Budapest Day Two:

Today we had three different tours of three entirely different places. The first placed that we toured was the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. It really wasn't really a tour rather a briefing. During the briefing, we discussed the economy of Budapest and how it has transitioned from a communist form to a more socialist/capitalist form os economy that we have now. What was interesting to me was as to how this transition took place and how it affected the country. Before the transition took place there is what some know as Goulash Communism. This is when there is an overarching level of communism at the state level, but locally some people had the opportunity to be a private business. This is where we get the term Goulash because like the Goulash that I have been able to have since being here in Hungary, there is this overarching soup look to the dish, but once looked at closer, you can see what is really going on. The transition took place due to the fact that the Soviet Union collapsed and hungary did know what to do at the time. Because of this, all of the state owned enterprises had to be sold off to the private companies and this is how it started to involve into a new form of economy. The second place that we visited was called the House of Terror. This is one place that I could not believe due to what it was. The House of Terror is an exhibit that showed first hand what the Soviet Union did to the Hungarians during the Cold War. There was one thing that really made me feel like I was one of those people. There was one part that had to do with the Jews that were put into concentration camps during World War II and as soon as they were free they were moved again from the natural freedom into the Gulags, which are known to be just as bad as the concentration camps but were workers prisons where those who were there had to work non stop all day every day with only 30 seconds to wash themselves only a couple of days a week, and had no other toiletries at all. This made me feel so bad for those that survived the camps just to be placed there because many didn't make it through the Gulag. There was one instance where a husband and wife that were placed in the Gulag together and they had tried to smuggle alcohol into the camp via a jar of jam and it was seized, the wife wanted to give her husband some rolled tobacco, and she had it taken away from her as well. That was just to give him a way to keep going and couldn't even get that. Also while we were touring the basement of the House I could not believe the smell that was lingering in the air. If I didn't know any better I would have said there was something dead down there it was just unreal. Lastly We were able to visit the Hungarian Parliament. Just like when we were able to see the German Parliament the Bundestag I was so amazed as to how different the layout was to that of the Bundestag, as well as our own legislative buildings. Lastly I was very interested as to what represented the unity of the Hungarian society, and was able to see it for my self that being the Hungarian Crown. I have always thought as a royal crown as representing the ruler and authority figure over a body of people, and here that is not the case at all. As Professor Yehuda told us it is the symbol of the unity of Hungary. Tomorrow we have lectures that I am really looking forward to hearing about. As for tonight I will be going out with a group of friends to find some of the local food that has been absolutely awesome so far.