In a characteristic move from my boss, I was asked on Tuesday to go to a conference that was starting Thursday. Part of me was annoyed because of course we already knew this conference was coming, and we had our plans in the Netherlands. Part of me was excited to visit just one more new country before my EU visa expired. 

It is a truly beautiful city center, split by the Danube River which is lined with handsome Hapsburg palaces. On my first night, I got there just in time to join a vendor dinner on the Buda side of the river. The second night I got more views from a rooftop event on the Pest bank, which is the downtown.

During the days of the conference, I saw the other side of Hungary’s history, very bleak, Soviet architecture that stretches across the outskirts in every direction. Since everyone tends to party late and sleep in, I had time to make a trip out of the way to see another site from that era, the “Memento Park” with a collection of statues from the Communist dictatorship, including the boots of Stalin where he was sawed off in 1956.

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I took some runs on other mornings to see as many sites as I could reach from my hotel. First was a city park with a castle, some stately museums and a main square (under renovation) plus a zoo, a public bath, and a hot air balloon ride.

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On my last day I ran through the downtown to see those riverside palaces by the light of day. Breathtaking! It looks a little like Prague but with nicer weather and recency bias, I’d have to say even more magical.

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After that long run I headed to those public baths. It was one of the top sites, with a network of soaking pools, saunas, steam rooms, massage jets and just a lovely setting. It isn’t the kind of thing I normally do but was a perfect way to end a week of stressful scheduling, long distance walking, and social battery draining, before heading to the airport.