The city
Budapest (population 2 m) is located on both sides of the river Danube. Pest is flat, while Buda is hilly. Pest is the more lively, pulsating urban half with the smart shops of the inner city, the Great Boulevard (Nagykörút), over 4 km long, and Andrássy Avenue with the Millennium Monument on Heroes' Square at the far end. The city's major public buildings are here: the Basilica, the Opera House, the Parliament Building and the Great Market Hall. Pest's semi-circular boulevards, its bridges and neoclassical buildings have a feel of the age of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and fin-de-sicle Vienna. Buda, however, is more residential, a green belt, the classier half of the city, where the C18th baroque Castle District dominates. Óbuda ("Old Buda") and the ruins of the Roman settlement of Aquincum lie in the north of the city.
Budapest has 23 districts. (The district number, always marked by a Roman number, is often essential in finding addresses.) Buda comprises 1/3 of Budapest and consists of 6 districts (I Castle, II and XII Buda Hills, III Óbuda, XI and XXII South Buda districts). The remaining 2/3 of the city are in Pest.
Here are some useful words you'll come across when looking for addresses: út means 'main street, avenue', utca (u.) - 'street', tér - 'square', híd - 'bridge', sziget - 'island', körút (krt.) - 'boulevard'.
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Language
Hungarian is neither a Slav nor Germanic but a Finn-Ugric language. That is, it’s distantly related to Finnish, Estonian and some little-spoken north central Asian languages. It’s worth learning a few basic words though, as this is always appreciated:
köszönöm (kur-sur-nurm: ur as in fur but with no r) – ‘thank you’, jó napot (yo nop-ot) – ‘good day’, bocsánat (boch-ar-not) – ‘sorry’, kérem (kair-em) – ‘please’.
However, learning these few words is no escape from helpful Hungarians who insist on explaining things to foreigners in Hungarian and don’t understand that a few German words peppered here and there don’t help non-German speaking people. Most young people speak some English and in catering establishments there is always someone who speaks a foreign language.
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People, Habits and Customs
Budapesters are instinctively hospitable people, especially if this is not in their business interest (as regards business-like hospitality there is still much to be learnt). The locals like foreigners and if somebody comes to stay with them, they feel obliged to arrange some entertainment for them.
Hungarians enjoy excursions, watching a football match, eating and drinking and going to the baths. It's polite to praise the meal you've eaten and not polite to be loud in the baths, libraries or museums. Tips are usually given: 10-15% to the hairdresser, waiter or taxi driver, HUF 10-20 to the newsagent, and HUF 50-100 if served at the petrol station or to the porter, depending on the service.
Hungarians like being late but it's best to be careful because those who happen to be on time may take umbrage if you're not! Nevertheless, if you're not meeting up on the street but in a café or at home, it's OK to agree a rough time.
Unfortunately, there are many lunatics behind the wheel, so be careful if you drive and don't get into arguments.
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Food and Drink
Hungarians like eating a lot and well, and the country's cuisine is reputed to be heavy and spicy with heaps of meat and few fresh veg. Restaurant food, however, is getting closer to European standards, so don't worry about it being too hot or fatty. A typical meal has three courses: soup, a meat dish with potatoes or rice and a pickled vegetable, plus a dessert. Try fish soup (if you like freshwater fish) or cold cherry soup (great on a hot summer's day), pörkölt (slowly stewed meat - try game if they have it), or a cabbage dish. For dessert go for the Gundel pancake (stuffed with walnuts with chocolate sauce) or somlói galuska (sponge cake with chocolate sauce and cream).
There are good and reputable Hungarian red and white wines (look out for Bock or Gere). 1997 and 2000 are particularly good vintages. Unicum is a special bitters and pálinka, Hungarian fruit brandy, is also good.
Hungarians drink espresso coffee. For a less strong coffee ask for a cappuccino.
Weather
Hungary has a continental climate with considerable variations in temperature. Summers are almost Mediterranean with hottest temperatures around 35°C. The hottest month is July (average 24.8°C). Winters are cold and snowy, and the average daytime temperature in January is 0°C. Spring and autumn are pleasant: May and Sept/Oct are the best months for sightseeing. There are 1,853 hours of sunshine and 35 rainy days annually.www.weather.com
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History
The Celts settled on Gellért Hill on the Buda side several centuries before Christ. The Romans then occupied the area in the C1st A.D., expanding the empire's frontiers to the Danube. The Roman settlement of Aquincum grew into the main city of Pannonia province with 30,000 inhabitants. Its ruins are in Óbuda, while the remains of a Roman fort built to protect the river crossing are in central Pest next to Elizabeth (Erzsébet) Bridge.
The river formed a natural border between the flatland of Pest and the hills of Buda for the different peoples who lived here, such as the Avars (C6th-8th A.D.). Naturally, the importance of the crossing was crucial in the development of the settlements on both sides of the river.
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The Magyars
In 896 the Magyar tribes conquered the Carpathian Basin and the Danube was at the heart of their new homeland. The flat areas were populated first, including today's Pest city centre, which was then a large island. At the end of the C10th the leader of the Magyars realised the importance of converting to Christianity. On Christmas day 1000 he was crowned King Stephen with the blessing of the Pope and Hungary was founded. Bishop Gellért came to help Stephen convert the Magyars but for his pains he was put in a barrel by pagans and rolled down a hill, which now bears his name, to his death. Stephen, however, was canonised not long after he died.
In 1241 the Mongols invaded and Pest was destroyed. In response King Béla IV built his castle on top of a hill in Buda. During the Middle Ages two separate towns flourished: Buda with its splendid palace and bourgeoisie, and Pest, a bustling trading town. Later King Matthias (1458-90), Hungary's Renaissance king, set about modernising Pest's fortifications, building a semi-circular wall with gates along the course of today's Small Boulevard.
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Turkish occupation
In the first half of the C16th Pest and Buda fell into the hands of the Turks who swept into Hungary and the Christian cross was replaced by the crescent of Islam. Intermittent attempts to liberate the towns over the 150 years of Turkish occupation caused much destruction. The Turks did, however, exploit one of Budapest's most valuable natural resources, thermal water. Some of the pools built by them, such as the Király Baths, Rác Baths, and Rudas Baths, are still used today, and the Tomb of Gül Baba is another reminder of this bygone era.
Habsburg rule
In the C18th under Habsburg rule the towns made a slow recovery, and the building of the Buda Palace began. As elsewhere in Europe, 1848 was a year of revolution. On 15th March the poet and revolutionary leader Sándor Petôfi read his verse ”Rise up, Hungarians” to a crowd from the steps of the National Museum in Pest. The struggle for independence was finally put down in 1849, but gradually political change giving Hungarians a greater say in their own affairs took place, culminating in the Compromise of 1867. The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy came to an end after World War I.
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Towards a modern metropolis
Although there had long been a boat-bridge across the Danube, it was not until 1849 that the first permanent bridge was opened to traffic. On the initiative of the anglophile Count Széchenyi, who also founded the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Chain Bridge (Lánchíd) was built by the Scottish engineer Adam Clark, physically uniting Pest and Buda for the first time.
The Compromise of 1867 brought stability and prosperity, and in 1873 Buda and Pest were officially merged with a third town, Óbuda (Old Buda) to create the new metropolis of Budapest. The city expanded rapidly, major new thoroughfares such as the Great Boulevard and Andrássy Avenue were developed, and many large public works undertaken: new bridges, street lighting, the first underground railway in continental Europe, etc. A new Parliament building was constructed as was Heroes' Square (1896) to mark the one-thousandth anniversary of the Magyars settling here. By the turn of the century Budapest was a genuine rival to Vienna, and it had become the country's administrative, political, commercial and cultural centre.
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A turbulent century
At the end of 1944 Soviet troops laid siege to Budapest: almost no building in the city centre remained unscathed, and then the retreating Nazis blew up all the Danube bridges. Repairing the infrastructure was a major post-war task, and flats throughout the city were subdivided to cope with the housing shortage.
By 1956 life had regained a semblance of normality, although the country was about to recoil from the excesses of the imposed communist regime. Student demonstrations in Budapest on 23 October sparked fighting and the uprising spread across the country. The struggle was effectively crushed by Soviet tanks moving into the capital on 4 November. The scars of both these conflicts can still be seen today in bullet riddled walls in the backstreets.
In the following years transport made an impact on the city with the building of the metro in 1970, increasing traffic, pedestrian underpasses and new bridges. Living conditions were slow to improve but Budapest fared better than other places in the Soviet sphere of influence.
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Recent years
In May 1990 a freely elected government took power in Hungary. The achievements of the political changes of the past decade and the introduction of a market economy have helped to efface the dictatorship of the not so distant past. Communist sculptures that adorned Budapest in that era can still be seen in the Statue Park. In the city itself, the revitalised economy has led to a flurry of building and renovation, including the restoration of the Palace of Exhibitions, the Gresham Palace and the New York Café, the pedestrianisation of the whole of Váci Street and other areas, and the conversion of a disused factory into the Millenáris Park, combining a cultural and exhibition centre with fun for the kids.
The accession in May 2004 of Hungary along with nine other, mainly former socialist countries to the EU in a tangible way finally healed the division that existed in Europe since World War II. The newly expanded Union has given Budapest a new dimension as it now has the potential to be not only the capital of a country but the regional centre of Central Europe.
Budapest will no doubt adapt to its new role as it has to the passage of time that has given it its distinctive charm, which is there for you to discover.