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Friday, August 23rd – Budapest, Day 4
This is my last day in Budapest so I catch the bus downtown after breakfast to continue my exploration of the city core. I walk down Vaci Street, one of the 
main shopping streets. This is a vibrant city though still wearing the poor man’s clothes from the communist era. I walk past the opera house, the National Museum and the great synagogue, none of which I go into. I am sure Jan would be disappointed in me.
I walk through the parklands around Vajdahunyad Castle, and then to the castle itself, which is another faux-historical piece, built 90 years ago. It is primarily a replica of a castle of the same name in Romania, but with anachronistic Gothic and Baroque touches thrown in. It houses an agricultural museum which I decide is not worth the time to see.
I hop onto a streetcar for another free ride over to Heroes Square (Hosok Tere), which is another recently-built memorial in faux-classical Roman style, honouring the dead of many wars. There are two museums nearby, the Kunsthalle (Palace of Art) and the Museum of Fine Arts. I buy admission to the latter and check out the exhibitions of classical paintings and Egyptian treasures. It is smaller than the Louvre in Paris, but still large enough to be overwhelming. I feel tired when I finish so I catch a bus back to the hostel.
I get caught by a transit inspector this time. At first I try to play innocent, but I give up on that as I don’t want to insult her intelligence. I am sure she witnesses the same bullshit performances every day. It is more embarrassing than punitive—the fine is only equivalent to $8 Canadian. Back home in Toronto it would be several times higher than that.
I check the news again. The Russian coup has definitely failed. Gorbachev has been freed and has returned to Moscow. Most of the coup leaders have been arrested, but it seems Yeltsin is not prepared to let Russia continue as part of the USSR, which means the Russian empire will finally dissolve. These are exciting times.
I have dinner with Eero alone, as his younger brother is late in returning from his latest outing. Eero tells me he has gone with Jan on several of his architectural treasure hunts and found them interesting, but he cannot keep up with him. I like Eero, although he is generally much quieter than Jan and hard to get to know.
After dinner, I rest, shower, and pack for tomorrow, and then head out to look for Daniel at the club where I met him two nights ago. I arrive early, as I won’t be able to stay late. I am leaving with Jan and Eero right after breakfast and I need to be rested. The club is fairly empty when I get there, and neither Daniel or Alexy are there. I am not in the mood to cruise or meet new acquaintances so I nurse my beer slowly at the spot where we first met and watch the door.
The club fills up fast on this Friday night, and soon it is too full to see who is arriving at the door. Suddenly, I see Daniel’s face in the crowd. He is watching me, just as he did the night we first met. I walk over and greet him, feeling uneasy about his strange behaviour. When I ask why he didn’t come over to say hello when he saw me, he just shrugs bashfully. After a minute or so he warms up to me again, hugging me and snuggling against me. I ask if he would like me to buy him a drink. He says yes, but when I return from the bar he is gone. I wait for several minutes but I know there is no point. He cannot handle goodbyes and being near me was making him sad. I leave without finishing my beer.
On the bus ride back to the hostel, I think about him a lot. He has had a difficult time the past two years and has needed to hold his world together tightly. I think my affections exposed his loneliness and threatened to pull his world apart, and he cannot afford that. Our brief time together has exposed my own loneliness too. I feel a cold wind whistling around my heart. Perhaps I shouldn’t court emotional ties, but I can’t seem to help myself.
PHOTO 1: Vaci Street
PHOTO 2: Budapest Opera House
PHOTO 3: National Museum
PHOTO 4: the great synagogue
PHOTO 5: Vajdahunyad Castle
PHOTO 6: statue to 'Anonymous' near Vajdahunyad Castle
PHOTO 7: Heroes' Square
PHOTO 8: Kunsthalle
PHOTO 9: Fine Arts Museum
PHOTO 10: inside the Fine Arts Museum
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