Thu Aug.26.2010
Budapest, Hungary
(How many Budapests are there?)
Back in Budapest, roughly a year since last year's stopover here. Launching pad for the flight home Friday.
Same pension, same beautiful leafy neighborhood in the hills of Buda. Different room with a different view from the balcony.
I photographed this sign mainly so I wouldn't need to write down the
opening hours of the littlle grocery store on the corner. The wierd
part is that the names for Wednesday, Thurdsay, Friday, and - to a
lesser degree - Saturday, all have visible similarities to their Slavic counterparts. Interlingual vocabulary creep, apparently.
And, of course, everybody's favorite bustling transit hub, Moszkva Ter (Moscow Square). Not exactly pretty, but definitely alive.
And with a useful gyros shop run by a Lebanese guy - no ayran here, but
the corner grocery store has kefir, so no problem on that front.
Moszkva Ter is such an important transit hub that even London Transport runs a line down here.
In one of last year's posts I mentioned the odd jaggedy metal fountain here. Here are some better views of it.
A couple of Pest pictures.
Nyugati train station.
And a whimsical statue, life-size.
And back to Buda
A big ol' indoor mall, aptly named Mammut, just off Moszkva Ter.
Most of the shops are international brand Expensive Stuff You Don't
Really Need, but there are snack bars, a book store, an entire Saturn
(big consumer electronics chain). If you are a sucker for designer
fashions, you need go no further in Budapest - they are all here.
Unlike your standard Big Mall, this place is labyrinthine. And decorative.
I may have to go back and look at this again. As I remember, it is a
mirrored ceiling with a bunch of animal figures upside-down on it. So
how does that explain the ground they are standing on? Anyway, it makes
for an unusual mall decoration.
Later: the patches of ground are stuck to the ceiling mirror too.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf