NO WOMAN, NO BUDAPEST - Gwen Stephani and Sissi and more

Gwen Stefani, Sophia Loren, Sissi - three different stunning ladies and all have a connection to Budapest. We found out about this and a lot more on the "Open Art Studios - Women in Budapest' walk organized by budapestUNDERGUIDE.

Nóra Soós - photo by Gabriella Szendrey

This our Budapest Contemporary Art Pulse tour

"I am a huge fan of art, the meditations of art history, and generally curious about the culture and accomplished artists in the local scene of any destination that I travel to. Local avant garde, fashion, sculpture, and designer handicrafts are inspiring and allowed for my brain to digest the cultural history absorbed from a traditional tourist agenda...

When a hobby becomes a profession – the way to the professionalism

Energetic, dynamic, well-prepared… and guests love her! Maybe that’s the reason why Eszter Talabér, the young guide of budapestUNDERGUIDE, has been voted the second best in “The Guide of Year” competition. Apropos of this had a chat with Eszter about her career in guiding.


Journalist Szilvia Pasztor interviews Eszter Talabér about this prestigious award...

Kino Cinema & Café

There is a place in Budapest which i really like. A good friend took me there after school, and ever since then we have never stopped going there - before school, after school and instead of school - until it eventually became one of our favourite hangout places in all of Budapest.

Well, I dont really know what it is that makes a bar the perfect hangout, but to me Kino Cinema and Cafe has it all to be one of the best hangouts in town.

Ladies with pearls - Ferenciek tere (square)

Ferenciek tere, a beautiful square right in the heart of Budapest.

If this place had to be person, it would certainly be a noble lady. The elegant shapes, frolic curves and  ornaments of the lofty buildings hide even more surprise inside than the fancy decoration on the facades. Modern integrates perfectly into the old style as the light, steel arcs of the snow-white suspension bridge extend over the Danube.      

Let me introduce you to the twin ladies posing on the two sides of the road, Klotild and Matild. Klotild to the south and Matild to the north are perfectly symmetric images of each other. Their names are half real and half part of urban imagination. The land where the two buildings stand now was bought by Archduchess and Princess Clotilde (precisely Marie Adelheid Amalie Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha). She imagined a magnificent gateway to the Elisabeth Bridge; the two buildings, as graceful ladies, welcome people crossing by. The glass paintings are the masterpieces of the Róth Miksa atelier, the one that prepared the glass windows of the House of Parliament, of the Gresham Palace or the National Bank. The towers are topped by the Archduke's crown. 

New World Order 2012 - Discovering contemporary Hungarian fashion in Budapest

Dora Mojzes

Over the past few years numerous young and talented fashion designer emerged in Budapest and started their own brands to rethink and revitalise the Hungarian fashion scene. Numerous showrooms and fashion stores have been created to offer high quality, unique design clothes for fashion-lovers who are looking for something unusual and unique, not available in bigger ordinary stores.

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #8 - Hungarian National Bank

Some will argue - is the National Bank really Art nouveau style? Hmm, yes and no. There are some parts which definitely bear the mark and anyway, it was high time we talked about this important building! 

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #7 - Erzsébet Town Community House

Ever raised your head in Wesselényi street while strolling from one ruin bar to the other? It is really worth it, shoemaker's ghosts inhabit the area around this yellow red Art Nouveau wonder...

For the inexperienced visitor, the sign saying "Capital City Shoemakers’s Guild" may be misleading. Yet, in these parts one had better get used to signs hiding not quite what they read.


 

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #5 - Lokál Ruin bar, ex-Mumus

This week's Art Nouveau Wonder leads us into the Jewish district, the disctrict with th ruin bars...Lokál does not seem amazing at first view, but it has a story full with legends and apart from having a nice beer there, you will feel the need to discover more and more...

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #4 - Hotel Gellért

We love Art Nouveau - this is why we reveal you regularly a story behind a famous building. 

photo: Prof. Ryan james

Hotel Gellért has always been  a pioneer... Long time a back, a monk living in the cave advised virgins on sexual and moral questions... Later it became a benchmark for Hungarian hotel business with its services,,, And would you have thought it had pioneering antiracist ideas? A 'black' noble man entered the spa and the 'white' guests were shocked and wanted him to leave. The spa's response was this: 'everyone can enjoy Gellért Spa's curing effects, regardless to skin colour!'

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #3- Art Nouveau House

In this house, from the decoration of the facade, the arrangement of the interior, through the forms of the furniture, the colours of the stained glass to the graceful female figures on the lamps, Art Nouveau fills everything.

Emil Vidor, a student of Ybl, inspired by Belgian Art Nouveau and German Jugendstil, designed mansions villas and houses for the elite. He combined the craft of European masters with Hungarian, historicist elements. As many other architects of the time, he liked to apply Zsonay majolicas for decoration.

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #2 - Paris Department Store

You might have come across already one of budapestUNDERGUIDE's Art Nouveau programs (http://szecesszio.eu/en), taken part on a free walk on Saturdays or you might have found one of the treasures on the Urban Geocache game. To get you in the turn of century mood, we will publish from now on regularly something about Art Nouveau, Liberty, Modernismo, Secession, or whatever you might call it in your language.

This week, we will tell you about the Paris Department Store - it is a must-see with its Lotz-room!

Let's swim in the Danube in front of the Parliament!

Let’s reclaim the banks of the Danube in Budapest! - our special proposal, a wonderful initiative:

Would you believe that there used to be a swimming pool in front of the Parliament in
Budapest and everybody was allowed to jump into the Danube? Which animal living in the
river do you think was believed to give magical male power that helps the husband perform
his marital duties? Who were the Danube water sellers? What does a street artist can create
out of two white boxes? Where can you lie down on a giant deckchair in the city center on the
riverbank? If you are curious to find out the answers and want to be amazed by the treasures
the city holds during a lovely walk in downtown, Duna Tanösvény (Danube River Trail) is
waiting for you until the 3rd of October.

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #1- Philantia Flower Shop

Philantia Shop window

You might have come across already one of budapestUNDERGUIDE's Art Nouveau programs (http://szecesszio.eu/en), taken part on a free walk on Saturdays or you might have found one of the treasures on the Urban Geocache game. To get you in the turn of century mood, we will publish from now on regularly something about Art Nouveau, Liberty, Modernismo, Secession, or whatever you might call it in your language.

This week, we have Philantia, a little jewelry box on the menu.

Budapest's Eclectic Mix by Amrit Chima

My life in June was relatively uneventful, as is appropriate for this time of year here in Hungary. Not only did Daniel and I spend another two exhausting weeks scrambling to get into our apartment, but we’ve just entered the inertia of “cucumber season”. It’s precisely as many people here have warned: the most exciting event worth reporting is that the cucumbers have begun to ripen…and by how much. Throngs have fled the city after enduring the monotony of their jobs for yet another year (as we in the U.S. are all too familiar with). And although there is an influx of tourists, thickening around festival hotspots, the streets still seem quieter than usual. Though I sometimes feel that I should attend some of these festivals—by missing them surely I’m cheating myself out of an opportunity to fully experience this place—the truth is that we collapsed into our new home with fervor. We didn’t go out except for necessities, instead enjoying books, documentaries, and wine. Friends came to us.

Urban Geocache – Art Nouveau Treasure Hunt

urban geocache - art nouveau treasure hunt

Treasure hunting is cooler than ever - pirates, adventurers and small children have been venturing day by day on new quests in search of that pot of gold, that secret ingredient or the favorite chocolate of theirs. The 21^st century hype, the Geogaching games have revived the excitement of the true outdoor treasure hunts' excitement.

Changing the world in a coffehouse - about our springtime national holiday

15th March, our national holiday in spring has presented us this year with a 4 day long weekend. Very thoughtful and kind of a holiday. Thanks.

Also very thoughtful of google to adorn its logo for this occasion - even if it is rather ugly...

Dive into Darkness at the invisible exhibition

The lights go out, total darkness falls on you. You hold the hand of your partner, and continuously bump into things and people. You hear voices but do not know from where they come from, and even finding the door of the room looks impossible...

No, it is not the end of the world, it is just the experience of the first 5 minutes in the Invisible Exhibition where we become blind for an hour, and realize the interesting things it does to our senses. And yep, it is fun!

First of all I have to assure you it is not so bad as it sounds. I almoast gave up before enetering, but the blind guiders assured me they can get me out in 10 seconds from the

Csepel Works - a ghostly industrial district leftovers from the Communism

by büki

There is a part of town, which seems to be just chucked, languidly left here behind by the
socialist past. Though surrounded by decent, snug suburban garden houses from the east, this
part of the administrative XXIst district does not reflect anything of the twenty-first century.

Let’s see what’s left of a Leninist dream!

Nightfall, twilit sky and winter-cold: Spotting the red neon lights of the main-entrance gate
from the suburban raliway station and a cool shiver

STRICTLY UNIQUE AND HUNGARIAN! Part 3. - younger and older generations

Wanna breathe fresh oxygen on the city's first green wall and shop some real fine design? Between the Opera and the Basilica, lies a little oasis of Hungarian fine art-design.

Wonder how some fashion designer students can rent a showroom on one of our most beautiful squares? Well, they design noisy coats among other things:)

 Discover Hungarian Design Part 3.