Exploring Budapest: The Story of Anonymous

When I went on my Milan-Berlin-Budapest adventure for Christmas, I noticed various tourists getting on tour buses, ready to explore the place like real tourists. My family is all for tour buses, while I prefer to explore and “live” like a local would.

Of course, this also leads to my belief that the best things in life are usually free, especially when you are not spending money on a tour bus. So when I decided to not get on a tour bus during my visit in Budapest, I ended up walking for quite sometime not knowing exactly where to go.

Budapest is known for many things, but one of these things are the many bridges they seem to have. So even when I was walking for what seemed to be miles and miles, I had a beautiful view of the various bridges and the romantic castles. One specific castle that caught my attention was the Vajdahunyad Castle.

The Vajdahunyad Castle was built as part of the Millennial Exibition of 1896. At first I thought I had to pay to get in, but when I found out that the admission was free, I made my way into the castle. After looking at the castle’s interior, I found myself staring at a statue that looked like a grim reaper.

When I closed in on my grim reaper target, I noticed carved in the stone a name, Anonymvs. I had finally found the statue I had read about online.

Anonymvs (latin for Anonymous) was a monk who lived in the 12th century as the notary of King Bela III. He is credited as the writer of the first Hungarian history book, the ‘Gesta Hungarorum.’ This monk is so mysterious that he is referred to as Anonymous.

What is so fascinating about this statue? It is said that touching the monk’s pen will make you a better writer.

I do not believe the tour buses would have ever told me the story of Anonymous. I would have perhaps heard more about the castle rather than the statue itself. If I would have taken the tour bus, I would have been riding through a lot of the history, learning about the popular baths and the Gothic romantic appeal of Budapest. It’s all great and I don’t completely avoid it, but I would have never found Anonymous if I didn’t go on my own adventure and best of all, it was completely free.

xxHanny

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