Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shopping
Budapest is a fantastic city for shopping, whether you're in the market for tradi-
tional folk craft with a twist, cutting-edge designer goods, the latest in flash
headgear or honey-sweet dessert wine. Traditional markets stand side by side with
mammoth shopping malls, and old-style umbrella makers can still be found next to
avant-garde fashion boutiques.
Specialities & Souvenirs
Traditional items with a Hungarian branding - called Hungarica here - include folk embroid-
ery and ceramics, pottery, wall hangings, painted wooden toys and boxes, dolls, all types of
basketry, and porcelain (especially that from Herend and Zsolnay). Feather or goose-down
pillows and duvets (comforters) are of exceptionally high quality.
Foodstuffs that are expensive or difficult to buy elsewhere - goose liver (both fresh and
potted), dried mushrooms, jam (especially the apricot variety), prepared meats like Pick
salami, the many types of paprika - make nice gifts (as long as you're allowed to take them
into your country). Some of Hungary's 'boutique' wines also make excellent gifts; a bottle of
six-
puttonyos
(the sweetest) Tokaji Aszú dessert wine always goes down a treat. Fruit brandy
(pálinka)
is a stronger option.
Books and CDs are affordable, and there's an excellent selection, especially of folk and
classical music.
Markets & Malls
Some people consider a visit to one of Budapest's flea markets - the celebrated Ecseri Piac or
the smaller City Park one - a highlight, not just as a place to indulge their consumer vices but
as the consummate Budapest experience.
In the mid-1990s Budapest began to go mall crazy, and at last count the city had upwards
of two dozen in the centre of town and on the fringes. However, 'mall' may not properly de-
scribe what the Hungarians call
bevásárló és szorakoztató központ
(shopping and amusement
centres); here you'll find everything from designer salons, traditional shops and dry cleaners
to food courts, casinos, cinemas and clubs. It's a place to spend the entire day, much as you
would just about anywhere in the globalised world of the 3rd millennium. Don't bother, we
say.
