Back to the New World

Ah.  Home again!  Loved the trip, but I am very glad to be back and to leave the medieval world behind.  It would take hours and days of effort to tell a day-by-day detailed  story.  I'm not going to even try.  What follows are some general impressions and some pictures and whatever spills out along with them.

Budapest, a good deal of which was destroyed by the nazis, is a city of recreated 19th century architecture.  It is Euro-refined, dignified, beautiful with the Danube running through.   

Budapest's Dohany Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and is supposed to be quite beautiful inside.  It was closed for Passover while we were there.  When I found out, I came close to tears.  Oh, was I looking forward to seeing the inside. I snapped a few pictures of the building and surrounding area.  As we were leaving, we were stop by a Lubavitcher guy who was looking for a tenth for a minyan taking place in the local Chabad. Cool!  We couldn't get into the synagogue, we wouldn't be attending a local seder, but this would be a very interesting experience.  The guy was young and very friendly, chatting to us and telling us where to visit.  (He sent us to another synagogue that was "open."  Turned out to be a hollowed out wreck - though one with great beauty and potential - that they were trying to restore.  We went in, snapped a few pics and left a few forints.)

Husband, who became Bar Mitvah, attended Hebrew school and is a Cohain, has mostly turned his back on religion, doesn't believe, couldn't care less and just went along to Jewish sites for me, was trailing along listening as the Chabad guy and I talked.  Well, we get upstairs to the minyan, and the good times stop as far as I am concerned.  Husband is ushered into the main room and I am shunted off to the women's area behind the mechitza.   There was one other woman there, sitting up front. All the action was in the men's room next door. 

At best, I think separation of men and women in synagogue is stupid.  It is actually demeaning to men in making the assumption that they are so overcome by animal instinct in the company of women, that they can't get over it sufficiently in order to concentrate on/accomplish anything. I am not buying it - - unless the "man" is a 13 year old.

The Chabad house had things set up so that the women could not even see the Bimah nor service at all, but only hear it.  And of course women can't be part of an Orthodox minyan. When all was said and done, I was still glad we'd had the experience.  I'd never been behind a mechitza, and now, I know what it feels like.

Dohany Synagogue - on the grounds behind it, by the way, is a Holocaust tribute which was paid for by Tony Curtis, who's family was from Hungary:

Around Budapest, one can see many roofs like the one on this church:

The city's star attraction, the Parliament building, which is so strikingly awesome and beautiful, taking a bad photo of it is impossible. (I had to resize the pictures in order to post them and unfortunately, they lose some detail this way.)  The building can be seen from many places and differing perspectives from around the city:

The Danube River. If you ever have a chance, take a long, slow boatride down it listening to Strauss's famous waltz. Ok, it's a bit cheesy and touristy, but effective, nevertheless:

The Budapest Market has all kinds of foods, crafts and things for sale and arranged in stalls. I've never seen so much paprika in my life. It was all over the place - both hot and sweet, whole and crushed, powder and paste.

To be continued...