A step back to a Communist past

A visit to Memento Park in Budapest, also known as Statue Park takes one back to times when  about half of Europe was ruled by communists.  In most eastern-European countries large Soviet inspired monuments of the red dictatorship were demolished after 1990.  In Budapest, 40 of these monoliths of the Communist era have been collected together and housed on the outskirts of the city in a park. They make a powerful exhibition and for me, brought back very strong memories of my childhood in Budapest.  Memory however plays strange tricks, I remembered most of these monuments but most of them were in fact  created after I had left as a child.  I did however make visits back so maybe I did glimpse some of these "works of communist art".

At the gates of the park the visitor is greeted by Stalin's boots.  The crowd of people revolting in 1956 pulled down the statue of the much hated state leader and commander-in-chief.  The crowd toppled the 8 meter statue and broke it to pieces.  The boots however remained on the pedestal until the revolution was put down.  The pair of boots displayed on the grandstand at Memento Park are a authentic replica of the original and they represent the revolution of 1956 in Hungary.

I have a very strong memory of this gigantic statue of a Russian sailor but my memory is faulty.  I must have seen photos of it as it was created after my life in Hungary.

This statue representing Hungarian-Russian friendship which had formerly stood on Gellert Hill is rightly in my portfolio of memories.  Together with the one below

the 6 metre tall statue of the gimlet eyed Soviet soldier also once stood on top of Gellert Hill in central Budapest, well seen by everyone from every direction.

In a lighter vein, Andrew and I are sampling the cakes at Russwurm, which some say have the best cakes in the city.  We did not dress alike on purpose by the way - it just happened that we are both in yellow.

This wonderful fountain with Gillian sitting at the foot is up at the Royal Palace in Buda.  It is the most realistic depiction of hunting dogs with the one appearing to be lapping up the flowing water of the fountain.  As both the Bennetts and we are dog lovers we had to capture this fountain.  Please click on it to enlarge it and enjoy these dogs.  I think you will agree that they are much nicer than the communist inspired statues.