Princess Diana visited Budapest 34 years ago – but could not buy a souvenir?
Princess Diana visited Hungary twice in the 1990s. She first visited the Hungarian capital with her husband, Charles, and then returned to Budapest alone in 1992. During both of her visits, Princess Diana was greeted with huge fanfare and love from Hungarians.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hungary was the first former socialist country that the royal couple travelled to. During their joint visit in May 1990, Charles and Diana spent several days in the Hungarian capital. Diana must have had a wonderful time in the country, as she returned to visit alone two years later, Éva magazin writes.
The first visit to Budapest and Bugac
On their first trip in 1990, the party was received at the airport by Árpád Göncz, the interim President at the time. In the evening, Diana and Charles attended a dinner in the Parliament.
During this trip, they spent a total of four days in Budapest, where they visited the Great Market Hall, the Pető Institute, the Film Factory, and the Fisherman’s Bastion, and saw a performance at Vígszínház. Charles also gave a speech at the University of Economics, today’s Corvinus University.
When Princess Diana and Prince Charles arrived at the Heroes’ Square, where they placed a wreath at a monument in honour of Hungarian historical figures, around 1.5 thousand people gathered to greet them.
During their visit, the couple even tried public transport: they travelled on Budapest’s most beautiful tram line, tram 2, which runs alongside the Pest riverbank.
In addition to Budapest, they also visited Bugac and the nearby national park, a place that Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had also been to during their visit to Hungary. There, they were invited to watch a horse show.
Princess Diana’s second visit to Budapest
Two years later, in 1992, Princess Diana returned to the Hungarian capital alone, though she spent only two days in the country. She accompanied the British Ballet Company as the main patron of the organisation. During this visit, she also visited the magnificent Opera House, where she attended the English National Ballet Gala Performance.
A royal menu and a missed souvenir – here is how the press saw Princess Diana
Hungarian newspapers, of course, did not miss the opportunity to report on the sensational visits, which aroused great interest. The most fascinating and entertaining article excerpts were collected by Blikk.
A journalist from Magyar Nemzet wrote about the couple’s shopping spree at the Great Market Hall like this:
“Tomatoes, oranges, and cauliflowers were lined up in military order on the stands, some made a pattern of radishes in the couple’s honour. Hungarian housewives suddenly became royalists: they snatched the right hand of Prince Charles from each other’s hands, using all their knowledge of English to prove who kept which relic at home – two letters from Queen Elizabeth, the heir to the throne’s childhood photographs… Meanwhile, Lady Di clutched the bouquets of flowers with a half-hearted smile – a vendor also surprised them with garlic and carrots – gracefully smoothing her manicured hands into the butcher’s fists sticking out from here and there.”
Népszabadság wrote that Prince Charles asked, in English, one of the vendors some questions who answered in German, “but they clearly understood each other perfectly”.
The newspaper Mai Nap detailed this interlude: “The princess gazed at a beautiful embroidered egg for a long time, but as she did not have any money, she was forced to give up the souvenir.” Although “the English protocol official who accompanied her hastily pulled out a crisp one thousand forint note from his pocket, he couldn’t get it to Diana in the huge crowd”.
During the visit to Hungary, the local gastronomy could not be left untried either, Joy magazine highlights. Diana and Charles were offered pálinka at Bugac, which the heir to the throne gladly tasted. “Although Lady Diana, who is obviously used to weaker drinks, politely declined the offer, Prince Charles sipped deliciously from the world-famous whistling peach from Kecskemét,” wrote the Hungarian press.
The menu of the Parliamentary dinner was also printed in the newspaper the next day: the chefs of the famous Gundel restaurant prepared a mixed appetizer menu of the most delicious Hungarian foods for the couple. The menu consisted of Újházy chicken soup, veal stuffed with foie gras and strawberry dumplings, as well as coffee and tea, champagne, and different wines from the vineyards of the country.
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