But with remarkably little enthusiasm. Hungarians will remind you that the fiercest military rising against Moscow during the entire Soviet imperium was carried out in 1956 by Hungary. Budapest is one of the world s most visually dramatic capitals. Now home to some two million ethnically diverse citizens, the city is divided in two by the majestic Danube, flowing its muddy way only occasionally blue southwards. From the hilly side of the city, Buda, one has a most remarkable panoramic view of the other side of the Danube, Pest, double in size and completely flat.
History is everywhere.
Buda in the fifteenth century was one of the glories of the Western world. In succeeding centuries it underwent brutal sieges, first by Turks, then Austrians, then Nazi Germans. At the end of World War II, in January 1945, Hitler s army held out in Budapest for a month the 31st siege in the city s history. Street graffiti artists have been at work on much of the wall space, and Budapest citizens clad these days more often than not in jeans and leisure garb stroll along, cell phones clutched to their ears. On fair days the city s cafes are filled, in a style much like that of Paris or Rome.