Hungary Photos 2

More pictures, still in Budapest.


Statue and fountain in front of Budapest palace.


Statue in front of Buda palace.


Chess is big in Hungary. In the natural hot springs and pools, players lounge on the side playing on board lying on the edges. Many stores sell pretty wooden sets like these.


Or these.


Or these. Note the Russian influence.


A random street in old Buda.


A random store in old Buda.


A random cafe in old Buda.


A museum in old Buda.


Church in old Buda, currently under renovation.


A statue dedicated to the plague victims (I think the Black Death, but I'm not entirely sure).


Statue near previous church.


A falcon in hood and jesses on previous statue.


A falconer with another falcon. The falconers fly the birds for tourists on special occasions. On this day, they were charging people to take pictures with the birds.


Under a bridge nearby.


On the statue.


The fisherman's wharf, in honor of the fisherman who did something in some conflict in Budapest.


Me tired out after studiously learning all the intricate details I've been relating to you in my picture captions.


A statue of the church under renovations.


Another church nearby in old Buda.


The national archives. Nice roof and beautiful interior, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside or progress past the foyer.


Statue near the archives, and the exit at the back of old Buda.


Outside old Buda, on the exterior wall.

Session Report, in which Avraham wins both of his games

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Odin's Ravens, Princes of Florence, Tigris and Euphrates.

Some tough and enjoyable games.

What Even an Am Haaretz in Israel Knows

To celebrate the dedication of a new sefer torah yesterday, we marched through the streets of Jerusalem from the house of the donating couple to the synagogue.

We were a wild group of people of different sexes, ideologies, religiosity - haredi, mesorati, dati, ashkenaz, sepharad - politics, and so on, playing music and thronging and dancing around four people holding a homemade colorful canopy over one person carrying the torah.

As we walked, people stuck their heads out of windows, cars slowed or stopped to watch, and people on the street clapped their hands.

One guy driving a sports car pulled over to the curb with screeching tires. He jumped out of the car and ran over to the torah, trying without success to pull the back of his shirt up over his bald, kippah-less head. He leaned over and kissed the torah, shouting a blessing to all of us over the noise of the guitars, flutes, singing, and dancing. Then he got back into his car and drove away.

A secular taxi driver had to wait as we crossed the road. When I passed him, he stuck out his hand and I shook it, and he gave a small blessing to our shul. He, and all the other cars waited patiently, with smiles on their faces as we gamboled past.

At shul, everyone had the opportunity to "help write" the torah, by giving a donation, picking an honor or memory to which to dedicate, and sitting next to the scribe as he filled in the last letters.

The ink of a torah doesn't soak into the parchment but rests on it. It is erasable; only the torah in our hearts is inscribed with permanent ink.

Don't believe me? Ask the guy in the sports car.

In Hungary, the great Dohany synagogue has 24 torah scrolls in its behemoth of an ark. The service is carried out like a church. Most of the congregation can't read the Hebrew siddurim they're not holding. The organ plays over a taped choir while the hazan recites L'cha Dodi to a tune from three centuries ago.

Here in Israel, our little Carlebach shul now has its first permanent torah.


Before


After


During

Hungary Photos 1

Other photos can be seen in my first post.


The street on which we were staying while in Budapest. It's pretty central, and had a lot of bars on it. "utca" is street. The Hungarian language is not Latin based like so many other European languages, but an Uralic one, related to Finnish. I'm not sure how this came to be. Lots of slanted lines and dots over the vowels.

Why did I take a picture of the street sign? So that if we got lost and had to take a taxi, I could just show them the picture of where we needed to go.


Where we stayed. Pretty nice place, and not expensive - 75 EUR a night for four of us, I believe, with full kitchen facilities. Some rooms were nicer than others, and the free wireless only worked on the 4th to 6th floor.


Sandblasting the building faces.


Random building statue downtown Pest.


Random building statue downtown Pest.


Random street view downtown Pest.


Me in front of a random statue downtown Pest.


Random building downtown Pest.


Random building and street downtown Pest.


Random building downtown Pest.


Random statue by the Danube in downtown Pest. Buda is across the Danube.


Tram tracks by the Danube. The city has buses, trams, and subways. Trams are fun, but the overhead wires tend to detract from the scenery.


A wandering musician in Pest.


One of hundreds of people trying to get you to buy Budapest passes that allow you to hop around the city. She spoke a little English, and did her best to try to help us, as did most other people we ran into in Budapest.


Random statue in downtown Pest.


Random street flowers in downtown Pest, opposite the previous statue.


Random building in downtown Pest.


Random statue in downtown Pest.


Random building in downtown Pest.


One of four lions at the entrance to the Chain Bridge, the first bridge to connect Buda to Pest. Legend has it that the lions have no tongues. The sculptor, when challenged on this, said that you can't see the tongue of a lion when his head is up, anyway, and he was proved to be right.


The Chain Bridge across the Danube.


Rachel on the Chain Bridge across the Danube.


View of Pest from the Chain Bridge.


Corner mural on Buda, across from the Chain Bridge. To my right is an expensive trolley car that will take you up to the top (30 second journey). To the left you can simply walk up in about 5 minutes.


Pest, after walking up to the top of the hill in Buda.