Terror Museum and Hipster Bar

Terror Museum and Hipster Bar
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
3:03 PM

So after initially being told that we only would be able to have our hostel for a single night because the place was packed, we found out the next morning that we would be able to secure it for another night. Interestingly enough although there were six beds in our room, and the place was still supposed to be packed, nobody new checked in so the four of us had a room to ourselves. They also stiffed us on the bill charging us roughly a 20% premium to the night before, but at that point we were researching parks to sleep in as no hostels online had space for four people.

As that was settled we headed down to the Museum of Terror. Around WWII Hungary was first taken over by Nazi's, then it was Soviet until 1989. With those influences came all the paranoia and negativity that accompanies them. The museum was housed in the former headquarters of the secret police where a lot of torturing and intimidation took place. If you've been to the Museum of Tolerance in LA or DC this was in the same vein.

Most of the exhibits didn't focus on specific sights but rather on video or audio clips with artifacts accompanying them. Unfortunately almost everything was in Hungarian aside from hand-outs that sought to describe the relevance of the rooms but really lacked on information. We still enjoyed our trip through the museum but it could have been done much better.

After that we went back near our hostel and asked where we could get a fairly classic Hungarian sit down style meal. The suggested restaurant ended up being right next to the kebab place we had eaten the day before. Hungary's most famous food is Goulash, a soup with meat and potatoes. We ordered two kettles that came with flames under them and they were herby and delicious. The salad, like every other salad that has been ordered in Eastern Europe, was heavy and although considered a 'vitamin' salad, was full of a mayo based sauce and had no lettuce. Although we all ordered different meats, everyone was terribly confused on what was actually what. Marko claimed that he knew which was which, then decided that him and Mitch had the wrong dishes about half way through and proceeded to switch. Everything aside the food was great.

From there we tried to join up with a pub crawl that had been advertised at the hostel but ran far too late after it had taken the customary two hours to eat dinner. We tried to trace the steps of the pub crawl but were unsuccessful and we ran into a UCLA Alum that suggested we go to the same bar that our friends happened to be at. When we got there we were all taken back by the sheer size and style of the place. It was very hipster-ish, in that the surroundings were interestingly grungy in a stylish sort of way. Marko and I ended up talking about how hipsters would love this bar but we came to the conclusion that they would not have fun because everyone was too easy going and friendly. Surely enough two hipster girls from Florida came up to talk to us and lamented about their experience as 'nobody understood them or knew what music they listened to and if they tried to describe it we wouldn't understand' - priceless indeed.