Discovering the VII district

Today I had a guide booked all day to show me around in the VII district of Budapest. Formerly a shabby and dangerous area, part of the old Jewish neigbourhood, it has now transformed into a trendy and up-and-coming part of town. Sure, many houses haven't been renovated since World War II, but that is slowly changing and also part of the charm. Old family-run shops still abounds but new cool bars are popping up in between.

Funny enough, my Hungarian guide András spoke rather good Swedish after having studied the language and also spent some time in Sweden. Halfway through the day we discovered that he is also hooked onr paragliding! So the rest of the day and evening the topic of conversation was given.

We had an excellent lunch at Café Kör (I had a Hungarian cabbage dish, like lasagna without pasta, or maybe moussaka without aubergine).  Then dinner at Restaurant Menza where I devoured an excellent leg of goose.

Enjoying Art Deco and Art Nouveau

Femke had set off Monday morning for shopping and I was fine with that. But first we had to have a cake! So we combined watching beautiful Art Nouveau architecture at the Bedö House with a cake in Café Art Nouveau in the same building.
Then Femke took us to Falk Miksa Street which was full of antique stores with very nice art deco furniture. In the shop Montparnasse we found several beautiful Art Deco bars, but alas, the prices where to high for me.

Our last lunch together in Budapest was a quiet and traditional meal at Restaurant Fülemüle. I had a most delicious Hungarian Ratatouille while Femke went for a good piece of steak. Then Sadly I had to wave Femke off as she had to go back to Amsterdam to work. I was of course already working, and planned to stay another day.

In the afternoon I arranged a small improvised wine tasting at Restaurant Klassz, then met up with my local friend Masha and her boyfriend at the cool bar Szimpla Kert. It is all very Berliny (in a Budapesty way of course) with numerous rooms and bars in a dilapidated building.

Slow Sunday in Budapest

Today we took it slower. I ventured out in the snowfall to the Memento statue park but it was not very special. Femke stayed in the city, having a cake at the New York café. Later we met up for lunch at Restaurant Tabani Terasz where I had a delicious dish with deer and goose liver.
Next stop was the famous Gellert thermal bath which we found OK, but not as nice as Rudas.

After some skulking around looking at the beautiful bridges over Donau, we enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine and a cake at Café Müvesz before having dinner at the trendy Restaruant Menza.

Caking and eating our way through Budapest

With Femke around life is good. Our plan for this weekend is to visit as many good cafés, restaurants and thermal baths as possible for my stories. So we started with cakes at Gerbeaud, a fancy and famous traditional café in the city center. A short visit to the central market hall made us hungry so we sneaked out and into the wine restaurant Borbíróság where we enjoyed excellent lunch. Femke had duck (not for the last time this weekend) while I was more modest with a traditional and tasty cabbage and sausage soup.

Now it was past noon, so high time for another café! This time the venerable Café Central where we had Flódni cake with nuts and poppy seeds (me) and walnut&apple cake (Miss F) to the sound of a violinist.

This was all hard work so we just had to soak up a bit in a bath. Enter Rudas thermal bath, built by the Ottomans in the 16th Century. What a beautiful and atmospheric place!

Swimming makes you hungry but luckily we found a table at the excellent wine restaurant (another one...) Klassz. And then waited a night at the Hungarian State Opera watching ballet. I must admit that dance is not really my thing, I prefer Opera in these circumstances, but the building is beautiful and Femke loved it. And it does give you a bit of a James Bond-feeling to walk down the red carpet of the  magnificent staircase with a glass of champagne and a beautiful woman :-)

and now: in Budapest

This is crazy. After a very long trip from Sri Lanka to Amsterdam via Dubai, I was only home for half a day before I had to board another flight. This time to Budapest. Luckily, I first had lunch with Femke in Amsterdam, and she will also join me here in Budapest as a model.

Arriving to Budapest I was of course completely wasted and went to bed early. But waking up tosay I felt much better! It helped that I started the day with a visit to the Lukacs thermal bath, very relaxing. Then I had dinner at a simple restaurant opposite the bath, Nagyi Kifözdéje, and rounded it off with cake at the Daubner pastry shop.

Un the evening I enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine at the Alexandra Book Café on Andrássy utca (and another piece of cake :-)), then had a brilliant dinner with goulash and lamb at Restaurant Rosenstein. A good start on this working trip!

Budapest

We took an evening train to Budapest, arriving (delayed) at around twelve in the night at our hotel, Zara Boutique Hotel in the very city center. The hotel was ok, but the room somewhat cramped. And they wanted us to check out already 10, but we managed to postpone it to 11. We just had a shower and crashed at the hotel.
Slept to 09.30 (lovely!), had a good breakfast and then took the old metro to the Art Museum for the Ferdinand Holder exhibition. Very good, especially his work from 1892-1905. The art from before and after that, I didn't like so much, but the rest was powerful. Some of it was in the tradition of the Vienna school, a bit like Klimt.

After the exhibition, we had chili con carne in the adjacent park, sitting outside in warm summer weather. Then we went to Budapest biggest bath house and soaked in the hot pools, dry sauna, eucalyptus sauna and steam sauna. Lovely!

Walked from there into the centre, where we met Masha (a friend of Bonen) and her boyfriend. We sat down and had a glass of wine on a terrace. Later, we had dinner at an odd restaurant (Dzjungle) with very good food. Both me and Bonen had wild boar, but different dishes. Very tasty.
After dinner, we went to another bar, full of young people. Then, we had to pick up our bags and go to the beautiful old-style railway station with high arched iron/glass ceiling over the platforms and murals in the station hall. A night train to Sighisoara in Transylvania was waiting for us.