Breaking Down Barriers

There was another bout of political poo-pooing on Friday and over the weekend. Since the riots last September, Kossuth tér - the square where parliament is situated - has been closed to the public. There were protestors camped outside for a while but I think they all got moved on a couple of weeks ago. Some people would come to the barriers and mope around a bit and shout but it seemed to be dying down.

Whether the barriers are a good thing or not is hard to say. On the one hand, it would be good to keep an angry mob away from the nation's big house. On the other hand, the barriers also serve to remind people that there's a restriction of freedom in place.

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On Friday, the opposition party thought it would be a good idea to remove the barriers themselves. So complete with their leader they set about dismantling the cordon. Bemused and unsure, the police that were on watch, just watched. It all made for a good bit of media and so the cameras were out and the speeches were made. Later, there was a lot of huffing and puffing about whether the action was legal or illegal. Or better still, was it right or wrong?

Of course, with the increase in media interest, the protestors came back. With their flags and megaphones they were enthusiastic in exercising their freedom of speech.

All this is fine, but I can't help thinking that the leader of the opposition holding a meeting in front of the parliament and then (perhaps illegally) removing the barriers in front of an eager camera crew is not good for business. Surely you're going to keep or gain credibility with a good debate about why the current government is making a big mistake by keeping the railings up.

By going ahead and getting stuck in without debate, without warning, surely the message to the people believing in you is that the only option available is direct action and forget about the legalities.

People learn from example and this wasn't a good one.


* Images taken from VG.hu

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Pedestrianitis

For my area it started with the building, or rather digging, of the underground garage in front of the Basilica. Before that, the space was just a plain car park with doggy doo lurking around every tyre.

Once the funky, robot, underground garage was created, the surface was turned into a very pleasant cobble-stoned square.

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From this little acorn of an area, the pedestrian zones have spread. At first they claimed a small section of Hercegprimas utca. Then a smidgen of Sas utca. Now the powers that be are expanding the Hercegprimas stretch and zooming down Zrinyi to complete a walkway from the dome of the temple to the banks of the Danube.

It may have something to do with linking up the ultra-posh Four Seasons located in the old Gresham Palace at the end of Zrinyi, but I think the whole project will improve the 5th district and get people wandering up and down. Of course, it'll bring life to those streets as well as shops and cafes brighten themselves up to take advantage of the new thoroughfare.

So here's to pedestrianitis, the uncontrollable growth of pedestrianized streets, and may there be a cafe on every corner to sip a hosszu kave (in a glass) and watch the world go by.


* If this post contains mistakes or is generally crappy, I apologize and rest the blame on the beers and unicum consumed just a few hours before. At least the were good. However, this must be one of the freshest pics on the blog as it was taken just a few minutes before arriving home and writing this article.


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Other Side of the Square

After writing about postcards from the edge of Erzsebet ter yesterday, I realised that I never put out a post for the smart, new Erzsebet ter on the other side of the old bus station.



Workers spent a few months pushing and pulling it about in the second half of 2006 and then sometime back in September or October they finished it off and opened it up.

Read moreThese pics are from back then, which explains the lack of bulky winter clothes on the people wandering about. But to be honest, the weather has been so warm this January that it might as well have been yesterday.


The park has lost some of it's wild charm as they have pulled out a lot of bushes and put more paving down. It now appears very sparse and open.

However, some people will see that as a good thing as it's less scary to walk through at night with not a lot of places for nasty monsters to lurk.

Now, instead of an open gravel area where people would walk their dogs and just leave them to it, there's a fenced off doggy area. This should help keep the park clean but I often wonder how often (if ever) the canine cage gets de-crappified. It doesn't take long for it to become a concentrated camp of crap that is so bad, even the dog walkers refuse to enter.

Other improvements include a decent looking basketball court that's actually used (I even saw a group playing around midnight as I was walking home from the pub this weekend) and a good kid's playground with lots of fun swingy, swirly things.

The main statue and fountain has stayed put and I think they have improved the lighting of it. Strangely another statue of a shepherd playing music to his sheep was moved to the other side of the square, but at least they've kept it.

The old statue of Erzsebet that used to sit, hidden in the bushes was hauled away some years ago.


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