Budapest is something else! I'm not sure what we expected, but probably not that. I guess it's most like Paris or New York: huge, congested, and full of things to see spread out all over the place; grimy, gritty, noisy, and absolutely lovely. The whole city seems to be under construction, and they appear to be doing everything all at the same time: adding a subway line, repairing tram tracks, laying pipe and electric wires, gutting and rehabbing whole buildings, cleaning facades...you name it. And they make almost no provisions for people or traffic while they're working. When we walked the broad boulevards south and west of our hotel we were essentially walking through a big ol' construction site. One morning a bunch of guys were tearing up the sidewalk, without bothering to close it. Pedestrians were being forced to walk past the jackhammer spraying bits of concrete everywhere. Part of that is just the European sense of personal responsibility (Don't want concrete chips in your eye? Then don't stare at the jackhammer bit, buddy); but the Hungarians seem to take it to an extreme. There are also lots of vacant storefronts in really prime locations, interspersed with expensive, stylish clothing and antique stores. But if they ever finish all this work, its going to be one of the greatest cities in the world.
We seemed to see more Hungarians there than we did Czechs in Prague or Slovaks in Bratislava. That may be because the sites are more spread out in Budapest, so there's less of a tourist "ghetto." It's also--especially in comparison with Bratislava--probably a reflection of the relative size of the cities: over 5 million for Budapest (one in ever five Hungarians lives in Budapest) versus a little over 400,000 for Bratislava. You gotta put 5 million Hungarians somewhere, I guess. But Prague is a big town, and all we saw there was foreigners (lots of Russians).
After a week of trying to convince Rita to take in one of the many touristy "greatest hits" concerts on offer in every city we've visited, she finally busted out in Budapest. We spent about a gazillion bucks (roughly 200 gazillion forints) to see some Hungarian folk dancin' one night (real good) and a bunch of Ave Mariae, gloriae, and panes angelici in St. Stephen's Basilica the next (okay).
I had the impression it was easier to get vegetables in Budapest than in some european countries, though you pay a little extra for them. The main ones are the Hungarian triad of tomatoes, peppers (in all colors and varieties), and cucumbers. But there's also cabbage (though less of it than in Germany or Czechia or Slovakia), potatoes (of course), onions, mushrooms, giant fava beans, radishes (both white and enourmous red ones), all kinds or root vegetables, and salads of various types:
• tomatoes with grated cabbage
• tomatoes with diced red onion
• cucumbers in a sweet-sour marinade, napped with yoghurt.
We seemed to see more Hungarians there than we did Czechs in Prague or Slovaks in Bratislava. That may be because the sites are more spread out in Budapest, so there's less of a tourist "ghetto." It's also--especially in comparison with Bratislava--probably a reflection of the relative size of the cities: over 5 million for Budapest (one in ever five Hungarians lives in Budapest) versus a little over 400,000 for Bratislava. You gotta put 5 million Hungarians somewhere, I guess. But Prague is a big town, and all we saw there was foreigners (lots of Russians).
After a week of trying to convince Rita to take in one of the many touristy "greatest hits" concerts on offer in every city we've visited, she finally busted out in Budapest. We spent about a gazillion bucks (roughly 200 gazillion forints) to see some Hungarian folk dancin' one night (real good) and a bunch of Ave Mariae, gloriae, and panes angelici in St. Stephen's Basilica the next (okay).
I had the impression it was easier to get vegetables in Budapest than in some european countries, though you pay a little extra for them. The main ones are the Hungarian triad of tomatoes, peppers (in all colors and varieties), and cucumbers. But there's also cabbage (though less of it than in Germany or Czechia or Slovakia), potatoes (of course), onions, mushrooms, giant fava beans, radishes (both white and enourmous red ones), all kinds or root vegetables, and salads of various types:
• tomatoes with grated cabbage
• tomatoes with diced red onion
• cucumbers in a sweet-sour marinade, napped with yoghurt.
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