In 2008, while looking for a small office space to support our apartments we stumbled across an extraordinary tine garden apartment, restful and calm in the midst of the inner city’s hustle. Although it was presented as a vacant office space with dropped ceilings and workstation utilities in conduit on the walls, we immediately saw that it could be returned to its original purpose as a cozy cottage-style apartment in the courtyard of one of the oldest apartment buildings in the heart of Budapest
The courtyard is lovely and green, 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 heart of everything. Our favorite pastry shop is across the street 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 a block away is the Gerloczy restaurant, one of the nicest places for a comfortable meal, coffee, beer, lemonade, or simply a rest in the city center.
The apartment itself is ideal for 1-3 people. We have renovated it to capture the feel of an upscale turn of the century 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 tiled bath with a converted antique bentwood chamberpot stand as the sink. The bedroom has a (gated and curtained) double door opening to the courtyard, as well as a lovely small antique wardrobe for your clothes.
Olive is two blocks south of our Szervita ter apartments and 2 blocks north of our Apartment Max.
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 center city across from the city government buildings, the apartment is quiet, and one has the feeling of getting away from it all when one is in it. Yet when you walk out into the street you are within walking distance of most major tourist venues. What is less obvious is that you are also in a thriving small residential neighborhood -- there are several small markets nearby, cleaners, neighborhood cafes (one my very favorite cafes is a block away from Olive -- the Gerloczy --and another is about three blocks away -- the Alibi -- and my favorite (and profoundly non-, perhaps even anti-, tourist) pastry shop -- the Jeg Bufe -- is two-three blocks down the street; there's a pharmacy nearby, a small convenience store just down the block from Sarah.
YOUR CÁFE: Café Gerloczy, around the corner
other excellent nearby choices:
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✤Café Central, 2 blocks away
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✤Café Alibi, 4 blocks away
other good nearby choices:
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✤Jeg Bufé, at the corner
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✤Muzeum Cukraszda, 3 blocks away
YOUR SUPERMARKETS:
CBA, 1 block away;
Match, 1 block away, 24/7;
convenience store: in the courtyard
FINE DINING: Muzeum Kavehaz, excellent traditional menu, 3 blocks (gypsy music on weekends); Borsso, 2 blocks, French/Hungarian fusion (jazz on weekends);
CHEAP EATS: Castro Bistro, 3 blocks; Ruben (lunch) 3 blocks; the butcher shop in the building has a stand-up counter and prepared lunches; take out fried chicken on Semmelweiss utca, 2 blocks
OTHER RECOMMENDED RESTAURANTS NEARBY: Central Kavehaz; Gerloczy Café; Rezkakas
CLOSEST SIGHTS: Great Synagogue, 2 blocks; National Museum, 4 blocks; Central Market 5 blocks;
NEAREST PHARMACY: 2 blocks
NEAREST ATM: 2 blocks
NEAREST CURRENCY EXCHANGE: around the corner
