Hungary and the vampire lore

Just finished reading the novel The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. The book was a great fun, I enjoyed every bit of the 656 pages. In the novel it turns out that Dracula is not actually dead but has been living for the past five centuries in an "undead" state, occasionally surfacing from his tomb and interacting with the world. I found it quite funny that one of his hobbies was to collect books and he had gathered a large library for which he needed someone as a cataloguer.

Part of the novel is set in Hungary because the female protagonist's mother is actually from Budapest, although the heroine does not know that this woman is her mother until the end of the book. But the family is not Hungarian, they come from Romania, more specifically Wallachia where Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula, once ruled. It turns out that the heroine is actually a direct line descendant of Dracula (kind of like the heroine in The Da Vinci Code is the direct line descendant of Jesus Christ).

But it is interesting how Hungary's image is always somehow connected with Dracula, even though the lore of Dracula belongs to Romania. I personally do not know of any Hungarian folklore related to Dracula, this connection only exists in the minds of Westerners. Naturally, I am not accusing Elizabeth Kostova of not having done her research for the novel. She (an American writer of Bulgarian origin) has done it well and only makes sure to push the right buttons for an American reader. There is nothing in the novel that actually connects Hungary with Dracula, other than the minor episode that he had once been detained by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. This is the same king whose name the Coronation Church on the Castle Hill (next to the Hilton) bears.

So it seems that Hungary will never be free from the shadow of Dracula.



Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula

The Goa cafe on Andrassy street

Friends have recommended the Goa cafe on Andrassy street several times so finally we decided to try the place. The atmosphere and the food was great and we were quite surprised to have a waitress who was professional. This was perhaps the biggest surprise because I have given up finding waiters and waitresses like that in Hungary. Usually they are rude or, if I am lucky, friendly and kind. But never professional. The Goa cafe was the first place in Budapest where I could simply forget about the waitress and concentrate on my dinner. It was great.

The prices were definitely on high end, it almost felt like eating out in London. Still, the restaurant was packed with people who all looked quite happy to be there. Needless to say, there were almost no Hungarians other than the staff and the young (very young!) prostitute entertaining an elder Italian businessman.

So after our initial shock of the prises, we went back a couple of days later for some more food. And, I guess, we will be back there in the future as well.

Red metro closed - again

When city authorities closed down the red metro line for a couple of months during the summer of last year, nobody would have thought that the same was going to happen this year. But it did. Now the red metro line is closed and people have to take the so-called metro substitute (metropotlo) buses.

Obviously, if you are a tourist trying to make your way to the Keleti Railway station, this is a major problem since you cannot read the signs telling you about the substitute buses. Nor would you know where to find them.

So if you are travelling to or from Keleti Station or Deli Station, both of which are on the red metro line, leave yourself plenty of time to find the substitute buses and to inch your way through traffic with the bus.

Summer in the city

Finally, summer is here! Today it was hot, even too hot, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Once again, Budapest was like it used to be in June.

The only problem was traffic. This was one of the worst days ever, especially since the streets all over the city are torn because of road constructions. But if you prefer to use the buses and trams of BKV (Budapest Public Transport), your chances are ever worse. Trams and buses are packed to their limit, the red metro is not running at all, and a number of traffic lights are switched off too. A complete chaos.

Duck on the table - What about bird flue

Now that there have been numerous case of bird flue found in animals in southern Hungary and the government is butchering ducks and geese by the tens of thousands, I suddenly started seeing duck dishes all over town. I am sure this is only because I suddenly became more aware of the bird flue issue, nevertheless it is quite disheartening to see so many kinds of duck dishes in restaurants.

Last night we ate out at Goa Cafe on Andrassy Street and I was really tempted to try one of those duck specialities with walnut sauce. But then I decided against.

The farmers whose livestock gets annihilated in connection with the bird flue epidemics are compensated to some extent but they will still suffer significant losses. The government compensates losses arising because of the "destruction" of poultry but there is no compensation, for example, after the meat that has already been packed and prepared for sale. Naturally, these stocks will have to be destroyed too.

Hungarian economy collapsing?

Now that Ferenc Gyurcsany has announced that the state deficit was twice as large as previously admitted, the whole country seems to be in chaos. This is all you hear in the news.

Gyurcsany has announced that they are introducing a bunch of new taxes and raising the VAT for some commodities. From the Fall of this year the Hungarian government is going tax bank interests and capital gain on the stock market, both at a rate of 20%. I have been wondering when this was going to happen as Hungary seemed too nice a place for money investors living off their capital. Now the good days are over.

But obviously, the real losers of the new financial policy are the common people who live off their salary or pension and trying to make ends meet. They cannot pack up and move to a different country, Singapore for example, where bank interests are not taxed, but have to stay here until the end of times.

All in all, these new developments did not make the Gyurcsany government any more popular than it already was. Right now it seems that the economic situation in Hungary is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.