“Apple’s support included cash and computers at a time when Graphisoft was a small company with limited resources, working within the economic and political confines of what was, at the time, communist Hungary. Apple also introduced Graphisoft to its worldwide distribution network, which we rely upon to this day.”

The statue is made of bronzed by the Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth who created it the way Steve Jobs is probably most remembered, turtleneck, jeans and round glasses. If you want to see the statue of Steve Jobs in Budapest you should visit the Graphisoft Park (See on map) which you reach the best with the suburban train HÉV to direction of Szentendre.

Steve Jobs Statue in Budapest

Bio Market Budapest

The Bio Market in Budapest is a weekly market only trading bio and organic products located on the parking place of the Budapest Congress Centrum (link to map). Every Saturday traders of bio and organic goods come together to sell their products. On the Bio Market in Budapest you can find anything from vegetables to clothes all biologically or organically produced. Most of the visitors you find there are young families having children to buy fresh vegetables, milk, bread, creams, fruits and much more for their children but also for themselves.

As stated on the picture the Bio Market is open from 6.30 till 13.00 every Saturday. Nearby you can find a park with a playground where most people are going to after or before shopping to play with their kids and spend the time after on the fresh air.

The Bio Market is a collection of little wood houses where the traders offer their goods and talk with the visitors. I think it is a good opportunity to buy fresh and local vegetables and fruits and not to buy all your grocery in the big shops like Tesco or Auchan even though it is a bit more expensive. Additionally you can find there interesting new products especially what they make there fresh. Another reason for me to go there is Mangold, the “spinach like” vegetable which you always get in Croatia next to your fish and potatoes. This is actually the only place in Budapest where I have seen Mangold.

So if you fancy bio and organic foods and drinks and want to spend a Saturday morning out in the nice weather than I recommend you to go there one day. I also wonder if there are other bio markets somewhere around the city so if you know one please let me know.

Bio Market Budapest

Since quite some time I am travelling almost weekly by plane and start my trip after the airport transfer by taxi at Ferihegy Airport 2A in Budapest. The flight I usually take is at 07:20 to Warsaw which seems to be the worst time to checkin at the airport as this is the time of business travelling, no matter which day you decide to go. In terminal 2A you have guessed 30 checkin desks and two ways to enter the security check.

It first starts with the checkin which in my case does not take long as I use the quick checkin terminals to get my boarding pass but sometimes I need to drop off my luggage and thats where the problems start. There is a seperate counter for luggage drop of which you are not allowed to use, instead you need to queue with tons of other people who don’t have their boarding pass yet or online online print outs. This is another line than the usual one but still it is long enough to spend there half an hour and who got up at 4.30 to be at the airport by 6.00 knows to value half an hour. So I decided nowadays not to check in any luggage anymore as it simply takes too much time. I mean why the hell do I need to spend my time in a queue just to drop off my suitecase? Pointless.

That was point one where you can spend a massive amount of time at the airport in Budapest but than comes the security check which is simply a mess. You have 2 chances to enter the security checkin and as you can’t see from which side the queue is longer it is a bit of gambling (usually the right entrance is the shorter one). In any other airport I have been to the ticket and passport check before the actual security check is kind of organized but in Budapest it seems like you being in the queue for free beer at a festival. Two ladies trying to check hundreds of passports and boarding passes which in this time is almost impossible. And after you went through that you have to queue again for getting your security treatment but of course only 4 of possible 8 lines are open of which 1 is for priority.

So all in all I spend on a monday morning up to 1 hour on the airport just for checkin and security check. I am not a logistic specialist or an airport controller but my logic thinking is that people responsible should know at what time how many people approximately want to travel and in this case I open up a few more checkin counters and security check lines. When I go with the flight at 9.30 there are not so long queues of course because fewer people travel but the amount of open counters and security checks are the same so why not increase the number of people for one or two ours in the morning and it would all go much easier. By the way I am not the only one thinking like this, if you check the Foursquare page of the Budapest airport you will find comments like:

Extreme long check-in and security queues (Terminal 2A) at morning departures (flights between 7 and 8 am).

Watch out for security when departing. Its a hellish long line!!

So to be sure you catch your flight and not leave Budapest in stress you should take some time for checkin and security check. Once in there is not much to do wrong, it is a simple, small airport and that’s why I don’t understand how to have so big trouble in organizing a normal checkin.

So what does that mean for the traffic in Budapest? You might know that for the past years also Liberty bridge was closed and everybody thought that it will be a desaster but it wasn’t. I think in the case of margit bridge it will be the same even though Margit bridge has much heavier traffic than Liberty bridge does.

Anyways somehow after a while the traffic will find it’s way. People discover new ways to work and cross the Danube on Árpád bridge or Liberty bridge and find new roads they can use instead of the ones they used to go on before. Nevertheless it will be a big daily traffic coming to the people who crossed Margit bridge or roads around like the Rakparts, the Körút or other ways near the bridge.

One of the questions for now is how long does it really take to renew Margit bridge. In case of Liberty bridge it took more time than scheduled and I am quite sure that the same scenario will come true for the reperation of Margit bridge as well and Budapesters will have to use different ways longer than originally planned. Finally, as I heart Árpád bridge will be closed as well due to construction but I hope and guess only after the Margit bridge constructions are finished in 2011… or later.

No as I said some pictures were just hilarious for example this one:

It took me a moment to get it but I think thats just simple and good. There were tons of good posters so if you have the chance to see it go for it. It is for free, you can get drinks there and it is open till late if not all night. For all of you Hungarian speakers check the website.

Looks pretty awesome. Cheers

Well anyways I think it is a nice way to see if and how popular Budapestagent.com is and if the information is really helpful. In my mails I have daily critics, feedback, hate and love mails but transferring that to a more or less open platform is a nice possibility. So if you are on Facebook please “Become a fan of Budapestagent.com on Facebook” I would be more than happy.

As I am really into Social Media at the moment you can also follow me on Twitter.

25.10.2006 – incl. videos

24.10.2006 – with BBC pictures

03.10.2006 – 2 videos

19.09.2006 – CNN news

For more posts about riots in Budapest try the search in this blog or check out Google News about yesterdays riots. Cheers and live in Peace.

Till April 14th Gyurcsány will remain as Primeminister, till than a new candidate should be found to avoid completely new elections which the main opposition party Fidesz is calling for. Nevertheless Gyurcsány was reelected as the partys president with 85% of the votes.

With that news the Forint started to be weaker again and jumped up above the 300 mark. At the moment around 302 Forint per Euro which is most likely to go up the next days. So if you are planning to change some Euros into Forint I would wait 2 or 3 days.

As I am not the political monster and just sum up what I read in other sources I recommend to you to read the following stories about Gyurcsány and his resignation:

• Reuters.com
• NY Times
• Telegraph

Looks nice and shiny. The question is when these trains will make their first ride in Europes second oldest metro system.