Tag: Hungary Travel

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Hyper Chocolate Bar of Hungary

February 10, 2012 at 4:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

From just two days in Budapest the other week, it seems like we could fill six months worth of Foreign Grocery Friday features. Offensive, weird, funny-sounding...who knew snacks and candy could be so odd?

The best of the bunch, though, was the Hyper chocolate bar—or, as the packet has it: "The wafer for big people."

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Hungary's Malev Shuts Down after 66 Years, LCCs Rush In

February 6, 2012 at 1:56 PM | by | Comments (0)

Hey, remember when journalists started weirdly declaring that everything was fine with the airline industry? And then travelers took that to mean that good times were here again while the government swooped in with expensive new regulations? And then remember how American Airlines went bankrupt and then Spanair shut down and then Hungary's Malev shut down? Good times.

There's not much to say about this latest casualty of the global economic crunch. Hungary really, really wanted to keep Malev operating, with the government declaring the airline to be a "priority objective." But they just couldn't make the carrier viable—specifically, they couldn't convince suppliers that the government would be able to pay them for services—and thus ended the Malev's 66 years of almost continuous service. Sad.

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Where to Take a Proper Bath in Budapest

February 1, 2012 at 3:41 PM | by | Comments (0)

You already know that hitting the bath is a must-do activity in Budapest. But which to choose?

On our recent trip, we decided to go with the Gellert baths, since a Hungarian friend had told us they were the most beautiful. Had it been summer, though, we might have chosen the Szechenyi baths; they’re bigger, and a large portion of them is outdoors. And another time, we’d also go for the newly refurbished Rudas baths, which we were told on our last day we should hit up.

Anyway, back to the Gellert. The baths are indeed beautiful—a gorgeous main art deco pool, and lavish thermal sections off either side of it. The main pool is just a swimming pool, and is co-ed; people mainly swim seriously or do aqua aerobics and stuff in here. At the foot of it is a small, separate thermal section. This is also co-ed.

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A Night at the Opera in Budapest is Cheaper Than a Tour of the Opera House

January 30, 2012 at 4:10 PM | by | Comments (0)

A night at the opera is normally one of the most expensive, OTT things you can do. Not so much in Budapest, though. A tour of the incredible opera house costs 2900 HUF ($13) per person, but show tickets start at just 300HUF—that’s right, $1.33. We know which we’d prefer.

On our recent trip, the cheapest opera ticket we could buy on the day was 4400HUF ($19.50) for a seat in a box. Luckily, we decided to shell out. Luckily because even though we’re not opera buffs, it was one of the most incredible productions we’ve ever seen (Mephistopheles, since you ask).

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Budapest Certainly Knows How to Mix History with, um, Popular Culture

January 25, 2012 at 4:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

There's nothing quite like the mixture of the old and new in Budapest. Art Nouveau and Communist architecture. Medieval cobbled streets, and fast-moving dual carriageway thoroughfares. Cutting-edge modern opera staged in a beautiful 19th century theater.

And a sex shop in a gloriously frothy old building.

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Wish You Were Here: Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest

January 24, 2012 at 12:05 PM | by | Comments (0)

Budapest in winter: somewhere we've always wanted to go, but somewhere we've never quite dared—the snow! The biting cold! Could the beauty of winter really be worth getting frostbite for?

This year, we bit the bullet and booked. The good news: we didn't get frostbite. The bad: there was no snow! We found ourselves in a January so mild it was unheard of.

On the plus side, we got to cut our Budapest teeth without freezing, with barely any other tourists, and with that stunning stark winter sun lighting up our photos. Like this one from the Fisherman's Bastion next to the Matthias church in hilly Buda, looking down at the Hungarian parliament.

Now there's a sight that beats Capitol Hill.

[Photo: juliab]

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Chimney Cakes of Hungary

Where: Hungary
October 28, 2011 at 12:05 PM | by | Comments (0)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Hold up your arm and look at your forearm. Imagine a twisted masterpiece of dough that's roughly the length of it, and about as wide. Sure, it's hollow inside, but the magic in a Hungarian Chimney Cake is that doughy diameter. It's like what would result if a pretzel and a cinnamon bun got romantic.

Of course if you're actually over in Hungary or Romania and hungry for this massive sweet—revered as the most historical pastry in Hungary—you should know it's called Kürtös Kalács. Cooked over an open-flame hearth, the sugar-crusted rings of yeast pastry are traditionally coated in sugar, but other topping options are coconut, cinnamon, walnut, almond, chocolate and sprinkles.

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In Pursuit of Free WiFi, an Outlet, and a Cushioned Bench at Budapest Airport

January 13, 2010 at 3:23 PM | by | Comment (1)

There are three things we care about in airports, alcohol obviously excepted. They are, in genuinely no particular order: a working electrical outlet, free airport wifi, and a comfortable chair. At any given time in Budapest's terminal 2B¡the half of the international terminal that serves EU countries—you can get two out of the three. Never all three. Sometimes only one. Usually two out of three. But never all three.

We were actually pretty psyched to roll into the airport recently, where Jaunted's Airport WiFi Map correctly promised we would get free wireless. It turns out that using the wireless can be a challenge because the signal is sometimes uneven inside the terminal and, of course, because computer batteries only last so long. The root of the problem lies in BUD's decor, which is this kind of haphazard and postmodern "maybe we'll put cushions on our uncomfortable metal benches and maybe we won't" arrangement.

Benches are molded four seats at a time, with accompanying green cushions glued in - or not - in seemingly random order. Where there are no cushions the seats are painfully uncomfortable. When there are cushions there are almost never four in a row, which makes using the benches as makeshift overnight beds impossible. Take a look:

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