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Hungary
Let's explore one of the world's most fascinating countries — packed with surprises, stories, and pen pal potential.
The Basics
3 Things That Will Blow Your Mind
Genuinely. You'll want to tell someone immediately.
The Rubik's Cube was invented in Budapest as a teaching tool
Ernő Rubik invented his famous cube in 1974 to help his architecture students understand how 3D objects move in space. He had it sitting on his desk for a month before he realised it was actually an unsolvable-looking puzzle that nobody could put down. About 450 million Rubik's Cubes have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling puzzle toy in history.
Budapest is actually two cities that joined together
Buda and Pest were two completely separate cities sitting on opposite banks of the Danube river until they merged into one in 1873. Buda is the hilly, historic side with the castle on the cliff. Pest is the flat, busy, modern side where most people live and work. The Chain Bridge connecting them was considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1849.
Hungarian is almost entirely unlike any other language in Europe
Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, which means its closest living relatives are Finnish and Estonian and it is completely unrelated to German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, or any of the languages spoken in the countries immediately around it. Linguists estimate it is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn because almost nothing carries over.
Famous For
Thermal Baths
Budapest sits above more than 100 natural hot springs and the city has been using them for bathing since Roman times. The famous Széchenyi baths look like a grand yellow palace but inside there are enormous outdoor thermal pools where people play chess on floating boards in the warm water. Going to the baths is genuinely part of everyday life for Hungarians.
The Rubik's Cube
The world's most popular puzzle was invented in Budapest and Hungary is quietly very proud of this. The cube appears on Hungarian stamps, in museums, and in the national story of a small country that gave the world one of its most maddening and beloved objects.
Paprika
Hungarian paprika is considered some of the finest in the world and goes into nearly every traditional dish. Goulash, the country's most famous stew, is built around it. There are multiple grades and varieties and Hungarian cooks have strong opinions about all of them.
The Danube
The Danube river runs directly through the heart of Budapest, dividing Buda from Pest, and the view along its banks at night with the illuminated Parliament building and castle is considered one of the most beautiful city river views in Europe.
Did You Know?
The ballpoint pen was also invented by a Hungarian. László Bíró noticed that newspaper ink dried much faster than fountain pen ink and spent years developing a pen that could use thicker ink without clogging or leaking. His surname became the everyday word for a ballpoint pen in many countries and you have almost certainly called a pen a biro without knowing it was a Hungarian person's name.
Pen Pal Connection
A child in Hungary might write to you about swimming in a thermal bath that has been warm and busy for hundreds of years, a Rubik's Cube they have been working on and whether they have solved it or given up, a bowl of goulash their grandmother made according to a recipe that has not been written down anywhere, the strange experience of speaking a language that sounds like nothing else in any of the countries around them, or the view of the lit-up Parliament building reflected in the Danube at night.