Hungary is a country with a complex sense of identity - not generally regarding itself as Balkan or Slavic, but Western. The country’s assortment of cultures can be traced back through its history. A history that has seen it settled by the Magyars (a Finno-Ugric tribe who arrived via Russia in the ninth century) and ruled by the Arpad Dynasty, devastated by a Mongol invasion in the 13th century, ruled by the Turks in the 16th and 17th centuries and later allied to Austria.
 
Being landlocked, this mosaic of cultures and lineage can also be explained by the country’s shared borders with the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia. Yet despite being landlocked, Hungary contains some beautiful stretches of water (such as Lake Balaton) and pulsates with hot, medicinal springs.

Hungary has also managed to retain its unique language and customs. Immense pride in their homeland may lead Hungarians to persuade the tourist in Budapest to spend some time also exploring Hungary’s thousands of acres of vineyards and orchards, plus 11 national parks and hundreds of protected areas. Not to mention its historic urban centers like Eger, Szentender, Estergom and Sopron.

Nevertheless, Budapest is a fantastic capital city in its own right, situated on a beautiful stretch of the Danube. The city is made up of two parts - Buda, the older, more graceful and cobbled part, and Pest, the commercial center. The capital is a lively city that has long been a haven for writers, artists and musicians. And Hungary has a lot of them, with rich traditions in folk and classical music, the birthplace of Liszt and Bartók. Budapest is also filled with the strains of much more modern music, which spills out of nightclubs, trendy bars and discos.

Geography
Hungary is situated in Central Europe, sharing borders to the north with the Slovak Republic, to the northeast with Ukraine, to the east with Romania, to the south with Croatia and Serbia and to the west with Austria and Slovenia. There are several ranges of hills, chiefly in the north and west. The Great Plain (Nagyalföld) stretches east from the Danube to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the CIS, to the mountains of Transylvania in Romania, and south to the Fruska Gora range in Croatia. Lake Balaton is the largest unbroken stretch of inland water in Central Europe.