Have no fear, y'all (Borders fam trip, part XI)

One of the best-known qualities of the Borders fam is that we're pretty down-to-earth people. Fancy and uppity just aren't in our gene pool. (Want evidence? Ask Mom how many old cars Chris had piled up around the yard.)

So I'm sure some of you have been concerned that all this travel and culture might change or refine us.

Let me put your fears to rest, dear friends.


Dancing with statues from the former communist regime in Budapest

Memento Park is one of the most popular stops on the tourist map in Budapest, and it happens to be near my parents' house. We made our way up there with Chris and Kate and walked among the statues of Karl Marx, Béla Kun, Lenin, Friedrich Engels... On our way in we passed the gift shop, the Red Star Store, stocked with unique communist era paraphernalia. Want a candle shaped like Lenin's head? Maybe a cd of the 'Best of Communism Revolution Songs' or a Workers' Movement t-shirt that says 'We buy anything with a handle on it - it means work!'?


Poster, anyone?

I think one of the highlights of the park, at least for Jonathan, Dad and Chris, were the training videos used by the Hungarian secret police. Back in the days of communism, the Ministry of Interior Affairs had its own film studio where several hundred short and full-length films were produced between the years 1958 and 1988.. And they got to watch four of them:

1. The way to hide bugs
2. Introduction to house-searching
3. Methods of recruitment
4. Effective networking

Mom and I watched two films, then decided we'd learned about all we wanted to for one day on the Hungarian communist era so walked home as they finished out the films. So if you want to know how to recruit a secret agent, don't ask us.


source: www.mementopark.hu

Once upon a time not quite so long ago, strange figures adorned the squares and street corners of Budapest. Twenty years ago, everyone in Hungary was required by law to respect the persons depicted, and even the statues themselves. They were grotesque reminders of the glory and the horror of the communist ideal and its impact on Hungary.

source: www.mementopark.hu

Budapest’s answer to these hated monuments of the communist regime was of thoughtful historical foresight. Instead of breaking every last statue down to bits, it enshrined a representative collection of items – depictions of Lenin, Marx, Engels, Dimitrov and monuments of the proletarian regime – in a new museum called Statue Park. In the last fifteen years this cultural and touristic center, now known as Memento Park, has grown with a new showroom, screening room and other interesting sights, and receives tens of thousands of visitors each year.
(source: Budapest Funzine)

Jonathan takes a rest next to Lenin


The entrance
source: www.mementopark.hu


Chris and Jonathan at my favorite statue