Night of Museums in Budapest

On Saturday, June 21, we went into Budapest for the annual Night of Museums. Our friend and co-worker Lisa picked us up and we headed into the city to eat dinner at Arriba Taqueria. It's a great little mexican food place, much like Freebird's in College Station. There we met a recent acquaintence of Lisa's who had tried to visit the museums last year, but started around 8pm and the lines were just too long.

At around 6 pm, we walked to the first museum to buy our ticket for the night, which turned out to be a sticker. Very efficient, as all we had to do was point to it on our shirts to get in quickly to the other museums. We didn't have to wait in the long lines and felt like VIPs! We ended up visiting five museums for 1200 HUF (about $8) and stayed out until 1 am and headed home. The crowds weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. All in all, we had a really good time!

First stop was the Terror House, a museum remembering the scary time under the rule of Nazis and Communists. A very moving museum to say the least. As you enter, there is a tank in front of a wall of black and white pictures of people who were killed during that time. This is the view looking up outside the museum.

Then we went to the Hungarian Contemporary Art Museum. The current art is part of their Na Mi Van? theme. It means "What's up?" A few things on display are a pencil sticking out of the wall that has written "invisible man", a performance of music and light, and a man who takes pictures of himself "surfing" on the inside of a bus and stretching in an elevator, and a huge bear lying down with a black cube sticking out of his stomach.

Next, we went across Heroe's Square to the Hungarian Fine Arts Museum. We didn't spend too much time in there because there were so many paintings. The highlight of this museum was the jazz concert that could be heard throughout the museum. Also, for the crowd outside waiting to get in, there were street performers twirling cords on fire! That was also fun to watch.

Justin was told he could not take pictures in the museum after he took this one.

Next, we went to the Transportation Museum (our name for it because I can't think of the name for it). We don't have pictures of this one, but it was pretty cool. It was all about the history of trains, bridges, ships, cars, etc. in Hungary. (Julie, I recommend this place for Eli! We think he'd have a lot of fun there.)

Last stop was the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The displays there were pretty cool. As you enter, there is a Fin Whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. It was captured in 1896! There were exhibits of mammals from various parts of the world, an ice age exhibit, a coral reef room, fossils and minerals. As soon as I entered the main hall, I saw a long line to the left and saw that people were getting a fagyi (ice cream cone). As I watched, I noticed no one was paying, so I got in line. :) I noticed everyone had a piece of paper and I asked the woman behind me if I needed one. Sadly, she said igen (yes), so I got out of line before I completely embarassed myself. Most of the people in line were families with little kids, so I guessed somewhere there was a place to get those pieces of paper. I never found it.

This is the fine whale. I'm not sure why Justin didn't take a picture of the skull, but it's the best picture from that museum.