VIDEO: Budapest City Park receives musical bench: make sure to visit it!

A musical “smartbench” donated by the Polish Institute in Budapest was inaugurated in the City Park on Thursday, the Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship.

Musical smartbench inaugurated in the City Park

The “smartbench”, playing Chopin and Liszt pieces, was inaugurated by Polish ambassador to Hungary, Sebastian Keciek, who said the institute was working to “build bridges to reinforce ties between the two countries”. He said he trusted that this cooperation would “further reinforce the thousand-year-old friendship between the two nations”.

Joanna Urbanska, head of the Polish Institute, said “this present is from our heart and I am certain its users will receive it with love.”

László Baán, the ministerial commissioner in charge of developments in the City Park, said the bench was “a symbol of true and deep friendship not only present in high culture but in everyday life, too”.

The solar powered bench offers a selection of Chopin and Liszt pieces played by pianist Gábor Farkas through a touch screen. Passers-by can also use it as a WiFi hot spot or charge their mobile phones. It also indicates levels of UV radiation, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and air pollution.

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Presidents mark Hungary-Poland Friendship Day

President Katalin Novák and her Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda held talks by phone on Thursday, marking the Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship, according to a statement by the Hungarian president’s office. The two presidents highlighted the importance of the centuries-long friendship between Hungarians and Poles, and made a commitment to doing everything to maintain and further strengthen those ties.

“It is a friendship that has stood the test of time and in which solidarity for each other has always played an important part,” the communications director of the presidential Sándor Palace said. The two presidents also said they were glad that their good personal ties could contribute to the friendship of the two nations.

Before the talks, Novák laid a wreath in Balatonboglar, near Lake Balaton, at a building in which Polish refugees had received schooling during the second world war. The ceremony was attended by the Polish ambassador and a delegation from Poland’s parliament.

Meanwhile, the dead of the Polish Prime Minister’s Office, Marek Kuchcinski, marked the day of Polish-Hungarian friendship in a Twitter post on Thursday, stating that despite the attacks against Polish-Hungarian friendship “we are still connected by a bridge built on centuries of support and solidarity”.

He noted that the day of Polish-Hungarian friendship was established by former President Lech Kaczynski.

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Source: MTI