The last three days were intense. First getting over the train ride & “running errands” (buying tickets, grocery shopping etc.), the second spent with Sharon’s cousin and yesterday exploring (at length) the Art Nouvea district in Pest. David & Linda moved here from Malawi where they had lived for 26 years. He is Regional Director (Eastern Europe & the Middle East) for the missionary activities of the church they belong to and chose Budapest as their base.
They took us to visit their friend, Elizabeth who was born in Hungary (she is now in her 70s), married an American so left in the early 1960s but returned to her homeland where she now lives. She has been through so much in the post-war Stalinist years. Notwithstanding the hardships their parents’ endured under communism, it is just not an issue for the next generation. The concept of “they will not be forgotten” seems to be fine in theory but not very robust in practice.
Returning to the theme of comparison, I suppose Prague inevitably pops up on the radar screen, being so close to Budapest. However, whereas Prague is the more “beautiful” of the two, I think Budapest might be considered more “grand”. In fact, UNESCO’s vote for the city that can claim to be Europe’s greatest Art Nouveau architectural masterpiece is actually Riga in Latvia. Who would have thought it?
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