Normafa is the lung of Budapest: a beech-forested upland in the Buda hills where the city comes to breathe, look at itself from above and eat strudel. The air is genuinely different up here, a few degrees cooler and washed clean by the trees, and on a clear morning the whole of Pest spreads out below the meadow.
Start at the top, where the lookout opens straight onto the city — get there early, for the light and for the rétes queue. The Normafa Síház sells strudel by the slab; buy apple and sweet curd and eat them on the grass. Then walk into the beeches behind the meadow on the colour-blazed trails, past the Anna-rét clearing where the kite-flyers gather at weekends. To the north, the white Erzsébet tower on János-hegy — the city's highest point — shows through the trees, a longer detour if the legs agree.
Loop back to the meadow for a final look, then take the 21 bus down to Széll Kálmán tér. If there's time, ride the children's railway instead; it's slower and far better.
