A stroll in Pest (Budapest)

 Vaci utca is a pedestrian boulevard, with one end at the covered market and the other is this beautiful coffee house, Gerbeaud. This is the fancy street of restaurants and boutiques, it is filled with tourists, possibly because tourists are the only people who can pay these kind of prices. It is a lovely stroll, to people watch and for window licking. While most people are looking at eye level, those who crane their necks and look up see the very beautiful facade of the buildings that line this boulevard. These are Budapest's best architecture. These are the town homes of wealthy citizens whose mansions dot the countryside.
Viennese style coffee houses are in again, they were closed down during the communist regime. People whose only crime was to open a coffee kiosk were put in jail. Presumably the intellectuals fomented ideas of anti communist revolution in coffee houses and kiosks and to stop the foment, the Communist regime closed them down. Now twenty years after the fall of Communism, coffee houses are in vogue again. Gerbeaud was full of people enjoying a rather warm October day. We too joined in the revelry, having a coffee and a slice of Sacher torte. Remember that Hungary was a part of the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire. While coffee was introduced into the Austro-Hungarian empire by their former ruler, the Ottoman turks, it is stll enjoyed today even after they've gone.
We see icons of the West  all around us, Nike, Big macs, Reeboks etc. A little distance to the left of Gerbeaud is the Danube. We would later stroll over and find a little celebration, life band, singing, food and lots of Palinka, a distilled alcoholic drink. We discovered the tram that runs up and down the Danube on this side of Pest and we would go on in just so to see the castle area on Buda light up. There was a moon and it was really beautiful. Wow, our first evening in Budapest.