Hungary is a flat agricultural country for the most part, with the population of the entire country being only one million more than that of New York City. We drove north across Hungary from the Serbian border in the south. It was many hours of flat and not particularly interesting country. We had an interesting encounter with a semi-truck. One of its tires blew out when we were driving right next to it. The noise was astounding.
Over the previous months we had occasional encountered Hungarians and asked them where we should go in Hungary. Usually people have a lot to say about there home country, but in the case of Hungary people just told us to go to Budapest. They never had much else to suggest.
Budapest is in reality two different cities on opposite sides of the river respectively named Buda and Pest. They were combined into one city over two hundred years ago. The city is extravagant and beautiful. Considering its long history of being the center of major kingdoms and empires, it is not surprising the richness of its architecture.
We stayed outside of the city in a small village with a married couple. This is where I learned to properly pronounce my mother's family name - Nagy. We were feeling the pressure to get back to Spain, so were were only able to visit the city for a couple days. Fortunately the city is really not that big, and it is easy to walk through most of it in a single day.
The Danube is a major river in Europe originating in the German Black Forest and passing through four national capitals. After visiting the city we took a drive up the Danube towards the Slovakian border, visiting some small castles and villages along the way. Outside of the city the scenery becomes rural very quickly, and the banks of the Danube are lush and beautiful.
