autumn in budapest - day 2

our second day in budapest was a hardcore tourist one. equipped with two book guides, three maps and blessed with fantastic weather we started from visiting the buda old town. having climbed our way up the hill (the funiculare is under conservation works), we visited a small market, bought a cherry-peppers necklace there and stopped in a stylish empire-style ruszwurm cukraszdak for an exquisite pie and cafe (and beer). in total awe, i kept shooting almost every wall and entrace door (some of which will soon appear on the blog) of the beautiful old town as well as the reflections of st. matthias church in the hilton hotel's windows. the old town looked almost abadoned, as you would expect crazy crowds in such a pretty area. but instead there were only some moderate groups of german octogenarians and a few american students - charms of the low season.

for dinner we went down the castle hill to a pancake bar and then crossed the duna river along the szechenyi lanchid (chain bridge) to the pest side. pest - from the river banks to the monumental architecture, original cafes and pretty avenues - indeed resembles paris. obviously it's less glamorous and artsy but also not so expensive and perhaps slightly more open to foreigners who won't even bother twisting their tongues on the local language. actually, i've only once had the courage to say 'koszonom' instead of 'thanks' and yet wasn't understood, so it really helps that most people in shops or cafes know some english.

in the afternoon, after a dinner in a very nice local low-key bar in the jewish district and two stops in pubs, we went to see what the protests in front of the parliament look like. there actually was a crowd of people with small hungarian flags wrapped around their arms, singing what could have been the national anthem and placing candles and flowers on the barriers separating them from the parliament building, panels commemorating year 1956 and a row of policemen. the policemen probably twice outnumbered the protestants. as we later saw on tv the crowd was eventually forced to leave the lajos kossuth square since they didn't have the permission to gather there.

we walked back home along the margit bridge and to the city train that took us to the hotel. after a few minutes of staring at the tv screen (some local news, some vh1 and bbc prime plus a totally amazing local soft-porn programme) i was fast asleep.