Hungary officially in English the Republic of Hungary literally, is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian (also known as Magyar), which forms part of the Finno-Ugric family. It is one of the four official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin.

Following a Celtic (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (9 BC - c. 4th century) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late Ninth Century by the Magyar chieftain Árpád, whose great grandson István ascended to the throne with a crown sent from Rome in 1000. The Kingdom of Hungary existed with minor interruptions for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of the Western world. It was succeeded by a Communist era (1947-1989) during which Hungary gained widespread international attention regarding the Revolution of 1956 and the seminal move of opening its border with Austria in 1989, thus accelerating the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The present form of government is parliamentary republic (since 1989). Today, Hungary is a high-income economy, and a regional leader regarding certain economic markers. Its current goal is to become a developed country by IMF standards (its HDI world ranking is 36th and rising).

Hungary was one of the 15 most popular tourist destinations in the world in the past decade with a capital regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world. The country is home to the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grassland in Central Europe (Hortobágy).

Budapest

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2008, Budapest had 1,702,297 inhabitants with an official agglomeration of 2,451,418, down from a mid-1980s peak of 2.1 million. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with the unification on 17 November 1873, of right-bank (west) Buda and Óbuda (Old Buda) together with Pest on the left (east) bank.

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its World Heritage Sites include the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, and the Millennium Underground Railway, the first on the European continent. Budapest attracts over 20 million visitors a year. The city ranks 52nd on MasterCard's 'World's Top 75 Financial Centers' list and 74th on Mercer Consulting's 'World's Top 100 Most Livable Cities' list. The headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will be in Budapest.

Culture, tourism

• Official tourist website of Budapest: http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en
• Hungarian tourist attractions: http://www.barangolasok.hu/
• Hungarian National Museum: http://www.hnm.hu/en/fooldal/mainPage.php
• Museum of Fine Arts: http://www.szepmuveszeti.hu/
• Museum of Ethnography: http://www.neprajz.hu/
• Lake Balaton: http://www.balaton.hu/?changelang=en, Tourist information: http://www.tourinform.hu/main.php?folderID=879

Government, history, sciences

• About Hungary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarorsz%c3%a1g
• About Pest county: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pest_(county)
• House of Parliament: http://www.parlament.hu/angol/angol.htm
• Hungarian Academy of Science: http://www.mta.hu/index.php?id=406&type=0

Maps

• Map of Budapest: http://www.fsz.bme.hu/hungary/budapest/cgi-bin/search_tkp
• Map of Budapest and its surroundings: http://www.euroave.com/maps/00mapx.php?xcity=budapest 

Gödöllő

Gödöllő is situated in Pest county, on the bank of Rákos-stream, in the valley of the Gödöllő hills, 30 kms from Budapest to the north-east. It may be reached either on the M3 highway or on the main road No. 3, or even by train running on the Budapest-Miskolc route. Gödöllő has forests, good air and nice view. Its attractiveness is due to its natural endowments and good geographical location in the ring of settlements around the capital. There are not any large-scale factories which pollute the air in or around the city. The air is cleaner than the national average. The public green space per capita is 44,6 square meters.Elizabeth-park (1898) and the Prince Josef woods (1902) are nature protection areas, several scarce woods and bushes are grown there. The number of inhabitants on 1^st January 2006 was 31.261. Nowadays there is an increasing tendency of moving from the capital to Gödöllő. Almost all the inhabitants are Hungarians.

Most of the historical sights of Gödöllő are related to the name of Antal Grassalkovich (1649-1771) and originated from his era. He has had his baroque castle built here (1744-1751), which is significant both from architectural and historical aspects. In addition to the castle, the church in Máriabesnyő is also important, which is also a nice place worth to visit.

Culture, tourism

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6d%C3%B6ll%C5%91
• Royal Castle of Gödöllő: http://www.kiralyikastely.hu/index.php?l=english
• City of Gödöllő: http://www.gau.hu/godollo/e_alpha.html
• City Museum: http://www.museum.hu/index_en.php

Map

Map of Gödöllő and its surroundings:http://maps.euroave.com/index_map.php?gocountry=hungary&gocity=godollo