Hands across the Danube

Having visited Prague and Cracow, Budapest was the next "must-see" for me. Finally, I got there last week for a meeting utside the city centre. I didn't have much free time to see the city but I made the best use of what time I had.

As everyone knws, the city was originally two separate towns: Buda, in the west, set on the hills overlooking the Danube, and Pest, on the flat ground east of the Danube. Buda is undobtedly the more picturesque part, bearing some resemblance to Prague's Castle Hill, though there are several hills, in fact, and none of them are as grand. It is the part with the most greenery; it is better preserved and it is also by far the wealthier half of the city. The old town of Buda, in particular, is especially beautiful.

In Pest, most of the outstanding landmarks - the Opera House, the huge Parliament building and so on - date from the nineteenth century, when Hungary was combined with Austria in a dual monarchy (which failed to sastify Hungarian nationalist aspirations). I must say, I found these buildings less appealing, being somewhat pompous and overly ornate but the central market is spectacular. 

This was also the period when the first and most of the subseqent magnificent bridges were built, the first being the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, designed by British Engineer William Tierney Clarke.Indeed, it is the river and its crossings that dominate one's impression of the city. Unlike Vienna, where the Danube loops around the city centre, in Budapest it cuts straight through it. Bridging a river of that size was quite an engineering feat and it's not surprising that it wasn't achieved until the nineteenth century.
 

Everywhere the scars of World War II and its aftermath are apparent, but especially so in Pest, where old buildings intermingle with modern blocks and where there are still many derelict buildings. Hungary was a German ally at that time; not the proudest moment in its history but the Hungarians were justifiably aggrieved at losing two-thirds of territory after the First World War. The city suffered extensive damage in WWII: first from British and American air raids; afterwards from the ground battles between Soviet, German and Hungarian troops. The bridges were destroyed by the retreating Germans and took decades to rebuild. In the meantime, of course, there was the 1956 rebellion, which was brutally suppressed by the Russians; many buildings still exhibit the bullet holes from this time. As a result of all of this, Pest lacks the integrity of style that one sees in downtown Prague or Cracow - and, to a large extent, even in old Buda.

Of course, another asset of the city is the vast supply of thermal water, and the associated baths, which came into vogue during the Turckish occupation. The most famous ones are the neo-baroque Széchenyi baths (which I visited) and the art nouveau Gellert baths, both of which were built in the early twentieth century.

I must say, the food was one of the pleasant surprises. Okay, the Hungarians aren't huge on vegetables but they do lots of exciting soups and stews and often combine fruit with savoury flavours in exciting ways. It was the game season while I was there and I had a magnificent venison ragout. And their cakes seem to combine the best of Austrian and Polish traditions. As for the drink, well I knew the wine would be good but the beer was excellent as well.

So, to sum up, it wasn't Prague or Cracow but it was well worth the trip.

And did I mention that the people are lovely?