I had been to Budapest before, but in the spring. It was a lot colder this time and I was over there to visit a friend, who lived just out of the city centre, in an area full of communist era buildings. The green and blue painted one won an award for being refurbished with modern amenities. It’s a good example of what can be done with some of these monolithic buildings to make them relevant today.
I really like the city, and there is a real contrast between the beauty of the past, the communist influence of the more recent past, and the familiar signs of a city moving towards the future.
Budapest is full of grand coffee houses from the days of the Austria-Hungary Empire. A lot have been restored to their former glory relatively recently and are quite amazing.
