"W E L C O M E to B U D A P E S T " a Budapest Travel Page by cobrioc

Budapest is unique, it has its own distinctive character and attractions.

History left its traces everywhere in the city. The river flows gracefully and the two city parts, Buda and Pest welcome it with a warm embrace.

Huge fireworks display to take place in celebration of Hungary's St. Stephen.The Hungarians blew away everything I saw. All the bridges were streaming sparks into the river, and the display last for most of the evening.

There are plenty of places in the city that are excellent for leisurely walks: Buda Hills, the historic Castle District, the idylic Margaret Island.
Budapest offers you affordable luxury. Fine quisine, delicious wines, lively cultural life, historic spas, traditional and modern wellness treatments.

July and August tend to be the warmest months in Budapest, although mercury levels can rise into the 90s during May and June. On particularly hot days, the air feels heavy in the centre of town and pollution levels are high. Asthma sufferers should therefore be wary and carry inhalers with them at all times. The weather stays warm during September and early October but gets progressively colder after that. Winters in Budapest are long, hard and gloomy, with snow falls in December and January as Siberian cold fronts drift in from the east.

Budapest’s stirring and often tragic history left marks everywhere in the city:

*ruins from the Roman era,
*Turkish baths form the 150-year Ottoman rule,
*examples of extraordinary architecture,
*bullet-scarred buildings from the 1956 uprising,
*grandiose statues and monuments from the communist era,
* magnificent bridges spanning the Danube.

These influences made Budapest a unique city.

Hungary is well worth a visit, Hungary is cheaper than western European countries, however prices are rising. Budget at least $50 a day. Older Hungarians may speak German, younger Hungarians generally speak English well.

Budapest Parliament is the third largest parliament in the world. Just next to it, on a small piece of greenery was a small statue of a man sitting down and holding a hat. His forlorn expression was made even more poignant in the overcast morning. Droplets of water hung from his nose, making him look even more miserable. He was Attila Jozsef, a famous Hungarian poet. And his story of one of tragedy.

Born in 1905 to a soap factory worker father and a peasant mother, Attila was poor from the start. Dad absconded when he was just three-years-old, leaving his mother to provide for himself and his two elder sisters. Times were very hard for the family. His mother couldn’t afford to keep her son so Attila was fostered.

Ill-treated by his new guardians, the boy managed to escape, returning to his mother, but he died soon after. In his adulthood, he tried to support himself by selling his own poetry and at the same time started displaying early signs of schizophrenia. Never marrying, but often falling in love with women treating him, his condition worsened. On the 3 December 1927, aged just 32, he laid himself down across a railway track where a passing train killed him.