Budapest

Budapest is a Monet--beautiful from far away, but a hot mess close up. We arrived at a train station in the kind of neighborhood where train stations often are, then walked to our hotel. The neighborhood reminded me strongly of other Eastern European cities I have visited. There were 18th- and 19th-century buildings interspersed with Soviet-era buildings. Everything was in various states of disrepair.

We visited the castle hill in Buda, Memento Park with its Communist-Era statues, and the Terror Museum in the building which once housed the secret police's cells and torture chambers. The overcast, freezing weather just added to the oppressive feeling of the last two sites.