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You won’t find a Starbucks in Budapest—yet. Visiting Hungary’s capital, you get the sense that you’re seeing a place on the cusp of impending change. Officially, the country is part of the EU, but its struggling economy and large deficits have pushed back the adoption of the euro until at least 2010. Once this occurs, Hungary and its capital will undoubtedly be transformed. The observant flaneur can already spot telltale signs, like the shiny Furla boutique on an otherwise dusty side street of Váci Utca, or the new glass-encased mall on Vörösmarty Square, where a huge H&M store holds court. But there are also plenty of neighborhoods where it feels like you’re strolling through another era. Some of the houses still bear bullet holes from the 1956 revolution, not because, as our tour guide Katalin Czeller pointed out, the owners want to preserve history but because “we don’t have money to fix them up.”

Unlike Prague, which saw a rush of foreign investment shortly after the fall of Communism in 1989, Budapest has taken its time to emerge as a tourist destination. In the well-traveled triangle of Vienna — Prague — Budapest, the Hungarian city is still treated like the little sister. It’s certainly less polished, but also more authentic, and discovering its secrets is still a bit of an adventure—and infinitely rewarding.