31 december 2009, we’ll always have budapest...

Tuesday 5th January 2010

Another new year in budapest. Since my first - 1993/4 - the city has genuinely changed. Then, there was potential: "paris in 30 years" we used to say. Well, not quite, but the changes are startling, and the number of asians I saw showed that the city has now exchanged its hip student tag for the well-heeled frequenters of dolce and gabbana and the rest of the best stores we don't have in manchester. Despite hungary having a pretty horrendous time of the recession, buildings continue to be replaced and restored at an astounding pace, the poo on the pavement has all but disappeared and a new metro line is coming out the ground. Even the rudas baths have been partially restored, which I found both uplifting and sad, as the broken cabins, cavernous odours, peeling walls and shadowy corners were part and parcel of the budapest I grew to love all those years ago. An old friend I'd recommend for lunch who I didn't see this time is kádár on klauzál tér, and a new one I did is dunapark. Five days just isn't long enough...