On a Visit to the Magyar Land

For the occasion of Eid al-Adha, November 27 was an official UN holiday. I took the opportunity to find the cheapest easyjet flight to eastern Europe available, and found myself in Budapest for the long weekend! I've wanted to visit the city since passing down an opportunity to study there for grad school (well, also since watching Scarlett Johansson long to return to her homeland in An American Rhapsody). I felt as though I had stepped back in time when I hopped on the ancient subway train in the industrial outskirts of the city for the ride into the downtown core, with grey skies in the background and graffitti littering the foreground. My top 3 favourite things about Budapest:

1) The food - being able to afford a meal of anything at a restaurant was of course a nice treat from Geneva, but I really did love the goulash and sausages and chimney cakes and sour cream sauces and really anything available to be eaten from the lovely Vorosmarty ter Christmas market. Of course a steaming glass of Gluhwein is always nice on a cold winter day!

2) The history - a visit to the House of Terror museum provided a revealing look at the party headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis, succeeded by the communist regime after WWII, but it was the discussion we had with the owner of our hostel that proved to be the most interesting glimpse into everyday Hungarian life during the last 60 years. Hearing about how her grandfather was forced to turn his home over to the state, and then pay rent to live in only half of it, how rural farmers were relocated to manipulate the social dynamic of the cities, and how the concept of a mortgage was unknown to her before she studied it quite recently in university made the harshness of communist life that much more real to me.

Pictured: Our hostel courtyard. If you use a magnifying glass you'll notice bullet holes on the left from the 1956 revolution.

3) The baths of course! My new favourite pastime. Except instead of Switzerland's scenic mountains I now had the beautiful architecture of the Szchenyi baths to enjoy while resting my feet after a day of walking through the city. The metro line that we took to get here dates back to 1896 - ancient.

These things combined gave Budapest a very distinct charm. It was beautiful to leisurely walk through the central part of the city lining the Danube River, to enjoy having our quaint little hostel all to ourselves, and to experience a culture very different from that of North America and western Europe. After 4 days in Hungary, however, I am embarrassed to admit that I don't know more than a single word of Magyar: tojas = eggs (we were really craving an omlette when we arrived).

Speaking of breakfast, we returned home just in time to enjoy pastries and coffee and listen to the man himself, Achim Steiner (UNEP Executive Director), give an address to mark the 10th anniversary of the Geneva Environment Network!