[please inquire about availability and pricing; because of our multiple listings and the limitations of VRBO's pricing algorithm, we cannot make the calendar here work at all and the prices quoted, while good estimates, are not exact -- sometimes too high, sometimes too low]

Apartment Olive is a small, cozy garden apartment, opening into the courtyard of a landmark building in the very heart of Budapest: the geographic fulcrum of the Belvaros (the historic inner semi circle around the Danube) is Ferenciek Square, and Apartment Olive’s building fronts directly onto that square. It’s one of the city’s oldest residential buildings (the building is a bit tattered), sitting directly across from Budapest City Hall.

The courtyard is lovely, lush, and green, extremely unusual for Budapest, with shrubbery and wildflowers and trees growing wilily nilly. Olive opens off the courtyard and so it is quiet and restful even though it is in the dead center of a historic world capital city.

Our favorite pastry shop (August Cukraszda -- 'cukraszda' means 'confectionery' ... 'cukor' is 'sugar' ... Hungarian is less difficult than you thought!) is just around the corner from the Ferenciek side of the building; our favorite café is a block away from the City Hall (Varoshaz) side of the building. The Astoria stop of the Red metro is a block from the Varoshaz side, the Ferenciek stop on the Blue metro is just outside the Ferenciek side.

If you exit the Varoshaz side you are across the street from one of the few international newsstands in the city, and that café a block away is the Gerloczy, one of the nicest places for a comfortable meal, coffee, beer, lemonade, or simply a rest in the city center.

The Danube is just a couple of blocks’ walk, the pedestrianized Vaci utca is one block away, the Central Market Hall and Vorosmarty Square are each about 5-10 minutes away depending on how fast you stroll. The Great Synagogue is 2-3 blocks away, the Basilca about 6-8. You can catch a bus into Buda (or the Red Metro) just outside the door.

The apartment itself is ideal for 1-3 people (4 if you are two couples).

We have renovated it to capture the feel of an upscale fin de siecle Hungarian garden apartment, with vaulted ceilings and antiques and traditional artisanal pieces throughout. There’s a queen sized bed in the bedroom, a custom shower in the heated tile bathroom (with a converted antique bentwood chamberpot stand as the sink). The bedroom has a (gated and curtained) double door opening directly onto the courtyard for cool summer light, just beside a lovely small antique wardrobe for your clothes.

You enter from the courtyard directly into the livingroom, which has a kitchenette with induction cooktop, fridge, microwave, and clothes washer; a bay window and window seat adjacent to the dining table, a queen convertible sofa (not a folding mattress but a comfortable solid queen), a large flatpanel TV, high speed WiFi internet, free Nespresso coffee system and coffee, free international VOIP outbound calling (and an inbound US telephone number for low-cost incoming calls from the USA).

Olive is two blocks south of our Szervita ter apartment (VRBO #124227) and 2 blocks north of our Apartment Max (VRBO #151479).

If you know Budapest perhaps you have a sense of the ways in which the neighborhood is difficult to describe...while the building that houses Olive is a landmark in the midst of the bustling center city, the apartment is quiet, and one has the feeling of getting away from it all when one is inside (the doors to the courtyard from the street are locked to outsiders after dark).

Yet when you walk out into the street you are within striking distance of almost all major tourist venues. And, less obviously, you are also in a thriving small residential neighborhood -- there are several supermarkets nearby, a laundry across the street, a pharmacy nearby, many neighborhood cafes, and a movie house around the corner.




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