When you were away for a year, let’s say backpacking in Asia, it can be really shocking to get back to Budapest again. Compared to the mind-boggling exotica of China or Burma, Budapest seems pretty dull, grey and provincial. But once a couple of days pass you begin to notice the charm of the city.
You can get, for example, a big piece of hurka (sausage with liver or blood) on every corner in one of Budapest’s butcher shops, buy beautiful fruit in the Vásárcsarnok, and party through the wee hours of the morning with a nagyfröccs (white wine spritzer) on Corvintető, nowadays invaded by French by the way, a bar on the roof of a communist-era department store.
Of course, when getting home drunk, you still have to be careful with the taxi drivers, they tend to overcharge foreigners and never have change, but the night buses aren’t much of a better alternative either. They have increased their prices dramatically in the last year and the controllers are more aggressive than I remember.
When you are looking for something more sophisticated then drinking, you can spend a whole day soaking in one of the beautiful Turkish baths of the city, where the building and the amazing tile work are half the fun, but first you have to get there. The whole city is under construction because of the building of the metro and traffic is a mess. Or just stroll along Nagykörút, where time stopped in 1975, to observe the crowd of Barbie-doll women and their “mobster” boyfriends.
And finally, and most importantly you can dine well in one of the great restaurants of Budapest. Have you heard that a grass roots gastro-revolution is currently going on in town? Quality is steadily improving, and you can have great dinners for half the price as in Barcelona. Budapest will never be as colorful as Indonesia, but it wouldn’t be fair to expect that.
Orsi
