Day 2

Day 2

The Jewish Synagogue

It was a beautiful and sunny day in Budapest! We had to be up and ready to go by 10 am to start touring. Unfortunately a couple people didn't set their alarms so we did not start our journey until about 10:15. I did not have breakfast, but I heard that it was quite good at the hotel. We started the tour down the street by our hotel where we learned about a Jewish synagogue. The people in Hungary refer to it as the great synagogue. During World War 2 the great synagogue was in the middle of a ghetto and many people ended up dying. There is a memorial where people are remembered inside the gates of the synagogue. They shaped the memorial so that it looks like a wheeping willow to signify how sad of an event it was. People's names are listed on the leaves and people can donate money to the cause.



We then learned how Budapest is seperated into two by the Danube river and that the side we are staying on is called Pest. The other side is called Buda and it is much more fancy and hilly than the Pest side. There is a joke that people in Hungary either live in Buda or they wish they lived in Buda. Later on we visited a market where there were all kinds of stores and shops. Some of the stuff being sold would never be sold in America and they had all different kinds of weird meats to eat. For lunch we went to a cafe and the pepsi I ordered was so small I ended up ordering three of them and it turned out to cost more than my actual meal! After lunch we went to Memento Park which is deep into Buda so we had to take the subway and bus to get there. Once there we learned about the Soviet Union and how they took control over Hungary after the war because Hungary had been allies with Germany during the war. This was when Stalin was in control and was a ruthless leader killing thousands of people and many political leaders who threatened him. In 1956 the people of Hungary overthrew the Soviet Union and took down the Stalin statue that had been build. There were around 46 statues in the park and a video explaining everything that was happening during Hungary's journey to freedom and how they were released from communist control. This was the last stop we made.


Statue of Lenin

Conner Crooker of the Vienna Sausages