More than decade after leaving, I was finally back in Budapest

It was gloomy, rainy when I arrived. It got me into a bit of a melancholy funk, but in general the weather was rather fine for late September.

In the picture on the left, the building with the two towers is a beautiful old and restored synagogue. The building next to it once had a movie theatre on the ground flour. It used to show classic movies and foreign art films. It is closed now.

The movie HELP! featuring the Beatles - a less successful follow up to A Hard Day's Night -had for a while a cult status in the city. It kept playing in this theatre for a long time. The audience knew all the lines and shouted them out at the screen - a smaller, more East European version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

These streetcars were old fifteen years ago. Some of them still have wooden seats. However, they are kept in surprisingly good condition, and are quite charming.

 

Decades of communist rule and the fact that most people couldn't afford cars left Hungary with a solid public transportation system.

Left: the entrance to the "kisföldalatti" - the old subway. It is the oldest subway line on the continent; only the one in London is older in Europe.

Right: Busy downtown intersection. Budapest has the same look like many European cities, just a little crumblier.

Budapest is divided in two by the river Danube. Pest is flat and bustling, Buda is a hillside residential area. On the Buda side there is the Castle Hill, with some old buildings, the King's Castle, some Roman ruins. From here there is a good view to the river and the Pest side.