First Week

The mood in Budapest is what I would say turbulent. Hungarians are in general passionate and emotional anyway and with the political situation being so tense the events seem to be the constant subject of discussion.

I arrived on the Friday, days after the violent events at the Parliament Buildings. On the Saturday I went out to do a bit of grocery shopping. I had to take the tram to get to a larger supermarket. On my way home, some soccer fans got on the tram which was to travel past the soccer stadium. The fans, a group of young university student types were loud and getting hyped up for the game but then they broke into chanting slogans against the Prime Minister. When we arrived at the stop for the stadium the fans got off but I was quite surprised to see hundreds of riot police lined up around the entrances. I've never seen that before and thought it was a bit much for a soccer game.

After a rest on Saturday and worshiping at a local church on Sunday, the weather was warm and sunny, so I ventured out for a walk. I happen to live 10 minutes away from the Danube and so I walked along the river in a northern direction and walking past a combination of sunbathers, tourists and maybe even sunbathing tourists, I eventually ended up at the parliament building. I made my way to Kossuth Ter (Square) where lots of people were hanging out. Families, elderly folk, young people it was really quite a festival-like atmosphere. There were people selling food and drinks, t-shirts and other souveniers. I thought it was beautiful in a way that here people were exercising their democratic right to express themselves. It was peaceful and organized. The socialist government however is not used to this and is perpetually trying to provoke the crowd. They say that the violence that did occur originated from provocation by police and other officials.

The crowd began to grow but I decided to go home.