67% of Budapest's Islands

Lately I’ve been assaulting Google with those kind of dumb questions which then cause major merriment when the auto fill helps out your queries. The first one, namely the identity of Guus Hiddink’s wife (don’t ask why, though it almost made sense at that time, no, really, it did.) was already helped by the auto fill- the information seems to be more researched than his present club, which is a reflection either on the shallow interests of the world in general or on the arch of Hiddink’s career in particular. Next up was whether Guinness contains fish- you guys, it does, isinglass in particular, and so do most cask ales, so no Guinness for vegetarians then, which is cool, because more is left for me.

Having reached such high levels of competence over the long weekend I didn’t bat an eye when, pondering the number of Budapest’s islands I realized I only had a hunch, not a certainty.  No worries there, let me type this thing into good old Google- the auto fill is back in action yet again and shows that I am not alone in the land of the confused and clueless but at least my hunch proved to be correct- Budapest has three islands, of which Csepel is the biggest, followed by Óbudai and Margit, with Szentendre island lying just above the northern border of the city hence already outside.

Although I’d half harboured a hope that maybe somewhere along the Danube’s Budapest stretch there’s a puny patch of land which might just qualify as an island, much as Pluto is occasionally a planet, and I could fetch the lazy photographer to go on a bold new discovery mission, I had to settle with the pleasant thought that over the weekend I’d visited 67% of Budapest’s islands bedecked in their full autumnal splendour.

We’d even managed to catch that elusive golden hour which on Margit island, due to the evil geographical placement of the Buda hills and the even eviler daylight saving arrangements which happened over the weekend has now become a golden 11 and a half minutes around four in the afternoon. 4 PM wouldn’t really qualify as dusk in my book, but sadly that’s exactly what it is these days-luckily we have a great suggestion for a place where you can drown your sorrow in both drink and food- Pozsonyi kisvendéglő has been faithfully serving the people of Újlipótváros and not only since 1992, and provides unsophisticated yet excellent fuel for chilly winter evenings.