Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Current Events 10: The Phoenix
March 28, 2019
•
Leave a Comment
The Great Synagogue of Budapest opened in 1859, during a period of official toleration. The Moorish style was in vogue among synagogue builders of that time. We have many photographs of the interior, painted lavishly with symmetrical designs reminiscent of Spain's Alhambra. The walls and ceilings, and even the undersides of the two levels of women'...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 9: The Great Synagogue on Dohany Street
March 21, 2019
•
Leave a Comment
The tour of the Jewish Quarter was an optional one, that is, available for an additional fee. There was no question that HL, Miri and I would pay it to see the second largest synagogue in the world. Paige had purchased a ticket, but elected to walk around Budapest by herself that morning. Half of the other passengers went to the Jewish Quarter, tho...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 8: Between Buda and Pest by Night
June 21, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
My second night aboard ship provided me with my first unique cruising memory, Budapest by Night. At the beginning of the nocturnal excursion, HL and I stood on the M/S Aria's upper deck. The ship moved away from its dock in the heart of the city, so smoothly that we remained balanced on our feet. It sailed under the nearby Chain Bridge, where the r...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 7: Budapest's Great Market Hall
June 14, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
The guides procured tram tickets for us so that we could explore some of Budapest on our own, and HL and I were among those who went to the Great Market Hall. The three-story structure was another fin-de-siècle ornament to the city. Its roof was decorated with Zsolnay tiles in a green and orange diamond pattern. Inside, the ground floor was filled...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 6: Iron Shoes
June 06, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
Our ship was docked very close to Budapest's most original memorial sculpture, Shoes on the Danube Promenade. Af ter a sumptuous lunch on the ship, HL and I walked along the quayside with Miri and Paige to see the monument. Just beyond it loomed the Hungarian Parliament building. A Hungarian film director, Can Togay, is credited with the concept fo...
Read the Full Post »
The Grey Swan
March 20, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
In his bestselling book analyzing the 2008 financial crisis, N.N. Taleb designated cataclysmic, unpredictable events as Black Swans. The evocative term has since passed into the language. I think that K.’s leukemia qualifies as a Black Swan, for me as well as for her. A few days ago, I may have encountered what I shall call a Grey Swan, that is, so...
Read the Full Post »
The Other Anomaly
February 08, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
I think that I know why there was an initial delay in obtaining K.'s diagnosis. At first, it seemed inexplicable. Sick as K. was when she was when she was hospitalized in December, she was fully conscious. She was able to answer questions about her medical history, repeatedly. Multiple scrub-clad Myrmidons recorded that K. had been treated for leuk...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 5: The Humanitarian
January 30, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
Fisherman's Bastion is a Neo-Gothic terrace affording views of The Danube. Its turrets and archways are ideal backdrops for wedding pictures as well as tourist snapshots. HL photographed its reflection in the façade of what had been a modern Hilton Hotel, opened in 1976. This Hilton had been the sole Western-style hotel in Budapest during the Commu...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 4: Castle Hill, Budapest
January 25, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
There were other tourists milling around the royal palace enclosure, but not masses of them. Much of Buda Castle now houses the Hungarian National Gallery. I had hoped to see the works of Hungarian painters, mostly unknown outside Mitteleuropa, but shall have to acquaint myself with them on my next visit to Budapest. The Secessionist style of Vienn...
Read the Full Post »
Current Events 3: Captain and Crew
January 24, 2018
•
Leave a Comment
Peter, the ship's captain, was a Hungarian who looked younger than his years, despite the weight of responsibility for the Aria and all aboard her that he bore. The Danube is a major shipping channel, crowded with barges as well as pleasure craft. It has natural hazards, too, so the pilot's duties are constant once the ship is moving. Though Englis...
Read the Full Post »
© Star Arts by Tamar