Budapest, Part 1 -- General

We spent Christmas day and the following week in Budapest, the capital of Hungary -- flying there on Christmas Eve and flying back to London on New Year's Eve. While we had heard good things about the city from others, we really didn't know what to expect -- and what we found was a very beautiful city in a great setting on the Danube River. In fact, we liked Budapest so much, we've decided to stop trying to identify our favorite European city. If you remember, some months ago we raved about Barcelona, calling it our favorite. (We loved Prague, too, but were there less than 48 hours and felt we couldn't really say it was a favorite on such a short acquaintance.) But now that we've seen a good bit of Budapest, we've decided it's too hard to pick a favorite. And remembering Vienna just adds to the complication. Just let us say that we liked Budapest very much.

The trip there was without problem, thanks to KLM (London to Amsterdam) and Malev (the Hungarian airline -- Amsterdam to Budapest). We arrived on Christmas Eve at about 6 pm and were a bit surprised at how cold it was -- but the weather stayed pretty cold the entire week, with the lowest being about -3 (C) or about 27 (F). We were prepared, though, for the temperature -- and so, apparently, were all the other tourists -- and it didn't degrade our sightseeing experience or reduce the size of the crowds.

You may remember that Budapest was formed by the joining of the cities of Buda on the east bank of the Danube and Pest (Pesht) on the west bank. The Pest side is flat -- the Buda side hilly, with two hills dominating the area near the Danube. Gellert hill, named for a martyred Christian bishop, is the site of an old citadel; Palace or Castle hill is the site of the massive royal palace, which now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum. (Budapest has a population of about 2 million; all of Hungary of about 10 million.)

Again, if you remember your European history, you know that Hungary was part of the empire of Austria-Hungary, ruled most recently by the Habsburg royal family. The Austro-Hungarian empire was actually bigger than the combined size of the two modern countries -- and also included much of what is now the Czech Repbulic. In fact, the current capitals of the three countries, Vienna, Budapest and Prague are the three "jewels" of the Habsburg dynasty. For much of the history of the empire, Vienna and Budapest were joint capitals -- though the Hungarian people always considered the Habsburg rulers to be "Austrians" and felt somewhat oppressed. Today Hungarian identity and patriotism are very noticeable. The most visible manifestation of this is the large, beautiful Parliament building (photo), built for the 1896 thousand-year anniversary of the founding of Hungary, and which is often spoken of and pointed out.

Of course, in Central Europe, with its wide range of ethnic histories and cultures, and with the various countries being relatively small, and, therefore, close together, the large cities such as Budapest tend to be very cosmopolitan. This makes itself apparent in the variety of languages heard (and the variety of languages the locals speak) and in the great restuarants with a wide variety of cuisines. There are plenty of modern, pleasant hotels to choose from and the English language will get you by almost everywhere. Don't expect big bargains if you go there; prices seemed a bit low after London, but would seem high to visitors from most other places.

Our Budapest photo gallery is at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2297714