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PERGOLAM is a Budapest-based higher-end consultation business owned and run by András Török, author of Budapest: a Critical Guide,
an unusual, cult book for serious travellers, continuously in the
market since 1989. It is also available in German and French. It is
possibly the truest, most personal, and funniest insider’s city guide
ever written about any major city, updated as often as necessary. (Park
Publishers)
Pergolam offers a wide range of Budapest-related
consultation and tour services in the higher-end sector of Budapest
visits, concerning planning, tour guiding (maximum 10 people) and
lecturing. Pergolam tries to meet even the most exquisite demands by
people who suffer from only one thing in the world: from the lack of
time. Mr. Török and other specialists are also available for lectures
on the life or any aspect of the city, possibly the “hottest cool spot
in Europe these days”.
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Hotel Gresham Palace Four Seasons - The Café In a building named after the founder of the London Exchange, (see his portrait on the middle of the façade, in gold), the café has a phenomenal riverfront view. Possibly the glitziest hotel between Vienna and San Francisco. (V. Roosevelt tér 5., www.greshampalace.com) |
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Bambi
Pastry Shop. (1961. III. Frankel Leó út 2-4..) Named
after the little animal from the woods, it miraculously survived the successive
modernisation waves. It still has its regulars. A highly authentic place.
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A Column in
Museum
Gardens (VIII. Múzeum kert)
To the left of the
National
Museum,
very near the building, there is a slender column, now encircled by bushes.
That was the surprising present from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who
visited Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy. The column is from the Forum Romanum...
There were so many there. Nobody missed that single, inconspicuous one.
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Ráth
György
Museum (VI. Városligeti fasor 12.)
One of the nicest and least attended small
museums in the rich supply of the
Budapest
scene. The name refers to the original owner of the villa (1828-1905), the one-time
director of the
Museum of
Applied Arts, who left
this villa and his Oriental collection to the public in his will. (Not on
Monday.)
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KogArt
House, for the opening of an exhibition, and followed with a drink in the
elegant restaurant
A fine, imposing arts exhibition centre
opened in 2004. The centre's highly polished presentations are geared for those
in the business elite who tastes are on the conservative side. Exclusive
restaurant with old pictures on the walls on the ground floor. Added value: you
can demonstrate that you are both knowledgeable in the art and the wine world... (VI.
Andrássy út 112. www.kogart.hu)
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When
you meet someone for the first time in
Budapest,
you have to choose the premises carefully. There is an obvious and a less such
criterion you should meet. If you can, don't meet a stranger outdoors. You
should find a place where it is not possible to miss him/her. And take it into
consideration that the person is likely to be late. And agree in a sign of
identification. A "Pesti Est", the free cult listings magazine can be a good idea.
It is free and available everywhere. Or an issue of "Le Monde".
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From
the top of Hegyalja út (Gellért Hill), toward
Pest
The oversize hotels in the
Pest riverbank ruined cityscape for centuries. You can
"remove them", if you take a picture while descending from Gellért hill. Then
the hotels are just the right size, and Basilica can flaunt its majestic dome,
not dwarved by its immediate neighbourhood.
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‘Shirtsleeve'
indicates here that these places have no desire to overwhelm their guests by
their ambience. Service is straightforward and friendly. Cordon Bleu is not
(usually) mis-spelled on their menus - a mark of their culinary ambitions.
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Standing in a vast space, not necessarily
in a church. All of them were built in the third third of the 19th
century, when newly built
Budapest
wanted to impress it citizens and the world alike.
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