Budapest on Wednesday, with Emoke

I can’t say at what exact moment it dawned on me, but while strolling around elegant shops on Tuesday I began to hear tunes in my head. “Four days to Christmas, four days to Christmas…”; “Thank you, thank you, please come again, thank you!”; “Ice cream, he brought me ice cream…”; and finally: “She loves me, but she doesn’t show it…”

She Loves Me! One of my favorite musicals and one that happens to have an interesting and apt theatrical geneology. First a play by Ferenc Molnar, the witty Hungarian playwright who also wrote The Guardsman and The Play’s the Thing, then a 1930s American film with Jimmy Stewart called The Shop Around the Corner; much later modified into another film with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan named You’ve Got Mail; and somewhere in between the two films (both of which I love) the musical She Loves Me. Without going into much detail, it’s set in a shop that sells perfumes and other niceties for women. Two of its employees, a man and a woman, are single and lonely, but constantly irritate each other. What we gradually find out is that each of them is writing the other, without knowing the other’s identity. They begin each letter “Dear Friend” and are falling in love, without ever having seen one another. They finally decide to meet (“Tonight at Eight”) but the only two people who turn up are the two employees who get on each other’s nerves. You can see where this is headed, and you already know if you’ve seen either of the two flicks. It is warm, amusing, nearly heartbreaking – and it is set in Budapest at Christmas!

On Monday I had wondered why I had decided to visit Budapest at all, on Tuesday I became smitten with the city, particularly the area around the castle in Buda, and at some point that day those tunes started ringing in my ears, making the experience. Then, as promised by my very bright former student, Emoke Bebiak, a native of Budapest, on Wednesday I fell even more in love with it. The reason was Emoke herself, who from 11 am to about 4:30 pm became my personal tour guide. We walked and talked our way through this city, she taking me to some sights I’d seen and others I had not.

Memorial to Hungarian Jewish Martyrs
If you look close you can see it's snowing

First stop was the Great Synagogue, also known as the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe. Built in the 1850s, it was bombed by a pro-Nazi group in 1939 and restored in the 1990s. We didn’t go in, but Emoke showed me a beautiful sculpture in the the gardens of the synagogue, the Raoul Wallenberg Memory Park (if you don't know who he is you should look him up! Fascinating story.) commemorating the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs. We next walked up Andrassy, stopping off at the Opera where we did in fact get our tickets for a 3 pm tour of the famous venue. 

From there we continued all the way up Andrassy to Heroes' Park, built to honor early leaders of the seven tribes of Hungary. At the top of the column is the Archangel Gabriel.

Heroes' Square

It’s not exactly the Arc de Triomphe but as we walked I noted the similarity of Andrassy with the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and Emoke told me that Budapest is often referred to as the Paris of Central Europe. The broad boulevard Andrassy culminating in Heroes Park is one of the reasons. On either side of the monument are art museums that Emoke goes to with her mother, and just past there is a large green space, which Emoke called the “Central Park” of Budapest, and in the distance to the right sits an old castle.

I asked Emoke to show me how the Budapest metro works as that’s how I plan to get to the Keleti Rail Station that will take me to Bratislava. She laughed as she doesn’t usually use the underground system – the oldest in continental Europe by the way, only London’s built earlier – but she agreed, and we took a practice run – old cars on the metro, but an efficient system, and relatively easy to use. We got off at Keleti and walked up to street level so I could see the station. I was greatly relieved to have experienced this once with a resident of the city, even if the resident didn’t know the system all that well herself.

Having worked up an appetite, we went off in search of the traditional Hungarian restaurant Emoke's father recommended, not far from St. Stephen’s and Andrassy. 

Dottore Gianni and Emoke at the Hungarian Restaurant

I must admit that I don’t remember its name, but it was rustic, charming and the food – I had goulash with potatoes, washed down by Hungarian lager – was delicious!

We finished the meal just in time to get to the opera tour, which was crowded with people. I’d say there were at least 30 in the English-language group, and perhaps about 10 in the Spanish-language group. 

The Opera - a closer look than in my photo of yesterday

It was an excellent tour, and it turned out that Emoke had not been there before, so it was a new experience for both of us.

In fact Wednesday was a wonderful and very easy day for me. Why? The reason should be obvious! I had no worries about asking for tickets to the opera tour, as Emoke did, no concern about being understood at the restaurant because Emoke spoke perfect Hungarian, at ease about my solo ride on the metro after Emoke took me out on a test run. So she was right – I loved Budapest even more on Wednesday than I had on Tuesday, because she personalized it for me, and I thank her in print for it!

When Emoke left to visit her grandparents, I took another walk, in twilight now, shopping for souvenirs and bidding a silent adieu to the shops and cafes and streets lit with Christmas decorations. My trip was too short. One can never hope to see a great European city in just two and a half days. But it was a great introduction to an important and beautiful European capital.

Entrance to the Christmas Fair

And now on to Slovakia, specifically to Bratislava. A post on that city as soon as possible.