Budapest Bunny Extravaganza

...and a hard working rodent as a bonus. Happy Easter!

Linzer My Love

Though, as the name suggests, the linzer came to Hungary from their Western neighbours it is one of the most popular and widespread pastries in Budapest. This is of course risky business, as the more linzers there are, the greater the possibility that they are rather sloppily made, with plastic tasting jam and dough that would survive unharmed a nuclear attack. You can of course be really brave and adventurous and attempt a home made version,  (http://www.femina.hu/recept/a_tokeletes_lekvaros_linzer_receptje), but for slobs like me Nandori cukraszda in Ferencvaros (http://www.nandori.hu/) provides several tasty versions in different sizes- above you can revel in their Easter special, linzer chicks and linzer bunnies.

Still Life with Tram

Budapest's public transport is quite colour coordinated: trolleybuses are red, trams are yellow and buses blue. The metro has three lines, you guessed, red, yellow and blue. These used to be the colours of the city's historic flag, which was oh-so-wisely replaced by the buffoons running the mayor's office these days. A city's traditions suddenly pale in comparison with the fact that the above mentioned colours are usurped by an "enemy country's" flag. That sounds weird to me, because it means I should be my own enemy...but nevermind, trams are mercifully still yellow, the 47 in the background is hurrying past flowers on Deak Tér taking it's passengers over the Danube all the way to Budafok. When I arrived to Budapest the line was still served by the iconic UV trams (http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_villamos), which used to be the most popular type of tram in Budapest after WWII, these days it has been replaced by a newer type- a tad less noisy, but still as funky smelling as ever.

The Sky Over Budapest

It might not be populated with angels, like the sky over Berlin. And yet again, it might, we'll just never know for sure. The silhouettes of the Twelve Apostles guard the city from the Saint Stephen Basilica, Budapest's second tallest building after the Parliament and the country's third, first being the cathedral in Esztergom. The future basilica's location was decided upon after the floods of 1838, when many of the city's inhabitants found shelter from the Danube's fury on this naturally elevated spot of land. The plans were set up as early as 1845 but the building was finalized only by 1905 and it was rebuilt several times during the 20th century, as two world wars and the passing of time took their toll on the structure. The latest renovation ended in 2003 and it concerned not only the basilica itself, but also the artworks inside and the adjacent Saint Stephen square.

Wednesday at the Movies

Today should have been Andrey Tarkovsky's 80th birthday. This homage to his iconic Stalker movie can be found outside Toldi cinema and café on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky street. One of the reasons I really wanted to study in Budapest was that I imagined I would be able to watch ALL the movies I wanted. In the meantime of course many things changed and more than often I had to dig up the internet's wide resources to get hold of rare arthouse flicks. But I did spend many pleasant evenings in Budapest's independent cinemas.Sadly they seem to be doing ever worse- Hunnia and Europa closed recently, and other small venues are also visibly struggling. Hunnia had one dingy and flat hall in which you were forever doomed if some tall bloke landed in front of you. The chairs creaked and were uncomfortable as hell, but No Man's Land (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0283509/) still moved me to tears.Europa smelled of cheap juice and popcorn and the gentleman at the entrance seemed to have escaped from an early German existentialist horror but they managed to find hidden beauties such as the Georgian movie On the Other Bank (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1368439/) and for that I will be forever thankful. The Hungarian Film Institute's Örökmozgó cinema (such a beautiful name,forever moving, echoing the original Hungarian word for film, mozgókep, moving image, hence the shortening mozi) is safe and sound for the time being, and this week, quite naturally, they are extensively showing Tarkovsky. (http://www.filmarchive.hu/orokmozgo/program/)

Tasty Tuesday

Budapest does not run short of pastry and sweets shops, some in the good old Viennese tradition, some bringing state of the art progressive confectionery to the city- but few things quite compare to the joy of discovering a gem tucked away in the menu of the city's many bistros and restaurants. Castro Bistro on Madách square is a well-established nightlife staple, serving mostly unfussy but rather tasty food to a crowd of faithful regulars (on weekend evenings give up all of hope of finding a free table). Starting off with a Serbian meaty menu (cevapi and pljeskavica are still on) they then took a turn towards something of a more Russian cuisine, which includes the above illustrated syrniki, a Russian cottage cheese specialty best served with jam.(http://allrecipes.com/recipe/russian-syrniki/) And while eating you can also rest your eyes on the occasionally rather random art plastered onto the walls of the establishment 

Fisherman's Solitude

The Fisherman's Bastion is one of the biggest tourist magnets of the city, with all the beauty and sheer horror this might entail. Come mid-Spring the whole area is swarmed by tourists and their ominous soap box sized cameras merrily shooting away at anything that seems remotely exciting- Danube, Parliament, cityscape, details of the bastion itself, Matthias Church and so on. If anyone feels like complaining it should of course be noted that the "invaders" bring nice sums of money to the city, so instead of sulking about it all locals can simply visit the bastion on those blessed day when it is less crowded- windy early Spring days with their eerie "it almost feels like late Autumn but it is actually spring" atmosphere are perfect for such endeavours and one can revel in a shifting landscape of clouds dancing over the city. (In order to avoid any unpleasant flu-like surprises dress really well, the wind in the castle can be a really vicious thing at times)

Palm Sunday

Or Flower Sunday, in Hungarian. They are blooming all over the city by now, the tulips above are in the Karolyi-kert, in the fifth district, the city centre's oldest public park. It belonged to several noble families and occasionally it was also church property before becoming a public park in 1932. Catkins are being sold all over Budapest these days, as according to popular tradition they are to be blessed on Palm Sunday, to protect against diseases, the evil eye and bad weather. People go to church carrying catkin branches-according to the Bible Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem with palm tree branches, but since they are kind of rare in Central Europe Hungarians have to make do with the local vegetation.