Thursday, August 29, 2013

Fun Fact Budapest Edition

Fact: During communist Hungary, a statue was erected on the Buda side of the city, high on a hill for all to see. After the country was freed, all communist relics were destroyed. All but this one statue, that is. The statue was too beautiful to be demolished, the government thought (which it is), but it was tainted and they had to do something about it... so a plan was formulated. And the plan was this - in order to purify the statue, changing the symbolism from oppression to freedom, they would place a giant sheet over it for three days. At the end of the three days the sheet would be removed and the statue would be inaugurated as a statue of independence. And so it was.
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Fact: The flat Pest side of the city is home of the M1 - the second oldest consistently running metro line in the world. The retro yellow, two car, metro has been transporting spa-goers to and from the city center since 1896.
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Fact: During the war, Jews were lined up along the Danube and shot in the back, propelling their bodies forward into the water. Today, as a memorial, bronze shoes line a part of the river.

Fact: In the Jewish Quarter of Budapest, located on the Pest side of the city, laid an untold number of abandoned warehouse-esq buildings. The year 2000 brought about their rebirth, when the abandoned buildings were outfitted with beer taps and toilets and thusly named Ruin Pubs or Bars. Over time, the decor has multiplied drastically, although the structures themselves have remained the same. Even if you don't drink, the Ruin Bars are one of the coolest places you'll ever walk into.

Fact: At the corner of Karoly Krt and Dohany St (on the Karoly Krt side) is a little ice cream shop named Fragola. It changes lives for the better. Their pomegranate yogurt ice cream certainly changed mine.

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