Beauty in the Breakdown
Budapest proves there’s more to it than just restored architecture
LIKE MANY SINGAPOREANS, I believed my body was made for colder weather. This conviction is usually strongest at the point of wiping perspiration off my brow after lunch at the searing coffeeshop round the bend. After spending three weeks in Europe in March though, I’m willing to admit that maybe my equatorial home isn’t so unbearable after all.
The realisation hit me halfway through a visit to Budapest, while I was bundled in cold garb, clutching my jaw in pain and wandering the streets after dark in search of a bar.
Think of it as Mary and Joseph’s flight from Bethlehem, but with lockjaw, painkillers and alcohol instead of an infant saviour. From building to building, we trudged in the winter weather, looking for the infamous ruin bars that Budapest is known for. These pubs, homed mostly in Budapest’s Jewish Quarters, were set up in abandoned buildings (or ruins) across the city and refurbished as quirky drinking holes.
Unlike Singapore’s “speak-easy” bars that maintain an air of pretention around passwords and such, ruin pubs are actually hidden and not quite shouted about. Approaching each abandoned-looking building is a game of chance in itself. “Bar or yet another quarter for the homeless?”
After stumbling on our first ruin pub, thanks to a happy mistake of spotting a bouncer who turned out not to be one, I can only liken the experience to drinking at your local thrift store. Szimpla Kert, the first ruin pub in Budapest (and the first we visited), was filled with completely mismatched furniture and half a car as a table with the added thrill of cheap beers on tap ‒ my idea of Heaven.
After a long day of tourist tripping around heritage sites, the disconnect from not seeing a well-preserved or refurbished building indicated that there’s a lot more to Budapest than its Unesco designation as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.
As Frou Frou put it in Let Go, there is beauty in the breakdown. While the city officials may
spend time and money restoring other old buildings like castles and museums for the sake of tourism and history, ruin pubs prove that old buildings can easily transit into the modern world as watering holes just by sheer effort and word of mouth.
As with anything cool, the immediate assumption that tourists would have ruined it is a logical one. Thankfully, it can’t be further from the truth. I had assumed that majority of the crowds at the different ruin bars would’ve been pseudo-intellectual hipsters or loudmouthed lads on a beer-fueled vacation but these were nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there was a perfect mix of tourists and locals. There were elderly couples, female backpackers and more. It felt like a Singaporean hawker centre ‒ a melting pot of culture and the perfect way to observe Budapest after dark.
If I had to sum Budapest up in a sentence, it could only be “come for the sights but stay for the delicious beer”.
And the sights are something to behold. After centuries of invasions and disparate rulers, the city’s architecture is a mishmash of various influences and it has become part of its identity. The Buda Castle quarter of the city holds some of the city’s best viewing points and hours upon hours of history lessons, well worth the cramps in my legs and the aching in my jaw (note: don’t attempt to eat a hotdog when your jaw can barely open).
Although it has spent much time and effort in the renovation of these sights, it’s a relief to find that Budapest doesn’t waste time in self congratulation. There isn’t a need to build new monuments; the castles and churches are no different than what the Singapore River is to us, just another part of a city passing through the course of time.
The surface of Budapest will always attract tourism but that has been Europe’s calling card since travel was invented. Wikipedia will paint the city as picturesque ‒ beautiful river, castles, enough ancient churches to confuse you if not to ensure eternal redemption. But the real beauty of Budapest lies in its efforts to repurpose itself to serve its denizens.
Like I’ve said, come for the sights but stay for the delicious beer.