Traveling behind the old Iron Curtain always has a bit of intrigue for me. Budapest, Hungary’s capital and economic center, is a beautiful city for the most part and oozes history. It also has the feel of one of those Radio Free Europe commercials I use to watch as a kid. It’s also one of those cities where I keep my wallet in my front pocket firmly gripped by my right hand.
Visitors quickly learn that Budapest is the combination of Buda, the old part of town, and Pest, the current business center, divided by the Danube. Each has its charms and both share a propensity for nocturnal mischief.
On the final night of my press tour, our group headed to an elegant restaurant in Buda called Apetito. Known as a “wine restaurant,” a regional wine is served with each course. In this case, five wines. Our group of about 10 enjoyed the food, the wine and the snappy conversation for about three hours. Other patrons of the restaurant came and went during that time, some noticed by our group, some not. A young couple who sat across from our table and had just a beer were noticed by some of our group, but apparently they weren’t noticed close enough.
As we started to leave the restaurant to board the small tour bus, a female member of our group suddenly realized that her pocketbook, which had been hanging on the rear of her chair, was nowhere to be found. A thorough search of the joint produced no pocketbook. So, it was time to go to the tape. As is the case with many Budapest locales, the restaurant is surveilled by closed circuit cameras. The tape showed the female member of the couple brushing by the chair of the woman with the missing pocketbook. Clearly, this duo were professionals and the pocketbook was swiped in a nanosecond. In that pocketbook were this woman’s passport, credit cards, money, etc…not a good night for her. The police were quickly summoned to gather information, but that’s about all they could do. Fortunately for the victim, our very capable hosts helped her obtain a temporary passport and return home, albeit a couple of days later.
All of that took time, precious time that had been allocated for a pub crawl. So the hotel bar became the best option. Heading to the bar at the Marriott around midnight for a beer or three, I noticed a nice looking woman, perhaps in her late 30s or early 40s sitting alone at the bar across from me. It was apparent she had been there awhile. Her cocktail glass was long empty. It soon became evident to me that she was “working.” She smiled at me as she did every man who entered the area. She soon spotted a target and walked across the barroom to sit at his table. I can only assume the asking price was too high as she soon was back at her perch at the bar. As my first beer led to the second and eventually a third, I could tell she had grown weary of finding a client. She left the bar and headed to an adjacent reception area near the hotel’s front desk. Business soon picked up for this woman because it didn’t take long to for her to hook up with an old codger who apparently was looking for some company. Perhaps he was a hotel guest, perhaps not. All of this activity was in clear view of the hotel staff who didn’t seem to care. The next day, one of my fellow journalists on this press trip mentioned that he had seen a queue of working ladies outside the Marriott as went for a walk in the wee hours.
Some subsequent research informed me that the hotel bar scene is commonplace and more importantly, very legal in Hungary. These ladies work a string of high-dollar hotels in Pest along the Danube. And, of course, the hotel staff expect to be tipped should you become a client of one of these ladies. For the record, I did not choose to be a client.

The Danube divides the Buda (left) and Pest sections of Budapest.