Like all cities bisected by a river, Budapest sits astraddle, one foot in the East, the other in the West; one foot in the past, the other in the present; looking one way to life’s pleasures, the other to its struggles. And, like its name, Budapest also presents two aspects. Here on its quiet north-south course, the Danube forms a sharp boundary between east and west Europe, uniting the two even as it divides Buda from Pest.
Budapest, the city that was formed when these two towns decided to unite exactly 130 years ago, appears forever poised between its unifying role and its own dividedness. Like Central Europe in general, it is neither east nor west, not quite Europe or Asia but some place in between. Joining the two worlds, it tries to stay equidistant from each, not surrendering to one while resisting the other but nonetheless no stranger to frequent invasions over the centuries.