Rain, rain, good castle and Danube river views among the rain drops.
It went from a steamy mid-seventies rain to a bone chilling cafe sit in the lower-sixties. Budapest is not meant for rain.
Lots of green, damp, soggy green spaces with lovely benches washed clean by the rain. Lots of bright planted flowers with nary a speck of dust on any of them, glistening, in fact. Lots of indoor, very smoky pastry shops, cafes, diners, ex-communist bars, and old world restaurants filled with dripping, shivering patrons. Ah, don’t you just love summer in Central Europe?
The subway system has a line that is proclaimed to be the first subway on the continent. It is rather cute and very retro. The trams are lovely to ride upon. If you shut your eyes and listen to the soundscape the things make as they wind their way through the city, you could be back in the fifties. Well, for that matter, if you open your eyes and take a look around you, you could be back in the fifties. Some designers in Los Angeles would go mad for this motif.
Not much happening in Budapest while we were there, but there is a Pacha’s (of Ibiza techno rave fame), Judas Priest, Queensryche, Twisted Sister, Liza Minnelli, Santana, Sasha, and Banco di Gaia coming through town in the next few weeks. One could only hope that they get better weather.
We checked the weather reports and bought a ticket to Rome. Seems they still have a thing called summer in Southern Europe. (And food that isn’t swimming in brown goo.)
