Gone, too, are restrictions that allowed only high-ranking party officials to make right turns at certain spots in the city, especially near party and government headquarters. If cars are everywhere, cellular phones are nearly so. Not so long ago there was a scarcity of phone lines, and phones famously didn t work well. If you wanted to have one in-stalled in your home, you signed up and waited, often for 10 years or more. It was a funny thought, but what it illustrated above all was that by that time even communists were capable of making public fun of the system the communist government had spawned.
Consumer goods proliferate.
You could buy good things if you had dollars or access to one of the shops that sold only to ranking party members. I recall needing a bath towel, but when I went to what was advertised as Budapest s best-stocked department store, I found nothing but table after table stacked with threadbare washcloths all beige. Now Hungarians can buy luxury cars in downtown Budapest at Jaguar Hungary, just off N dor Square, and almost anything else they want and in great variety. On V ci Street, the city s traditional commercial avenue, there are classy boutiques, unseen 30 years ago before capitalism returned. In places, Budapest seems to be a city of small entrepreneurs, owners of innumerable specialty shops selling everything.