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Parliament & Great Market Hall, Budapest, Hungary
Here are some scenes from our last day in Budapest. In the morning we visited the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial, a tribute to the 20,000 Jews who were dragged to the river edge by the pro-Nazi fascists in WWII, forced to take their shoes off, and then shot into the Danube. It’s gut-wrenching to think about—and quite disconcerting that the present-day Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, downplays these gruesome acts of hatred and terror. Next we made our…
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Jewish Quarter, Budapest, Hungary
I learned so much from Andrea Medgyesi, our guide from the Jewish Visitors’ Service of Budapest. She conducted an incredibly informative, contemplative, and thoughtful tour of the Jewish Quarter. A descendant of Holocaust survivors, Andrea provides a unique point of view as a local woman carrying the torch of Jewish history, culture, and religion from post-World War II through Hungary’s age of Communism and to the present day. Any Jewish person visiting Budapest should be required to take Andrea’s tour.…
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Inner City, Budapest, Hungary
Budapest is a sprawling city. With over 1.7 million inhabitants, it is the ninth largest in the European Union. Thankfully for visitors, most of the city’s prominent sites and great restaurants are contained within the relatively compact and walkable Inner City, locally known as Belváros. This area is also home to the oldest and prettiest districts in the city—the ones that appear to have dusted off the remnants of the Iron Curtain. The Inner City straddles the east and west…
