An expedition to the Great Market Hall took some wrong turns at the start, but we got back on track. The market is indeed great -- huge, in fact -- and it was jammed with people. Perhaps it being the Saturday of Easter week had an effect.
When we'd had enough, (which wasn't that long, although Grace did buy some genuine paprika), we returned to the city centre via the famous shopping street, Vaci Utca, which was also jam-packed with people. One of the guide books says that the tourists think that Vaci Utca is the most charicteristic Budapest street, but the locals think it is the least authentic, having begun to turn "Westernized" even before the end of Communism.
|
|
|
|
| Great Market Hall. | Great Market Hall again. | Great Market Hall again again. |
We arrived at the market stalls at Vörösmarty Ter, at the end of Vaci Utca, where, due to language problems, Grace inadvertently ordered two large lunches, mostly joints of chicken and pork, but ate almost all. Me, I had lángos for the first and only time. It's like a puffy, fried pizza, but I found the crust too greasy and salty. Perhaps one that wasn't from a market stall would have been a better bet.
It had been drizzling all day, and we decided to go under cover at the giant West End mall. Not very exciting, but you can get there directly from the Metro station without going out in the rain.
A Metro and a tram took us home. Later, dinner involved an attempted return to Getto Gulyas, but it was booked solid (until Tuesday!). We'd obviously been very lucky on the first visit. A backup was found, the much more downmarket Blue Rose, where we both had the beef stew (Pörkölt, not goulash. Goulash is soup.)
After a drink in the scruffy Neon bar (it's a real dive; our sort of place), we found the huge bar and dance complex on Akácfa Utca. The nomenclature is a bit complicated, in that some parts have their own names. The terrace bar is Liebling, darling, for example, but the whole complex seems to be either Instant or Fogas, or both.
|
|
| Instant + Fogas main party. | Indie disco in the basement of the "Instant + Fogas" complex. |
There were many halls and dancefloors, and many twisty passages, all alike, but in the basement we found our spiritual home, the indie disco. Then the mere 100m walk home.