Budapest Travel Guide
2/07/2008 at 9:30 AM
Tags: Budapest, Europe Travel, Restaurants, Restaurant Reviews, HOWTO, Websites, Travel Websites (all tags)
There's just a month to go until the Budapest Spring Festival kicks off, so we thought it time to tell you how to find a place to eat in this pretty city. We suggest trying a neat website called Chew.hu.
We're already quite taken with the name, but the content is also terrific. Chew.hu has a Top 33 list which they describe as a "No-PR, No-BS List of Better Budapest Restaurants." The list--and, no, we can't figure out why 33 is the magic number--features a large variety of cuisines from Indian to French to Hungarian to Bavarian, and each restaurant is linked to Chew's sister site Caboodle where you can read what others have to say about the place.
Chew.hu also publishes regular blogs and updates about the wining and dining industry of Budapest. They're not afraid to pursue what they think is right, having recently got pretty upset at a popular restaurant that was including large "suggested tips" on the bills. They also keep an eye on where scandalous rotten meat is ending up--it's an ongoing saga--and tell you where you can get your jellied pigs' feet.
Related Stories:
· Chew.hu [Official Site]
· Spring into Budapest in 2008 [Jaunted]
· Budapest Travel Stories [Jaunted]
[Photo: dogra]
by amandak
1/03/2008 at 9:00 AM
Tags: Europe Travel, Festivals (all tags)
In many parts of the world it might still feel like winter is dragging its feet, but inevitably spring will arrive--and with it, the annual Budapest Spring Festival. As the grand old city of Budapest gradually steals tourists from Prague, its cultural offerings are getting more and more attention on the international scene, and with good reason.
This year the Spring Festival kicks off on March 14, 2008 and runs through until March 30. With dance, operetta, jazz, folk music, theater and orchestra concerts, every arts lover can find an event to love. There are also a few performances labeled "crossover" which seem to have an eclectic mix of stuff going on.
But if crossover is still too mainstream for you, don't forget the Budapest Fringe Festival on the final weekend of the Spring Festival: That's where the really way-out artists play.
Related Stories:
· Budapest Spring Festival [Official Site]
· Budapest Fringe Festival [Official Site]
· Budapest: Now More Than Ever! [Jaunted]
[Photo: geese]
by amandak
7/26/2007 at 9:12 AM
Tags: Beer (all tags)
Travelers around many parts of Europe at the moment might be stuck in a heat wave: and the Hungarians want to do something about it. Unable to find a way to control the weather, they're thinking of adding a siesta to their day instead.
This mid-afternoon shutdown is commonplace in more southerly European nations, and the National Election Committee in Hungary have approved a possible referendum question about introducing a siesta. Supporters need to get 200,000 signatures and then the whole nation will be asked to vote on the idea. The same committee didn't agree, however, that a proposal to make all beer in restaurants free was such a good idea. That's a pity, since an afternoon siesta and free beer could've been big business for tourism in Hungary.
Related Stories:
· Hungary Approves Referendum on Introducing Siesta [Reuters]
· Lying Politicians in Hungary [Jaunted]
· Budapest Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
[Photo: Daquella manera]
by amandak
9/05/2006 at 10:15 AM
Tags: Travel Media, Adventure Travel (all tags)
We were never as enamored with Budapest as with Prague--it's tough being the ugly sister--but we can recognize that Budapest deserves a
fairer shake in the New York Times than this. While this is ostensibly an article about how far the Hungarian capital has come in the days when people went there and wished they were eating, uh, Czech knedliky instead of chicken with paprika, it comes off as rather out-of-touch: There are malls! There aren't as many weird scams anymore! People come here from Vienna, not on the way to Prague!
Great, that's certainly true, but
of course they take credit cards--Hungary's part of the EU, and has been since 2004. Bucharest--with a delightful combination of inexpensive adventure and feral dogs--may be "stealing some of Prague's spotlight", but we're sure that Budapest is capable of standing on its own merits by now.
[Image via buckofive/Flickr]
Related Stories:·
Budapest is Stealing Some of Prague's Spotlight [NYT]
by AVB
5/26/2006 at 9:50 AM
Tags: alcohol, animals (all tags)
Is it just us, or do the Hungarians spend all their free time drinking? Even their monkeys are in on the act. The
Budapest Zoo reports that their anthropoid apes, in particular, work their way through 55 liters of red wine a year. Zoo employee Zoltan Hanga said:
They get it in small amounts mixed in their tea. And it's not ... some expensive wine that they're getting, but simple table wine, as it's good for their blood cells.
What the other animals think about the luck that their monkey colleagues have is open to speculation. Perhaps the swallow-bellied woolly pigs (as they call them over there in Budapest) and bold-necked hens in the ancient Hungarian livestock display prefer
specially preserved rum?
[Image via Nagy David/Flickr]
Related stories:
Wine Keeps Apes Feeling Fine [CNN]
Drunk Monkeys Mirror People [Discovery Channel]
by amandak
3/21/2006 at 11:00 AM
Tags: Funny (all tags)
They like things a little rough in Budapest. The stylist Szabolcs Bodnar has taken to cutting his clients' hair with a chopping block and ax. To get stray hairs out of there, he uses a vacuum cleaner, and to straighten curly hair, he uses an iron. If you're up for it, you can instead hang upside down while he uses a samurai sword. Naturally, his salon has been a hit since he's included all this violence. Wasn't this a skit with John Belushi on Saturday Night Live?
Related Stories:·
Radical Hair Stylist Uses Axes and Swords [Impact Labs]
·
Short back and scythes [UKTV]
by johnrambow
2/14/2006 at 1:20 PM
Tags: Travel Blogs (all tags)
It's become a popular meme these days that blogs are "snarky", callowly subbing an attitude for content. Jaunted finds that to be a load of bull-phooey. Earnest writing doesn't go down smooth, anyway. Who wants health food all the time?
While the need to keep the snark mines open still remains under debate, sometimes a healthy dose of cynicism can be just what the doctor ordered.
We find that our healthiest dose of cynicism comes from Budapest blog
pestiside.hu. Skepticism and a raised eyebrow are Central European traditions with a long history. It's a tradition that pestiside.hu ably carries on with ample coverage of questionable political figures, bathhouse innovations, and Hungarian porn stars. Keep on fightin' the good fight, fellas, for history's sake.
[Image via Stigur/Flickr]
by AVB
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