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Wizz Air's Balloons Pop Prematurely

Poor Wizz Air. What started out as a sweet little marketing idea to celebrate the Eastern European low-cost carrier's fifth anniversary turned nasty this week, and we feel bad for them.

The airline set up a press conference and speaking event in Budapest, and the final act of the day was going to be the release of 1,000 balloons, each with a 10,000 forint ($50) coupon attached which the lucky finder could redeem on a Wizz Air flight.

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Tags: Adventure Travel / Road Race Travel / Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia / → All Tags

Adventure Travel: Caucasia Comes Alive!

So it's too late to join the Gumball 3000, but you still have time to participate in the Caucasian Challenge, a come-as-you-are rally splashed across Eastern Europe from Budapest to Yerevan, Armenia.

"Remember world history in school? We bet they missed some stuff," proclaim the organizers, who are also responsible for an LGBT-themed race called the Rainbow Rampage (isn't that from MarioKart?) and an Indian rickshaw tourney. This year's 4,700-mile competition includes the thrilling potential of tooling along the outskirts of Georgia's still-simmering conflicts--and that's after you've made it through hot spots in Kosovo and Turkey.

It appears that they are still taking reservations--what, there weren't 100 teams willing to figure out a way to get across the Bosporus? Haven't any of you seen "The Great Race"?

Related Stories:
· Caucasian Challenge [Official Site]
· Dictatorship Travel: Bam Margera in the DPRK [Jaunted]
· Gumball 3000 Makes A Pit Stop In Pyongyang [Jaunted]
· Off Limits Travel: Fighting Breaks Out Between Russia and Georgia Over South Ossetia [Jaunted]

[Photo: Caucasianchallenge.com]

Tags: Budapest / Europe Travel / Restaurants / Restaurant Reviews / HOWTO / Websites / Travel Websites / → All Tags

HOWTO: Chew Your Way Around Budapest

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]

Tags: Europe Travel / Festivals / → All Tags

Spring into Budapest in 2008

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]

Tags: Beaches / Crime / → All Tags

HOWTO: Steal a Beach (Hungarian Style)

The new borderless Europe has been in place for less than a week, but already the removal of border controls between the new EU countries and western Europe is being blamed for a crime spree. It's not your ordinary cigarette smuggling though: Hungarian politicians are blaming the lack of security checks for the theft of an entire beach.

Since it's a land-locked country, you might be surprised to hear that Hungary even had a beach, but tons of imported sand next to the river at Mindszentas made the strand a favorite summer spot for locals and tourists alike.

This week when management went to check on the beach, which had been covered and locked up for winter, they discovered that it was gone. Thieves lusting after summer stole playground rides, beach huts, sun loungers and even 6,000 cubic meters of sand.

It almost sounds like the management just looked in the wrong place for the beach, but since the local council got involved everything's gotten serious. If you're holidaying in Hungary next summer be warned: You might have to supply your own sand for a day out by the river.

Related Stories:
· Entire Beach Stolen [Ananova]
· Put Away Your Passport in Europe [Jaunted]
· Hungary Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Beaches coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: glennharper]

Tags: Beer / → All Tags

Siestas Yes, Free Beer No

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]

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Hungarian Highway Surprise

An update on travel conditions in Europe: Hungary's got a hundred extra bunnies running around, if you're interested. That's because commuters and travelers got stuck in a six-hour traffic jam on the M1 between Budapest and Vienna yesterday after a truck carrying rabbits to the slaughterhouse was involved in a crash.

In scenes more reminiscent of animated movies like The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, 5000 bunnies came tumbling out across the highway and held up traffic while they lay in the sun and relaxed. By the end of the day, the statistics were not really favoring the rabbits: 400 died in the crash, 4400 got collected up again, and just 100 made the dash for freedom. Perhaps they'd heard that Bruno the Bear's brothers are on the loose in Austria and they love snacking on rabbits. Whatever the case, next time you're stuck in a European highway traffic jam, spare a thought for the bunnies who won't be ending up on dinner tables after all.

[Photo: rossjl]

Related Stories:
· 5000 Rabbits Block Traffic in Hungary [CBS]
· Beware of Bruno's Brothers [Jaunted]

Tags: politics / Budapest / Hungary / → All Tags

Lying Politicians in Countries Other Than America

Huge news broke this week in Europe. Brace yourself for this surprise: it turns out that sometimes politicians tell lies. It was confirmed by Hungary's prime minister Gyurcsany who got himself recorded on a now-leaked tape with gems like

We screwed up. Not a little, a lot ... No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have ... we lied morning, evening and night.

It's true, bad things have come from these lies, with demonstrations and some violent protests in Budapest and political turmoil and calls for the prime minister's resignation. But wouldn't it be perfect if everybody talked like this all of the time? Just imagine, the Parisian tourism minister's honest opinion: "Don't bother with the Eiffel Tower, it's just a lump of steel designed to take money from tourists." Or in New York: "We don't really recommend the Empire State Building--it's too effin' windy at the top." Not likely, is it?

[Image via AP]

Related stories:
Trouble Over Leaked Recording [IHT]
Budapest: Now More Than Ever [Jaunted]

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Budapest: Now More Than Ever!

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]

Tags: Balaton / tourism boards / → All Tags

Hungary for a Bit on the Side?

Tourism campaigns come in all shapes and sizes these days: with swear words, psychologically spooky personality concepts and now with extra-marital affairs encouraged.

Hungarian tourist authorities are circulating a website with a short cartoon film aimed at promoting Lake Balaton to the younger generation. A traditional summer playground right through communist times, it has an old-fashioned image and visitors are dropping off. So how to attract them? Well, somebody thought it'd be a great idea to show a married guy picking up a pretty young blonde thing over his holiday weekend.

Needless to say, there's been a spot of criticism, but no evidence yet that unfaithful partners are flocking to the lake. It sounds like Hungary's moving on from promoting stag nights, has saturated the dental travel market and now wants to begin a whole new branch of piece-on-the-side tourism.

[Image via Umberta Croce/Flickr]

Related stories:
What Kind of Tourists Do They Want? [Reuters]
Float Your Boat in Hungary [Guardian]
Good Fare to Balaton [Jaunted]

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Crossing the Chuck Norris Bridge

Have we made our point yet that traveling in Hungary can be just a little bit different? If you're not drinking high-percentage alcohol preserved together with human bodies, or getting your teeth fixed between drinks, then in the future you could be driving over Chuck Norris Bridge.

It seems that some things in Hungary are just the same as everywhere, and some politician is trying to distract attention from the fact that a long-promised bridge over the Danube north of Budapest is a fraction behind schedule. The master distraction: An internet poll to name the new bridge. Early internet hype had action star Chuck Norris as the frontrunner in bridge-naming action, with voters citing reasons such as:

he could build that bridge, knock it down with a roundhouse kick, then rebuild it again all in less than 60 minutes

Unfortunately the more ordinary (by Hungarian standards) name of Szent Korona has taken over the lead, but the Hungarian Ministry of Transport is keeping their top list progress vote updated so perhaps before the vote closes on September 8, Chuck'll once again win the day.

Related stories:
Chuck Norris Leads The Way [Sydney Morning Herald]
Jamaican Me Thirsty [Jaunted]

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Slavic Simians Sozzled

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]