The crown called Budapest

Naveed Ahmad travels to Budapest, Hungary

Britian and EU nations show zero tolerance for unauthorised visitors (read passersby) at their airports. You need a valid visa to have a lay-over. Those not-so-privileged have to take an alternate route if the destination is outside the European Union. Since Hungary has yet to enter into Schengen agreement, we had to travel via Istanbul.

Even for those of us who could get the seats confirmed well in time, the Turkish Airline could not email the e-tickets for reasons best known to them. We missed the first day of the conference but the organisers managed to get seats booked on an UAE airline. One wonders what code-sharing means for these two cash-starved airlines. For us, it meant tension, frustration and mental torture, to say the least.

Taking a connecting flight, we finally landed in Budapest after a 20-hour flight. Located in Eastern Europe, Hungary is a diverse country and the undisputed treasure is Budapest. The city officially came into being in 1873 when the cities of Buda (the hilly side of the river; old money, palaces and so on), Pest (the flat side of the river, where most of the fun happens) and Obuda (Old Buda; impressive Roman ruins and inexplicably ugly communist ones) were finally united. (The name Pest-Buda was toyed with, but mercifully failed to make the cut).

Soon afterwards, the city started riding a wave of financial, artistic and creative wealth through the decades on either side of 1900. That golden age must have felt very distant during the darkest years of World War II and the 1956 revolution but, somehow, a sense of it has survived in its grand boulevards and gloriously unrestrained architecture.

With neither the stitched-up feel of Vienna nor the swamped-by-tourists feel of Prague, Budapest has hung on to its soul and stands as one of Europe's loveliest survivours.

Curving gently into town between the hills of Buda and the plain of Pest and gliding beneath seven bridges, the Danube hits its peak in Budapest. To admire it at dusk from the Castle District or the top of Gellert Hill is perfection. An Italian friend told me to keep my chin up when not gazing at the Danube. 

So much of the extravagance of Budapest's buildings -- cherubs, lions' heads, ceramic tile work -- is literally 'above our heads' in this art nouveau, neoclassical, eclectic, baroque, neogothic, fin-de-siecle heaven.

The Gerbeaud on Vorosmarty Square in the heart of the V district is one of the grand old cafes of Budapest, a gilded flicker from the time when Budapest was coffeehouse central. It's touristy, but surely one of the nicest spots for coffee and a slice of dobos torta, which represents the most sinful use of chocolate and toffee.

The recent resurrection of one of the other grand old cafes, the New York, is a vexed issue. The new New York, in its former manifestation as one of the most important places in the development of Hungarian literature, has emerged from its hibernation as little more than a sparkling shrine; this would be almost forgivable if the cakes were any better. But then again, it's still the New York. It is incidentally now a part of a glittering new Italian-owned hotel called the New York Palace. It's a five-star establishment and is worth entering for the spa alone.

Another jewel in the crown called Budapest is its parliament building, which looms over the Danube like a giant neo-gothic ice-cream cake. Its interior is at least as extraordinary as the exterior and is also home to St Stephen's Crown, Hungary's national symbol. Don't stray over any chains or painted lines while you're outside waiting for your tour to begin, as it makes the guards excitable.

The Danube river had so much along its banks that I could spend weeks if not months to know all about the history and ethnicity preserved there. I could see from the ferry deck a row of empty shoes on the embankment close to the parliament. The tourist guide explained on inquiry that the empty shoes now stand as a memorial of the final stages of World War II when the Hungarian Nazis ran riot and executed large numbers of Jews along the Danube.

One of Budapest's museums, The House of Terror, at 60 Andrassy utca, is a strikingly designed museum set in the building that served as the headquarters of Hungary's Nazis and the communist secret police.

The Statue Park, an outdoor museum on the outskirts of the city, houses a selection of the socialist realist statues from the communist era, as well as souvenirs along the lines of Stalin-shaped candles.

Unlike London, Budapest has parked all its classical metros in some far-off resting area. But the frequent foreign tourist still feels haunted by 'the state-employed thugs' i.e. the ticket inspectors. Those red-armbanded ticket inspectors used to enjoy ambushing foreigners.

The Szabadsag (Liberty) Bridge over the Danube, into Buda is not far away, where the Royal Palaces and museums have all been lovingly reconstructed out of the rubble of 1945.

It is interesting as well as scary for someone like me, who had frequently covered earthquake zones in Pakistan, that Budapest sits on a tectonic plate fault line in Eastern Europe. While earthquakes seem inevitable, one advantage of the location is the proliferation of mineral water spas in the city.

Sitting on top of a hill and towering over the Danube, the Buda Castle is stunning. Construction started under the guidance of King Bela IV in the 14th century and was expanded upon by later rulers.

Medieval times, however, saw the castle burned, looted, demolished, bombed with cannon balls and ransacked. Each time, new rulers rebuilt it. For me, visiting Buda Castle was like stepping back into the heights of the renaissance. The castle is adorned with red marble stairways, gothic facades, bastions and epic statutes overlooking the Danube. The fountains around the castle simply can't be described in words.

Budapest's castle district offers a unique lesson to Pakistani tourism ministry for heritage conservation. Situated in the Buda section of Budapest, this district carries smaller but similar version of the country's most impressive castles. You can see them spread all over Hungary by just visiting this castle park.

With plenty of free space in the capital and the state-declared terror scares, it is a good idea to replicate such miniaturised version of the forts located across Pakistan.

Just by visiting the capital and seeing the quality of service sector, I felt that communism never had deep roots in this central eastern European nation, which has embraced the EU with great resolve. Hungarians have always been making their mark the world over.

May it be Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American publisher best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes, or the newly-elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the inheritors of Austro-Hungarian empire continue to leave their imprints on the world but in a different manner. 

The influence stretches to the realm of energy exploration through its petroleum giant -- MOL -- which is responsible for bringing Pakistan and Hungary together.

One wonders if the Pakistan-Hungary cooperation will move from the hydro-carbon realm to the preservation of heritage. Islamabad may learn a lot from Budapest if it so desires.