Budapest vs. Vienna
It’s a mystery to me how foreign people can actually like Budapest… especially those that have also been to Vienna. The two cities are not even in the same league. Surely, Budapest has beautiful architecture but all the buildings are dirty and in very bad shape. Most of them didn’t even get a proper painting for 15 years. The walls of the buildings are full of graffiti, the streets and pavements are full of trash and junkies are all around the city, especially around subways. When I show a visitor around in Budapest I usually feel ashamed about my nationality mostly because of this. Budapest is a capital of a dying nation and that’s exactly how it looks like. Vienna has more or less the same architecture as Budapest but the buildings there are all in good shape (newly painted in bright colours) and you can walk around the city without bumping into beggars and homeless people at every corner or junkies urinating at public building walls. Vienna has many beautiful parks where you can spend hours by just relaxing and looking at the little wonders of nature. In Budapest you can do the same thing only by looking at empty bottles, cardboard boxes and used condoms right at the bench you sit down (in case you find one that isn’t broken). Truly I felt very sad after coming back home from my latest trip from Vienna because the two days I spent there were kind of magical thanks to all the beauty that city has to offer.
Filed under: travel
I have not visited either city yet but a friend has recommended me Budapest to visit as a genuine gem. I’m not too put off by your words, though they are disheartening to hear that much of the city has gone into disrepair. I find London similar, although not as torn apart sense but there are many parts that are no-go areas for tourists, and so much money is in London. Vienna must get a lot of revenue from tourism, as its such a romantic loved city… do you think Budapest will become the same as Vienna in future? or will the buildings just collapse and the city continue to fall apart?
Still I’m eager to visit both sometime in the near future :)
No, I’m sad to say this but I don’t think this will change anytime soon… maybe in a hundred years after a few generations passed. And this isn’t just about how much money you put into reconstructing and painting buildings and cleaning up the streets. It’s about the people living there and NOT caring about their living environment a slight bit. This is all about mentality and I can hardly see this ever changing… in fact it’s getting worse and worse.
But of course, as a Russian friend of mine stated to me once, if you come here for a weekend as a tourist you tend not to notice the negative things but mostly the nice tourist attractions because, to be fair, Budapest has those too. That being said I would probably pick Vienna anytime over Budapest when it comes to spend a few days to chill out.