I returned yesterday from Budapest, and it is a great city to visit !
(@ Guennarr: The riots died down, at least while we were there. We avoided the Parliament after dark, though)
The vistas along the banks of the Danube are a great sight to see, and there are a lot of beautiful buildings everywhere. But there are also a lot of run-down buildings, with the plaster falling off, and in some instances even the bricks coming loose. Most of the buildings date back from 1918 or earlier (I think it was said that 80% are that old), and some seem to have seen almost no maintenance since then. And I can´t remember to have seen as many homeless and poor people as there...
One night, we had a sight seeing trip on the Danube, and seeing the illuminated city was a great sight - I would highly recommend that to anyone visiting.
We made a trip to Szentendre and Visegrad, north of Budapest. Szentendre is a small town wich a historic center of smallish buildings from the baroque era - very picturesque, but heavy on tourism. Visegrad is the ruin of the old royal castle, situated on the bend of the danube on a hill with a commanding view of the surrounding area. Definitly worth a visit.
So much for now.
Stefan