Budapest and Bratislava

I've just recently returned to Prague from a trip through Budapest and Bratislava, both of which are beautiful cities, although the former is significantly larger both physically and socioculturally than the latter. Statistics themselves suffice to prove the first point -- look them up if you care to -- but certainly the second requires explanation. Budapest is the capital city of Hungary, a nation of people that speak one of the most common non-Indo-European language in Europe (the other being Turkish). Slovak, however, spoken in Bratislava, is both a far less common language and is far more similar to other languages spoken throughout Europe. Furthermore, the Hungarians seem to make little to no effort to cater to Indo-European language speakers. What in Bratislava is displayed in Slovak, German, French, and English, is often exclisively in Hungarian in Budapest. It reminds me of a once-prominent and now waning attitude towards foreigners and immigrants in America: Welcome to America...now learn English! Budapest, though, is slightly less hostile than that -- it just swallows you whole, and you disappear into the abyss -- and, oddly, you feel almost welcome. But in Bratislava, even though it's much easier to understand, it feels like a much smaller mouth is nipping at your heels. Very interesting.