Best of Budapest & Hungary

Dezső Kellér, the Hungarian Humorist said: "The good side of visiting coffee houses is that when one sits there, he is not at home, but not at the fresh air either." Today is Coffee Day. Head to a café!

The biggest sorrow of my father was that coffee houses were slowly closed one by one in post-war Budapest. They were reopened as restaurants, bistros, self-service buffets. In the end, he had to sit in a café with his friends. He looked at me with regret that I might never know what a real coffee house was. Whenever we visited a town in the countryside he took me to these coffee houses. He told me that a good coffee house was the soul of the cultural community, frequented by intellectuals and artists. They were drinking, eating and chatting. They made important decisions. It's an awful thing that my father is no longer here to witness the renaissance of the coffee houses in Budapest and to know that I became a coffee house regular. Coffee houses are my Facebook. A couple of years ago I went to the Mátras in early spring with my friends. We stopped in a glade and enjoyed the languid sunshine. My friend, Péter Valló, the film director sighed. “You know what's missing here? A smoky coffe house.” I recommend that everyone pop into a coffee house regularly. You will find flesh-and-blood people and real time happenings there. And great coffee.