Saving Aeneas

So now that I've been in the Communist world, the post-Communist world, and the Capitalist world, and the future Communist world (America) I feel like I can make some reasonable comparisons between them.

First of all, Oriental communism is completely different from European communism. Vietnamese communism was poverty, Cambodian communism was a terror, and Chinese communism was poverty and terror together. Nobody I met in any country would admit (at least openly) that they wanted the bad old days of forced enthusiasm and collectivized farms back.

in Eastern Europe, on the other hand, the older a person is the more likely they are to feel like abandoning Socialism was a bad idea. Part of this is nostalgia (things always seemed better when we were young etc.), some is simply practical, as pensions for the elderly have been significantly reduced by the governments and by inflation (the 'paper leprosy' in Hungary) since the Wall fell, and some is disgust at the materialism and corruption of the new economic order.

Hungary, remember, had (after the revolt of 1956) a system of 'Goulash Socialism' where the government provided abundant material comforts to the general population while only going after those political dissidents who actively sought to bring the state down. Not the old Stalinist 'If you're not with us you're against us' but rather 'If you're not against us you're with us'. One guy in his mid 40s told me "Everyone had enough to eat. Everybody had a job though you didn't have to work to hard, there were plenty of community groups so people always had something to do, what more do you want?".

in Prague I found a similar story. In the Castle District I saw an open-air display in honor of the 20th anniversary of the revolution which brought an end to the Communist government. It was mostly signboards with interviews of people who had participated in the protests, and from what I could tell most of them said that the whole thing was a mistake and should never have happened.

So far as I know Hungary is the only country that ever reverted to Communism after abandoning it once before (the Hungarian Soviet Republic only lasted from 1918 to 1919) so if they ever went Communist again it'd be some kind of record.

For the last couple of weeks I've been suffering from a persistent cold and sore throat. Oddly, my efforts to nurse myself back to health by walking around in the cold and fog proved to be unsuccessful so I decided to head over to the Szechenyi Baths and 'take the waters'.

You see, Budapest is positively filled with the kind of Austro-Turkish baths fed by hot springs which were all the rage with European aristocrats around the turn of the 20th century.

Just my luck, one of them was holding a 'Climate Change Bath Party' with half-price admission, so I went. It was basically three open-air swimming pools - normal, warm, and 'sauna'/ The sauna was deadly hot; bathers are warned not to stay more than ten minutes in them for fear of burning their skin.

all in all it was a good time, even though I'm not a huge fan of swimming. It was also a little surreal to see people shivering in their bathing suits whenever they stepped out of the water.

Since I mentioned Prague and it's castle overlooking the city on a hill, I would be remiss not to mention that Buda has an even grander castle of its own. Behold, Buda Castle...

Built by the Austrians after the 1848 Revolution to keep the Hungarians under control. It's easy to imagine it as the seat of a great empire. Like many such places it is not only a fortress but a city-within-a-city, comprising a palace, shops, restaurants, museums, and:

A church, Szent Mathias.

A picturesque series of towers, the Fisherman's Bastion:



Statues of Hungarian worthies, such as King Stephen:



And even a series of underground caves. Not bad, Fatherland!

So...Prague! Home of absinthe, Vaclav Havel, foreign exchange students and would-be bohemians from all over the world.

My first impressions of the city were famously unfavorable. Now that I am giving the place a second chance, it hasn't improved too much, though I certainly can understand what draws so many people to it.

Certainly it has many fine old buildings, though not as many as Budapest. In general it is a bit more touristic than Budapest, with a slightly thicker concentration of chain stores and fast food outlets.

On the other hand, there are festive lights in all the major squares and the chill weather gives the place a Christmas air, even though Christmas is sitll almost two months away.

In my brief time here so far I walked around a bit and looked into the Czech National Museum. Unlike its Hungarian counterpart, the Czech National Museum doesn't seek to glorify the history of the Czech people but is much more of a natural history museum, with rooms full of mineral samples, stuffed animals, and a special exhibition on the solar system. All this seems a little bit incongruous with the Baroque statuary and vaulted ceilings, but none of the exhibits seem to suffer for it.

I suppose the difference between Prague and Budapest is that while Budapest is dignified and stately, clearly the sometime home of both a grand empire and a thriving intellectual and artistic scene, Prague is sort of a medieval Disneyland, a little too precious and cute for its own good.

The crowds of tourists are mainly responsible for this. Even now, during the off-season, the tour groups buzz like mosquitoes everywhere. In the Old Quarter and near the castle you have to positively wade your way around through masses of Americans, Germans, Chinese, Spanish, Koreans and every other nationality which can spare the money for a but of old-world sightseeing.

The higlight of my trip was almost certainly the Puppet Don Giovanni, which is exactly what it sounds like - Mozart's opera enacted with puppets and a classic recording playing in the background. Of course it had to cut down brutally - from over to hours to an hour and a quarter - but it was still a rollicking good time.

L - R: Don Giovanni, Donna Anna, Leporello

A couple of days ago I descended into the Metro to find the place swarming with riot police. The trains, too, were crowded with yelling groups of people and more riot police. Was it a political demonstration? Were people taking to the streets? Some kind of Halloween event? Then I saw everyone wearing the same scarves amd I realzed what was going on.

A football match.

I wonder what it is about football that has enraptured the rest of the world but has so completely escaped us Americans.