Pesht and Paprikash

Miniature Theodore Herzl Statue outside Dohany Synagogue

Budapest is divided by the Danube River with Buda on the hill and Pest (pronounced Pesht) on the other side.

Our first day we decided to explore Pest. We started our morning with a 2.5 hour walking tour of Jewish Budapest - a similar theme of our city tours. Prior to WWII there were 900,000 Hungarian Jews; today 100,000 remain, but only 10,000 identify themselves as Jews. Most of the Jews lived in District VII, also known as the Jewish quarter. Today this quarter is one of the hottest in Budapest with some of the best restaurants, ruin pubs and shops.

Much of the beautiful architecture of Budapest was done by Jewish architects. Our tour also took us past the synagogues of Budapest including the Dohany Synagogue, Europe’s largest synagogue and the world’s second largest, after Temple Emanuel in NYC. Here there are also tributes to Righteous Gentiles, specifically Raoul Wallenberg and Sir Nicholas Winton (we actually heard about him and the Kindertransport in Prague). Interestingly, Theodore Herzl was born at a house where the Dohany Synagogue stands.

Tree of Life Memorial at Dohany Synagogue

In the afternoon we walked ourselves along the Danube towards the Hungarian Parliament to the Shoes Memorial. Up until 1944 Hungarian Jews managed to remain “safe” from what was happening to Jews in surrounding countries, but then all had changed. This shoe memorial was created in 2004 (marking the 60 year anniversary) and is a memorial to the thousands of Jews who were taken to the Danube and shot by the Nazis. Yet, before they were shot and pushed into the water, the Nazis asked them to remove their shoes.

Shoes on The Danube

We then walked to St Stephens Basilica (yep same name as the one in Vienna), but this one had a tower that we could climb of 302 steps. Despite the mini meltdown 10 minutes earlier, the girls were ready to climb. The views were amazing and definitely worth it. 

Top of St. Stephen's Cathedral

Climbing up St. Stephen's

After all of the climbing and walking we treated ourselves to a delicious Hungarian dinner at MOST Bisztro. We tried chicken paprikash, goulash, stratpchka (homemade potato noodles with sour cream, bacon and onion) and then enjoyed chimney cake (for those of you who heard M & O talk about this dessert).

Chicken Paprikash

Strapachka

Chimney Cake Day #1

Chimney Cake Day #2

 Chimney Cake Day #3