In recent years I’ve visited Hungary four times but my trip in the first week of November 2023 was the first time I’ve had a chance to enjoy its capital Budapest, one of Europe’s most refined cities.

On other trips I was taken from the airport to a range of wine regions. This time I spent all my time in Budapest.

The city has the world’s second-largest synagogue after New York. The Hollywood actor Tony Curtis, of Hungarian heritage, donated money to restore the building, shown below,

Budapest’s architecture is magnificent and the best way to appreciate it is by walking. You will encounter a range of architectural styles, and come to appreciate how spectacular this city must have been during the height of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Public transport is inexpensive and efficient. The city has the second-oldest subway in the world, after London’s Tube. An example of a station is shown at left. Note how clean it is compared with the Tube.

You will encounter lots of marvellous museums and some superb churches. The main church is the basilica of St Stephen, named in honour of the first king of Hungary.

Hungarian wine has evolved significantly in the past decade (see my articles here and here and here) and Budapest has an exciting range of wine bars. A bottle of good wine costs about 4 Euro in supermarkets, though you will pay a lot more for the same wine in a restaurant or wine bar. Food is inexpensive and high quality. And you will find almost every cuisine in the world in this city.

The one exception is the New York cafe, which bills itself as the “most beautiful cafe” in the world. It’s certainly one of the most expensive. A single cappuccino costs 12 Euro for mostly lukewarm froth. Cakes were about the same price and portions were tiny.

Yet the cafe appears always crowded with tourists, which often means unsuspecting visitors get put into an ugly part of the building. A better option is to walk in, look around, and spend your money elsewhere. The image shows the ceiling of the pretty part of the cafe. I sat in the ugly part, with battleship grey walls.

I used HomeExchange.com to swap flats with a local, and she stayed in my Brighton flat while I was in Budapest, which negated the cost of accommodation.

Flights were with easyJet, never an easy way to fly, but they were relatively cheap. The biggest problem with easyJet is the fact they have the most inconvenient airport gates which always seem to be outside, so if it rains you end up walking through the sleet to get to the aircraft.

Highlight of this visit was two superb hours spent at the Robert Capa museum.

Capa is one of my heroes and considered the father of modern photo-journalism. He was born in Budapest as Endre Erno Friedmann. What an exciting life! He was a war correspondent during the Spanish civil war, the second Sino-Japanese war, the 1948 Israel-Arab conflict and World War 2 along with the first Vietnam conflict. 

Capa died in Vietnam in 1954 when he stepped on a landmine. A few years earlier he spent time as a photojournalist in Hollywood and had an affair with Ingrid Bergman. Someone needs to make a movie about his exciting life.

Budapest has wonderful music, ranging from classical to jazz and folk. A visit to the Budapest Jazz Club is a must, as is a tour of the main opera house.

The city also has plenty of bookshops and welcoming cafes. A frequent and lovely sight is the number of book wagons parked in pedestrian-friendly areas. A photograph of one near the main railway station is shown below.

Bath houses where you can enjoy a range of pools are popular with locals and visitors. Make sure you take your own swimming costume; otherwise they may not let you in.

Make sure you see Hero’s Square and its spectacular sculptures. It has excellent museums on two sides of the square. The image below shows a group of schoolchildren visiting the square.

Finally, go to Franz (Ferenc) Liszt square to pay homage to the great composer born in Budapest. The splendid sculpture below captures the essence of the great man.

Finally I leave you with a photo taken of me in one of the city’s lovely restaurants, contemplating this wonderful city. Note the smug look on my face. That’s an old manual typewriter behind me. A case of the old and the ancient. You choose which terms applies to which 🙂