As is so often the case with a city that’s been called “the Paris of the East,” the delights of Budapest have a pleasing toughness, including those of spring.
If spring days were cakes, Paris would be a silly, insubstantial and wobbly confection seemingly designed to fall into your lap the moment you raise it to your mouth on a tiny fork. Budapest would be “flódni.” This mouthwatering pastry made with layers of apple, walnuts, poppy seeds, and plum jam, is traditionally eaten by Hungarian Jews on Purim, which falls on March 2, the day after spring officially begins. Purim celebrates a 5th century queen of Persia preventing the mass execution of her country’s Jews.
This year, as if following a Gaian body clock, the weather in Budapest turned springlike overnight at the end of February. Not that it’s a wise idea to start sporting shorts, as young Americans tend to. The reddish-purple hue of their bare limbs attests to the fact that the days are still bracingly cold.
Cherry trees have yet to blossom alongside the swirling Danube. Sharp winds can blow down the city’s broad avenues and narrow side streets. But Budapest’s monumental buildings are sometimes silhouetted against fine blue skies and it’s possible to find pools of sunlight outside cafés in which to sit and turn one’s face to the warmth.
Hungarians traditionally believe that the first real warm day is March 18. The following day, the first storks are supposed to arrive back in the country after wintering in Africa. If there’s a rainbow on that day, country folk take it as a sign that the wheat harvest will be good. Astronomical spring begins on March 21, a day when garlic was consecrated to prevent sickness.
Incidentally, Ella Fitzgerald performed in Budapest in 1968 when she was the toast of the city. András Pernye of the daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation) wrote of her concert performance at the time, “It is difficult to get enough of this magical voice.” She returned in May 1970 for a performance that was captured on the live album “In Budapest.”
Back when I was writing advertising copy, one of my clients owned a chain of gyms. I always had to begin a headline-writing session by forcing myself not to use any combination of words that included ‘Spring into…’ And yet there’s an undeniable surging of sap that occurs when March is upon us. Nowadays, my wife and I content ourselves with a stroll around one of Budapest’s parks.
Our preferred route is a circuit of Margaret Island, roughly a couple of miles. We like to saunter along the running track that traverses the Pest side of the island, past the miniature zoo, and then meander down the center of the park with a detour through the Japanese garden.
The path we follow takes us past what the guidebooks say are medieval ruins, a reminder that Margaret Island was an important Budapest religious enclave up until the 16th century when churches, cloisters and nunneries dotted the island. Having said that, the medieval ruins we pass look suspiciously like what the English call a “folly,” a building constructed for decorative purposes designed to look like an ancient, ruined castle or monastery, for instance. The question is whether follies existed in 18th century Hungarian landscape design.
After a circuit of Margaret Island, we like to wander along the Danube to Batthyány tér, named for Count Lajos Batthyány, prime minister of Hungary at the time of the failed 1848»Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence against the Austrian Empire. The anniversary of the outbreak of the revolution is on March 15, celebrated with a public holiday and commemorative events.
March 15 is a reminder to me of an aspect of the Hungarian national spirit that is well worth celebrating. The revolution led to a law being passed in April 1848 implementing democratic parliamentary elections that offered the broadest right to vote at that time in Europe, wider even than post-revolutionary France.
Act V of 1848 completely removed all the Hungarian nobility’s privileges. It was inevitable, if still tragic, that the newly crowned Austrian King Franz Joseph I would unconstitutionally revoke the April laws and ramp up conflict between the Hungarian parliament and himself.
It’s highly appropriate that the best view of the Hungarian parliament building is from Batthyány tér, a salutary reminder that this spectacular building is not just a backdrop for countless selfies and influencer clips but a true cradle of democracy. This is the real reason Hungarians should proudly sport a cockade of red, green and white on March 15.
Crossing Batthyány tér, we walk past the church of St. Anne’s, reputedly the best example of Italian Baroque architecture in Budapest, and up Markovits Iván utca, the little street that runs alongside the market to a tiny triangle of cafés that includes our favorite, the Coyote Café and Deli.
We discovered the Coyote when we were walking down from the Castle by the back way after visiting an exhibition; that is, not in the direction of the Danube. We found ourselves in the intriguing tangle of backstreets and flights of steps that lead down to Iskola utca. We turned left and suddenly were on a corner that reminded us of Paris.
I can’t tell you why we chose the Coyote. The café across from it is rather grander and more intriguing. I think it was just because we found a table outside in one of those pools of sunlight I mentioned. Now, strolling to the cafe, sitting outside and turning our faces to the sun is one of our Buda spring rituals. On a good day, of course.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of March 13, 2026.
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