A Doggie Dog World - A Guide to Hungarian Dog Breeds

With Summer venturing just around the corner, walking through Budapest is becoming more and more like a zoo with every new ray of sunshine, as dogs of every breed from Chihuahua to Great Dane roam the streets of Budapest (accompanied by humans, of course). As hundreds of breeds and mixes cross my path, non stand out so much as the Hungarian dogs themselves... 

Dog lovers out there, prepare to fall in love with the 9 top Hungarian dog breeds, starting of course, with the wonderfully mop-like Puli.

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...

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. 

Art Nouveau Wonders in Budapest #9 - Postal Savings Bank

Postal Savings Bank- currently the Hungarian Treasury

Simply the building with the most beautiful roof in Budapest...

Let's see the history of the building and the mastermind of architect behind it!

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!'

Hungarians do not smile but have nice Basilicas - by expat Amrit Chima

The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Assumed Into Heaven and St Adalbert

Daniel took me away from the city to Esztergom.

The city is 28 miles northwest of Budapest where the Danube snakes west toward Austria, forming a natural border between Hungary and Slovakia. From the tenth to mid-thirteenth centuries, Esztergom was the country’s capital and is now the center for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. Not much of a shock, then, that the highlight of our trip was a visit to the city’s church, which is also the tallest building in Hungary—The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St. Adalbert.

I prefer to simply call it The Basilica.

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!

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.

Happy Birthday 88-year-old Grandpa and 100-year-old houses!- expat Amrit's blogpost

Hey magyar readers! ever wondering how expats see us? So read Amrit's articles, where she tells about her life in Budapest...

I left the US in search of surer footing. Budapest may seem an odd choice. By all first impressions, given the unfamiliar language, the lack of my own social network, and the uncertainty of finding employment, it appears more like a place where I’d be unbalanced and flailing. But good things are happening, and I’m beginning to feel at home for the first time in far too long.

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...

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

Alternative Party Guide - On the path of Budapester intellectuals

This week everybody is ill in Budapest more or less. Coughing, sneezing, fever, bed, sleeping. Did too much party las week and year??? No need to worry, just relax a little. Our selection for this weekend for you is chilly program with cafes, spas and museums. 


On the path of intellectuals
People here are snobbishly proud of the marvellous intellectual heritage accumulated through the centuries, the relentless vibe, the coffeehouse life of which Budapest is the catalyst, the crown, the motor, the centre, the flame – whatever you like. 

Money money funny? history? - interesting discovery of Hungarian coins and banknotes

We all like money :) And we are all scared a little when using foreign currency - is 500 a lot or hardly anything? But have you ever tried discovering those always kind-of-the same serious faces and castles on the banknotes? Since we are still not using the euro - we will take a fast tour in Hungarian history, dropping by at wherever the forint notes take us. 

We have endless connections with these almost neighbors Italian  of ours, and one of the liaisons is the name of our currency: forint. The name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. In Hungary, florentinus (later forint), also a gold-based currency, was used from 1325 under Károly Róbert and several other countries followed its example. The forint was reintroduced in Hungary in 1946 and is our money ever since.

Sweet Sinning in Hungary - best cakemakers and their legends

Have you ever tried Hungarian desserts? Not sure? So probably you haven't because eating our sweets is more or less equal to the fall. A Somlói Galuska or a Gundel Palacsinta should definitely have an own tree in the garden of Eden.  Behind every sweet sinful taste there is a story of a great man or a legend.


Let's start with the most diabolic one: the Gundel Pancake in flames....

Minorities of Budapest

If sometimes you're  feeling a bit confused about the incredible number of ethnic groups and nations in Eastern-Central Europe, don't worry! It really is very complicated and has always been. In addition, it's always an incredibly delicate question....

The good old Austro-Hungarian Empire used to be the melting pot of minorities. Although most of the time (not always), the Hungarian represented the majority, a considerable number of different ethnicities lived more or less peacefully together: Germans, Romanians, Jews, Serbs, Gypsies, Croats, Székely (the inhabitants of Transylvania) and so on and so forth.

My sister and Frank Zappa - Vadabadas concert in Zappa Café

wikipedia

Imagine the early 1990s, barely after the democratic transition, rendszerváltás (systemchange) how we call it. Imagine the underground movement of this period and their most beloved meeting place. This place was called Tilos az Á (meaning literally "The A is forbidden" after the famous trespassing sign from Winnie the Pooh - it is the Hungarian version of "No T") till it got closed by the authorities in 1995. Now it reopened. Frank Zappa had a concert there 20 years ago and Tuesday my little sister's band, the Vadabadas played here as well. 

City of Eger - drink wine and wonder on torturing

Last Sunday I was with my family in the city of Eger, in the North-East of Hungary, about a 2 hours' ride from Budapest. Every Hungarian has been on one of the school trips, and then later during university to get a little wasted from the many wines in the Szépasszonyvölgye ("the valley of the beautiful woman" - the name might want to indicate that every woman turns into a beauty after 2 litres of wine :))

Apart from tasting good wines, you can count all the kinds of churches, visit the medieval fortress, meet some medieval fighters and learn in details about the torturing methods of all times in the torture museum!