Our last day in Hungary meant moving out of our apartment with all our bags. First stop was the Nyugati railway station, where we were booked on a sleeper car for the overnight trip to Berlin.
At the station, we used our English and written translations on the translate app on the phone to locate the luggage lockers, but they required coins to operate. We have been using only a plastic card for all transactions in Hungary, and had none of the local Forint to open the locker. We were reluctant to carry our bags all day, so did a short tour of the river side by tram, and the castle district by bus, and then decided to head out of the city, to a small town we passed through on the train down from Vienna. We had noticed then that the town of Tatabanya was watched over by a monument on the hill, and thought we might try to get up there for the view, and at least soak up some regional Hungary.
Things did not work out too well. While the transport was easy, using our Eurail to jump onto and express to hurtle us out to Tatabanya rapidly, the town was a real disappointment. The town is a total reconstruction, rebuilt by the Soviets, and their stark and unfriendly style of building was not at all warm. The place felt like a ghost town, or a ghetto. Large concrete buildings were at such distance that walking is impractical. The large open spaces fell cold and not at all welcoming. We sat for lunch and were fussed over by very friendly locals, but life here looks pretty miserable, The most activity we saw in our time at Tatabanya was the discount tobacco store, which had a constant stream of locals, in and out. Tatabanya was once prosperous with the wealth of coal mining, but since that has stopped it is in decline.
We were unable to find transport up to the Turul monument, so had to settle for a photo from the town square. The statue of a turul bird, an ancient Hungarian symbol (supposedly a falcon) has been watching the landscape below from a limestone peak near Tatabánya since 1907. It is believed to be the biggest bird statue in Europe, and indeed, its considerable size makes it visible from far. No wonder it has become the symbol of the town. In the town square is the Árpád Nagyfejedelem Szobra or the Statue of the Grand Prince Árpád. Árpád was boss man to a number of Magyar tribes from a 1000 years ago, and is regarded as a founder of Hungary, but there is no written history from those times and his legend varies in different areas. Statues of Árpád are found all over modern Hungary.
The railway station looks like it was modernised back in the 1960’s, and has had no maintenance since. Shops are closed, and the whole are looked neglected.
In the Deák Ferenc tér outside our apartment was a second hand book seller operating from an old horse drawn wagon. This Deák Ferenc tér is a popular meeting area in the evenings, with much food and drink being consumed.
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