Hungarian National Day

monjo — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:52:12 +0000

The 23rd October marks the anniversary of events in 1956, when Hungarians protested about being ruled over by the Soviet Union - in effect, ruled over by Russians. Hungarians take the day off work (it’s a holiday) and celebrate. The day is marked by numerous official events - and, occasionally, by some violence.

I took advantage of the fact that entry to the National Gallery was free and so went around there. The National Gallery is vastly different to the British National Gallery - in that all the work is by Hungarians (or, in any event, Austro-Hungarians). Some of it is quite impressive, and some is sobering - seeing names of artists whose death is recorded as Auschwitz brings a stark reminder to the price of freedom.

This feed is not for use on commercial web sites.
© Monjo.com

Budapest Zoo

monjo — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:26:40 +0000

Last weekend I went to the zoo, which is by the City Park. The zoo is a reasonable size and is home to all the usual suspects: big cats, bears, elephants, giraffes, and penguins. It also has petting, farm, and children’s sections.

Unfortunately, I did not arrive at the zoo until 3.30 P.M. and it closes at 5.30 P.M. The closing time is later in the summer months and there are discounts for students, pensioners, children and families.

From my perspective the zoo’s layout is quite good; however, there are numerous houses dotted around and they are easily missed. Also because the entrances (bejárats) and exits (kijarets) are generally at opposite ends of the buildings, it means having to backtrack to avoid missing animals in the main zoo.

I managed to cover most of the zoo in around one hour, forty-five minutes. I would suggest the zoo should command about 2.5hours for couples or about 3 hours for a family. However, the zoo is a little distressing - some of the enclosures do not seem big enough (for instance the hippopotamus enclosure), and some animals around the zoo looked distressed or depressed. This is, of course, an argument against all zoos, but some more so than others.

The wolves seemed quite happy: one was playing a game with a young child who was peddling her cart alongside the enclosure as the wolf chased. The child found great merriment in going back and forth. The seals also seemed to genuinely enjoy their meal time as the keepers got them to perform some tricks for fish.

Monjo news

Hungarian National Day

Budapest Zoo