We spent three nights at Budapest, exploring the city by hop-on hop-off bus. Besides seeing the various capital city buildings, neighborhoods, parks and monuments, we got a good feel for the city's history. In short, they had a hard 70 years from 1918 to1989. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up after WW1 and Hungary lost most of its territory and Hungarian-speaking population. The economy collapsed from hyperinflation in the 20's, the Nazis took over even before WW2, the Russians installed a communist client government after WW2, and Russia crushed a rebellion in 1955. When they finally broke free in 1989, what once must have been beautiful city, was rundown after decades of neglect. Even now most of the buildings are dark with soot and have patches of crumbled masonry. They have a long way to go, but they are hard at work restoring old government and private buildings. There are lots of cafes, restaurants and pedestrian streets. A lively street scene, and a pleasant city to wander in. It may take a while, but we think Budapest will be a great city again.
We have plenty of time, so decided to visit Prague before heading back to western Europe, and we took a train here on Thursday. A comfortable and restful trip. The first part was along the Danube, and backtracked past the places we cycled through a few days ago. It was fun to see them from a different perspective. We crossed Slovakia (small towns, lots of wheat, corn and other fields) and southern Czech Republic (more farms but then low mountains and forests). Prague has a recent history not too different from Budapest's, but it is a different scene here: a similarly beautiful city, but much better maintained and much cleaner. And the word is out: there are many many tourists from all over the world here, especially around the old town square a couple of blocks from our hotel. It's a fun scene, but also a bit much.
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