Yang
OK! No more rants about any stupid religion (unless I'm provoked, of course).
We are mightily impressed with Budapest. It is a beautiful, old-style Eastern European city, with a smattering of Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture. Walking around the city centre (a very extensive area) brings new delights around every corner. This is quite remarkable, given that 80% of the city was destroyed or damaged during the final soviet offensive in 1944. Other cities, like Cologne in Germany (where we have also been), were rebuilt to be as ugly as possible, but central Budapest looks like it hasn't changed since the 1920s (there are a few handful of brutalist and modernist eyesores, not enough to matter).
What is even more surprising is that the reconstruction was done under barbaric soviet rule, the architectural proclivities of which started and ended with concrete cubes. Soviet reminders include appalling housing estates on the outskirts, and bullet holes downtown where soviet tanks crushed the Hungarians meek try for freedom in 1956 (all of the bullets are soviet, of course).
We were very pleasantly surprised by the food. Every restaurant or cafe, high or low, is very good. We weren't sure whether we could do Hungarian food for two weeks, but, as rich as it is, it's not quite as heavy and stodgy as we thought. Of course I have yet to have a plate of fried goose with stuffed cabbage and fried liver bread-dumplings for lunch. Stay tuned while I finish my arugula salad.
Goulash is the national dish. Everyone knows that. It is on every menu of every single place in Budapest. No exceptions (except maybe the kebab take out place). There are people stirring vats of it on the street, there are posters of it: this is a goulash kind of town. I love it. Like all the staples out there, there are one million six hundred thousand and fifty-three authentic recipes for it. I love them all. I will try a new goulash at least every other day while I am here. There will never be anything like it back home.
The people are quite lovely too. Eastern Europeans used to be described as aloof, guarded, and even a little larcenous in the guide books of the early '90s. Whether or not that was ever justified, it's definitely not what you see here and now. In restaurants, for example, you don't get any nonsense like "Hi! I'm Meladi and I'll be your Sagittarius waitress until the solstice". You get menus, then someone shows up and asks whether you've ordered drinks yet (not brusque, not chatty, just efficient); you order drinks and two minutes later, someone else makes the same query. You get your drinks and are asked whether you're ready to order. If not, they'll come back every three-and-a-half minutes to find out. After that, they bring the stuff over until you're done, then you ask for the bill and leave. I don't want to make this sound unfriendly: the waiters and waitresses are unfailingly nice, polite and smiling (the kitchen flunkeys dishing out the plates could probably use a Dale Carnegie seminar, but they probably earn a buck or so an hour so I can't begrudge them anything).
We all know how murderous historical grievances can be (see the Balkans). Why do some countries' people hold grudges for 600 years and others do not? The Serbs and Croats deserve each other, but we don't, and we can't hope that they'll kill all of each other off, or to send them to the moon (well, we can hope, I suppose). What can be done? What can be learned from the Hungarians? Well, they were on top for a while, as half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was dismantled as a result of WWI. The country's leaders turned fascist during the 1930s and aligned themselves with Hitler. This was a picnic compared to what came after. In addition to the "usual" civil casualties of war, the "liberation" of Hungary by the soviets was followed by the deportation, and subsequent murder, of 500,000 Hungarians, the rape (often multiple in soviet army barracks) of as many as 200,000 Hungarian women, conscription of the remaining men into forced labour and 45 years of soviet rule. (It was also in Budapest that the soviets found Raoul Wallenberg - he was never seen again). If I were Hungarian, I would do whatever I could to ensure that no Russian ever set foot in my country again. Yet they have Russian translations on their menu; they have removed, but not destroyed, all communist-era statues (they are now in a park that is becoming fashionable). Forgive and forget seems to be their motto. I couldn't do it. Hell! I,m not even involved and I can't let it go.
Historical note: as for the aftermath of WWII, the soviet atrocities sketched out above were repeated 10 times over in the rest of Eastern Europe. It is the most under-reported crime against humanity of all times. Please don't get the idea that I think Hitler's defeat was a bad thing. After all the Nazi depredations, Hitler's Ostplan called for the post-soviet-conquest planned starvation of 30 to 40 million (yes, million) Russians to clear the way for German settlers. The blueprint used was obviously Stalin's successfully orchestrated famine in the soviet Ukraine in the 1930s that killed 5 to 10 million (yes again, million).
Just so you know I'm not making any of this up, see Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. It is a masterpiece of research and scholarship, and should be mandatory reading. This is the only history anyone needs to know. For a more in-depth look at human depravity, there is also the timeless Gulag Archipelago. Often mentioned, but never read. End of preaching.
TAPS
One thing I am really happy about being back in Europe for is "normal" bathrooms, and the ability to drink tap water. It doesn't sound like much, but having a bathroom emergency of the second type and not knowing whether you are going to find a proper commode, or a hole in the ground with water everywhere (they use kitchen sprayers and their hands, not toilet paper) can be stressful. I have read a review on Trip Advisor: a Pakistani man was complaining about a four-star hotel not having a kitchen sprayer but only toilet paper.
Sadly, the European outlier in this is my beloved France. I think this is the only otherwise civilized country that has "chiottes a la turque", literally Turkish shitters, in its restaurants. This reflects a mean plumbing streak in the French character. These same restaurants with the deficient toilettes will also have the hot water tap handle taken off so you can't use precious hot water. In the same vein, the typical hotel room light bulbs, added together, may reach only 17 watts if you're lucky. Of course, utilities are monstrously expensive and the government and the constantly bolshie unions have a stranglehold on the economy. Stores have to get their seasonal sales approved by the government! You probably don't believe that, but I'm not making it up. Look it up.
Thank You For Smoking
Absent economic statistics, there are a few proxies that will approximately measure a country's wealth. A very good one is the amount of garbage lying around. Another one is the level of persecution of smokers. Vietnam has no regulations to speak of. China has some regulations, but they are honoured mostly in the breach. In Malaysia, smoking is usually banned in air-conditioned areas only. A few cities, such as Malacca, seem to see themselves as richer than they are: they have completely non-smoking streets (in buildings only: I don't know what the people who live there are supposed to do). Eventually, countries reach a minimum level of wealth at which all indoor smoking is banned, even in privately-owned businesses. This monstrous level of government interference is justified by the mythology of the harmfulness of second-hand smoke. That this has never been scientifically proven (the conclusions of the infamous EPA study contradict its facts - a well-known scientific fraud), and disproved numerous time, is no obstacle. I can understand those who dislike smoke, but the demonization of smokers, and the vindictiveness towards this minority have long surpassed the bounds of moral decency.
Then there is the highest level, super-wealthy California and New York, where even outdoor puffing is disallowed (I predict that, within 5 years, smoking in your own backyard there will be forbidden, and within 10 years, smoking in your own house). Of course, you also have wannabe Calgary, slavishly aping California in its pathetic quest to be seen as a world-class city. The sickness reached Edmonton a few years back: with the adoption of a seventh digit on the licence plates, Alberta (pop. 4 million) can now issue as many licence plates as California (pop. 38 million). Was that really necessary?
The Producers (cont'd)
While we're on the subject, smoking has all but disappeared from Hollywood movies. It is even one of the things, together with language and nudity, that can get a film the dreaded "R" rating. Dreaded because the target audience of 95% of Hollywood movies is the 14-year old boy. Even in movies made for adults, the smoker is guaranteed to be the villain. The cigarette is the 21st century's black hat.
OK! No more rants about any stupid religion (unless I'm provoked, of course).
We are mightily impressed with Budapest. It is a beautiful, old-style Eastern European city, with a smattering of Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture. Walking around the city centre (a very extensive area) brings new delights around every corner. This is quite remarkable, given that 80% of the city was destroyed or damaged during the final soviet offensive in 1944. Other cities, like Cologne in Germany (where we have also been), were rebuilt to be as ugly as possible, but central Budapest looks like it hasn't changed since the 1920s (there are a few handful of brutalist and modernist eyesores, not enough to matter).
What is even more surprising is that the reconstruction was done under barbaric soviet rule, the architectural proclivities of which started and ended with concrete cubes. Soviet reminders include appalling housing estates on the outskirts, and bullet holes downtown where soviet tanks crushed the Hungarians meek try for freedom in 1956 (all of the bullets are soviet, of course).
We were very pleasantly surprised by the food. Every restaurant or cafe, high or low, is very good. We weren't sure whether we could do Hungarian food for two weeks, but, as rich as it is, it's not quite as heavy and stodgy as we thought. Of course I have yet to have a plate of fried goose with stuffed cabbage and fried liver bread-dumplings for lunch. Stay tuned while I finish my arugula salad.
Goulash is the national dish. Everyone knows that. It is on every menu of every single place in Budapest. No exceptions (except maybe the kebab take out place). There are people stirring vats of it on the street, there are posters of it: this is a goulash kind of town. I love it. Like all the staples out there, there are one million six hundred thousand and fifty-three authentic recipes for it. I love them all. I will try a new goulash at least every other day while I am here. There will never be anything like it back home.
The people are quite lovely too. Eastern Europeans used to be described as aloof, guarded, and even a little larcenous in the guide books of the early '90s. Whether or not that was ever justified, it's definitely not what you see here and now. In restaurants, for example, you don't get any nonsense like "Hi! I'm Meladi and I'll be your Sagittarius waitress until the solstice". You get menus, then someone shows up and asks whether you've ordered drinks yet (not brusque, not chatty, just efficient); you order drinks and two minutes later, someone else makes the same query. You get your drinks and are asked whether you're ready to order. If not, they'll come back every three-and-a-half minutes to find out. After that, they bring the stuff over until you're done, then you ask for the bill and leave. I don't want to make this sound unfriendly: the waiters and waitresses are unfailingly nice, polite and smiling (the kitchen flunkeys dishing out the plates could probably use a Dale Carnegie seminar, but they probably earn a buck or so an hour so I can't begrudge them anything).
We all know how murderous historical grievances can be (see the Balkans). Why do some countries' people hold grudges for 600 years and others do not? The Serbs and Croats deserve each other, but we don't, and we can't hope that they'll kill all of each other off, or to send them to the moon (well, we can hope, I suppose). What can be done? What can be learned from the Hungarians? Well, they were on top for a while, as half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was dismantled as a result of WWI. The country's leaders turned fascist during the 1930s and aligned themselves with Hitler. This was a picnic compared to what came after. In addition to the "usual" civil casualties of war, the "liberation" of Hungary by the soviets was followed by the deportation, and subsequent murder, of 500,000 Hungarians, the rape (often multiple in soviet army barracks) of as many as 200,000 Hungarian women, conscription of the remaining men into forced labour and 45 years of soviet rule. (It was also in Budapest that the soviets found Raoul Wallenberg - he was never seen again). If I were Hungarian, I would do whatever I could to ensure that no Russian ever set foot in my country again. Yet they have Russian translations on their menu; they have removed, but not destroyed, all communist-era statues (they are now in a park that is becoming fashionable). Forgive and forget seems to be their motto. I couldn't do it. Hell! I,m not even involved and I can't let it go.
Historical note: as for the aftermath of WWII, the soviet atrocities sketched out above were repeated 10 times over in the rest of Eastern Europe. It is the most under-reported crime against humanity of all times. Please don't get the idea that I think Hitler's defeat was a bad thing. After all the Nazi depredations, Hitler's Ostplan called for the post-soviet-conquest planned starvation of 30 to 40 million (yes, million) Russians to clear the way for German settlers. The blueprint used was obviously Stalin's successfully orchestrated famine in the soviet Ukraine in the 1930s that killed 5 to 10 million (yes again, million).
Just so you know I'm not making any of this up, see Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. It is a masterpiece of research and scholarship, and should be mandatory reading. This is the only history anyone needs to know. For a more in-depth look at human depravity, there is also the timeless Gulag Archipelago. Often mentioned, but never read. End of preaching.
TAPS
One thing I am really happy about being back in Europe for is "normal" bathrooms, and the ability to drink tap water. It doesn't sound like much, but having a bathroom emergency of the second type and not knowing whether you are going to find a proper commode, or a hole in the ground with water everywhere (they use kitchen sprayers and their hands, not toilet paper) can be stressful. I have read a review on Trip Advisor: a Pakistani man was complaining about a four-star hotel not having a kitchen sprayer but only toilet paper.
Sadly, the European outlier in this is my beloved France. I think this is the only otherwise civilized country that has "chiottes a la turque", literally Turkish shitters, in its restaurants. This reflects a mean plumbing streak in the French character. These same restaurants with the deficient toilettes will also have the hot water tap handle taken off so you can't use precious hot water. In the same vein, the typical hotel room light bulbs, added together, may reach only 17 watts if you're lucky. Of course, utilities are monstrously expensive and the government and the constantly bolshie unions have a stranglehold on the economy. Stores have to get their seasonal sales approved by the government! You probably don't believe that, but I'm not making it up. Look it up.
Thank You For Smoking
Absent economic statistics, there are a few proxies that will approximately measure a country's wealth. A very good one is the amount of garbage lying around. Another one is the level of persecution of smokers. Vietnam has no regulations to speak of. China has some regulations, but they are honoured mostly in the breach. In Malaysia, smoking is usually banned in air-conditioned areas only. A few cities, such as Malacca, seem to see themselves as richer than they are: they have completely non-smoking streets (in buildings only: I don't know what the people who live there are supposed to do). Eventually, countries reach a minimum level of wealth at which all indoor smoking is banned, even in privately-owned businesses. This monstrous level of government interference is justified by the mythology of the harmfulness of second-hand smoke. That this has never been scientifically proven (the conclusions of the infamous EPA study contradict its facts - a well-known scientific fraud), and disproved numerous time, is no obstacle. I can understand those who dislike smoke, but the demonization of smokers, and the vindictiveness towards this minority have long surpassed the bounds of moral decency.
Then there is the highest level, super-wealthy California and New York, where even outdoor puffing is disallowed (I predict that, within 5 years, smoking in your own backyard there will be forbidden, and within 10 years, smoking in your own house). Of course, you also have wannabe Calgary, slavishly aping California in its pathetic quest to be seen as a world-class city. The sickness reached Edmonton a few years back: with the adoption of a seventh digit on the licence plates, Alberta (pop. 4 million) can now issue as many licence plates as California (pop. 38 million). Was that really necessary?
The Producers (cont'd)
While we're on the subject, smoking has all but disappeared from Hollywood movies. It is even one of the things, together with language and nudity, that can get a film the dreaded "R" rating. Dreaded because the target audience of 95% of Hollywood movies is the 14-year old boy. Even in movies made for adults, the smoker is guaranteed to be the villain. The cigarette is the 21st century's black hat.