HUNGARY

It's easy to see why Budapest is widely considered to be one of the most romantically beautiful cities in the world. I saw it first in 1990 as it was just opening up to the West. That's not quite true because with its "Gulash Economics" and local networking across the Iron Curtain, Hungary was already one of the most open of the Soviet Bloc countries. Even then there was a Hilton hotel with a casino built over an old monastery in the Castle District.

These pictures are from a more recent trip in 2004. Capitalism has brought more interest in new development than in preservation and some of my favorite sights are a bit run down or gone altogether. But Budapest still remains beautiful.

Parliament was getting a face lift while I was in town, but the building is still spectacular.
The Castle District sits atop Buda, the hilly city west of the Danube.
Pest is the flat city on the east.
And the Danube flows between them.
The royal crown of St. Stephen is a national icon, much like the American Liberty Bell
Too bad about the graffiti, but the Kiraly Bathhouse is a truly Turkish bath, one of the pleasanter legacies of the Ottoman occupation. In 1990 it was quite nice. Now it's a bit run down and mostly attended by old folks.
There used to be more respect, but there was a serious downside to those days. The Museum of Terror shows relics and techniques from the Fascist and Stalinist regimes.
The Jewish community here may not be as big as it was before those dictatorships, but this synagogue survived and still serves a local Jewish community.
Most of the other stations are much newer, but Budapest had the first underground metro train in continental Europe!

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