March 15th is a national holiday in Hungary, commemorating the revolution of 1848-9, when the country made a bit for freedom from those evil Hapsburgs. This year hussars were dotted around the capital, rather like those cows that popped up all over the place a few years back. For some reason the city decided English tourists would be interested in the history of the various regiments. As usual, the rather literal translations had a somewhat comic nature.
I'd been warned several times about potential political riots going on, but had not seen anything, and twitter told me things were peaceful thus far. Everyone was wearing a little rosette of green, red and white, which are apparently called something like 'cocado'. I shuffled off to an old lady and bought one for 200Fts. I like to think she put the money towards her own revolutionary fund. One old dear actually had some medals attached below the rosette (plastic ones), and I wondered if they were from her time spent revolting 150 years ago.
I met up with one of my new Hungarian friends, who had a friend of his in tow, and we headed off for one of the funicular railways that runs up one of the Budapest hills. At the bottom we tried a local sweet thing, biscuity balls - one coconut, one orange - which were quite pleasant, and sat briefly in the sun, trying to ignore the bitterly cold wind. On the way up the hill I repeatedly pointed out the snow to my companions, who said that Spring was coming. We talked about the corruption that plagues Hungarian politics (a fact all too common for most national governments, if not all). They seemed confused when I asked whether there were ever public enquiries. Apparently not.
At the top we popped into the children's railway. Not a railway for children in the traditional sense, but one run by them. It was something of an early achievement for the socialists; my friend joked that it was because they'd even got the children into the labourforce. Now it's something of a novelty, but the little station still has a beautiful mosaic above the ticket kiosk, depicting the children playing their little socialist games, ensconced in nature. Apparently the red squirrel was something of a celebrity back in those days. As much as Tufty??We made the long walk (we didn't know how long when we started), along the road and through the woods. On the top of János Hill, at the highest point of Budapest, stands the Elizabeth Lookout (Erzsébet-kilátó, built in 1908-1910). The views are terrific, showing all of northern Budapest, as well as a lot of the surrounding countryside. At present all the trees are brown, but no doubt it will be an even more beautiful sight in a month's time. On that day though the wind almost knocked us over, as we intrepidly made our way to the top. After taking in as much as we could we made our way back into town.
I waited at home for some other friends, when I received an urgent phone call from Tim asking me to leave the house as soon as possible. I wondered why it was so important I meet them right now. It turned out it was because his girlfriend's hair was still wet from the baths, and she was getting cold. I thought it might be vampires (a little hooked on True Blood at present). I marched to the tram, and made my way to Oktogon. At the pub they were already eyeing the snack menu. We settled in for beer, snacks and cards. And that was how my day ended. No rioters in sight.
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