Hungary

Hungary has a population of 10 million and, from the end of WWII until 1991, was under Communist regime. It is now one of the ten countries that joined the European Union in May 2004.

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary and has a population of 1.9 million. Situated on the famous Danube, the city was born in 1873 when Buda, on the hilly Western bank, and Pest, on the flat Eastern bank, united. It is a center of the country's theatrical and music life, as well as a town of caves and medicinal waters. Both Hungary and Budapest are remembered for the October 23, 1956 Revolution against the Communist regime.

Important sites in Budapest include:

• The Castle district along the romantic and pedestrian Tarnok street from Disz Square to the Matthias church. We will see the Royal Palace, the Holy Trinity Statue, the Old City Hall, the Fishermen's Bastion (former fish market with a panoramic view of the Danube), the Mary Magdalene Tower and the casemates, a system of caves 
• Margaret Island, located in the middle of the river Danube, that connects Buda and Pest through several bridges, is a green park with thermal spas and swimming pools
• On the Pest side, we will visit the downtown, the Vörösmarty Square and Vaci street (the main pedestrian shopping street), the Pest Concert Hall, where Liszt, Wagner, Brahms and Strauss appeared, and the Ferenciek square.
• North of this area is the Office Quarter with St. Stephen's Basilica (the largest church in the city), the Liberty square with a Russian Memorial, the Parliament Building (293 yards long and 315 feet high dome) and Kossuth square
• Around Andrassy Avenue, we visit Budapest's most elegant and historic neighborhood that includes the State Opera House, the Millennium Underground, and Heroes Square, a grand square with the city park behind it

Note: Itinerary may change without notice. Adaptations are made from semester to semester.