Yeah, well taxis may be cheap but the ones at the train station refuse to use meters and charge outrageous prices even with bargaining. From there to the Intercontinental, asking prices for foreign visitors (me) started at HUF6,000 and I couldn't get it below HUF4,000 despite trying three of them.

I didn't have a local or usable SIM at the time, I do have one now, so installed the Fo app, which seems quite user friendly and in English.

Incidentally, I first tried to get a Telekom/T-mpbile prepaid SIM and they refused to sell it to me, they said they only sold to people with Hungarian address cards. This was at their office nearest the Intercontinental. The nearby Vodafone office had no problem selling me one (and was filled with visitors buying them).

The suggestion to take the municipal ferries is a great one. I got off at Margit Island which is a very nice park, complete with dancing waters fountain. There are hourly "concerts" where the fountain dances to music -- I happened to get there for the hour when it played 60s US rock, suddenly it boomed out Chuck Berry followed by Paul Simon and Roy Orbison.

On my last full day, I went to Memento Park, which is far out of town in the middle of nowhere. Best to go by taxi and have the taxi wait, which means an expensive visit as it's about 4,400 Forint one way from the center of town. This park contains a bunch of the statuary from the Communist days. They took the "best" and put it here, sort of a satire of itself. Admission is 1,500 Forint per person, What can I say, it's my kind of place and it elegantly shows off Hungarian attitudes towards the Russians in quite a different way. There's a Trabant there too.