Budapest
Vörösmarty tér & St Stephen’s Basilica · 13 Nov – 1 Jan · index 85
The Basilica market is the one you have seen photographed — stalls arranged in a horseshoe around the square with a light show projected onto the church front every half hour. Vörösmarty is the older and, to me, the better one for actually eating. The two are a ten-minute walk apart, which sounds convenient and mostly is, except that everyone knows it, so between five and eight on a December Saturday you shuffle rather than walk. Go on a weekday, or go at eleven in the morning when the kürtőskalács is coming off the spit and nobody else is there.
Go instead if… you want it quieter and cheaper — Bratislava is two and a half hours up the Danube and a completely different feel. You want a proper second city — Vienna is the same train.
