My fascination with Hungary started with my first visit there. Despite its obvious metamorphosis from a former Soviet satellite state to a modernizing European country, in which soot and grime covered buildings with delapidated stucco work and windows, more common in the rural areas, can still be found intersperesed with stunning Romanesque, Baroque, Rococco, Art Deco, and more modern buildings in the major cities.

Hungary's first appeal to me was in its linguistic background. Hungarian is part of the Finno-Ugric family of languages, in which Finnish and Hungarian are loosely affiliated through seven common words and a few grammatical similarities. The theory is that a tribe migrating from the Mongolian Steppes through the Carpathian Basin split, some staying in what is now modern day Hungary, the rest migrating as far away as Scandanavia and modern day Finland. This theory is not universally accepted, but nevertheless, Hungarian has a lovely, sing-song quality to it, in which my ear can pick out both European and Asian influences. Its alphabet has 56 different characters, and has a strong nasal component to its pronunciation. One note: Magyar is pronounced mahd-jiar.

I was first truly introduced to Hungary's language and culture in Budapest, one of the two major seats of the Austro-Hungarian empire, beloved town of Princess Sissy of the Hapsburgs, and a city to rival any European capital, bar none. After my first night time cruise on the Danube, which splits the city into its Buda and Pest sides, I was convinced (and remain so to this day) that the buildings, bridges, and city at large is far more beautiful than those seen during a cruise on the Seine in Paris - as a French citizen, this could be considered treason.

Hero's Square, which is the millenial commemoration of the arrival of the seven tribes of the Magyar built in 1896, is an imposing space at the end of Andrássy Útcá. From Hero's Square into the "old" part of Pest, Andrássy is lined with imposing buildings including the Opera House, the Art Deco decorated Liszt Ferenc Zeneakadémia (Music Academy), and the Oktogon intersection, leading into the most revitalized part of town, centered around the pedestrianized shopping street of Vaci Útca.

Anyone wondering what a European capital should look like need look no further than Budapest.