November 3-9, 2011: Between the apartment and the Art Nouveau tour, my visit to Budapest would have been a success regardless of what else I did, but I did enjoy a few other sights as well.
The “top ten” lists for Budapest include places like the Opera House, the Terror Museum, the three bath complexes, the Great Synagogue, and Castle Hill, all worthwhile sights, but places I’d seen before. I did go back, for the third time, to the Museum of Applied Arts, as much for the building as the collection, and to the covered market, which confirmed the bad news I already suspected. Since my previous visits, Budapest had been “discovered” and was now firmly on the tourist trail.
The market was mobbed, with tourists outnumbering the locals. Vaci ut, the main pedestrian street, was full of tourist shops and tourist shoppers. I hated to think what Szentendre, the cobblestoned village a short boat-ride away, would look like now, as it had already been over-run in 2004. Fortunately, Budapest was big enough that some escape was possible by avoiding the main streets.
Except that I wouldn’t skip walking Andrassy ut however big the crowds. (Luckily, most people took the metro instead of walking.) I did the whole length, slowly, camera in hand. Then I went back, on the advice of my Art Nouveau guide, to see the inside of the recently renovated number 39 with the Alexandra Bookstore on the ground floor and a lavishly decorated cafe above. At the north end I stopped off to visit the brand-new Gold Museum (aka the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum), full of beautifully displayed Asian artifacts, but unnecessarily anal about handbags (everything is under glass anyway!).
I finally made it onto Margaret Island, a great place for the energetic and with views of both Buda and Pest. I rode the old-fashioned tram up and down the Danube in daylight and at dusk. I visited the Orthodox Synagogue, and found it as interesting as the Great Synagogue. I still failed to get around to seeing the inside of the Parliament Building, or heading out to Esztergom Basilica, but I had to leave something for next time.
And I do hope to go back to Budapest. But also to so many other places… So the reluctance with which I headed to the airport to start the trek home wasn’t solely related to the early hour. (The streets were eerily empty at 4:30 am!)
I love the second photo:-) City looks beautiful.