Budapest

The city of Budapest and the nation of Hungary will be at the top of my European experiences for its modern history, amusingly cynical people, hodgepodge of architectural programs, and the beautiful Danube. 

Hungary's unique heritage and language arises from its origins from East Asia as 7 nomadic tribes moved to Europe. Their expressive language relates more to Japanese and Korean in grammatical structure than their European neighbors. 

Buda and Pest are actually two cities, both with distinct characteristics and history. The flat Pest side of the Danube has no buildings older than 200 years. A 19th century creation of "Hungarian's favorite Hapsburg" Archbishop Josef overlooked the construction of the well organized city planning of Pest. A huge range of architectural styles can be found from Neo-classical to Romanesque to Gothic, but these are merely facades to infused a superficial history into Budapest. 

Parliament- Modeled off of Great Britain's 

Political turmoil plagues Hungary's past with Christian kings, Ottoman empire, Turkish influences, the Hapsburg, Nazis, Soviets, and an essentially one party democracy extends until today. Sarcastic humor can be found among Hungarians when discussing politics as the issues of Post-communism still harbor strong sentiments and stances.  

I love the eclectic mix of architecture scattered around Budapest. Gothic resides next to medieval next to modernist Communism, to Romanesque. 

Matthias Church

The medieval church crowns the Buda hills next to the Danube. The Islamic psychedelic patterns mixed with the Catholic frescoes provided a unique interior for the beautifully ornate church. 

Ruin Bar.

With the fall of Soviet Union, the government sold the shoddy Communist built apartment blocks to Budapest residents at exceedingly low prices. With the purchase of an apartment, the buyer absorbed the responsibility of maintaining and the safety of these decrepit buildings. "Ruin bars" scattered around the city are bars built from the deteriorating blocks of buildings. 

The communists built these bleak concrete modernist facade over the original face of the building.

River Danube at Dusk. Unforgettably beautiful