Budapest’s Great Market

This was the first time we went to the Great Market Hall (although we have been back several times since then). The building is huge (hence the ‘great’) and was build in – you guessed it – 1986. The roof of the building is covered with the Zsolnay tiles from Pécs, just like Matthias Church.

Inside, the market has three floors, each with stalls selling different products. Stalls in the basement sell mostly fish and pickled things. There is also a big Aldi in the basement. The ground floor has produce (fruits and veggies), meats (with lots of salami), paprika, some baked goods, and some tourist shops. The kids begged to go to the chocolate fountain store, which sold us a very expensive cup of melted chocolate on top of marshmallows. The top floor has some food stalls, mostly overpriced and touristy, but there is a stall that sells langos, which the kids love. The rest of the stalls on the top floor are souviner shops. A lot of these stalls sell the same touristy Hungarian/Budapest souvenirs, typically at similar prices. The kids found a ton of things that they just couldn’t live without (hint hint, Christmas presents), but we didn’t buy anything. We did get a lot of good ideas for gifts though!

Very near our house (you can see the Starbucks on our corner in the background) is a gyro/kebab restaurant. We were leery about trying one of these, but it really wasn’t bad and finally had something that Willow would eat—meat and French fries.