Szabadság-szobor

Budapest, Hungary

The liberty statue (szabadság-szobor) is a memorial located on Gellért hill (Buda side) in Budapest, Hungary. It is a 14 meters high woman holding a palm leaf and it is honoring the soldiers that liberated the country during World War II. Together with the resting place made of stone it is about 40 meters high and therefore visible from nearly every point of Budapest.

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The most beautiful parliament

Országház, Budapest

The parliament of Hungary (Országház) is a wonderful building in gothic revival style standing directly at the Danube river. Its beauty is a large contrast to the sometimes inhumane politics made there. It has been built from 1885 on and the design has been inspired by the British parliament in London. The architekt Imre Steindl was unluckily never able to see his work finished, because he went blind before the work was done.

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Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion, Budapest

High above the Danube, at the heart of Budapest (Hungary): the Halászbástya (Fisherman’s Bastion) is a wonderful neo-Gothic monument, located where once the fish market of Buda was. The white walls and towers were part of the city walls of Budapest, this segment protected by the fishermen. It is close to the St. Matthew church and you’ve got an awesome view on the city from here.

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The Heroes’ Square

Heroes' Square, Budapest

An important place in the centre of Budapest, Hungary, where you can learn one thing very good: how little you know about Hungarian history. Béla IV? Coloman? Ladislaus I? Imre Thököly? Lajos Kossuth? István Bocskay? Does this ring a bell? No? Don’t worry – somehow the stories of Eastern Europe have been hidden behind the Iron Curtain.

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Walking over to Poland

Oderbrücke, Frankfurt (Oder)

The first question is always: why does one stay in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany? Not the Frankfurt in the heart of Germany, the one with lots of skyscrapers of banks and Äppelwoi, but the one close to the border to Poland. At first it has to be said that even Frankfurt (Oder) has some nice city quarters and a good university – but for me it was only a good stop because on the next day I had to travel early to Bremen for a soccer match.

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Visiting the wizards

Schwarzkollm, Germany

When you were a child, did you read the book “Krabat” of Otfried Preußler? The one in which a child becomes apprentice in a mill not knowing that the black arts are teached there? Not expecting that in the end every year one of the young residents has to die to keep the master alive? And where only true love could save you from death? If yes, then the name Schwarzkollm (Čorny Chołmc) does ring a bell to you.

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