Hungary, Overreactions, Religion

Posted by stephen on Wednesday, 12th April, 2006 @ 16:34

Since I've returned from Budapest I've done a little reading about the political situation there and the Fidesz (right-wing) party doesn't actually sound that crazy. As my good friend Matt recently pointed out in his comment below perhaps my reaction to it is coloured by the lack of interest in politics in this country. So much so that seeing so many people get so worked up about it is almost shocking.

I'm told that neither party has consistently won two elections since Hungary began having them in the early 90s. This strikes me as symptomatic of a country that's doing it's best to get it right and working out how to get there. If only such enthusiasm existed in this country. And unfortunately I can only sight myself as an example of the apathy that exists here. I'm not happy with the present government, or indeed any of the current potential alternatives, but I'm not really prepared to do anything about it. What should I do?

Keeping it serious for just one more paragraph, I've just read a rather interesting article entitled Religion: Blight upon humanity? that's nowhere near as incendiary as it sounds. It highlights an interesting study correlating societal health issues with religious belief in prosperous democracies. It's an interesting read and I shall reserve comment on it for now.

On to the more fun stuff, I came back from Budapest on Friday morning and have to say I had a fantastic time. Unusually for me I took zero pictures while I was there. Fortunately, Richard was busily snapping away at all kinds of questionable things so I'll have some photos to remember the trip by. And he'll do unspeakable nasty things to me if I don't say now that any pics you see on the site from Budapest were taken by him and you can visit his website at www.smashingbloke.co.uk.

I can't describe exactly why, but I really loved the city and hopefully will go back later in the year. This trip shall be remembered by me for quite a few things. Incredibly reasonable and incredibly excellent food, large amounts of alcohol, several personal firsts and massive floods.

Apparently most of Central Europe suffered pretty terrible flooding last week. I've never been to Budapest before and apparently the Danube is usually considerably lower than it was on my visit. What I found interesting was that it didn't cause a problem for any of the buildings or bridges as far as I could see. Whoever and whenever these things were constructed there was sufficient foresight about the potential water level. A little later on some roads and tramlines were built without the same foresight. Whoops.

I have three personal firsts from this visit, it's the first time I've gone to a restaurant and had dinner on my own (whilst Richard negotiated the roof of a very Soviet looking concrete tower block), which felt much more comfortable than I expected it to. It's the first time I've gone to a bar on my own without planning to meet anyone there etc, and it was even a gay bar, which makes it even more of a big deal for me. That went really well too, especially once I'd got a few drinks in me.

Richard later joined me and pointed out the next morning just how much money I'd spent on shots of Unicum Next, a local delicacy. Suffice to say it was more than I spent on any one single thing in my time there! The third first therefore being that I've actually found a gay place I like, it's just annoyingly far away. It's a pity there's nothing like it around here. I even picked up some Hungarian while I was there (by which I'm referring to the language!)...

I'll buy the first person with an answer a drink if you tell me what it says (excluding Richard, Ally and Steve who know already).

Election Hungary 2006

Posted by stephen on Tuesday, 04th April, 2006 @ 19:07

It's the Hungarian Assembly elections this coming Sunday and all the political parties are actively campaigning. Apparently a socialist/liberal coalition is in power at the moment, having narrowly beaten out the right wing party in the previous elections. The right wing party were campaigning incredibly hard on Sunday in a large rally in front of the Parliament which was being distributed on massive screens and speakers in the surrounding streets.

Apparently many people were shipped in from the countryside (the socialist/liberal contingent being much stronger in the city) filling the streets and Metro considerably more than they were on the Saturday night prior to the rally.

I was impressed at the turnout at the event, it's certainly something you won't see in the UK anytime soon. Of course, not knowing more than a very few words of Hungarian I had no idea what the speakers were talking about.

But what I could understand is how they were speaking and their body language. And I found it terrifyingly reminiscent of some 20th Century history. They were incredibly aggressive both in voice and in action. Lots of arm stretched fists and shouting. It truly reminded me of the Nazi rallies. And the people were very much fully onboard with the message.

I really hope this party doesn't get into power. I know I don't know their policies, but based purely on the behaviour in the rally I think it could be bad news for Hungary.

Destination: Budapest

Posted by stephen on Sunday, 02nd April, 2006 @ 16:36

My first impressions of Budapest have been great. It's such a laid back and relaxed place, it really doesn't feel like I'm in a capital city only a few hundred metres from Parliament no less! Well, it didn't feel like that until this afternoon, but I'll get to that in another post.

Last night we arrived to Nicola's beautiful apartment and then went and had dinner at Pizza Marazano, which is in fact Pizza Express. Not very adventurous, I know, but we'll get to that later in the week.

We then wondered down to the Metro station next to Parliament so we could make our way to meet Richard's friend Kati in Buda. It's amazing how quiet the centre of the city is on a Saturday evening. Even the Metro was a little bit of a ghost town. A far cry from London!

Bizarrely the Metro doesn't inform you how long you have to wait until the next train, instead preferring to offer the amount of time that's passed since the last train went. I imagine it's an easier value to calculate!

We arrived in Buda to visit a pub in the centre of a large shopping centre! Not some chain affair, at least not that a know of, but a cool little pub with live music and a massive queue to get in (fortunately we'd arrived suitably early). We met up with the lovely Kati and her boyfriend and eventually moved on to a club. Which was a couple of floors up in the same shopping centre!

Confronted by another massive queue we wandered to the front and Kati's boyfriend flashed some card and in we went as VIPs! And through the club we wondered to the corner to the little VIP area with comfy sofas and decent access to the bar. All very cool. And pretty good going for a first time tourist! It's not what you know, etc...

A little while and several drinks later and Richard and I ended up 'dancing' frantically to lots of 80s English music we knew very well. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm not really the clubbing type, but this place was pretty friendly and chilled even though it was packed.

And of course I was sufficiently drunk to 'dance' my little heart out. I continually quote 'dance' because my version of said skill is somewhat lacking. I think I've prematurely developed the dad dance.

Afterwards, as the Metro had closed many hours earlier, a drunken stumble around eventually found us the river and from there we found a bridge and made our way back to the flat.