Budapest [antikvár]

BUDAPESTThe geography books state with dry indifference: "Budapest is the capital of Hungary." But Budapest is more than that. It differs from every other capital in the world. A city in which nearly two million of the country's ten million inhabitantsone fifth of the country's populationlive, a city in which more than 50 per cent of the whole country's industry is concentrated, is in itself a separate little country. But it is not this alone that gives Budapest its specific character, this is not the only reason why Budapest is a concept, and the "people of Pest" are a special kind of phenomenon.Perhaps this city has become what it is today be cause the two kinds of tradition, two kinds of civilization and culture that flourished in the country's western, Transdanubian, and its eastern, Great Hungarian Plain regions in the course of the centuries, manifest themselves more intensively in the synthesis they have achieved here. Budapest lies in the centre of the country and has absorbed all that the East and the West have produced in Hungary and in Europethe very best and also that which is of doubtful valueand has remoulded and remelt-ed them to suit her own image in this metropolitan crucible. It is in Budapest that most wisecracks are bornand they are continually produced, in good times and bad: Hungarians at home and abroad swear that Budapest is the place where one can live best in the world. Culture and beauty, gaiety and vitality are condensed in this word: Budapest.You might say that Hungarians and particularly Budapesterssuch as the author of these linesare prejudiced in favour of their own city. Who could deny it? It is true. But there is no sense in arguing the point, for not only her natives love Budapest, and not Hungarian enthusiasts gave her the name by which she is known all over the world: "The Pearl of the Danube."The Pearl of the Danubethis is the name globe-trotting foreigners gave her, and I believe