Why was Buddah being a Pest?

The World Institute of Pain held its 4th annual convention in Budapest, Hungary September 25-28. I usually try to avoid pain, and would like to be better at treating my patients with pains, especially chronic ones. And I had never been to Hungary before. So I signed up.

Dr. Don Bassham agreed that as a Dentist avoiding pain this was a meeting we could share.

Sue Bassham said, Yippee!

We said good bye to Melissa Bassham and Sarah Bowen in Vienna, (Sarah, I have now decided, is my daughter-in-law-once-removed, since she is Alyssa Hoehn's sister), when they had to face the pain of going back to schools.

We missed their company very much, but the four of us bravely journeyed on past Neusiedler See where we looked at Eisenstadt and stopped at a Sunday morning flea market staffed by Schwartzenegger types and swarthy Swabians and very Indian looking Gypsies selling treasures and junk of all kinds. Don wanted to buy the Zither, and I was tempted at some silvery looking coins that I decided had to be fake knockoffs because the prices were so low!

In fact I did find a genuine Silver 1 oz coin with the fabled Chester A. Arthur, 21st president of the USA, on it.

Since Deanne, Jonathan, and Andrew have the honor of being blood relatives of said noble public servant and historical footnote, I bought this medallion for EURO 12, and felt myself lucky. Why a Bill Clinton would have cost twice as much I am sure. Deanne found some antique silver and pewter spoons she needed. Sue also scored some treasure. And Don was busy with some hard bargaining with some Roma (Gypsies).

We crossed the border into Hungary with minimal difficulties. And stopped at the Hungarian town of SOPRON, long of course an Austrian town, and still a shopping destination for Austrians for lower Hungarian prices. The town was very much the same style as an Austrian town with old medieval core and walled city with two churches inside. The difference is that Austria has been a democracy/free enterprise with socialism at the edges country for 50 years, and Hungary was gobbled up by the Russian Bear at the end of WW2, and didn't fully shake off this burden till 1989! So although they have been rushing to make up for lost time, and the country now functions as a democracy/free enterprise state with a little tiny bit of socialism on the edges, it has been slower to rebound because of the 44 years of Communist mismanagement and terror.

So the buildings are less likely to be recently painted, and for me it was very much like looking at Austria in the 1960's. To be honest the roads were all good, there is a gasoline filling station on every other corner, and the shops and markets are full and reasonably priced. Hungary is doing a great job of forgetting their recent history.

Budapest is an elegant city, nicely situated on both banks of the Danube. Buda sits on hills to the North bank of the river, it is older, has an Austrian/Hungarian era castle for the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire (Elizabeth or Sisi), and a fortress built by the Austrians to keep all Budapest within gun range in case they had any ideas to try to revolt again as they did in 1848 along with most of the rest of Europe. And for which much blood was shed in retribution that kept it Austrian until WW1.

Pest on the south bank is the real city, where the big business are, and most of the people. It has wide elegant avenues, the main ones tree lined, it has row after row of offices and apartments many in buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries, of course much rebuilt after the massive destruction at the end of WW2 when the Germans vowed to never leave, and the Russians vowed to never forget Stalingrad.

This means most of the city has been rebuilt, and not all of it, but you don't find the tanks on the street, and huge gaping buildings let untouched.

We parked the car and didn't see it again till Sabbath afternoon, and found an apartment I had found and negotiated on line. The original address we thought we were getting had a plumbing problem so were given an even larger and well located flat for 5 nights for EUR 575. It was very satisfactory and centrally located close to the rebuilt and beautiful Jewish Synagogue. Our neighbor's tag said Levine, and some men and boys were wearing skull caps for the Festival of Booths which was taking place at this time.

I love the little cars! Smart cars of all kinds, I wanted to bring one or two home just to play with them.

It was impossible to understand what we were seeing without knowing Budapest's history, so after our meetings in the evenings I would walk the streets with Deanne and Don and Sue after supper, and then read books filling in the many gaps in my knowledge. Here is what I grasped--

Hungary has always been in the midst of troubles. They are between the East and the West so have had Mongol and Muslin invasions against the official Christian, Roman Catholic, position of the kings and governors who had a plan of some kind or other.

During WW1 they were under Austria so on the loosing side of WW1. Austria lost Hungary, but Hungary lost 2/3ds of its previous territories to adjacent states, every one wanted a slice. So many ethnic Hungarians found themselves to this day in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Kosovo, Slovenia, etc.

In WW2 their rightist anti-Semitic government of course again chose or had to accept the loosing side in that world war. And in the last months of the war the Nazi's held onto Budapest with fanatic furor, with permission to surrender
forbidden by Hitler. This only ensured that the Russian Bear wold have to smash more buildings to force out the German army. This they willingly did, leaving total devastation.

But the Red Army did not chase out the Germans to help Hungary, they were helping themselves and their fictional economy with stuff. The sack of anything of Hungarian worth and treasure began with the first troops who stole and claimed anything of value they found, until 1989. During these years the Communist reign of terror, impossible economic theories, and anti-clericism ruled. And on the beautiful Boulevard to the left, Andressay Blvd, the building at #60 was the seat of terror.