Budapest further

The old stereotype of the grim, cheerless work-focussed, stranger-intolerant Eastern European. As if! Many of the people I met (mainly in hostels, it's true) were sheerful and friendly. This despite the iron curtain of thickest cloud casting its miserable non-light over the grime of a huge, busy, sprawly, no-centre clash of modern glassy scrapers and ancient crumbling edifices of a city. It really did get dark at 4pm. The cold worsened toward the Danube.
That said, it is an amazing place. None of this "keep it fancy for the tourists" lark - let the damn city grow, if that's what it wants! Up with the scrapers! Slap in the strip bars! Turn on the booze (wee joke - that's been on for centuries already, and at a torrent)! Stick a few more roads in if we feel like it! I got the feeling that the Magyar were a rightfully proud people who demanded to be able to have a city in exactly the way they want it, and anyone interested can come and see it if they want.
I checked out the towering Citadel, Castle Hill and the museum there, booze halls, dining establishments, pubs and alleys. I happened on a particularly beautiful season. The Autumn leaves cast a greatly welcome splash of vibrancy over the hills and tramlined river's edge. The moon even appeared for a night, but the Curtain had arrived again before daybreak. The beer, of course, was tasty and satisfying. I had my first stein (1 litre) in 10 years at a wee Magyar-run pizzeria. It did look rather vulgar to be chugging from more of a trough than a glass I imagine, but no one around seemed to mind.
"Let him suck away on his stein," they murmered to one another. "Of course he can eat pizza in Hungary - we're not that far from Italy after all. Sure we were on and off part of tyrannical empires and great dynasties, and have as much claim to Mozart as our Western neighbour," they continued, in low, moustache-bristled voice. "Drink up lad! Eat of those quadruple size portions! Face the cold and tread heavy on the greasy streets... for you see, the Light of freedom and opportunity shines bright on the Magyar. We lie low now, but you'll find us soon enough in your own streets, your Opera Houses, your Reggae Booths, all."
So I did.