This morning we bid viszontlátásra (thank you, Google Translate) to the M/S Treasures, the beautiful ship that’s been our home for the past week. This was my first trip with Tauck, and it was a wonderful experience. I’ll write a review of the ship and a comparison to Viking in a couple of days, once I’m home.
From the ship, our guide, Ádám, brought us to the ever-so-modest Hungarian Parliament building. Rather than writing about our visit – adjectives have yet to be invented that accurately describe the interior – I’ll turn this part of the post into a photo essay:
After the tour of Parliament, our next stop was Heroes Square and a walk through the city park.
The park is the intended home of the city’s major museums, and several have opened already, including a new, Japanese-influenced House of Music and the Ethnographic Museum, which looks like an enormous skateboard ramp.
For lunch, a few of us went to Százéves Étterem, the “100 Years Restaurant,” which actually opened in 1831 and is the oldest restaurant in the city. (Étterem, which means “restaurant,” is the one Hungarian word I’ve learned.) The atmosphere is, well, atmospheric, but the food is nothing special.
Budapest is a beautiful and exciting city reminiscent of Paris in many ways (other than prices, which are far lower). When people in the United States hear of Hungary, it’s usually because of some restrictive measure taken by Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán. Yet people here remain free (so far) to criticize the government – in fact, when I asked our guide, who moonlights as a stand-up comic, whether he discusses politics in his routine, he said that’s all he discusses and that he feels secure in doing so.
Budapest certainly doesn’t feel like a city under the thumb of a would-be dictator. While Orbán is an undeniable threat to democratic ideals, a few people cautioned us not to believe his anti-Western, anti-EU rhetoric and to focus instead on his actions (such as taking millions of dollars in development money from the EU). Particularly following Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, people seem convinced Orbán isn’t about to cozy up to Putin in any meaningful way.
I keep forgetting this is a travel blog, not a political report, but in this part of the world the two cannot be separated. I’ll leave you with a serene photo of St. Stephens Basilica, where we walked after enjoying a very good dinner at Aszu, a Hungarian restaurant near out hotel.
PuffinlessTravel 