Pest

After a day at the castle in Buda I wanted to visit Pest, taking in the Museum of Applied Arts. So let's start there. Its a little off the beaten track, but contains a fine collection of Hungarian (and some forieign, including English) examples of design, pots, glass, furniture etc. All housed in a beautiful turn of the century building, purpose-built as a museum/gallery wth a glorious tiled roof.  While I was there, they were preparing the atrium for a wedding reception. Good venue.

What else? Well St Stephen's Basilica of course. A wonderful creation as a tribute to excess. Very striking  from the outside with its dome (second attempt - first one collapsed), and positvely dripping with gold and decoration inside. I could have left you with a photo of its all-important relic, the hand of St Stephen, which miraculously hadn't decomposed when they disinterred him. But I won't as its just a big casket in a glass case with a pretty decomposed looking hand in it. (Did it never occur to any of these folk that a god who concentrates all his miracles on not rotting the flesh of dead priests when millions die of starvation is a pretty warped deity with a crap set of priorities? No? Sorry, just a thought.)

Central Pest just has lots to see when you wander around - public squares, palaces, grand department stores and of course plenty of lavish churches.