Budapest, mon amour.

The only interaction that I had ever had with any Hungarian culture was my high school chemistry teacher, Mrs. Hart, who was ancient, blind and had been a real beauty whne she was young. She was refined and active and a generally nice person. Even so, that wasn't much to leave me with much of a preconceived notion about what Budapest would be like. I had in my mind a sort of industrial city with a not a lot of heart... I was going to Budapest to learn more than to enjoy.

Boy was I wrong. Budapest, it seems, is on the brink of a Renaissance, and behind the layer of grime is a city worthy of being a great European capital. In a way Budapest is everything that Vienna was not. It is beautiful and charming, a place that feels good to be in. There are parks and boulevards and a lot of reconstruction. Before being hit hard by WWII and Soviet rule, Budapest was a city worthy of visiting in the giant Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now, as a new member of the EU (but not yet on the Euro) Budapest is being rebuilt and refurbished to bring back the luster that was once present. While there is still a lot of work to do, I think that if kept on the right track, Budapest might just be the new place to be.