January 22, 2013- Budapest

 Today was a very busy day here for us, so I will provide you all with a quick synopsis of each event that we attended.  To start the morning off, we toured the Budapest Museum that featured quite a few works of art depicting many events in Hungarian history.  This museum featured a varied collection of pieces, including abstract, classical, impressionist, carved works, etc.  Overall, we were highly impressed!  Many of the pieces were very moving- for example, we looked at a painting that depicted a Hungarian man killing his wife and then committing suicide when they were about to be captured by the Turkish. It sounds gruesome, I know, but it was in reality a very deep history lesson about Hungary.
    After attending the museum we visited the flat of Zoltan Kodály, a musician, composer, and pedagogical genius whom we have been studying.  It was small but quite beautiful, and featured many of his works. The flat is kept almost exactly the way it was when he lived there, which was interesting to see.  He had a beautiful music room that housed two pianos and many artifacts from his musical travels, as well as a library with floor to ceiling bookshelves.  Here we learned about many of his journeys as well as more about his personal life, which was nice to focus on.
    Next we headed to the Terror Museum, a powerful museum that is dedicated to the Nazi and USSR invasion of Hungary.  Though many of us know general information about World War II, I am betting there are a number of us who are still naive as to how far the impact of the Nazi reign went (I myself being one of them). This visit was a very moving experience, and I believe this museum is one of the most creative and realistic ones I have ever been to.  It is comprised of several floors (the building is taller than it is wide) and takes you on a maze-like tour throughout the years of the occupation.  We learned how it affected churches, peasants, government, and many other aspects of Hungarian life.  Did I mention the building is one that was used as a torture building during the time of the Nazi reign?  We were able to take an elevator down to see some of the torture chambers, which was a terrifying but very eye-opening experience.  If anyone who is reading this ever wants to come to Budapest, I would highly suggest attending this museum.  I would say it is definitely the highest quality museum that I have ever been to.
  Lastly, we attended a dinner that featured a live gypsy band performance!  They were phenomenal.  They played many of our requests (one being the solfege song from the Sound of Music- how appropriate) and made the dining experience lots of fun.  For being a band of only four I was impressed with how loud their sound was, and the range of songs they were able to play.  Again, if anyone is planning on visiting here I think this is something you should experience!

Jessica Nordenson