This is the new Museum of Ethnography and the Memorial to the 1956 Revolution.
The memorial was there before, they built the museum while leaving the monument in place.
We walked a bit of Andrassy ut.
Google Maps claims that this is the oldest tree in Budapest, but apparently not.
Bokeh!
I would also be this crazy…
…if someone whipped me with a snake (what’s the backstory? Idunno).
The station at the start of the cog railway up to Széchenyi-hegy.
Random stuff, in no particular order.
That’s where we stayed, on Fö utca. The Batthyány tér metro station is on the right hand side of the photograph.
The M3 metro line is the deepest of the lot, since it runs under the river (M1, the second oldest metro line in the world, runs just under Andrassi út).
Google Maps tells me that this was originally the tombstone of Lujza Blaha. That’s why the shepherd playing the flute is so sad, and that’s why the first line of Sándor Petőfi’s poem “SAD BRANCH OF MY LITTLE FLUTE” can be read on the side (“Kis furulyám szomorúfűz ága”).
When the Danube river flooded in 1938 Baron Wesselenyi saved lots of people using a boat he had floating around.
(Yea, the grafitti sucks)
This is the monument to Carl Lutz, who saved an estimated 60 thousand Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.
“Whoever saves a life is considered to have saved an entire world”.
Statue to the anonymous dude who wrote La Gesta Hungarorum / The Deeds of the Hungarians.
Back in 2019, I noticed this little fellow up on the Budapest castle ramparts.
So this time around I did some research. Turns out this Kolodko dude hid little statues all over Budapest, so the search was on.
We stayed in Fö utca, close to the Batthyány tér metro station (Hungarian has 44 letters in their alphabet, I don’t always get it right), so the worm, tank and Rubik’s cube were all right on our doorstep. The russian soldier in the pantry was a short walk downriver (in the rain, which turned out not as bad as forecast).
Brexit teddy in Harmincad u. close to Deak Ferenc.
Not sure what this is supposed to be, maybe a warning? It’s in Dózsa György út next to the Museum of Ethnography.
Not technically a mini statue, the little princess lives on the Pest-side river bank close to Vigado tér.
The balloon dog is not far away from the little princess.
Rattatouille lives on the other side of the river, under the Erzébet bridge.
The dead squirrel lies behind Columbo and his dog on Szent István.
Mekk Elek on Széll Kálmán tér.
There’s a whole collection of dogs at a little park halfway between Széll Kálmán tér and Batthyány tér.
It started out as a Russian hat on a pillow, but a politician called Erik Fülöp took an axe to it, knocked it off the fence, and threw it in the river. Kolodko replaced the statue with an axe on a pillow (more on this later).
In the same park there is also a mini statue of Kermit the frog.
And the moon buggy is not far away, close to the Lajos Batthyányi Eternal Flame.
Tivadar Herzl was a Jewish Austrian-Hungarian journalist, writer and political activist who became known as the father of modern Zionism. His mini-statue lives close to the sinagogue on Dohány utca.
The racecar is rather large, for a mini-statue. It’s in front of the Pesti Magyar Színház (theater).
The story goes that some dude threw the New York Cafe’s key in the river to prevent said restaurant from ever closing. But of course the diver got it back.
King Franz Joseph chills out on Szabadság (Liberty) bridge (which used to be called Ferenc József híd).
Remember the Russian hat that got axed and tossed in the river? Here it is climbing back out, in front of the Houses of Parliament.
We looked hard but we could not find: the urinal, the russian warship and Lisa Simpson.
When it was time for me to fly back, I took the train from Ljutomer, and had to stay over in Budapest . So I took the chance to hunt a few more mini statues.
I stayed in a cheap flophouse close to the Eastern Budapest Station (Keleti) and this back-to-the-future Trabant lives there.
The ark is on Bethlen Gábor tér.
It was pissing down, real miserable — I took this photograph at around nine in the morning, in summer… blargh. This is Jewish war hero Hanna Szenes, at the park named after her.
And then, on my way to the airport on the M3 Metro line, I interrupted my trip to catch this fellow just around the corner from the Semmelweis Klinikák metro station. Why a meerkat, why here?
OK, so last year we cancelled a trip to Europe (Budapest, Slovenia, Venice, Croatia) because of family matters.
So this year I booked again, picked a time when the ticket prices was good, bought Euros at R16/Euro (should have maxed the flexibond and bought more, because I’d be flabbergasted if the R/Euro ever sees 16 again) and time’s getting close.
So we’re landing in Budapest on… the 6th. There for a couple days. Then elsewhere for all those nice predicted-to-be-sunny weeks.
Oh, and I’m taking Tanya back towards the end of May for her to fly back (I’m staying a couple weeks longer).
Just guess, JUST GUESS, what day towards the end of May Tanya is flying back? I mean, pick ANY… yes, that one.
From my stash of interesting stuff. I know very little about measuring antenna current, I’ve never seen it covered in a Radio Amateur Handbook or the like. Not even my 1948 edition.
The meter face (note the non-glare glass) reads “USE 3 AMP 17.5 M.V. 2 M.A. EXT TH’C’PLE. F.S. WITH .166 OHM LEADS = 17.5 M.V. STYLE N-635226 TYPE NT-33 FS = 2 M.A. 25 CY TO 9 M.C.
It has three terminals and I have no idea what “L” means.
Turns out “L” is connected to the back of the meter face. Still don’t know what it stands for.
Anyway, it’s a non-linearly calibrated d’Arsonval movement with a (measured) internal resistance of 8.5 ohm and an FSD of 2mA. 17.5mV over 8.75 ohm is 2mA, so depending on whether the 0.166 ohm lead resistance is for one or both wires, the internal resistance should be 8.58 ohm or 8.42 ohm so yea, the complete meter spec is written on the meter face if you know what to look for.
It should look good in some retro kit, even if I have to interface a PIC to the back of it to get the calibration right.
It’s been three years.
From the comments:
Will Cayemberg
One of my coolest musical experiences involved this song. Long horrible divorce that very nearly ended me I ashamed to say. I began running at night in the dark on lonely country roads “trying to change the shape I was in” both physically and mentally. This song was in my ear buds most nights. Then I got a chance to see John in a tiny Manitowoc, Wi. theater and after a few songs I yelled out “Clay Pigeons” and he looked right at me and said “Yeah, I know that one.” The whole place cracked up. The next song he started Clay Pigeons and looked right at me and I yelled “Thank You.” I was thanking him for more than just a song request I think he helped me keep my sh#t together.Spencer Mason
Rest In Peace, John. Music won’t be the same without you.
So I looked in the fridge. We had carrots, cabbage, sandwich ham, and cream. Yea, with the kids out the house we have what they refer to as a “sauce fridge”.
And I felt like pasta.
Boil some† spaghetti. Water, salt, ‘cmon you don’t need instructions for that.
Fry onions and cabbage (recipe calls for a head of cabbage, I have no idea how big a Napa cabbage is, I used about a third of a Cape Town cabbage). This takes longer than you might think. Pasta was al dente and I was still frying cabbage.
Add ham and more seasoning than the recipe calls for. Add the cream. Add the spaghetti. Add some reserved spaghetti water to make a sauce.
I didn’t have parmesan but I did have mozarella in the freezer. I left the carrots for another day.
† Technical Term
Back in 1998, I worked my arse off to get the yellow Rand-Lover ready for the 50th Anniversary Tour. Made it, mostly. Some bits got bolted on later.
I recently found the video they put together, was planning to rip it to digital, turns out I don’t need to, Alan did it for us.
So this thing crossed my path.
I suppose that’s as much of a disclaimer as you’re going to get.
Because it’s pure snake oil.
Of course I took it apart and reverse-engineered it.
The battery was a bit dodge so I disconnected it.
Someone else had been here before.
The schematic is very similar to the one on the cs.cmu.edu web page. The power supply is… interesting. Unless there’s an external transformer that I don’t have?
