Hungarian Republic
Population 10.135.000, whereof 1.863.000 in Budapest
Capital city Budapest
Initials H
Area 93.000 sq kms
Bordering countries Austria, Slovakia, Ukrain, Romania, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia
Time: CET / GMT +1
Electricity 230 Volts
Video system PAL/SECAM
International Access Code 00
International Country Code +36, Budapest +361,
Mobile phone codes: 0620- (Pannon), 0630- (Westel)
Language Hungarian (magyar)
Currency Forint,
Climate: continental, hot summers, cold winters
Budapest is divided into two parts by the Danube: Buda (the hilly side) and Pest (the lively city center).

About Budapest

Situated on both banks of the Danube, Budapest unites the colorful hills of Buda and the wide, businesslike boulevards of Pest. Though it was the site of a Roman outpost during the First Century, the city was not officially created until 1873, when the towns of Óbuda, Pest, and Buda were joined. Since then, Budapest has been the cultural, political, intellectual, and commercial heart of Hungary; for the 20% of the nation's population who live in the capital, anywhere else is simply the country ("vidék").

Budapest has suffered many ravages in the course of its long history. It was totally destroyed by the Mongols in 1241, occupied by the Turks in 1541, and nearly destroyed again by Soviet troops in 1945. But this bustling industrial and cultural center survived as the capital of the People's Republic of Hungary after the war--and then, as the 1980s drew to a close, it became one of the Eastern Bloc's few thriving bastions of capitalism. Today, judging by the city's flourishing cafés and restaurants, markets and bars, the stagnation enforced by the Communists seems a thing of the very distant past.

Much of the charm of a visit to Budapest lies in unexpected glimpses into shadowy courtyards and in long vistas down sunlit cobbled streets. Although some 30,000 buildings were destroyed during World War II and in 1956, the past lingers on in the often crumbling architectural details of the antique structures that remain.

The city consists of districts ("kerület", abbrev. "ker.") arranged in a spiral, and numbered in Roman numbers starting at the center (so, I. and II. are the most central districts on the Buda side, V., VI., VII. and VIII the most central districts on the Pest side.) Hungarian postal codes consist of always 4 digits. The first digit for Budapest is a 1, the second and third are the district number (e.g. 1077 would be in the VII. district).

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