stop and think – they just became “free” of Soviet rule 25 years ago. Amazing what has happened since.
So, the House of Terror (this was actually where they interrogating prisoners and tortured them to death), was pretty interesting – if not overwhelming. We have all the fliers with us to give us more in depth understanding (hard to read and watch and listen all at the same time).
So, after our sobering afternoon learning lesson – we move on to the Labyrinths. But to get to the Labyrinths, we need to take 2 buses. Here is where saving the bus tickets come in handy. Since the validation machine didn’t work, we used our old tickets to take the 105 down to the 16. And, well, we figured it if it didn’t work once, we’ll just do what the locals do – and get on in the back where no one questions you! So we ended up using our tickets twice – yeah – well – every little bit helps!
And the bus up to the castle really helps so we don’t have to walk up those steps again. We’ve done our share of walking this week!
Once up at the castle, we find our way to the labyrinth entrance and head down the 3 flights of stairs. This museum has an interesting story as the previous owners say the government stole this it from them in 2011 by sending the military police in and shutting them down. Regardless, we want to wander through these underground tunnels that housed prisoners, the most famous of which is Count Dracula, as well as being a bomb shelter in WWII and a hospital at one point in time.
At the entrance, we find that we can go in free because there are “somethings not working". Ok – price is right for us! So down we go – walking past the odd wax statues that are displaying Vivaldi’s opera - and walking through the “darkness” labyrinth which was pitch black and scary as hell – with only a “thread” to hold on to (a rope along the wall). We hit walls a few times when there were sharp right or left turn angles!
Then we finally made it to Count Dracula’s cell – where allegedly he was jailed by King Matthias after marrying his daughter (and here is the not allowed photo of Count Dracula’s grave!).
All in all, a fun diversion for 30 minutes or so. But sort of glad it was free…..
We decide to walk down the hill instead of taking the bus, which is a nice walk – then across the Chain Bridge and over to Vaci utca which is where all the shops, bars and restaurants are in this part of town.
It’s still pretty early so we decide we want some coffee before drinks and snacks. We stumble upon the “Coffee Pub” and wander down, down, down into it’s depths. Really cool venue – sort of expensive, but at this point we are trying to get rid of our HUF (Hungarian Forints), so we’re ok.
Great atmosphere…
…and it is warm and the coffee good. So we are happy!
Then we’re out into the cold again, wandering down the Vaci, looking for someplace to get beer, wine and just a few snacks. We cross over the main road (where we’ll catch the bus) and start down the other side of Vaci. We don’t get too far before we find a place with “happy hour” – half price beer. We’re there! A 50% off beer for Ed, normal price wine for me and we are happy.
Afterward, we head to this little café we had spied – right near the bus stop – with a special Panini and wine for only 1390 HUF (that’s like $5US). They are really sweet guys in there – and we get a beer for Ed – and a Ham and Cheese Panini for us to share – with my wine. It is perfect for what we want! To top it off we meet this very nice Norwegian who is here to get dental work done ( it is so much cheaper here than in Norway he tells us), and we spend a wonderful time eating, drinking and chatting!
After a bit, it is time to go brave the rain that is now falling and catch the bus back to our little home in the hills. So far? This is our favorite city on the Danube river/car tour!
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