Time: 7 am, Place:
some hotel in Budapest, Date: 20th of August. I woke
up; still in bed I grabbed my mobile phone, checked the time with one closed
eye. I wondered what should be done today in the city. I typed on google: “St.
Stephen's Basilica”. A place which was on my to go list. As Google always gets
you the newest information first, I noticed there are a couple of links talking
about some preparations that were being made there because of Hungary National
Day. This day matches the 20th of August. I checked my calendar and
it is actually 20th of August. I thought oh well what should I expect on a
country’s national holiday? Celebrations or closed shops? I hoped the day would
turn out fine.
I read on the internet that there would be fireworks by the danube
river at 8 pm that night. I thought it would be like a 2 minutes quick
celebration, nothing fancy but I was keen on watching it anyway so at 7:50 pm
that night, I was in one of the side streets with my friend trying to get to
the main road by the river. As soon as we reached it, I was shocked by the
number of people. There were hundreds of people standing along the river side. You
could see people in the Far East, the far west and on the other side of the river.
That scene reminded me of the demonstration days in Egypt, except it wasn’t a demonstration;
it was just people gathering for the fireworks.
We couldn’t stand in the crowd. We noticed a railway track
that is closer to the river and less crowded so I placed myself with my friend
on it for a better view and fortunately it wasn’t working at the time.
It is time, 8 PM, Soft music started; you can hear them
wherever you were. On each street light pole there was a sound speaker attached
to it. It felt like the whole city is in one harmony, one synched beautiful
piece of music. It was magic.
It was dark until The Sky lit up with colorful fireworks. You
could hear the sound of music, the sound of fireworks’ banging, people cheering.
You could see the fireworks along with Cameras’ flashing lights that are capturing
every moment of this celebration.
The Fireworks movements are perfectly synced with the music. A low pitch is a
short bang. A high pitch is a longer more colorful bang. Fireworks were dancing
on the bridge. They were coming out of the river water and they were up high in
the sky. They were everywhere around me. I thought this must be magic. This cannot
be real. The celebration lasted for a whole of 30 minutes and I could truly say
this was one of the happiest 30 minutes in my life.
Here are 2 photos that I had taken back then.