the parliament

Once upon a time, three students in journey in Budapest wanted to visit the parliament, first symbol of the city. In spite of their numerous failure to visit, they managed to make it two weeks later

To begin the Hungarian parliament was build of 1885 to 1904
The square in front of the monument is  Kossuth's square in honor of this man who led the revolution of 1848-49.







At the entrance of the parliament, we had to cross a security
gantry as in an airport. It was long and boring but obligatory.

The parliament is compose of 691 rooms
44 kg of gold leaves for gilts
Hundreds of statues

Room of the National Assembly of Hungary
with 199 seat.

Behind the desk of the President of the deputies chamber are represented the blazons of the main families having reigned over Hungary.




From left to right we have:
1) Arpadiens
2) Anjou
3) Hunyadi
4) Jagellons
5) Zapolya
6) Habsbourg.

The dome is 96 meters high to remind it year 1896
The millennium of the Hungarian nation




Saint Étienne's crown with the twisted cross is exposed(explained) under the dome
Two guards make the guarding and and fight exercises

  The conferencesvlounge, a place where the deputies talkes about laws to the journalist









 And to finish there is the main staircase

Pál-völgyi cave

Today we visited the Pál-völgyi cave. It is located under the Buda hill. We went there by bus and it's took one hour to go there. After arrival we discovered a beautiful natural landscape without any big buildings, only some small houses. It's very strange to see this kind of quiet place just some kilometers from the Budapest downtown.

At the entrance of the cave there is a small restaurant where we bought our tickets and played a ‘table football pending the beginning of the visit.

The visit started by the Lajos Lóczy room. This is the name of the geographer who contributed to exploring this cave in 1989. Inside, the temperature is around 10 C° all year round and the air is very pure, there is no pollution and no dust. The air in this cave can cure some lung diseases

The next room is "The crossing" where the guide explained that 40 millions years ago this territory was under the sea and the animals and shell remains piled up to create a 40 meters deep limestone. 20 millions years ago, mountains started to grow up wich resulted the creation of this cave. Before humans being built thermal baths, thermal water was flooding in this cave and it helped to dig the structure of this cave.

The zoo of stalagmites: In this room we can see some stalagmites witch look like animals: crocodile, scorpions, elephants ... Stalagmites are due to the water which loses its limestone when it flows on the rock.

The tourists gallery: In this part of the cave we can see some shells embedded in the rock. This is a proof that a sea was in this place.

shell embedded

The gallery five: This corridor is the narrowest of the cave, the maximum width is 0.5 meters and its length is 60 meters.

The Bekey gallery: The walls of this gallery are covered by crystals filed by thermal water.

After this gallery we reached the surface by an artificial corridor.

This tour was very interesting and it is very unexpected to see this kind of place nearby a such big city.

Budapest tour

Today I will not talk about the societies which proposes some tours on the city, but about a journey to do. I had a friend who visited me this week-end, and the question was : if you had only one day to visit Budapest, what would you see ?

My journey starts at Keleti Pályaudvar (the Eastern railways station), because it's next to the accomodation, and the front on the building is beautiful to see.

From here, you can take the metro line 4 to Fővam tér and you are just next to the Great Covered Market (Központi Vásárcsarnok). You can buy some hungarian specialities (food, souvenirs...), etc...

The inside of the market

Russian style

After that, you can see the Liberty Bridge before going in the direction of the Buda Castle. By walking on the edge of the Danube, you will see one other famous bridge (the Elizabeth Bridge) before crossing the river on the Chain Brigde.

The Liberty Bridge

The Elizabeth Bridge

The Chain Bridge

To go to the Buda Castle, you can use the funicular, or climb by the path on the hill. You can take a look at the district and, there is a bar in the Castle court, where you can drink a soda or a beer and sit for a moment before continuing the journey.

The Castle by night

Now you can go back on the Chain Bridge and join the Parliament by tram or by walking on the street. You can enjoy the brand new Parliament square and sit on the benches around the building.

The Parliament

And to finish, you can join the Citadella to take some fabulous pictures, watch sunset and, if you are lucky, have a dinner on a terrace with a wonderful view for about 20-25 € per person.

Budapest by night

That's all for today ! Take care, have fun and see you !

The International Day at Dennis Gabor College

An International Day was planned for some time by Zsófia Gezsti, the Erasmus coordinator of the Dennis Gabor College. This day was dedicated to the Erasmus students, to discover foreign cultures (Brazilian, French and Cameroon), and to present the different works of the GDF clubs.

The Hungarian students started by their own work. I let you watch the videos they showed to us :

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTVJQ0uBpxM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnhqxAu6_8

There was another video, but I can't find it anymore.

The next animation was presented by the French team, we presented Angers and the Esaip, Paris and Marseille. Corentin made a video with Adobe Premiere Pro, a software we learned to use in Multimedia class. Just take a look at the result if you want :

The Brazilian team presented to us their own country and culture (the famous people, the bossa nova, etc...)


Then the afternoon continued with a game, inspired by snakes and ladders and Trivial Pursuit. We had to reach the end box by rolling the dice and answering questions about Brazil, Cameroon, Hungary and France. The winner team won a bottle of wine and a ticket for a dance representation. My team deserved to win, but  luck wasn't with us, and so another team won before us...

And to finish, each team had to cook a typical dish of his country. Corentin cooked a ratatouille and Gabriel and I a quiche lorraine.

The Hungarians cooked some goulash and bakeries, and the Brazilian students cooked some brigadeiro.

We ate all together at the university and came back home after that.

It was a really good day, a very good initiative of Zsófia, and I want to thank her for her work.

We went to the Buda Castle yesterday and tomorrow we will visit the Parliament, we still have some beautiful things to see before coming back.

Take care, have fun, and see you !

Shoes on the Danube Promenade

During the Second World War, Hungary was on the arrow cross government, a very dark period for the country. On the 19th of March 1944, Germany invaded the country and implemented the Nazi government. Then Hungary worked actively for the Shoah. In August, the royal Hungarian Prime Minister (Miklós Horthy) resumes the government. In September the Red Army envied the Hungarian soil in order to hunt Germans. On the 15^th of October, a German commando kidnapped Horthy's son and then he was forced to give back the power to Germans.

arrow cross government's flag (wikipedia)

  On the front of the parliament, we can see 60 pairs of metal shoes set in the concrete of the Danube promenade. It’s a memorial for tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews who were lined up, shot and thrown into the Danube during the arrow cross. As we can see in war movies, before killing Jewish, the Nazis liked to humiliate them and for that, they undressed them. The only valuable thing they wore was their shoes. That’s why Gyula Pauer, Hungarian sculptor, and his friend Can Togay chose shoes as a symbol to build this sculpture in the year 2005. This is a very strong symbol to never forget what happened there.

It must be remembered that about a third of the 250,000 Jews of Budapest residents died in the Nazi genocide during the German occupation of 1944. In 1945, 400,000 Hungarian Jews were deported while Germany had lost the war.

 These shoes send shivers up your spine! When we look at them, I seem to hear the screams of the innocent victims.