Budapest- A tale of two cities

  Starting from the Huns, and following through with many, including the Turks, Nazis and Commies, Hungary had more than its fair share of invaders, so much so that they are still debating who the Hungarians actually are. And whatever destruction the invaders did to the country, they left a generic imprint that no body can complain about. Other than the smoking hot beauty quotient, Budapest surprised me positively on many counts.

People were really open and friendly, with certainly the most helpful old ladies who ran around to make sure i got on the right bus.  Hungarian is considers one of the most unique and difficult languages, though some people suggest Finnish to have the same origin, but people spoke good English, with American or British accent. They ate spicy food, and while the food is mostly meat based, i certainly had one of the best vegetarian food in Europe here.

 Buda and Pest are two cities on either side of Danube, Buda is the rich and aristocratic hilly side, Pest is the financial center. Being on the losing side of two world wars, and suffering the last century at the hands of Nazis and then the communists,  the country lost its considerable wealth and land mass from the time of Austro-Hungarian empire, and Budapest was probably one of the most destroyed city in WW2. A visit to the secret hospital in the rocks on Buda side brought me closer to the world war than any thing else i have ever seen, with waxed dummies still enacting the scenes from that era. Most of my trip to Europe has been about middle ages and renaissance, Budapest is about life in the last century.

Two walking tours, one on each side, were enough to give a very good idea about the history of this beautiful city. Eva, my first host was unemployed so she came along for the Pest tour. laslow, our tour guide, used to work for an indiaan company, and in an amazing coincident, i happened to know his bosses. After the tour he took us to this lovely vegetarian restaurant, and then invited us to a workshop of 'Euritme', an art movement to express the emotions of poetry through synchronized and graceful body movements, which he taught and i thoroughly enjoyed. Fanny, my second host, was a party and drinking expert, and she was thoroughly disappointed that i was leaving for the boring Vienna just when she and the city were getting ready to party on the weekend. Well in this case, I certainly shared her disappointed.