Im travelling to budapest in 2 weeks and was searching for documentaries about hungary or budapest online but dont see to find any..
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
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While a wiki search won't give you much detail, it will at least present an over-view of the county's history and cultural background, and give you some idea of what topics to search for in more detail. Travel agency links are fine for showing pictures of major sites of interest to you, but I'm skeptical of guided tours after seeing where and how they tend to guide you from one "tourist trap" set of restaurants and souvenir stands to the next, and not really give you a realistic impression of the country.
As a starter, Buda and Pest were separate cities on opposite sides of the Danube until the mid-to-late 1800s, when several impressive bridges were constructed to unify them into one city. They're still referred to as "Buda-Pest" by the locals, rather than "Budapest". Hungarian - or "Magyar" (roughly "MAH-jar") as they call the language and people - always accents the first syllable of a word, and the city name is usually given equal accents to both halves by the locals. Pest (pronounced "pesht", since a lone "s" is pronounced as "sh" in the Magyar tongue, "sz" is pronounced as "s", and "cs" is pronounced as "ch") is the ancient city on the flat side, and includes the incredible Parliament building. The Chain Bridge nearby crosses the scenic Danube to the Buda side, below the large castle district atop the hill with its museums and other historical sites.
In other parts of the country, sites worth visiting include the imposing historic fortress at Eger, which overlooks the northern-most minaret in Europe, a remnant of the Turkish occupation in the distant past which devastated and heavily depopulated the country. The cathedral at Esztergom was once the largest in the world, now only the 3rd or 4th largest, but is still an amazing sight.
Hungary regained its independence from Austria (which took it from the Turks) after WWI, but was forced to give up over 60% of the country to its neighbors in the process, so modern Hungary is about the size of Pennsylvania in the US. When I visited in 2002, the western half of the country had kept pace with the rest of Europe to some degree, but the eastern end felt like stepping back in time to the early half of the 20th Century, with a few horse-drawn wagons still on the streets and a few of the older outlying farm sheds and barns using thatched roofs. No idea how much that has changed over the last decade and a half.
As a starter, Buda and Pest were separate cities on opposite sides of the Danube until the mid-to-late 1800s, when several impressive bridges were constructed to unify them into one city. They're still referred to as "Buda-Pest" by the locals, rather than "Budapest". Hungarian - or "Magyar" (roughly "MAH-jar") as they call the language and people - always accents the first syllable of a word, and the city name is usually given equal accents to both halves by the locals. Pest (pronounced "pesht", since a lone "s" is pronounced as "sh" in the Magyar tongue, "sz" is pronounced as "s", and "cs" is pronounced as "ch") is the ancient city on the flat side, and includes the incredible Parliament building. The Chain Bridge nearby crosses the scenic Danube to the Buda side, below the large castle district atop the hill with its museums and other historical sites.
In other parts of the country, sites worth visiting include the imposing historic fortress at Eger, which overlooks the northern-most minaret in Europe, a remnant of the Turkish occupation in the distant past which devastated and heavily depopulated the country. The cathedral at Esztergom was once the largest in the world, now only the 3rd or 4th largest, but is still an amazing sight.
Hungary regained its independence from Austria (which took it from the Turks) after WWI, but was forced to give up over 60% of the country to its neighbors in the process, so modern Hungary is about the size of Pennsylvania in the US. When I visited in 2002, the western half of the country had kept pace with the rest of Europe to some degree, but the eastern end felt like stepping back in time to the early half of the 20th Century, with a few horse-drawn wagons still on the streets and a few of the older outlying farm sheds and barns using thatched roofs. No idea how much that has changed over the last decade and a half.
Oh don't get me wrong. I know enough about hungarian history.. I'm a huge fan of Stephen.
It's for my girlfriend who its hard to get her interested in history specially reading about it lol.
It's for my girlfriend who its hard to get her interested in history specially reading about it lol.
@Herbert West
This sounds like a job for Herbert. A very valuable resource, I find. Very knowledgeable in this area.