BUDAPEST 2

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I like European complimentary breakfasts. The best I ever had was at a small hotel in the medievel town of Voltera in Tuscany. The juice was fresh (not from concentrate), the meat procurred locally I'm sure, the bread and croissants of perfect consistency and the coffee was brewed to perfection. It raised the breakfast bar and even though most continental breakfasts do not come close to such exceptional Italian standards they still normally do the job.
And 'do the job' it did at the Hotel Pest. It was certainly a lot better than the fare offered in the Hotel Kafka in Prague north of Hungary's boarder and without such pleasing nutrition it would have taken a pretty while to really start the day. The hangover imbued from the previous nights drinking was pretty brutal but by noon I found ourself on the banks of the Danube marvelling at both it's speed and how engourged it was. It's what can happen at this time of the year apparently, as snow melts in the alps feeding this brown mass that eventually reaches fruition at the mouth of the Black Sea.

Taking it slowly we wander along the Danube before crossing over it by way of Budapest's renowned Chain bridge and look for somewhere to grab a coffee on the western shores of Buda. The weather's not been great and it's beginning to look like rain and after half an hour of fruitless searching we're forced to cross back over into Pest to continue our hunt for caffeine. After heading south down the tourist-orientated Vacy Utca we stop off at the Central Market, which sort of has to be done although it's not at all conducive to our culinary needs, before finding the Soul cafe on the supposedly hip Raday street. I have Goulash Soup which tastes and looks nothing like any goulash I've seen. It's a subtle distinction in vernacular but it seems I am having Goulash soup. It's more of a broth really, a stew even with a healthy combination of meat and root vegetables which is more than you'll get in the thicker traditional Goulash. It does the job and after two coffees (it's raining hard now) we head to the National Museum.

Budapest doesn't have much in the way of specific sights. This isn't a problem if like me you are more than happy to wander the streets pausing at anything that takes ones fancy, especially in a city like this that seems to have combined it's modern architecute with the buildings that survived the war. It's bars too have adapted well offering decor on a par woith anything you will find in London, Berlin, Barcelona or any other such city that knows how to kit out their hostleries just right. Szoda, Katapult Kavezo in and around Wesseleny U. and the Jewich Central Synagogue are well worth a vist as is Mano Kavezo on the ever popular Liszt Ferenc (as is Menza). If you're feeling really daring why not search out the conspicuously located 'Juplung' jsut off Kiraly Utca? The place used to be a bus depot apparently and I've never been anyhwere like it.

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Photos

The Danube
Trees along the Danube

Budapest Bars
Szoda