Day Trip Into Budapest - The Markets (Piac)

Piac (pronounced peeatz) is the Hungarian name for market.

We took the tram into Budapest to see the sights.   

This is one of the older trams that rattles and shakes as you'd expect; the new ones are whisper quiet and give a very smooth ride.

At a dollar a ticket it is a great way to travel into town.   Parking is expensive if you can find any at all.




Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) designed the building that houses the Central Markets.   An impressive building that has recently been refurbished and restored.   It is still the most important fruit, vegetable, meat, poultry and fish vendor in Budapest and is very well attended.

As many 19th century buildings, no expense was spared on materials and decoration.   The hand made tiles on the roof originate from a factory in Hungary that continues to make bespoke tiles and replica replacements.

Close up of the roof tiles.

It isn't possible to  show you the ambiance of this place as you need to hear the sounds and smell the smells to appreciate it.   However, pictures I've got:

That's Ruth standing in the middle of one of one of the many branches of the building.   Today, along with daily needs, there are also the usual tourist shops (especially waiting for Ruth to come along) where you can get anything from handbags to trinkets made in China.







Beautiful wrought iron work everywhere and lighting.














This place specializes in salami, calbas and other preserved/smoked meats.   You could try something new every day for 10 yeas and not get though all of them.

Ubiquitous Hungarian paprika.  This is to be found everywhere.   The bell pepper that we use mostly in Australia isn't from Europe at all but comes from America.   Here it is known as California Paprika.