What to buy?

Visit the shopping centers and markets, too.

Before setting out, make sure you have your Budapest Card with you as you are entitled to reductions in a lot of shops.

Hungarian shops are well stocked and the quality of the products is generally high. Food, alcohol, books and folk-music recordings are affordable and there is an excellent selection.

Traditional products include folk-art embroidery and ceramics, wall hangings, painted wooden toys and boxes, dolls, all forms of basketry and porcelain (especially Herend, Zsolnay or the cheaper Kalocsa). Feather or goose-down goods like pillows or duvets (comforters) are of excellent quality. Food-stuffs that are expensive or difficult to buy elsewhere – goose liver (both fresh and potted), caviar and some prepared meats like Pick salami – make nice gifts (if you are allowed to take them home) as do the many varieties of paprika. Some of Hungary’s new ‘boutique’ wines – especially the ones with imaginative labels – make good, inexpensive gifts. A bottle of five or six-puttonyos dessert Tokaj always goes down well.

Before you do any shopping for handicrafts at street markets, have a look in the Folkart Centrum, V Váci utca 14 (metro: Ferenciek tere), a large store where prices are clearly marked. It’s open till late at night. Frankly, though, most of the stuff for sale at folk-art shops (népmûvészeti bolt) is just trash; seek the real thing from the women from Transylvania who sometimes congregate on Váci utca (now rarely), Moszkva tér or at the market on the corner of Fehérvári út and Schönherz utca in Buda’s District XI. Holló Atelier, at V Vitkovics Mihály utca 12 near Váci utca, has attractive folk art with a modem look.

The Zeneszalon on the Danube side of Vörösmarty tér has CDs of Hungarian folk music, including a few by the excellent Gypsy band Kalyi Jag, and the popular Hungarian folk group Muzsikás. For locally produced classical CDs and tapes, try the Liszt Ferenc Zenemûbolt at VI Andrássy út 45.

Upstairs at the far back corner of the central market hall on Fõvám tér (metro: Kálvin tér), a number of stalls sell Hungarian folk costumes, dolls, painted eggs, embroidered tablecloths etc.

There’s an excellent selection of Hungarian wines at the Boutique des Vins at V József Attila utca 12 - entrance on Hild tér. Ask the staff to recommend a label if you feel lost.

MUST BUY

The Great Market Hall at IX Fovam ter in Pest, near Szabadsag bridge, is a great place to start.

The façade looks intimidating, but inside you can take your pick of an array of sausages, pickles and sweet pastries on the ground-floor stalls, while up on the first-floor gantry, touristy Hungarian lace tablecloths and embroidered folk costumes are sold. Plan your time carefully: it closes at 2pm on Saturday and is shut on Sunday. Alternatively, head for the lace markets and antique shops on the castle hill: it`s as if they were designed with tourists in mind...