Monja's Adventures: BudaPEST

When I told my Rhede family, I was coming to Budapest, I was asked, "Are you staying in Buda or Pest?" I had no idea there were such places and only knew I was in the Ruin Pubs area. But I've learned a great deal about Budapest during my AirBnB stay in Pest. And don't call it Pest, it's pronounced Pescht. Hungary and in particular, Budapest, has a very interesting and tumultuous history. There are traces of inhabitation dating back as far as the second millennium BC. The Romans had a settlement in Obuda until the 5th century. Hungarian tribes arrived at the end of the ninth century and the Hungarian Kingdom was established in 1000. In between this period and now it was destroyed by Mongolian tribes, conquered and ruled by the Ottoman Empire, reconqured and destroyed during the war with the Turks, rebuilt during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, destroyed again during WWII and then neglected under communist rule. During much of this time, Buda was the seat of the government, while Pest was the economic and cultural hub. The city today was formed through the joining of Buda, Pest and Old Buda, back in 1873. Most of Pest's architecture is from the revitalization era of 1896 during the millennium celebrations, which has been beautifully restored during the very recent past.

I toured the 2nd largest parliament building in the world. It's dome is 96 meters high and it has 96 steps leading up into the chambers to celebrate the year 896 when the Magyer people arrived.

I was also fortunate to see the Crown Jewels still on display here, although Hungary no longer has a monarchy (no pictures allowed).

St. Stephan's Basilica also has a dome 96 meters high and through long standing agreement, no other building can be higher. These two impressive buildings dominate the Pest skyline.

Walking Pest you see a lot of buildings still needing repair. There were bullet holes, damage from WWII bombings and Communist neglect still evident. Both my guide and my host told me Pest is the least wealthy side. It is also much larger than Buda and from my short visit, I thought much livelier and more vibrant. They've recently completed the replacement of all the statutory that the communist regime destroyed and remodeling is seen all over.