Rendőrség: Riot Control with Hungary's Finest

Sarah smartly shielding herself from the rowdy JSBP-ers 

How to swarm and arrest a rioter.

         This lovely morning, the JSBP crew found ourselves walking up to Hungary's headquarters for the Riot Control Police force in Budapest.  The headquarters functions as a training ground and boarding area for the police (Walking around This department employs 3,459 men and women in Hungary—there are departments in almost every county of the country!  The Riot Control Police have several units and responsibilities spanning a myriad of events and occurrences in Hungary.  They have an “air force” unit (mostly helicopters), K9 unit, bomb disposal service, counter-terrorist service, immigration control, mounted riot unit, engage in riot control, VIP escorts, provide courier services, have a financial division, and even a professional music band.  The list is expansive and goes on, and on…and on!

Self-Defense against knives

Tank - Shoots 14 mm

Casually holding a
grenade launcher, used to
deploy tear gas -
"not like the French!"

                  After listening to a short presentation (translated by the one and only Ildiko) about the roles and responsibilities of the Riot Control Police, I was still a little confused about the differences between Riot Control and the average police officer.  It turns out that there are a couple reasons for this. I think what might have thrown me off the most was that their uniforms are different.  The police that I’ve seen everyday are not average police officers, they are the Riot Control police (who have more training), and this is most likely because we live in an area with several embassies, so they need to provide an added level of protection.  On top of this, most police officers are limited to their local jurisdiction, whereas a Riot Control officer has jurisdiction throughout the entire country.  Riot Control officers can also be invited into towns and local departments to provide an added level of service; Whitney and Tito were really helpful to my understanding of the difference between the two in equating the Riot Control officers to state police in the United States. 

How to safely pull over someone
who is armed and dangerous!

         When the discussion came to an end, we were led outside to see the different riot control tools employed by the force.  We saw several types of grenade launchers that were used to disperse tear gas as well as the full body gear worn by the officers.  We even had the opportunity to hold the shields that they use to resist against and control large crowds.  From there, we looked at their huge trucks and tanks that make their job a little easier.  

The officer explaining to us the functions of each told us that while it all looked very intimidating, they use the trucks rarely, and some of them are even used to plow snow. 

Take him down!

Scary death truck...
actually less intimidating than it looks:
used to keep crowds out of certain area

         For me, the most exciting part of the whole day was watching officers dressed up in their full gear perform some of their training exercises for us.  They first showed us arrest, escort, and crowd control procedures.  Then one group demonstrated self defense and restrain tactics using batons, or hand-to-hand techniques when facing projectiles or someone with a knife.  The last group demonstrated the procedure for pulling someone over and arresting them in a safe and controlled manner.  It was pretty neat.

         Overall, I enjoyed today, but it was a disappointment for me because I expected something different.  I thought we would have the chance to understand the big 2006 riots, hooligan riots that they deal with, and the dangerous situations they face with on a daily basis, and maybe the opportunity to question issues with policy brutality.  To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect, but thought it would be interesting to learn about certain protocols.  I think this may be where the language barrier becomes a problem in Budapest, and I think that our discussion would have gone in further depth if said barrier didn’t exist.  The whole presentation seemed to be a production to show the system of the force: how it works and what they do.  There was nothing else said about the force, like their mistakes or successes, or developments that have occurred.  That's what I've appreciated about the other field studies trips, we go into depth and learn about the good and the bad (sometimes it's all bad) that have come of different situations.  Nonetheless, I did really, really appreciate being able to see up close the types of weapons and vehicles the force uses, and I thought “show” was very entertaining!  


Here is a video I found about the 2006 riots that I had been hoping to learn about...take the time to watch it as it's very interesting. The rioters were reacting to the release of the PM's secret, confidential speech in which he revealed that the Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election.  The Riot Police took a lot of heat for using rubber bullets on the crowd, and drew a lot of attention to themselves regarding the question of police brutality.

          

The Spectacle

Central Kavehaz

On another note, after this, we all decided to go to the Central Kavehaz (Central Coffeehouse) to complete one of our assignments from our Hungarian history teacher, Agnes Beretsky.  She is a really enthusiastic and intelligent woman who strives for us to really understand the Hungarian point of view by asking us to do a lot of hands-on activities, or bringing us Turo Rodi (delicious cottage cheese filled chocolate, better than it sounds).  We’ve had to visit museums with a partner, listen to different music, and she even plans on having one of her Hungarian students teach us Hungarian folk dances.  While all of this is usually fun and interesting, it usually involves spending some amount of money that we didn’t budget for!  I think I speak for everyone when I say THANK YOU to Molly for covering the cost of our trip to the coffeehouse!  It was delicious and it was more enjoyable knowing that it was “on the house.”

Yum,

Live and Learn.  

Mary Meets Prague

About a week ago, sweet pickle Sarah and I were sitting in our kitchen talking about our plans for the weekend.  That night, we booked a hostel and looked up information for our last minute trip to Prague.  On Friday we were off to live the Praha life for the weekend, and what a good life it is.

From Friday to Sunday, Sarah and I saw every major attraction possible.  We were on our feet for hours at a time, eagerly finding tram stops or walking from place to place, taking in the city and it's breathtaking buildings and views while experiencing things I'll remember for a lifetime. 

Sarah all tucked in!!

Power posing in front of the
Charles Bridge

To put it mildly, Friday was a bit of a blur.  We arrived in the city in the late afternoon, and went straight to our hostel to check in...at the Czech Inn (we thought it was hilarious).  From there we got lost and explored random areas of the city, and even accidentally found the Dancing House, which is a contemporary building that's just plain weird to look at.  From there, we fumbled our way all the way over to the Charles Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that we walked across and back.  From the Bridge, which is beautiful itself, it’s possible to see the Prague Castle, at night it’s difficult to put in words exactly how amazing this view actually is.  Realizing that we were starving, and that we were falling over ourselves at this point, it seemed like a good idea to get some food.  It was.  We both had delicious chicken and shared French fries and onion rings!  This meal was especially enjoyable because our table was situated in a way that allowed us free entertainment for the night: extremely drunk Australian men chanting (at us) U-S-A! U-S-A!  Their “leader” was especially appealing, donning a neon orange morph suit (basically, a shiny spandex uni-tard with long sleeves), which flattered his beer belly nicely.  After dinner, we luckily found the subway stop we needed to take us back to the hostel, where we took a pit-stop at the bar for a beer before we tucked ourselves in for the night.

The night view of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge!

View of the City from
Prague Castle

The Palace Guard

Cathedral at the Prague Castle

Saturday was a long and amazing day.  After seeing the Prague Castle at night we decided to go straight there to see it in person.  I’m so glad we did.  We bought tickets for the short tour of the castle grounds, which gave us access to an amazing cathedral, one of the oldest basilicas in the Czech, the Old Royal Palace, and Golden Lane (which was where the servants lived, right up against the castle walls).  

Amazing stained-glass!

There was so much to see and so much to take in, imagine the Newport Mansions on steroids with about 500 more years of history.  The architecture was impeccably executed; it’s impossible to imagine how these huge buildings could have been built so long ago.  What I really love is that no detail is ever spared in these extravagant places, and the renovations are maintained so well that you can imagine people of these time-periods walking around the hallowed halls. 

Old Royal Palace

St. George's Basilica

Golden Lane

       

Tagging the Lennon Wall!

After the Prague Castle excursion, we went to the Lennon Wall, which is a wall covered in graffiti dedicated to John Lennon as a protest to Communist rule (it’s been there for a while…).  Something that I’ll always remember from this trip is that I even had the chance to contribute to the wall, based on good timing I guess, as a man left a spray can there for anyone to use.  I wrote M&S with a heart around it.  I really loved this place and everything that it stands for.  I think John Lennon really impacted the world in a positive way, so it meant a lot to me to see this place. 

Art of Can

         Lunch was bagels (!!!) at an amazing and cute restaurant, and when we walked back over the Charles Bridge and into the Jewish quarter.  We ended up seeing more contemporary attractions here than the Jewish synagogues that we had intended to, but I’m not complaining.  

Prague Fashion Weekend!

We found a Red Bull exhibit called the Art of Can, in which people had submitted sculptures made entirely out of Red Bull Cans.  It was awesome!  Further down the street we ended up at Prague Fashion Weekend, to see the new talent competition.  The designers were awesome and the runway (the longest in Europe) was in the middle of the street, with some seating for those who paid, but with a huge crowd around it where you could stand for free.  It was definitely an experience I’ll never have again! Fashion week(end) in a European country?  Unreal.  We liked it so much, we ended up going back at night to see the gala show, which was Obsession presented by Nina Ricci.  Fashion Weekend was conveniently in Old Town Square—a huge tourist attraction and centrally located to everything!  We took a pit stop for wine (from a stand in the middle of the square), and then walked the 100 meters to the Old Town Tower to see the Astronomical Clock.  We decided to slowly make our way back to the hostel so we could replenish our energy, and on the way we ended up buying “Czech Me Out” shirts (my goal for the weekend), as well as absinthe ice cream—which was less than a shot, and probably a million times more delicious.  Before actually making it to our hostel, we took yet another detour to see the largest equestrian statue in the world in the museum district, another cool area of the city. 

Absinthe Ice Cream!

The Astronomical
 Clock on the Tower

Gala Show at
Fashion Weekend

Dinner that night was local food that we again bought from stands in Old Town Square: wine, sausage, and potato pasta with potatoes, ham, and cabbage.  Delicious.  Like I said we saw the gala fashion show and then discovered another free thing to do…the astronomical clock had a projection-type presentation that played directly on the tower and told of the history of the tower, which began in 1410.  It doesn’t take a nerd to like this presentation, there were about 2000 people standing under the building to see it.  Realizing how beat up we were from the day’s activities, we called it a night.

We like food!

Playing at Vysehrad!

Ugly Baby Tower.
These babies were about
as big as horses in real life.

Sunday, Sarah and I went over to Vysehrad, which is a huge green space where there are buildings sprawled across, including an amazing Cathedral.  Vysehrad was where the very first Czech kings resided, so it was a really cool place to be.  After a quick and delicious lunch, we relaxed and reflected on how amazing the trip had been.  With about an hour left till our train left, we spontaneously decided to take a quick adventure to the Prague Tower, the ugliest tower in the world (my opinion).  To our surprise, the tower was covered in huge naked babies crawling all over it (art).  And with that, we left, satisfied that we had done everything we wanted to in Prague: eat like queens, see all the major attractions, relax and enjoy the good life for a little while.  We even managed to stay under budget—$200 for travel, shelter, food, and other activities. 

Vysehrad Cathedral

Overall an amazing weekend, and if you ever have the chance…

GO TO PRAGUE!

GO TO PRAGUE!

GO TO PRAGUE!

VIVA LA PRAHA!

M&S at the Lennon Wall!

Charles Bridge by Day - funky jazz band

Live and Learn!

Sitting on the wall at Prague Castle,
with the city behind me!

In Memory of Tyler

Today is the one year memorial of Tyler Clementi's suicide.  It's strange that a year has gone by since I heard the news...and how his legacy and memory lives on so strongly in all of us.  Tyler went to Ridgewood High School with me, he was a year younger than me and I'd gone to elementary school, middle school, and high school with him.  I'd had a couple gym classes with him in high school, and though I can't say that I knew him on a personal level, I still recognized him for a couple reasons: he was one of the few gingers in school (pride), and he was an incredible musician.  I remember that he had almost no interest in gym, and that he even wore socks and sandals to some classes.  It wasn't his thing, and he didn't pretend that it was.  I wish I'd had the chance to know him further than that, because now I and the rest of my peers, my town, and our community will forever be haunted by his death.

His death was forged by the ignorance and intolerance of his roommate, and Tyler's final act was one of loneliness and certainly made a huge impact on the LGBT movement nationwide.  His memory lives on in the legacy of this day, but it shouldn't have to.

I hope that time has helped to ease his family's pain and suffering, and I hope that people start to wake up.  This should never have happened, and my heart goes out to anyone who experiences this kind of pain.

RIP Tyler.

House of Terror and Marx Park: Understanding the Depths of Hungarian Thought

Entrance to the House of Terror

The House of Terror:
Nazi and Soviet headquarters

Victims of Occupations

Memorializing the double occupation

60 Andrassy Utca: horrible things happened here.
"The building on Andrassy Boulevard 60 is itself the statue of terror, a monument to the victims" (pamphlet)

"The Iron Curtain": I think that going to the House of Terror may have been
my best chance at understanding what life was like behind it.

House of Terror
(repeated pictures because we weren't
allowed to take pictures inside the museum)

         The more field studies trips that I go on with JSBP, the more I can understand the Hungarian mindset.  There is a Hungarian philosopher named Agnes Heller who said that the Hungarian’s “biggest concern is to survive in the midst of the enemies surrounding him.”  After today’s trip to the House of Terror, this state of mind—of fear, struggle, and oppression­­—is clearer to me than ever before.  The House of Terror effectively presents the story of the double occupation that was excruciatingly real for the citizens of Hungary.  The building itself was the Arrow Cross Headquarters for the Nazis during WWII, and upon the Soviet takeover in 1945 it became the headquarters of the Department for Political Police (PRO), State Security Office (AVO), and the State Security Authority (AVH) with almost no transition.

            To learn about Nazi or Soviet occupation in America is one thing, but to be inside the headquarters and the prison cells and gallows of these evil and brutal regimes is something else entirely.  There is nothing that can I can even compare to it, and the feeling itself is extremely overwhelming.  Walking in the eerie building and understanding what had been there, and trying to imagine the horrors that innocent people went through, and the strength that daily life required is incredible; furthermore it is absolutely nauseating to walk through the offices of the men who had sat behind their desks cowardly ordering executions or implementing other forms of torture upon weak people.

My favorite statue at Marx Park:
in the sides of the concrete it looked
like people had been pressed into it...
I'm fascinated by the symbolism of it all.

            There was so much to learn at the House of Terror, but I think that most of what I took away from the experience was the dreariness of the time.  It’s insane to think about how recently these occupations occurred, and that many Hungarians hold personal memories of these events.  I think about what my grandparents experienced, and sure, it was a lot, but in comparison, as Americans we have so little to complain about.  We at least have the strength to fight back.  Hungarians have been beaten up again and again by huge empires, their history is bleak and dreary and they constantly had to fight for their sovereignty.  One of our professors here, Laszlo Varadi, is certainly someone who has experienced a lot of this, said something in class yesterday about knowing people who have lived through eight entirely different political regimes.  Political instability has clearly shaped the people who live here, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that history is everything in Hungary.

Red Star of Communism,
with some statues in the back

            To hammer this point home, we also took a trip to Marx Park in the Buda Hills today.  The first thing I noticed about this place was how dreary it was—which I feel is an accurate way to remember communism.  Before walking in, we saw the statue boots of Stalin, the only remnants of a huge statue of him that had once stood in Hero’s Square.  This statue was torn down (think Saddam Hussein style), in an act of defiance that I think really freed the Hungarian people psychologically.  The statues that were in the park were definitely representative of the stark and powerful Soviet presence in Hungary.  The statues themselves were huge!  They weren’t beautiful, they were symbols of a regime that did everything they could to remind Hungarians that Soviets were in control.  We discussed that it’s strange to keep these statues around when they only represent bad memories, but it’s important to keep these parts of history.  It’s important to remember what has happened, and to do everything in your power to ensure that nothing destroys your nation like that again. 

Hanging out with
the communists

Another man-statue crippling
under the power of
the Soviet regime.

            And with that, a beautiful day was turned into a day of introspective thoughts for me.  I wonder about the brutality of man (executions of innocent people, internment camps, forced labor camps), I wonder about the strength of a nation to rebuild over and over again, and I wonder about the collective unconscious of the Hungarian people that will not allow them to forget.  I wonder how they have moved on, and about the all the factors (psychological/social/political/economical/etc.) that stand behind this; and I can begin to understand their point of view.

Live and Learn, 

  Mary

Another JSBP classic 

P.S. Couldn't help to but to think about this song today...

 

    

Meet Chef Marie

Cookies at the Street Fair

Since I've been in Budapest, I've realized how much I love eating good food.  Because I don't have my mom to cook dinner every night, or HoCo/Philly/Stillings/Wildkitty at my (greedy hehe) fingertips, I've decided not to suffer in the culinary department every night, and stick to eating bread, pasta, or canned beans as some of my peers and roommates do.

I have made a concerted effort to make meals that I actually enjoy eating while I'm here (this is in large part inspired by T, one of my best friends whom I love very dearly and who loves good food and whose family feeds me delicious meals with ridiculously large portions...)

Among my most prized creations are...

"The Best Cole Slaw Ever"
- cabbage, apples, carrots, mayo, vinegar, sugar, pepper, salt.

Butternut Squash Pasta (Anonymous's Favorite)

"Things with Butternut Squash"
- roasted butternut squash sauteed with pasta, garlic, olive oil, and grilled chicken (with balsamic vinegar drizzle of course)
- mashed butternut squash with cinnamon! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

"Sarah and Mary's Pasta Creations"
- broccoli, garlic, olive oil, grill chicken, some kind of thick and delicious hollow spaghetti, parmesan

Mediterranean YumYum

- sauteed spinach, grilled chicken, feta cheese, tomatoes, garlic, onions, avocado, penne, grana padano

"Throw It All In there Stuffed Peppers"
- ground beef, crushed tomatoes, onion, beans, brown rice in a red pepper (throw it in the oven)

Basically, I'm thinking about throwing out my college education to be a chef. I think I really have a chance...

Cooking School...Chicken Parm a la Alex

The most fun part of all of this of course has been searching for the right ingredients.  In Hungarian grocery stores they don't sell spices in little McGormick bottles or in any way that is easy to understand.  No, here, they have packets.  Packets of cinnamon and god knows what else, because I can't read the labels.

Oh, and I've maintained some of my dignity and have not reduced myself to calling sandwiches, "sammies."  I'm twenty, there are some abbreviations that are unnecessary (love you girls haha).
At least once this semester, I promise that I'll cook up some kind of family meal for all the the JSBP-ers, because I think we all deserve something nice like that.

Meat at the Street Fair!

Anyway, as grammatically incorrect, annoying, or funny as you think this post is... the point is that along with everything else that I'm doing here, I'm learning to cook for myself and enjoy it too.  I'm inspired by all the food I see here and all the things I have yet to try

(maybe Dani will be proud that I've tried some new foods)!


Love,
Mary