Travel Diary: Budapest, Hungary

Out of all the places I went, Budapest was by far my favorite. Hungary has such a rich culture and I met the most amazing people there. While I was there, I visited many popular tourist attractions such as Heroes Square, the parliment and the famous castle district. I also got to learn a lot about Hungarian history during my trip. From 1949 to 1989 Hungary was under communist rule.

During my visit I learned a lot about what it was like to live under communism. In school, I was learning about government systems, including communism. A lot of people automatically think that communism is bad, but there were some good things about it too. For Example, in communist Hungary there was very little unemployment. This was because having a job was compulsory. It was really interesting to get insider access to people’s experiences with living in a communist society. This valuable resource helped me apply what I was learning on my trip to what I was learning in school, and vice versa. Being in Budapest helped me to understand how different types of government affect people’s lives. Having the opportunity to do my schoolwork in Budapest was almost like going to school in a museum, instead of sitting at a desk all day!

-Olivia