Hungary – Living, Breathing Culture and Traditions
The country of Hungary, located in the heart of Europe, is incredibly rich in culture. As one of the oldest countries in Europe, it holds an incredible amount of history. Huge, spectacular cities, combined with a bold cultural tradition and its long history, combine to create a beautiful place to visit. Going online makes downloading a passport application now incredibly easy, and when this is done, you can be on your way to Hungary.
A passport is required to travel to Hungary, and you can get yours online. It literally only requires a couple of clicks to get your passport on its way, along with tons of other services, from getting US passport extra pages to getting it shipped overnight.
Budapest, Hungary’s capital and its largest city, is the combination of two previously separate ones, Buda and Pest. These two halves were connected by the Chain Bridge which spans the glittering Danube River. The Fisherman’s Bastion is a castle-esque building that displays minarets and and turrets that look like they were taken straight out of a princess story. The Royal Buda Palace is a towering building originally built in the 14th century and holds all sorts of testaments to the history of Hungary. St. Stephen’s Basilica and the Great Synagogue are two religiously relevant buildings that can be seen from anywhere in Budapest. The Great Synagogue, after the synagogue in New York, is the second largest in the world.
Seeing the castles in Hungary is a must, as they have carefully preserved and taken care of. More than 1,500 different fortresses, palaces, castles, and manors can be found in this country, and I guarantee you will have a hard time deciding which to visit and which is your favorite. So much history surrounds these giant buildings, and visiting them for yourself is a great way to access this knowledge. The Eszterhazy family, established aristocrats, build an unbelievably huge mansion in the 18th century which has been compared to France’s own Versailles.
Nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites can be found in Hungary. Each of these sites holds a special recognition for standing as a testament to the culture and environment of Hungary, each in it’s own unique way. One of these places is the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst. Housing some of the most intriguing geological formations, as well as fossils of our earliest human ancestors, these caves are home to arrays of cave paintings and religious monuments. Hortobagy National Park is a destination for animal lovers. Wild pigs, horses, and sheep saunter around the countryside and 342 species of birds populate the skies.