ISCO POST: An end to terror

28.11.06

A quick one as we have rumbling stomachs and are heading off for some kind of enormous Magyar meal, wherever we can find one. We're in Budapest -- we've rented an apartment for a week so we can cook for ourselves and have breakfast in bed for the first time in 2 months. Bliss. The flat is right in the middle of the main pedestrianised shopping strip -- a bit weird to go outside every day and run into crowds of awful mitteleuropean tourists buying crap souvenirs. Our last stop was Cracow, in Poland, where we stayed in the old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz -- great nightlife and food, and little evidence of 'old town' tourism.

Budapest boasts what is supposed to be a great Museum of Terror, but having immersed myself in a history of 20th century infamy in a series of grim museums from Tallinn onwards, culminating in a truly harrowing day last week at Auschwitz, I am ready for some respite. Which was why Claire and I today went to the Museum of Fine Arts here to see the magnificent Caravaggio painting of David with Goliath's severed head ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath_%28Caravaggio%29). Much gentler fare, I'm sure you'll agree. The painting was part of a beautiful little exhibition on the theme of The Triumphant, The Defeated and The Victim -- really excellent works by one of my favourite painters, Artemesia Gentileschi, as well as Cranach the elder and others, displaying such noble and religious themes as Salome with John the Baptist's severed head, Judith with Holofernes' severed head, etc.

But mostly we plan to do a whole heap of nothing this week before we head to Romania on Sunday for our last days of travel, for the time being. Our legs are tired and our brains are full. We're going to the opera on Friday night (it's Mozart month -- Cosi fan Tutti), mostly because the opera house is really lovely, and also because it will give us an excuse to buy some clothes. Ours all have that trademark 'eau de backpack' (why oh why did I forget to pack some potpourri?)