Terézváros and the Oktogon
The Oktogon crossing, the gilded New York Café, the Liszt Academy, and the Nagykörút. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Oktogon
Start at the eight-sided crossing where Andrássy út meets the *Nagykörút* (the Grand Boulevard). Stand on a corner and watch the yellow trams swing through; this is the hinge of nineteenth-century Pest. Then turn down the boulevard.

2. Liszt Ferenc tér
The pedestrian square of café terraces running off the Oktogon, with the Liszt statue mid-stride at its centre. Tables out under the planes, students from the academy at the next table. A drink here is the easy heart of the walk.

3. Liszt Ferenc Zeneakadémia (Liszt Academy)
The Art Nouveau concert hall at the foot of the square, gold mosaics over the door and one of Europe's finest auditoriums inside. Step into the lobby for the tilework; if there's an evening concert, the building is worth a ticket on its own.

4. Király utca
Cut across to the long shopping-and-bar street that runs the district's spine, the dividing line with the old Jewish quarter beyond. Galleries, design shops, ruin bars down the side streets. Walk it as the connective tissue towards the boulevard.

5. New York Kávéház (New York Café)
The most gilded coffee house in the world, marble and mirrors and cherubs on the ceiling. Once the writers' café of Budapest, now a queue and a price to match. Step in for the room even if you skip the coffee; the interior is the spectacle.

6. Nagykörút at Blaha Lujza tér
End on the Grand Boulevard at its busiest crossing, trams grinding past the old façades. The boulevard is the walk's frame and this is a good place to leave it, with the M2 right under your feet.

Terézváros and the Oktogon