Susan and I were in Budapest for 5 days prior to our Danube River cruise to explore the history and culinary delights of this 18th century outpost of the Hapsburg Empire that traces its origins to the 4th century BC. Enduring Nazi occupation during WWII followed by Soviet occupation which lasted until 1989, Hungary continues to weather political headwinds and struggles maintaing a representative democracy.
Because of the complex history in the region, we had a guide to take us to important cultural and architectural sites in the city, providing context and explanation to our questions. This was quite informative and provided background to understand what we were seeing and how it fit into Hungarian culture and history.
Most of our travels have a focus on regional cuisine as we feel that food is one of the most intimate forms of cultural assimilation and we took every opportunity to eat traditional Hungarian dishes and drink their wines. We also enjoyed the music of a string quartet, an organ recital and a choral performance in addition to a jazz night out. We took guided tours of Parliament, Matthias Church, the Dohany Street Synagogue, the Hungarian State Opera and other cultural attractions. There is so much to see and do in Budapest that 5 days is not nearly enough. Interesting, historically significant, culturally different and beautiful in so many ways, Budapest should be on everyone’s list as a place to visit in Eastern Europe.
All images were taken with Fuji X-T50 with Fuji XF 16-55mm f2.8 R LM WR II lens or Fuji XF 27mm f2.8 lens in JPEG format, processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC 14.4
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