View of Parliment across Danube

Almost twenty years ago is when I first came to Budapest. Actually, I was just passing through on the way to Romania. At that time Budapest was just a year into new life, having thrown off the shackles of communism. The city was still dark and depressing at that time.

My how times have changed! The city is alive and totally changed. The first impression of Budapest is impressive. The Danube River divides flat Pest from the hilly Buda on the other side. There was no bridge connecting the two cities until the 1800′s. The two cities are now one. We are staying on the Buda side right on Castle Hill. Budapest is not quite like a Western European city and not quite like an Eastern European city either.  Ravaged by Ottomans and flood, on the loosing side of two World Wars and a failed revolution in 1956, Budapest has no Medieval feel like some other cities in Europe. Most of the older buildings go back only to the late 1800′s and the streets are uncharacteristically wide for Europe.

Honestly, I am having a hard time processing what I feel. It’s just different, much like the Hungarian people and language are unique in Europe. They do not call themselves Hungarians but Magyars, a people that arrived in this area from Central Asia in 896AD. Obviously much intermarriage has occurred over the centuries, but there are some definite oriental features to some Magyars even today. English is closer to Russian than Hungarian is to any of the other European languages. Only traces of Finnish and Estonian bear any similarities, those peoples having come from the same Asian Ural Mountain region centuries ago.

My favorite Hungarian restaurant so far

Sophia was our guide today. She is a classy young woman who speaks excellent English, knows her city and is quite proud of it. I was amazed how much we saw and she made it all interesting. I loved seeing the city through her eyes. She did something else very important – she pointed out a little hole-in-the-wall Hungarian kitchen where we returned for dinner tonight and it was fabulous!