A Touch of Imagination: An Intelligent Traveler’s Guide to Hungary

This book is mostly about one thing: Places in Hungary. Places in the sense of what they can tell us about Hungarian history, both natural and cultural. Places in the sense of how they can help us relocate the past not just in Hungary, but most importantly within ourselves.
This book is probably best described as a series of essays written in both frustration and exultation.
Frustration, at the guidebooks and popular sources that do not go deep enough into what makes Hungary one of the most fascinating places in Europe. Exultation at Hungary’s intermixture of both the dark and light hearted. It is a microcosm of the vicissitudes of European History. It has been built up, ran over, conquered and freed, torn apart and stitched together. It is constantly on the mend and tearing open old wounds. It is western, eastern and central European in its outlook. But most of all it is Hungarian. There is no place like it in Europe and I hope this book helps those who are interested understand it a little better. More than anything I hope it casts a fresh light on the Land of the Magyars. Please go there and see it for yourself. If you have been there once, go back again. It is worth a second look or in my case worth a lifetime.