On Thursday morning after breakfast, I decided that instead of walking all over the place, I’d go visit that cool looking Retro Museum. So, after doing some writing on my main blog, I headed back out toward St. Stephen’s Basilica, where I had noticed signs for the museum. Instead of turning right on the street named Oktober 6, I turned left. Seconds later, I spotted the museum. It was impossible to miss it, as the facade was in bright red. I might have thought of it as a tourist trap, but actually, I thought it was a fun museum, creatively put together for those of us who remember life before the Iron Curtain fell.

Below are a couple of photos from Thursday morning, before I walked into the museum. I didn’t get a chance to try the chimney cake, but they were being offered all over Budapest. I think I even saw a class offered for making them.

After taking a moment to listen to the many noisy children playing at a nearby playground, I walked into the museum. A man in a red vest immediately said hello and directed me to the ticket counter, where I paid 5500 forints (about $17 or 14 euros) to take a trip back in time, before most people could so easily visit Hungary.

The Retro Museum covers three floors and offers an interactive experience that allows patrons to get a sense of what Budapest was like back in the day. It took me a minute to realize that they had designed exhibits by putting them in what appeared to be mock ups of block style housing. Each “building” had little doors on them that could be opened, revealing an artifact from the communist days of yore. There were quite a few of these “building” exhibits… maybe more than were really necessary. But they did have some interesting stuff in them– schoolbooks, records, toys, books, medals, and even displays of packaged foods from that era. I also noticed they had a display about Hungary’s now defunct national airline, Malev. Bill and I flew on Malev the first time we visited Budapest, but it went out of business in February 2012.

I particularly enjoyed the exhibit about what school was like back in the day. If I had been born in Hungary, that was how MY schooling would have been. I’d also be a Russian speaker, because Russian was required learning for schoolkids until the late 1980s.

There were also some interactive quizzes visitors could take to test their knowledge. Unfortunately, most of them were only offered in Hungarian. I tried a couple of them, anyway, just to see how much I could understand. Not surprisingly, I did poorly. Below are photos from the “building exhibits” in museum…

Some of the stuff they had on display were things I remembered from my American upbringing. For instance, they had a Commodore 64 computer in there, complete with cassette player for computer games. That was a real blast from the past!

Once I got past the faux Soviet era buildings, I encountered a “TV studio”, inviting patrons to pretend they are newscasters. One lady had brought her two children and one of the kids was doing a good job pretending. I heard two older ladies singing in Russian (or maybe Hungarian) along with the music that was playing. Obviously, these were songs most kids learned back in those days, as the school curriculum was uniform across the country.

Next, there was a mock up of a Hungarian kitchen from back in the days before the Iron Curtain fell. I got a kick out of that. It reminded me of the kitchens I encountered in Armenia, right down to the old fashioned refrigerator. Actually, the kitchen was nicer than what I had in Armenia, where I lived in one of those “block style” buildings.

The kitchen led to a living room, where the two singing older ladies had made themselves comfortable, sitting on one of the old couches, watching old TV… They even had an exhibit in which you could stand in front of a green screen and try on Hungarian fashions. I wasn’t wanting to do that, because I don’t like looking at myself in the mirror.

From the living room, there was an elevator, leading down to the first floor, where the space program was displayed using cool interactive exhibits. They also had an exhibit showing other technology. There was one exhibit that I couldn’t quite figure out. The lady with the two kids kind of pushed me out, anyway, before I could determine how the exhibit worked.

And then finally, there was a room highlighting transportation. There was a car from the Iron Curtain era, as well as a “police car” that people were allowed to sit in and try to “drive”. I didn’t attempt to “drive” the police car, because the seat looked like it was made more for children! But I did watch one lady try to interact with that exhibit and heard her shriek with surprise at how difficult it was to “drive” the cop car. They also had old phone booths with recordings of jokes, songs, and newscasts, among other things.

All in all, I really enjoyed visiting the Retro Museum. I probably could have spent more time in there. I will say, though, that there was a lot of stuff in there, and it was kind of overwhelming. And some of the exhibits were a bit limited to Hungarians, and mostly understandable to people from Hungary. I noticed a lot of local people, especially of a certain age, getting the exhibits more than the younger folks. And, of course, some of it was only in Hungarian, which surprised me.

The museum has a bistro, which offers food that might be considered “retro”. I didn’t partake of anything from the bistro. It looked like most of what they were offering were variations of hot dogs and sausages, along with something called “Hungarian Fatty Bread” (yikes). They also had many kinds of non-alcoholic drinks, coffees, beers, and wines. They even offered cocktails! I do think it’s funny that “condiments” in Hungary are considered “dips”. Americans don’t consider ketchup, mustard, and mayo “dips”, and typically, we don’t charge extra for them. But, of course, I ain’t in America anymore, right?

After I visited the Retro Museum, I walked back toward Elizabeth Square. It was then that I noticed something unusual on a tree…

Yes… that is Michael Jackson. Someone in Budapest LOVES him. They made a shrine, and it has not been “molested” by anyone. I was surprised by that, so I took photos. I made the mistake of sharing one on YouTube, and got chastised by someone for “glorifying” a “child molester”. 🙄

I don’t know the truth behind Michael Jackson’s dalliances with children. I have heard the stories, and no matter what, I think that what he was doing was inappropriate. I also think that some of the blame for that lies with the parents of the children, who allowed their sons to spend nights with Michael. It would not have been a choice I would have made, myself, if I had ever had children of my own.

What I do know is that he was a huge star, and has now been dead for 16 years. And, like it or not, he was a big part of my childhood, just like Bill Cosby was. I don’t think sharing a photo of a shrine that I didn’t build is “glorifying” Michael Jackson. I just found it interesting.

I sat for awhile and was visited by pigeons who were almost completely tame. A couple of them got close enough that I could have easily touched their feathers.

Later, when Bill came back after work, we decided to go looking for dinner. We stopped first at the Ritzmajer Downtown. Hungarian Beer Bar. I was curious about the place. Although they offered food, we decided not to eat there after we had a round.

Instead, we turned down a street and wound up at a random bistro, where there was yet another excellent Hungarian gypsy music band playing. I bought another CD…

I don’t even remember the name of the restaurant (it was Rezkakas Bistro). The food was good, but I was mostly impressed by the live music. It started with an older man playing violin with a guy playing hammer dulcimer. Then, an hour later, more musicians showed up, and they moved to the other side of the restaurant. My view wasn’t as good then, but I was really impressed by the second violinist who played. He was much younger, and had real passion. When we bought the CD, the older violinist said it was his son. I was very impressed with him! I wonder if he makes love the way he plays his instrument. If you watch toward the end of the YouTube video below, you can see what I mean. His obvious passion for his music is written all over his young face.

They played everything from traditional Hungarian songs to Coldplay. At one point, they played “God Bless America”, which was very well-received, especially since it was 9/11 on the day of our visit. There were quite a few Americans in the restaurant, and they all cheered.

Again, the food was okay… service was a bit lackadaisical. But I really enjoyed the music. I especially enjoyed the lead violinist’s son, who really was entertaining. Unfortunately I got so emotional that I forgot to take a photo of the restaurant’s sign. But, after some sleuthing, I managed to figure out that we ate dinner at Rezkakas Bistro. According to their Web site, they are currently closed until October 1, 2025.

In any case, we enjoyed our visit to Rezkakas Bistro, especially for the music. It was a very nice evening!

Stay tuned for my post on our last full day in beautiful Budapest and the flight home to Germany!