Fulbright Tour of Kossuth Tér

Although not one of the official monthly excursions, the Fulbright Association invited Kinga Tittel, an author, guide, and economist, to lead a tour of Kossuth tér and Szabadság tér for the Fulbrighters. She is a much sought-after guide, and it was a treat to hear her talk about the architecture and artwork around the central part of downtown.

We started at Kossuth tér, which we have been to many times before. Even so, I can never resist taking more pictures of the Parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture.

One site in Kossuth tér that we had not yet seen was the Memorial to National Togetherness. This is a long, ramped trench dropping down into the earth and ending at an eternal flame. Along the sides of the corridor are the names of all pre-Trianon Greater Hungary cities (over 12,000) with their Hungarian names (even if those aren’t the traditional names). Trianon was the 1920 treaty signed in Versailles that ended WWI for Hungary, and the winning powers (i.e., the West) took 2/3 of the Hungarian territory and split it up to neighboring countries. Trianon is still a bitter and emotional topic for many Hungarians This memorial was created on its 100 year anniversary, showing that although not all of these cities are still part of Hungary, they are still part of the Hungarian history.

I have mixed feelings about this monument since although the intentions seem good, there are a lot of things that point to victimization, colonization, ethnocentrism, and political propaganda. Again, I am definitely not the most articulate when it comes to politics, but I am not sure if this monument helps people heal or perpetuates historical trauma narratives.

We then walked toward Szabadság tér and saw several examples of Art Nouveau in Budapest, including the old bank that has bumblebees climbing up the side and buildings with animal motifs. We also took a selfie with George Bush, which I saw some other people doing on our previous trip and we just had to do it as well! It isn’t the best angle because you can’t see the phone, but he is holding it in the hand that is up.

While JonPaul, Zoey, and I were enjoying the discussion, Ronin and Willow had fun playing with their toys. We let them each bring a few little toys, and it kept them entertained. We also searched for little miniature sculptures by Mihály Kolodko, who makes these small bronze statues and ‘hides’ them all over Budapest. We found Kermit the Frog, a mini moon buggy, and an axe. This is the moon buggy with Willow’s horsies playing on it!

The tour was almost two hours, and it was well worth it. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because it was pretty cloudy and I had already taken a bunch of pictures a few weeks ago when we did our own walk in this area. But it was great to hear about all the buildings and statues we walked by.

After the tour we walked toward Szent István Bazilika since it was the first day of the Christmas market! On the way there we stopped in the English bookstore since Zoey finished reading the books we brought with us and needed some new ones. She picked two: Wayside School is Falling Down (one of my favorites from when I was a kid!) and Darwin’s Dragons. She is a little behind in her reading level, so we were trying to find something that wasn’t too difficult and had short chapters. She feels more accomplished when she reads several short chapters than when she reads one long chapter, and anything to get her to read more.

We did a quick walk through the Christmas market. We will hopefully do a few more trips here in the coming weeks. The tree was pretty, and there were booths selling crafts, trinkets, and of course, food! There were also lots of hot mulled wine sellers, and of course we had to get some. It was pretty good, and most importantly kept my hands nice and warm.