Missing The Boat

 When I “missed the boat” on the attending the trip to Cinqua Terra Italy, and the chance to stay on a schooner with some members of our trip, I felt like there was no way I would find a vacation as enticing. Thankfully my office mates and I are close enough that my supervisor, Balazs, said I could join him on a trip to Budapest for the same week that our group was going abroad. While I was really excited to get to go somewhere, initially I thought Budapest might be rough place to visit: In terms of expectations and realities, my trip to Budapest in many many ways parallels my experience as an intern for a Hungarian parliamentarian.

Firstly if someone told you were going to work for a Hungarian MEP what would your response be? My response began with...so like Hungary isn't communist..? Yes, that does make me sound ignorant, and I was ignorant of Hungary's place in Europe until I started my internship. By the end of September, a month into my internship, my feelings had made a complete 180. I had been “educated” by Rita, Kati and Ballazs about all of the wonderful traditions of Hungary.

Hungary isn't backward! All of its inhabitants are cosmopolitan intellectuals! The world should be more like Hungary!!

We wonder how populations buy into propaganda when reality is so blatantly staring one in the face, but working for my office is a good example of what can happen if you only have one source of information regarding another place and people. I think that Balazs, Rita and Kati, the three assistants in my office, really wanted me to dispel my previously held notions about what kind of place Hungary is...in the process of doing so however, they painted Hungary as nation with few issues, and that is certainly far from the case.

Hungarians have a reputation amongst European's as being cynical worriers, the downers at the party that is Europe. This was a perception I gleaned from people in the cafeteria line or elevator at parliament. The conversation would normally go something like “who are you working for?” “Hungary.” “Oh... is that depressing?” And I had no idea where this sentiment was coming from because the Hungarians I was around seemed to be pretty upbeat. I asked Balazs about these kinds of interactions and he explained it had to do with a concept called “Big Hungary.” Apparently the Hungarian picture my supervisors had been painting for me was not of the current situation, but of Big Hungary...which has not existed for 100 years.

Before World War One Hungary was as large as modern day France and easily as influential. In the 1890s they were experiencing a golden age or what they refer to as the Hungarian Happy Times of Peace. Unfortunately for the Hungarians, they had linked with the Hapsburg family in the lead up to World War One which, from a victory point of view, put them on the wrong side of the conflict. In the treaty of Versailles, they lost two thirds of their land mass to nationalist groups. We talked in the office about this and it was as if my office mates had personally lost their homes in the last decade. I could not understand why the sentiment of loss and defeat was so strong...until I arrived in Budapest.

I landed in Budapest in the evening and I was not able to see much of the city. However once Balazs and I went out to get dinner, I was floored by the beauty of the city. Over the course of my young life, and especially on this trip, I have been lucky to see some incredible architecture in Paris, London, Oxford and Florence; none of these cities compares to Budapest. Grandeur is the most applicable word to describe it, the colossal parliament building and St. Steven's basilica rise up from once bank of the Danube to parallel the equally massive and ornate citadel and palace. This view was taken in from one of the three twentieth century stone bridges spanning the river at one its largest points in Europe. Standing on that bridge my understanding or Hungary and more specifically of my office began to make more sense.

I saw why my office sought to speak of Hungary in terms of its former greatness. The area where I was staying was a newly gentrified area that had been a Roma slum. Remnants of this slum were still on the periphery of our neighborhood so I went to see it. Run down buildings that looked like they had never been repaired after WWII along one side of the street faced soviet style apartment buildings on the other.

Life in Hungary since WWI has been characterized by loss and occupation. Having seen Budapest it is logical that when my office talks about the country they refer to the The New York Cafe, the Turkish Baths and the first underground line 1 rather than the current political and socioeconomic situation in Hungary. Cliff hanger intended (......!)