Hungarian Parliament

Hey guys,

So, while my mom was still here (yes, these blog posts lag behind reality by as much as a couple of weeks, sorry) she and I did the tour of Parliament that everyone says is not to be missed.  And it truly was . . . pretty fantastic.  Opulent.  Bordering on decadent--in fact, I would have said decadent if it were a church or a private palace, but the fact that it's a hall for a democratically elected government makes it seem a little better

It's still pretty ridiculous

Anyways, excepting very special occasions, they only let people in on guided tours (which are offered in like a dozen languages).  Sadly, this was actually the only part I didn't like--not that I felt restricted by the tour, but simply because our tour guide was pretty terrible.  For one, her English was not very good.  Second, she just had terrible delivery--it was like she was just reading from a script (she probably was) and didn't realize which lines were impressive or funny.  The only time she really showed any emotion was when she sternly reprimanded people for straying too far from the group >.<

Regardless, it was a fantastic building.  The pictures obviously don't come close to capturing it, but here they are anyways

The entrance hall.  They used static electricity to get the gold foil to cling to the brushes, allowing nearly microscopically thin layers of gold.  It still has the effect of opulence though, no doubt

Yeah that picture above is a perfect example of our guide having such terrible delivery:  "As much as was possible, this building was constructed from materials from within Hungary.  Of course, that was much easier back then because Hungary was about 3 times larger.  A notable exception--"  What??  Come on, that was a good line.  Play that for some laughs!

And then she went on "--a notable exception is these black pillars you can see in this hall.  These are carved from single pieces of Swiss granite.  These are very valuable, because it is very rare to find granite in a single piece this large.  In fact, there are only twelve pieces this large in the entire world.  Eight of them are in this room.  Now if you look at the windows . . ."

What???  That was an awesome fact!  And she just breezed through it like it was nothing.  *sigh* I could deliver a better tour than her . . .

The centerpiece of the building, if you'll recall from any exterior shots you've seen, is the dome.  I'm not going to say that the Budapest Parliament Building is essentially the London one but with a dome put on top . . . but well, I guess I just did XD

In addition, surrounding the domed hall are statues of notable Hungarians:  From Arpat, the chief of the Magyar Tribes that came from the East and founded Hungary in the 9th century; to Istvan, the first king; to some of the Hapsburg monarchs

In the middle of the hall is the crown, scepter, and sword of King Istvan (although technically speaking these were almost certainly not made until long after his reign).  Sorry for the crappy picture, but everyone was trying to take a picture so I just took one and then got out of the way

 All over the place, you'll notice these statues.  Like you'll commonly see in buildings like these, these statues are meant to portray Hungarian people.  However, what I found particularly cool is that these guys aren't just doctors and scientists and philosophers, like you'd usually see.  They also made statues holding rakes or hoes or hammers . . . this Parliament was meant to include all people of Hungary, not just the wealthy or educated. I thought that was kind of cool

These stained-glass windows, by the way, are the original pieces from when the Parliament was built hundreds of years ago.  Impressive enough on its own, even more impressive when you remember that this city was the site of the second longest and bloodiest siege of the second World War (behind Stalingrad, of course)

 In fact, when the Germans showed up, in order to preserve the windows one person had them removed for safety and then hidden in the basement.  Of course, this was all done in secret to prevent the Germans, Soviets, or whomever from taking them.  This would have been a great plan if the people responsible for hiding them hadn't all died in the war :(

The windows were just assumed to have been destroyed for decades, until someone was cleaning around in the basement of the Parliament and came across a number of large, carefully wrapped bundles . . . :)

And finally, the actual chamber of Parliament.  Technically this is only one of the two chambers, but apparently the entire building is symmetrical so they only take you through half.  I dunno, sounds like they're just being lazy . . .

Like I said.  Opulent

 And speaking of opulence, the chamber outside is lined with these.  What are they?  Why, personal cigar holders.  No government chamber should be without them

 So anyways, that was our tour of the Parliament!  Pretty impressive, right?
I can only imagine that Europeans come over to Washington DC, take a look at the White House or the Senate Buildings and say, "really?  That's it??"

Noah out