Budapest, Hungary

Two years ago, I was up early some weekend morning and there was nothing on TV. So I ended up watching some random travel shows about eastern Europe. For the most part, I was half awake and nothing was appealing to me, then I saw the part about Budapest. Right then, I knew I wanted to go there someday.

Well, it's day 3 of that 'someday.' I arrived on Wednesday from London, grabbed my camera and started taking photos. Other than eating, sleeping and exercising I haven't stopped taking photos. The city itself has a pretty interesting history in only the last hundred years so it has a lot of diversity and stories of persevearance. The city was first part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until the empire was broken up following WWI and the country was introduced. This remainded in effect until WWII when the Nazis eventually took over Budapest while destroying the city in the process. The outcome of WWII was that the country and city were eventually taken over by a minority of oppressive communists that reigned until the end of Soviet Union. In the 1950s, not even 20 years after the city was destroyed in WWII, the city was destroyed once again to stamp out an uprising from the people trying to create a democracy. Given all this history in the last 100 years, the city is even more impressive. It has a definite old European city feel, but also has an edge to it, that I can only remember experiencing in Melbourne.

Here are the photographic highlights so far. Enjoy.