Rating: Funny 1. Left Munich at P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at , but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets.
Jonathan Harker's Diary So where are you going, asks Mr. Western Hungary or Eastern Hungary? I'd recommend Western Hungary, it's more developed and has nicer scenery. And you must see Budapest, of course. It's one of Europe's most beautiful cities. Actually I'm planning to go East, I reply. And I don't want to spend much time in Budapest.
I want to see the countryside. He seems a bit disappointed. I don't even tell him that I'm planning to go to Romania - sensing this might disappoint him even more. Horvath and I share a compartment on the daily night train from Munich to Budapest. He's an elderly Hungarian emigrant who has returned to live in the country of his birth after the former communist regime's downfall in Things are improving, he says.
But there's also a lot of discontent because prices are rising faster than incomes. He wishes me good luck. When I step out of Budapest's Keleti train station, I notice two things. Budapest is beautiful indeed.
Despite some scars, it has retained the look and feel of the 19th century. Hungary is a small nation with a population of only ten million, and the capital is home to about one fifth of the country's inhabitants. But I don't really have much time for sightseeing in Budapest.
