Budapest, Hungary. August 12-14

It's always nice for me to get back to Budapest.  I feel a sense of place here as I relive my days as an 18-19 year old kid, as well as each subsequent return every 4-5 years.  The city changes and so do I. We spent a nice amount of time at home with the family.  I really regret that I have no photos of conversations around the dinner table. Here, we met Kata, and later Andras and his girlfriend.  The kids and I ventured out a couple times.  One day was to the "children's train," a train that runs through the Buda hills and Children serve as ticket takers, but luckily not drivers.  After our ride, we enjoyed the deep fried dough treat, Langos, and then headed to Pest to see the controversial WWII memorial.  This memorial had made international news headlines for the past few months and I really wanted to see it myself.  I won't go into the controversy here, a couple of my photos explain the situation.  Basically, Hungary (like the US) is an extremely divided country.  The right wing supports Prime Minister Orban's pro-Hungarian stance, while the left wing would consider themselves pro-Europe.  I talked to people on both sides and do empathize with each.  In the case of this monument, however, it's tough to know why Orban did it.  Popular opinion was against this monument almost from the beginning.  It shows the Hungarians as victims of German oppression in WWII and white washes Hungarian collaboration, which is nearly impossible to disprove.  I was moved by the tenacity of the protesters, though they weren't at the site during our visit.  They placed numerous artifacts and memorials in front of the statue in witness to the victims of Hungarians during the Holocaust.  I will be curious to see (and will hope to see) that they still remain during my next visit. Ironically, there was a playground and a fountain right next to the monument, so the kids got to enjoy the experience as well.  The next day we went to the Transportation Museum with Agnes and her kids, and I tried to reenact some of the photos I took 4 years ago both at the museum and at Heroes Square at the entrance to city park.  After this, the kids and I had Somloi Galuska and Palacsintas at Gerbeaud and headed back to Agi and Dezso's with a stop at the riverbank for a view of the castle.