I traveled today from Alushta to Budapest and have had a wonderful reunion with old friends I had not seen since 1995. Ivan is now advisor to the mayor of Budapest; Katalin is a practicing doctor; and their son, whom I last saw when he was very little, is now a very intelligent and promising young man. And….Budapest, a city of which I am very fond, has become much, much, much wealthier than I remember it.
Just as I was getting used to the special sounds of Russian and Ukrainian, I heard again the beautiful tones of Hungarian. (I tried to learn it years ago and made a little progress; I found it not as hard as Russian, but quite challenging, nonetheless.)
*Regarding the title, I am staying on the Buda side of Budapest, with — thanks to the great deals on Priceline — a grand view of the parliament from the front and of the citadel from the back.