Intro to Germany: Chemnitz

I left Prague in the morning by train, and left the familiar eastern European countries and friends I had visited the year before, and headed into Germany.  Now when I was younger I visited Germany twice with my family, and I am mostly of German ancestry, but I wasn't going anywhere we'd gone on those trips, and my destinations were based entirely on where I had gigs.  This meant that my first destination was far from a tourist haven, and its very name caused most people to laugh when I said thats where I was headed: Chemnitz.  Formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt during the Soviet-run East Germany days, the town is known for being a dull, cold, industrial city.  I was playing a show at a place called Subway To Peter, which ended up being a very cool bar and a surprisingly awesome crowd for a Tuesday night.  I didn't take many pictures, and was pretty much in and out of this town, but here are a few so you get the idea.


The view upon walking outside of the train station.


The band apartment furnished by Subway To Peter.  I think its really cool that venues do this in Germany, it seems pretty standard.  Unfortunately, I didn't pack a blanket or sleeping bag due to lack of room in my backpack, and they didn't have any there.  I slept in my clothes and froze my ass off all night.


A courtyard behind the building with the band apartment.


I did enjoy this attempt to color the city a bit!

Back in Budapest

Some pictures from my sightseeing in Budapest, enjoy!


The great market hall in Pest.  Wonderful place to come in the mornings and get some baked goods for breakfast.  They also have some really crazy looking meats here, many that I would be very apprehensive about (pigs noses, cow heart, straight-up pork fat, and many other unknown items).


St. Stephen's Cathedral, pretty sure its the biggest church in Budapest, but its not as old as it looks, just over 100 years old.  I went inside where they have the shriveled up hand of St. Stephen on display.  Its kind of cool, not sure if its really his, but cool to see a gruesome centuries old hand.

The Hungarian Parliament building, enormous and built when Hungary still ruled half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Check out my posting from last year in Budapest back in the archives, I took some cool pictures from across the Danube.


This Hungarian flag with a hole cut out is a symbol for the 1956 revolution against the Soviet Union.  The Soviets placed their own communist symbol in the middle of the flag, and later on it became a symbol of the revolution to cut out the symbol in the center.  This particular flag is part of a memorial to commemorate the protesters who were killed by Soviet snipers when they amassed in front of Parliament in '56.  In that uprising, Hungary won its independence only for a few days, until Soviet tanks came rolling into Budapest and took over once again.


The Chain Bridge, Budapest's first bridge over the Danube.  It was destroyed in World War II, and I saw many crazy pictures of the city's destruction in a museum I visited.  One haunting picture was of this bridge, collapsed into the Danube, with only the towers standing.  

Wow, my blog post today was kind of a downer, huh?  Well, I assure you, Budapest is a fun place, and a lively city, and there are more pictures to come!

Budapest Pt. 2

"John, a picture of a McDonald's? Seriously?" Well folks, this isn't just any McDonald's, this is the FIRST McDonald's east of the Iron Curtain. The first to exist in any of the Soviet Union's satellite states during the Cold War. That makes it a historical McDonald's, so take that!

During World War II Hungary allied itself with Germany hoping to keep its independence. Later on in the war Hungary was taken over by its own brand of Nazis, the Arrow Cross regime, who made up for lost time by immediately executing Jews here on the banks of the Danube River. The bodies were then simply pushed into the river. These bronze-cast shoes are a monument to the victims of the Arrow Cross regime, who died on this spot during the war. It lies right between the river and...

Parliament. Hungary's massive Parliament building is bigger than the country needs. It was built in, wait for it... 1896, when Hungary ruled half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Back then, it made sense for Budapest to have such a massive building to run the far reaches of the empire. Now, its just too darn big, and I believe that the current Parliament only uses one half of the building.

This is the Terror Museum, where you can learn all about the oppressive Arrow Cross and Soviet regimes. Unfortunately, it was closed on the day I walked by, but I think that the building looks pretty cool.

Heroe's Square. Also built in 1896 to show off all of the heroic leaders in Hungarian history. At the time it was made, Hungary was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire still, so to the right there were many Austrian "heroes". Those have all been replaced by Hungarian faces since the end of World War I and the dissolution of the empire.