Hungary

Gul Baba , Budapest, Hungary

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Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation center.

Budapest has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s peak of 2.1 million. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the amalgamation on 17 November 1873 of right-bank (west) Buda (Ofen in German) and buda (Old Buda or Alt-Ofen) together with Pest on the left (east) bank. It is the seventh largest city in the European Union.

The easiest thing you can do after arriving in Budapest is to buy a map of the city as the shrine of Gül Baba is given on it. You can also ask how much it is to get a day ticket or a week ticket for bus, tram and the metro (these are also given on this map).

You will know that Budapest consists of two parts called Buda and Pest, which are divided by the Donau river. The shrine is to be found in the part called Buda. Gül Baba lies buried in a small Turkish building on the eastern slopes of Budapest's Rose Hill. It was not difficult to find Roszadomb, the hill on which Gül Baba lies buried. There are several bridges across the river. The one nearest the shrine is connecting a street called Krt. Margrit (tram 4 and 6). Across the river it takes you to the left after some time, but the shrine is more to the right at a short distance taking a small alley upward a hill. From the point across the bridge to the shrine was about 15 minutes walking. The nearest railwaystation to the shrine is called Deli. I don't know if it is the possible to arrive there directly from
Brussels, but from the trainstation you arrive in Budapest you could take a subway to the Deli railway station. From there to the shrine it is a longer walk than the other possibility. You have to buy a ticket to enter the shrine. The caretaker mentioned to us the name of a very nearby hotel.

    The entrance to the shrine of Gul Baba, Budapest
Inside the shrine of Gul Baba, Budapest

Our own travel has been presented in the following words:

THE ROSE OF BUDAPEST

We have stayed for a short time in a wooden house in Weidling, which is in the hills near Vienna. All of this has beenmade possible,
because our Austrian friend, invited us to come and stay with her. Vienna is a city with lots of culture, so we were able to see
exhibitions of Michelangelo, Raffael, Goya, Klimt and Schiele. As Thursday is a good day for starting a travel we took a journey by
train to Budapest to visit the shrine of Gül Baba in Budapest. Gül Baba is a Bektashi Sufi who died on Friday, 2 September in 1541 in Hungary. Legend has it that when Gül Baba died a scent of roses could be smelled all over Budapest.

Gül Baba lies buried in a small Turkish building on the eastern slopes of Budapest's Rose Hill. Gül Baba's name means Rose Father. He is said to have been a lover of roses and he always wore a fresh rose in his conical dervish hat. Among the Sufis the rose is the symbol of the inner knowledge obtained about the Beloved. It was not difficult to find Roszadomb, the hill on which Gül Baba lies buried. The well-kept building is surrounded by a garden and of course roses can be found there. The grave itself has been covered with a green cloth with embroidered Qur'anic verses. At the place above the head the taj (lit.crown, but here: the Bektashi hat) can be seen. Gül Baba arrived in Budapest in the 16th century C.E. in order to create a Sufi centre dedicated to love in order to compensate for the military presence of the army of Sultan Süleymân.

When we were sitting there two western people entered. After reciting some prayers they opened their bags and took out an Arab lute and a tambourine and to our delight started to sing some verses of Yunus Emre:

A longing took hold of me,
Look and see what love has done to me,
I've started a struggle with my intellect;
Look and see what love has done to me.

The two people, who were called Haider and Ilyas, belonged to a Sufi order guided by Oruj Guvenc and who have a centre in Rosenau in Austria. They practice music therapy. This implies that they visit hospitals in Vienna and Budapest in order to play Sufi music for the mentally handicapped, for people in coma and for other patients, like people who are autistic. It has been discovered by modern scientific means that this music therapy has a positive effect and reduces stress and pain of the patients. By means of music and by means of humour they try to make contact with the sometimes severely mentally handicapped children who enjoy it very much to participate in the playing of music. The two Austrians told us about a young man who became very ill because of the death of his mother and who responded positively to the music therapy. After taking some food in a Hungarian restaurant Haider and Ilyas offered us to give us a lift back to Vienna.

A few days later we visited their Sufi centre in Rosenau, which is in fact a farmhouse in the midst of the beautiful countryside of Austria. It has a beautiful garden and a music room (containing all kinds of Turkish musical instruments) where music is played under the guidance of Oruj Guvenc who was also there. It was a real meeting of hearts, which took place as here we met no-nonsense people, implying people who behaved normally, who liked to laugh and who were hospitable. A Turkish singer called Gülten came and sang only for us, so for an audience of only 3 people. It did not matter to her, as she was a true singer who enjoys singing. She told us that when she is singing "she is no longer there". She sang a song about her hometown and explained to us that the song also expressed her desire to return to the origine she has come from. She was also singing at the feast that started the next day. We, however, betrayed our Dutch natures by leaving before the feast started, as we had to return home.