Budapest Blog

Free guided tour in Budapest

Well first of all I want to say happy birthday and wish my best to Hungarybudapestguide.com a very good and comprehensive website about Budapest. More or less a competitor of me but no reason not to congratulate and say thank you for all the comments. Now as a gift Hungarybudapestguide.com gives away a free guided tour in Budapest but only if you send an email to them today.

Free guided sightseeing tour in Budapest means that you will get a tour guide by foot for free, no hidden costs or anything. Unfortunately it is not said for how long the tour will last. If you want transportation e.g. by car you need to hire it yourself.

So that is a big chance for you to grab a free tour if you send an email to them but hurry since it is only for today. Congratulations again.

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Win 1.000.000 HUF for getting your hair cut

Back from Transilvania and back from fantastic lunch at Restaurant Hong Kong. Coming back to the topic I read an article today at Earthtimes.org concerning the Hungarian black market fighting. I would say this method they will use to fight the black market is quite innovative and hilarious at the same time.

The government will start a kind of lottery with prices up to 1 million HUF (~3700€) in Hungary which can be won with special receipts which you get for legal products and services such as getting your air cut or going by taxi around Budapest. After you get the receipt you send an SMS with the serial and tax number given on the receipt and you have the chance to win up to a million Forint. The people can send in as many serials as they get and weekly 10 people will win a cash price. Good luck.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Boldog Karácsonyt to everybody. Untill december 28th I will be out of town, so now news, no reviews just relaxing, eating and drinking as every year. I will be in Csíkszereda, Transilvania for this Christmas. For all Hungarians of you, this is what is waiting for me:

Now that was the dirty version of Transilvanian swearing. If you want more of these videos check out this. They are absolutly hilarious.

So, merry christmas to all of you.

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Nice Budapest Pictures

Just a quick post to let you know about 3 very good pictures of Budapest. Picutres taken from iClickclick. Really really good as I think.

The name “Budapest Moving” is well chosen for these pictures.

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After the airport come the trains

When I opened my feedreader this morning I had tons of airport strike news to read. Honestly I am not sure how much is going on there at the moment but as I read at Hungarybudapestguide inbound and outbound flights are still going on Ferihegy only that outbound flights have a delay of around 30 - 60 minutes and the airport recommends to arrive at least 3 hours before departure due to the long time waiting at the security check in.

As if that wouldn’t be enough I saw today morning on the TV and also in my feedreader that also MÁV, the Hungarian railway company is on strike. Well thats a nice timing. Budapest Airport and trains on strike and that right before christmas. Sounds like a nice holiday for all those going by plane or train to their relatives. I will leave Hungary on saturday but by car, as usual when I am going to Transilvania. As I heart there is about half a meter of snow and -20 degrees celsius already… I can’t wait, honestly.

Coming back to the strikes, I have the feeling that the airport is on strike 4 times a year probably for just not working a couple of days. Thats at least what a friend told me who is working on the airport that he is not really on strike but loves his time off. I don’t want to presume any lazyness but I really have the feeling that they are quite often on strike. Anyways in a couple of days it will calm down, everybody can go on holiday and have a nice christmas.

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More Lights in Budapest

I read today in a newspaper article, I think it was Metro, that soon 2 more bridges in Budapest will get lights at night. At the moment just the Chain Bridge is fancy lighted at night but soon to come, Margit Bridge and Freedom Bridge will get lights as well.

The costs for this project will be taken over by the country of Japan. Why Japan? The diplomatic relationship between Hungary and Japan is celebrating its anniversary and thus Japan will take over the 250 million Forint costs for the lights.

That for sure will look nice, I have seen a modified image in the newspaper, but it will for sure take away some attention of famous Chain bridge. Well, we will see.

Posted in Budapest, News | 1 Comment »

Budapest Bar Scam

End of last week I was searching a bit online and stumbled upon an article or a review about the Bar Galaxia in Budapest. So far so good but the review was more than bad and reported about a typical Budapest Bar Scam around Vaci út in Budapest.

Typical is that 2 good looking, young girls pretending to be students chat up some tourists on Vaci út. They pretend to not know any bars around but of course they know exactly where they are going. The bars you go to are super expensive and you will not go out there under 25.000 HUF per person for a few drinks. A good collection of bars you can find at the website of the Embassy of the USA which include the following:

• Diamond Club
  Budapest II district, Bimbó út 3.
• Eden Night Club
  Budapest VI district, Andrássy út. 54.
• Galaxia étterem, bár
  Budapest V district, Bécsi utca 3.
• La Dolce Vita
  Budapest V district, Október 6. utca 8.
• Mercy Club and Lounge
  Budapest VII district, Dohány utca 88.
• Nirvana Night Club
  Budapest V district, Szent István krt.13.
• Pigalle Night Club
  Budapest VIII district, Kiss József utca 1-3.
• Városközpont (accessible by outside elevator)
  Budapest V district, Váci utca 16.

These are the bars to avoid in Budapest according to the embassy of the United States of America. Of course there are more bars like this but that is a good start. If you search on Google for Bar Galaxia in Budapest you will find tons of articles about the scam. Here are some articles and forum posts I found which perfectly describe the scheme of the girls and and bars.

Forum post at Topix.com about Swindle in Budapest - Click

Article about Budapest bar Scam at johnnyjet.com - Click

List of bars/restaurants to avoid by the US Embassy - Click

And I also collected a list of especially table dance / strip bars in Budapest to avoid - Click

If you need reliable bars in Budapest check out my list of reviewed bars in Budapest where you can go to. If you want to go to a nightclub in Budapest please select one of the trusted. The most trusted and famous nightclub in Budapest among tourists is for sure the Marilyns night club at Baross utca. So you can go there, enjoy yourself but have a transparent pricing scheme.

So please, if you are up to catching girls here in Budapest go through the city with open eyes, read every menu before you order and don’t let them chat you up on tourist centers like Vaci street because there you for sure get ripped off. If you need recommendations or have any experience with Budapest Bar Scam please leave a comment or drop me a line by email.

Posted in Budapest, Entertainment | 1 Comment »

Learning Hungarian with Youtube

Everybody knows that Youtube hosts tons of videos from professional HD ready movie trailors in 16:9 over semi professional Vodcasts to amateur movies made by all kinds of people in low quality. Anyways while surfing the other day on Youtube I found several videos dealing with learning Hungarian by watching videos. A voice is pronouncing the words and in the same time you see a picture of the object. In the case of the picture the video deals with fruits. The same is available for numbers and all kinds of topics.

I think it is a quite good idea to learn some words if you are really a beginner. Here you can find the fruits video, animals and seasons.

Honestly this should have been done by a language school in Hungary. I mean the 3 videos have been watched around 3500 times together so that would have been a lovley promotion for the language school. Anyways, check out the videos if you are learning Hungarian or even if you are Hugarian as it is quite funny. I embedded the videos also in my First words in Hungarian page which Idefinetly have to renew as soon as possible.

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Grand openings in Budapest

Two openings this year to talk about. As mashkulture.net reports Roberto Cavalli opened up a store in Budapest. Together with his partner and friends, Hungarian film producer Andy Vajna (Terminator Trilogy) his Andrassy ut flag store opened up. Cavalli and Vajna were present themselves as you can see on th pictures.

Second grand opening will be Costa Coffee this december. The London based coffee company plans to open up 10 stores in Budapest, the first 2 will be this year on Oktogon and on Vaci utca. Prices for a regular 3dl Caffe Latte will be between 550 and 600 HUF as Caboodle reports.

Two stores that nobody really needs but it is nice to see that international companies are expanding to Budapest and Eastern Europe.

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Budapest Fashion Week 2008

This weekend the Budapest Fashion Week will be held in VAM Design Center. From today, friday November 28th till sunday November 30th nearly 21 designers and fashion companies will present their letest creations. Every day from 7 p.m. till 10 p.m male and female models will hit the catwalk in fancy dresses.

The companies presenting the fashion are Váradi Csaba, Makány Márta, Orosz Réka, Király Mónika, Iványi Kriszta, Gere Márta Georgina és Magdolna Veronika, EXP, Krausz Dianna, Varga Gyöngyi, Tóth Mónika, LeCorset, Szakos Kriszta, Reök Cecília és Varga Tímea, Coterie Studio, Glotz Erika, Madream, Mantra, La Coll, Mixchel, Kenguru.

The fashion will be presented by the hottest Budapest girls and models from all over the country. The entrance price for the fashion week is 1500 HUF (~6 Euro) or if you come in a group of more than 15 persons you will pay 1300 HUF per ticket. For more information about tickets and pricing find more information on Ticketpro.hu the official ticket office for the Budapest Fashion Week. Pictures about the Fashion Week you can find here unfortunately the website is not up to date and still advertising last years fashion week.

So if you are a fashion fan and have time, go have a look at Budapest Fashion Week 2008.

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