My time as a Budapest ambassador got off to a great start on November 19, when I met all the other ambassadors at the Christmas Market on Vorosmarty ter. They're a great bunch, and so multilingual they rather put me to shame. We drank mulled wine and talked about the various paths which had led us to this city, our adopted home. A friend asked me not long after, rather facetiously I thought, if I wore a red sash and a row of medals for these occasions in my official capacity as ambassador. How silly. We did get a badge though, which brings out the green in my eyes, and accessorises my blazers and sports coats pretty well.

I was wearing it on the 26th, when we were invited to the Martin Munkácsi exhibition at the Ludwig Museum. In case you haven't heard of him, Munkácsi - no relation to the illustrious painter - was a photographer whose work was considered highly influential in the 1920s and 30s. He was a pioneer in what might be termed the golden age of photography, when the world was not such a small place as it sometimes seems to be now. His work and that of others like him, showed people in Idaho, Manchester or Budapest for that matter, what a Bedouin tribesman looked like, or the action on a beach in Copacabana. Not particularly interested in politics, Munkácsi instead appears to have been a bon vivant, more concerned with travelling the world, photographing everyone and everything from movie stars (Fred Astaire, Katherine Hepburn) to sporting action, to animals in highly contrived poses. The English language tour guide was passionate about her subject and very informative.

And this week, a 'Fairy Tale Tour' of Budapest. Well, for what more could one ask?

by Scott Alexander Young