Category Archives: Budapest History

Apr26

Karaoke, Billionaires & Sharks

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This has been an incredibly hectic and stressful week but with some cool stuff thrown in. On Sunday I went to check out a choir because I really want to get back to singing with a group. I sat in on the Gabrieli Choir‘s weekly practice. They exclusively sing sacred music. I’m not a religious person but grew up singing sacred music and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it so I think I will join.

And speaking of singing, last Saturday we finally went to karaoke. Oh how I’ve been waiting to get my karaoke on in Hungary! Well, it didn’t disappoint but perhaps that’s because my lovely new friend Marion plied us all with very smooth tequila straight from Mexico. She also made an AMAZING chili which I’m happy to report stayed in all of our bellies. There weren’t many people at karaoke so our small group got to sing a lot. I sang one of my all-time favs “Chain of Fools,” Marion did a spectacular rendition of Meatloaf’s “Anything for Love” and Anne rocked the house with Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly.” Stephen and Theo signed my new friend Bart up (behind his back) to sing “I Want it That Way” by Backstreet Boys which he did without a single complaint or attempt at refusal. Good on ya, Dutch Bart! Sadly, we won’t be able to return to this bar since we kind of broke one of the microphones. Some guy was singing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” (or was it Dolly’s? I couldn’t really tell) and I wanted to harmonize with him so I asked Marion to grab the other mike. Wellllllll, it kinda ended up on the floor and then stopped working; I’m not admitting to anything, nor did brilliant lawyer Marion when one of the karaoke hosts tried to get us to pay 33,000 Hungarian Forint (150 USD) to replace it. Yeah, no. I felt bad and everything but it’s an occupational hazard and you gotta expect that some drunkard is going to ruin your equipment at some point. After karaoke we went to a magazine launch party to hear our friend and colleague Brandon, a DJ, spin some tunes. I don’t know the cool way to say “spin some tunes.” What are the kids saying these days? 🙂

Everyone at CEU has been running around like chickens with their heads cut off (speaking of, this morning I saw a dude in a chicken costume w/ the head temporarily off so he could smoke) because Papa George  – that would be George Soros, our founder and FUNDER) – is here. CEU is opening its School of Public Policy and International Affairs (which was his idea) and their inaugural conference was Monday & Tuesday. One of the panel moderators was Kati Marton who is also a member of the CEU Board of Trustees. She is a former journalist and respected author and widow of U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, with whom our president worked closely. Marton spoke last night about her book about the life of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives in Budapest at the end of World War II. In another post, I mentioned the book I read about him when I first arrived in Budapest. I feel really lucky to be able to attend all of these cool events!

I have also had a bit of a job change which I have been anticipating. I will be doing international media relations now but also continuing to do lots of editorial work for the website, etc. I formally met the CEU president yesterday, although I’ve heard him speak many times already. We had a very good conversation about what we can do to raise the school’s profile in the U.S.

Last night I started doing interviews for a freelance piece I’m doing on sharks. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a recent (within the last 5 or 6 years) obsession with sharks. I was so excited to get to speak to one of the foremost experts in the world, George Burgess, who is often featured on Shark Week programs. The first thing he said to me after I was transferred to him was, “I love your last name!” 🙂 We had a really great conversation and I learned some fascinating new info. I need to ask him for some book recommendations too. If you are Elasmobranch-inclined, check out these awesome books: The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey and Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo. The latter is the story that Peter Benchley based Jaws on and was a stellar recommendation by my friend Mary.

Ok, time to go home and clean up the flat as my friend Ivana (a pal I met way back in 2009 in Munich) will be visiting tomorrow.

Keep the home fires burning! 🙂

C

Mar25

Hungary Will Let Anybody In!

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Hey Y’all,

It’s been a banner week for me in the great nation of Hungary, or the landlocked jewel of Central Europe, as I like to call it. The government has seen fit to grant me a residence permit (SUCKAHS!). They obviously weren’t able to access my extensive global criminal record. Dealing with the immigration office was far less hilarious than I thought it would be but I get to do it all over again next year when my U.S. passport expires. Weeeeeeeee!

Another big development: I GOT A FLAT and I love it! I am supposed to get the keys Monday. Living at the CEU dorm has been charming and everything but I gots to get into town so I can be at the heart of the action. My street is Kiraly utca (Key-rai oot-suh) which means “King Street.” Well, it’s fit for this queen anyway. 🙂 Here are pics of the flat. I really wanted an old-style place w/ wood floors, high ceilings and lots of windows and I got it. And, the best part it is, I have a guest room so there’s plenty of room for visitors! Remember, that invite is only applicable to people I like. The Kiraly is really in the heart of Pest, within walking/biking distance to lots of cool stuff including (imagine me singing this:) the OPERAAAAA!!!!!! ♫ ♫ ♪ ♪ ♥ ♥ So, next weekend I’ll be making a big ‘ol trip to IKEA for household stuff. Of course I am still waiting on my shipment from the U.S. including the couch to end all couches which, judging from the 69 days it took to be made and delivered to my Munich flat, was done so in the North Pole (actual place of origin: Poland). Don’t get me started on the couch, seriously.

On Thursday night my office mate Ildi and I attended a really wonderful concert at CEU titled Heaven in a Nightclub. It was a jazz trio – piano, bass and singer – and they were incredible. The singer, Ruth Naomi Floyd, has an amazingly rich and moving voice. When she sang Motherless Child, she cried. I know that feeling to be so overtaken by emotion when you are singing. We were lucky enough to get two encores out of them. After the concert I joined up with some American friends for a going-away party for my friend Anne’s boyfriend who, sadly, had to move back to NYC because he couldn’t find a job here.

A friend from Munich was supposed to visit this weekend but illness prevented that so I went out exploring again today on my own. I decided to go to the Holocaust Museum. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve been learning a lot about Budapest/Hungary  in the WW II era. I also recently learned that Budapest has the second-largest synagogue in the Europe and fifth-largest in the world (according to Wikipedia). I have seen it but I have not yet had the chance to visit it. The museum is, of course, very somber but I think it does a good job of explaining the events of the era, beginning with discriminatory laws that were put in place after WW I. You cannot go to places like this without contemplating man’s inhumanity to man. Next to a movie showing a piece about the growing intolerance and anti-intellectualism of Hitler’s Third Reich is a very profound and prophetic quote: “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” – Heinrich Heine (1797-1856 German poet, essayist & journalist)

I had some errands to run after I went to the museum so I popped into the nearby mall. While I was there, I decided to just grab dinner from a Middle Eastern place in the food court (classy). The guy who was working the meat spit was the perfect combination of Omar Sharif (as Sherif Ali) and Peter O’ Toole (as Lawrence of Arabia); he had flawless dark skin and hair but he also possessed that same effeminate quality (including, I think, makeup) that Lawrence works so brilliantly. Anyway, I attempted to order a gyro but he thought I said Euro, so he was asking his colleagues if they took Euros. Just at that moment a Hungarian passerby took pity on me and translated. After Omar Sharif handed me my plate and I thanked him he said, “I love Germans. Guten Appetite!” Ha Ha! I always figure as soon as I open my mouth it’s obvious that I’m American (or maybe Canadian but I’m too rude to be a Canuck really). Since I’m at least 1/4 Kraut I suppose his guess wasn’t too far off.

Today I’m packing all my crap so I can move into my new place this week. YAY!!!!

We moved our clocks forward this weekend and spring is truly here. 🙂

C

Mar8

A Little Piece of Paper

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Last week I went to see a flat that a friend of one of my co-workers is renting. It was my first trip to the Buda side of the Danube! In Budapest (at least right now), guards are posted at every Metro stop to check that people have valid passes/tickets before boarding the train and sometimes after too. As I was waiting for the woman to meet me, another woman tried to walk off the escalator and get by the guards without a valid ticket/pass. She was immediately stopped and began to loudly argue w/ the guards. She tried, again, to get away and a very large Hungarian guard blocked her way w/ his massive body. The woman continued to argue and purposely throw herself against the guard in what seemed like an act of defiance more than another attempt to get away. Hungary has been hit hard in recent years and many people are jobless/homeless and struggling. Metro passes aren’t cheap either, by Hungarian standards.

The scene at the Metro started me thinking about access and luck. I just finished an excellent but tragic book called The Envoy: The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II. It chronicles the valiant efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands (some estimates are over 100,000) of Jews from extermination at the hands of Hitler’s Third Reich. Before moving to Budapest I had no idea just how horrifying the situation was here. Wallenberg (w/ some support from the Swedish and U.S. governments) and a small group of other diplomats and sympathizers worked diligently to save lives and one way was to issue Schutzpasses to Jews which declared them Swedish citizens and, therefore, protected by the crown of Sweden. As the author points out, the Wehrmacht (Hitler’s armed forces) still respected some level of rule and diplomacy (that sounds ridiculous, I know) and allowed many Jews reprieve based on the papers. However, as the Soviet Red Army began to close in on Budapest, Nazis (under the local command of Adolf Eichmann) became more determined to succeed at completing the “Final Solution” in Hungary. Schutzpasses were no longer a guarantee of safety and groups of Jews were being led to the banks of the Danube to be shot and cast into the river like human refuse. Ultimately Wallenberg was taken prisoner by the Soviets who thought he was a German spy due to his frequent meetings w/ Eichmann and other high-ranking Nazis. The meetings were, of course, attempts to win the freedom of as many Jews as possible. He was taken to Moscow, imprisoned and never heard from again. The Russian government claimed that he had died in his cell of an apparent heart attack but his family spent decades trying to find out what really happened to him to no avail. This year marks the 100th birthday of Wallenberg and there will be exhibitions and events all around Budapest.

Again, I get to thinking about the haves and the have-nots and how one little piece of paper can make all the difference.

Raoul Wallenberg

Feb22

Some Scary Shiz is Goin’ Down in Hungary!

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In a free and fair election last spring in Hungary, the center-right political party, Fidesz, got 53% of the vote. This translated into 68% of the seats in the parliament under Hungary’s current disproportionate election law. With this supermajority, Fidesz won the power to change the constitution. They have used this power in the most extreme way at every turn, amending the constitution ten times in their first year in office and then enacting a wholly new constitution that will take effect on January 1, 2012.

This constitutional activity has transformed the legal landscape to remove checks on the power of the government and put virtually all power into the hands of the current governing party for the foreseeable future.

Full article here: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/hungarys-constitutional-revolution/

I have talked a bit about this w/ some of my Hungarian colleagues and, for the most part, they seem disillusioned and angry at the Fidesz party but, sadly, there is no concrete party on the left to balance out these extremists.

C