Three ruin bars, the right order, and pálinka most tourists never get offered.

The bath circuit locals use, plus the chess tables that are as Budapest as the water itself.

Szimpla Kert is the original ruin bar — built in a derelict apartment complex in 2001. But the scene has evolved. I take you through three generations of ruin bars in one evening, from the grandparent to the most interesting new venue opening this year.

The Budapest Jewish Quarter has a food culture that is simultaneously one of the oldest and most overlooked in Central Europe — lángos, chimney cake done properly, Hungarian kürtős, and a deli counter at the Great Synagogue that has been feeding the neighbourhood since 1931.

The Hungarian National Gallery is inside the Royal Palace and covers 900 years of Hungarian art — much of which is explicitly political. I take you through the collection as a history lesson: wars, revolutions, occupations, and the art that survived all of them.

Tourists never go to Óbuda — which means they miss a Roman amphitheatre bigger than the Colosseum, a perfectly preserved Baroque town square, and the fact that Budapest is actually three cities (Buda, Óbuda, and Pest) that were only merged in 1873.