Unusual Budapest
In my life I have committed many rash acts. All of them (with the possible exception of marrying) turned out to be completely stupid. But no nonsense has been prepared and planned as carefully as the New Year celebration in the Hungarian capital. Starting from the choice of the form of clothing - a new Russian cashmere coat, and ending with the excursion program - a visit to Europe's oldest metro.
No, Budapest did not deceive my expectations, and the view of the royal palace opening after a kilometer-long march along the icy Rakoczy street made me stay in admiration for a long time. Exactly until the moment when a lumbering Ford drove up to me and the taxi driver offered to take "to the best club in the city". In general, to look like a foreign tourist in Budapest is an extremely unreasonable way of behavior.
A lot of people will offer you to exchange money, show the city, buy something unnecessary. At best, at your appearance gloomy musicians will begin to play violently on folk instruments. You can hide from obsessive street service only in restaurants, but in the truly magnificent New York you will still be overtaken by a village violinist.
Since long walks in the streets of unfamiliar cities are among my favorite activities, on the first day I began to think about buying a gray Bolognese jacket, in which, it seems, sported half of the capital's inhabitants. My long-tailed "outfit", although it protected against the dampness of the Danube city, was still clearly inappropriate.
| Magnificent Budapest |
I hardly entered any bar very close to my "Hilton" , as a sweet girl invited me - absolutely free of charge - to put my coat in the wardrobe . Just a minute later she settled down beside me at the bar and started a cultural conversation about the sights of Budapest . It took quite a bit of time before us a bottle of Hungarian white materialized . But then the virgin the ape, apologizing, somewhere disappeared . And before me lay an account, from the number of zeros in which I felt dizzy . Of course, the wine turned out to be a rare drink directly from the royal cellars . If the gentleman does not agree, we can call police . The prospect to go to the site where the identification of the person will be dragged on until the morning (the passport was left in the hotel - together with the family that does not share my love for walking), seemed completely cheerless to me . Well at least that I had enough cash , otherwise it would be credit the third card emptied to the limit . That is why the former "sotsbloka" seasoned travelers always hide their "credit" deeper .
course, after that about any "Christmas mood" could not be considered. When rare sparks of fireworks appeared in the sky over the Chain Bridge and the magnificent Parliament, the pianist in the banquet hall of the hotel apologized in an apologetic tone: "Well, what do you want, this is not Moscow ..."
Yes, I completely forgot about the nostalgic metro (the oldest in Europe). On the first day of the New Year at Opera Station my wife was stolen by a purse.