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Running in a perfect straight line for two and a half kilometres up to Hosok tere on the edge of the Varosliget, Budapest's longest, grandest avenue was inaugurated in 1884 as the Sugar (Radial) ut but soon renamed Andrassy ut after the statesman Count Gyula Andrassy. The name stayed in popular use throughout the years when this was officially Stalin Avenue (1949-56) or the Avenue of the People's Republic (1957-89), until it was formally restored. With its greystone edifices laden with dryads, its Opera House and coffee houses, the avenue retains something of the style that made it so fashionable in the 1890s, when "Bertie", the Prince of Wales, drove its length in a landau, offering flowers to women as he passed. The initial stretch up to the Oktogon is within walking distance of Erzsebet ter, but if you're going any further it's best to travel from sight to sight by the yellow metro beneath the avenue, or bus #4. At Andrassy ut 3 the Post Office Museum ( Posta Muzeum ; Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; 100Ft) occupies a fabulous old apartment, complete with parquet floors, marble fireplaces, Venetian mirrors and frescoes by Karoly Lotz; its owners fled to the US in 1938. Exhibits include a compressed-air mail tube, vintage delivery vehicles, and a display on the inventor Tivadar Puskas, a colleague of Thomas Edison, who set up the world's first switchboard and telephonic news service in Budapest in the early 1900s. The State Opera ( Allami Operahaz ) was founded by Ferenc Erkel, the composer of Hungary's national anthem, and occupies a magnificent neo-Renaissance pile built in 1875-84 by Miklos Ybl. It can boast of being directed by Mahler (who complained about the anti-Semitism in Hungary), hosting performances conducted by Otto Klemperer and Antal Dorati, and sheltering two hundred local residents (including Kodaly) in its cellars during the siege of Budapest. Tours of the grand interior (daily at 3pm & 4pm; 1200Ft) leave from the side entrance on Hajos utca. In a similar vein, don't miss the New Theatre ( Uj Szinhaz ) on Paulay Ede utca, off the other side of Andrassy, whose blue and gold Art Nouveau facade and foyer (by Bela Lajta) look superb. One block north of the Opera, Andrassy ut is crossed by Nagymezo utca - dubbed " Broadway " after the clubs and theatres on either side. During the interwar years the most famous was the Arizona club run by Sandor Rozsnyai and his wife Miss Arizona, which inspired Pal Sandor's film of the same name, starring Hanna Schygulla and Marcello Mastroianni; the Rozsnyais were murdered by the Arrow Cross in 1944. Their club was at Nagymezo utca 20, in the former home of the Habsburg court photographer who lends his name to the Mai Mano Photography Museum (Mon-Fri 2-7pm, Sat, Sun & holidays 11am-7pm; 200Ft) that now occupies two floors of the building - worth a visit for its fine exhibitions and photographic bookshop. Further up Andrassy, two elongated squares with pavement cafes provide an interlude. On the left is Jokai ter , with a large statue of Jokai himself, while across the road on Liszt Ferenc ter , the composer hammers an imaginary keyboard with his vast hands, blind to the strolling, flirting crowds or the Music Academy that bears his name, further along. Continuing along Andrassy brings you shortly to the intersection with the Nagykorut (Great Boulevard) at the Oktogon , an eight-sided square flanked by eclectic buildings. With 24-hour fast-food chains ensconced in two of them, and buses and taxis running along the Nagykorut through the small hours, the Oktogon never sleeps. During the Horthy period it rejoiced in the name of Mussolini ter, while under the Communists it was called November 7 ter after the date of the Bolshevik revolution.
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