Budapest

Hilly Buda and flat Pest are divided by the River Danube.  Maps make the cities seem stitched together by the ferry routes which crisscross the river.  Near the famous “Chain” Bridge — second oldest permanent span on the entire 1770 mile length of the Danube — the banks are lined by the stretch limousines of cruising vessels….long, low luxury river craft.

Budapest appears to have one foot in this century and one midway in the last.  Its Metro Line 1, which has a stop just outside the door of the apartment we rented, is the European continent’s oldest underground transportation system and has UNESCO designation and protection now.  Its trains are short….just two cars; its stops are frequent….just a few blocks between each; and its platforms are small.

Budapest’s antique but still operating central station for inter-city rail service may not have had a coat of paint in a hundred years.  It looks like a prop from one of Hollywood’s old western movie sets.

You can find on Budapest’s swankiest shopping boulevard a more than life-size poster of Steve McQueen.  He’s promoting watches for the near-by TAG Heuer boutique.  McQueen’s acting career peaked in the 1960’s; he’s been dead since 1980!

One can transact business either in the currency of the past, the Hungarian Forint, or with the Euro, the currency of the European Union which, like a lot of Europeans, Hungarians do not fully embrace.

Budapest has more litter and noise than Vienna.  It’s less pretty, polite and polished.  But its heart may beat with more palpable energy.  At least it did on the late summer weekend we arrived and found the streets closed and the plazas clogged with food trucks and picnic tables, street concerts, and hoards of strolling tourists and locals.

JER