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Hi from Budapest!
As I walk over the great Danube, freezing in my improvised multi-layered outfit (heading to sunnier places again!), I’m reflecting on how my perception of Budapest is formed by its size. From how I see its boulevards, its architecture… The entire city is so monumental that when I notice a Moon floating in one courtyard, I don’t even blink. It’s the most appropriate size for a Christmas bauble in Budapest. XL.
When it was announced that the area around the neglected Rákosrendező train station would be developed into a luxury district financed by the United Arab Emirates, the public quickly nicknamed the project “mini Dubai“.
But Eagle Hills, the investor company that plans to inject over 12 billion euros into this new world-class green neighborhood of the Hungarian capital, announced it will run under a new name – Grand Budapest.
One should never underestimate branding that comes with big words, at least those that are as big as ‘grand’ or ‘great’.
Just look at Great Britain, a country whose colonial efforts brought fruits such as the deciphering code of the Rosetta Stone, one of the key exhibits of the British Museum.
Egypt wants the looted monument back. If Great Britain ever gathers enough inner greatness to respond positively to the request, Egypt would place the stela just across the Great Pyramids of Giza, in a newly opened cultural facility – the Grand Egyptian Museum. Maybe they could house it in the museum’s Grand Atrium, or on its Grand Stairs (all official names of the exhibition spaces), together with other grand exhibits.
You see where this is going. Words matter. The return of Rosetta Stone might make Egypt great again. The MEGA Egypt, still just a shadow of the civilization that once ruled this space, could, at least for a tiny moment, leave an impression that owning a narrative of a country’s story is possible without entering a war with those who want to claim a piece of it.
Even with hundreds of thousands of Egyptian artifacts missing from the country, there are still amazing things to see at the greatest (how else?) archeological museum in the world. Catch a glimpse of its highlights in Pipeaway’s YouTube Short!
Have the grandest week,
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
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