Andrassy Utca

I finally managed to start language classes this week!  They’re private lessons, not group lessons, like I’d prefer, but hey – I’m in Hungary and I’m learning Hungarian, only half of which was true last week.

My first lesson was on Monday, after which I decided to take a stroll down Andrassy Utca, or Andrassy Avenue.  Andrassy is the oldest and most important boulevard in all of Budapest and is known locally as the “Champs Élysées” of Budapest.  The name is apt, as the Opera House is located on this street (with several other playhouses located just off it on the cross streets) along with high-end retailers, chic restaurants, and hip coffee shops.  The Opera House is said to be quite beautiful, though I haven’t been in it yet.

The buildings along the avenue are exceedingly ornate and mostly adhere to classic-esque designs.  I’m told there was a law that applied to all buildings built along the avenue when it was created in the late 1800s that 20% of the cost of the building had to be spent on external decoration.  20%!  Can you imagine?!  Some of the decorations are jaw-dropping in their extravagance – huge carved stone figures of people or angels holding up entablatures(?) over the entryways and intricately carved facades.

And these are often just basic residential buildings or commercial storefronts today.  For example, here are a few pics from the apartment building I’m staying in:

One of the sights to see along Andrassy is the Terror House – a museum dedicated to remembering atrocities committed by both the fascist and the communist regimes that ruled in Hungary in the mid-20th century:

The building makes quite the impression, with the tall, black walls stretching up the sides of the building and towering over the sidewalk with the word “TERROR” cut out in large block letters.  The walls actually extend down and out to the sidewalk, with door-sized cut-outs to walk through as you pass by the building.  It’s a bit terrorizing.  I have to speculate the Hungarians are really into recreating the feeling of the bad times.  They have an underground museum in the Parliament square, dedicated to the memory of the Soviet massacre of hundreds or thousands of Hungarians protesting there in 1956, where you can have a 3D experience of what it’s like to be gunned down by a Soviet soldier.

Andrassy is about 1.5 miles long, and at the end stands the massive Heroes’ Square:

Heroes’ Square is dedicated generally to those who have fought for Hungary.  At the top of the column in the middle is the angel Gabriel, and at the base are representations of the chiefs of the 7 Magyar tribes that settled the region over 1000 years ago.  The colonnades in the back house statues of other famous or important Hungarians in history.

Andrassy Avenue stretches behind me in the pictures of Heroes’s Square above, but on the other side of the colonnades is the huge city park, which houses a big zoo, botanical garden, circus, lake (ice skating rink in winter), a thermal bath (I think), and several museums, including one housed in a castle.  I only breached the very entrance to the park on this adventure, so I’ll have to go back and see the rest some other time.  Fortunately, there’s a metro line that runs length of Andrassy Ut., a site of historical significance itself as it’s the oldest metro in Budapest and the oldest metro on the European continent (only London has an older metro system).  All of Andrassy Ut., including Heroes’ Square, have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Once I reached the park, I pulled up a piece of grass by the lake to sit and study what I’d learned in my Hungarian lesson that day.  Despite the strange man that decided to take a dip in the mossy lake near where I was sitting, it was quite peaceful.

I decided to walk back along a side street to see what it had to offer.  Budapest is full of narrow little streets lined by old (or old-looking) buildings that pretty much share walls, like in San Francisco, and which are all about the same height.  These streets usually curve here and there so you can’t see where they’re leading you.  It’s quite charming.

I found it interesting to pay attention to the building facades along the street.  Some of the buildings clearly look old based on the ornateness of the building decor and the materials used.  Others look old, but it’s harder to be sure.  80% of the buildings in Budapest were damaged or destroyed during WWII, so it’s sometimes hard to tell whether a building is old or whether it just looks old.  For example, is this building old or old-looking:

Notice the intricate sculpted image of a man under the small balcony and the gargoyle near the top in the above picture.

In this picture, notice the detail in the carving of the two statues on the right side of the picture, along with the ornate decoration under the balcony over their heads.  These are the things that suggested to me a legitimately old building.  However, I don’t think it is.  The building is in too good a condition and the decoration a little too uniform to be carved – it all looks poured or molded, like it’s made from cement or something similar.  I think this is a modern building that the owners put a little extra money into making look historic and interesting.  Most of the modern buildings trying to fit in with the older architecture have molded faux-stone facades nowhere near as intricate as this building.

Here’s another one that had me guessing:

If you really want to know whether a building is old or not (and by old, I mean pre-WWII), you pretty much have to look for the battle scars:

Like in most European cities, buildings that survived WWII are often left with evidence of the battles that took place here.  The little street I was walking along, Aradi Ut., had many buildings with what looked like bullet holes or shrapnel damage.

I finished my day with some “Jewish street food” in a pleasant outdoor eatery in the Jewish quarter:

The Jewish quarter is pretty cool – old, with quaint, narrow streets, inviting pubs and outdoor eateries, street art, and unique little boutiques.  It also has a couple pubs housed in building ruins (I have yet to visit these).  Very bohemian.

And, just for giggles, here are some pics of a shop sign that made me lol:

TL;DR:  Another fine day in Budapest.