Reflections on Budapest - A Chamber Trip Story

Contributed by Beth Van Der Burgt 

Marty and I had previously visited Budapest in November 2006. It quickly became one of my favorite cities around the world. It has a real beauty and appeal about it, especially when viewed at night. Now almost 20 years later when we returned to this city, it still has that appeal with me. Moreover, it is definitely my favorite city in the world. However, I did notice some major changes to the city.

When we first visited, the city tour guide seemed very happy and mentioned many times that Hungary achieved its freedom  around 1988. I thought that was great and noteworthy. Yet, I didn’t realize the entire meaning of it. Today in 2025, you can see the specific results of this freedom as the city is definitely bustling. You can also see that both St. Mathais church and St. Stephen’s Basilica have been given much care and restoration to their buildings. They are both much brighter and have been cleaned or are in the process of being cleaned and renewed. There are now huge crowds upon visiting, and you need a ticket to enter. Back in 2006, we just wondered into each building. While these churches were beautiful. They were dark with not much lighting.

The entire city is busy! I began to wonder why that is the case. On one of our recent tours, the guide took us to Heroes square, and there we found statues of American Presidents H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. This piqued my curiosity because the guide mentioned that Ronald Reagan had never visited Hungary. However, the Hungarians were indebted to him. Ultimately, this led me to look up President Reagan’s speech about the Berlin Wall.

President Reagan gave his famous speech on June 12, 1987 to the people of West Berlin. These are the famous words that I remembered: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Berlin wall did come down but not until 1989.

When I read the entire speech there was much more to digest. Additionally, it describes what I had actually witnessed: “Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.”
​
You can definitely now witness the prosperity that Hungary is experiencing. It is very apparent as you walk through the city. There are many people there and many more restaurants and business than what I witnessed before. The Hungarians are still very friendly and happy. The food, beer, and wine are delicious, and they welcome visitors! Therefore, Budapest will remain my city! I think we can learn something in America from  these countries that freedom is not something to take for granted. With it comes prosperity and happiness as President Reagan described. While our country is so much younger than the Eastern European countries once occupied by the Soviets, we have enjoyed freedom for a much longer time period. Ultimately, we must not take it for granted! Yet we also should focus on that and also be happy that we have our freedom. It is something that every American should be able to agree upon.