This article was written in: Budapest | Blog | Odd'

Celebrities with Hungarian Roots

Hungary is such a small country one might think that not many well known people come from there but you are wrong, there are several worldwide celebrities who are either Hungarian or at least have Hungarian roots. You will be amazed what celebrities have something to do with Hungary so here we go.

Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein is a New York born designer from Jewish-Hungarian immigrants

Jamie Lee Curtis
Just like Calvin Klein Jamie Lee Curtis has Jewish-Hungarian ancestors

Freddie Prince Jr.
Hi grandfather was Jewish-Hungarian as well

Drew Barrymore
Her mothers name is Ildikó, I think that says it all

Paul Newman
His parents are Jews from Poland and Hungary

Alanis Morisette
Same here, mother is Jewish-Hungarian

Adrien Brody
His mother is a Budapest born lady

Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawns mother is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants

Kate Hudson
Since Kate Hudson is the mother of Goldie Hawn, she is quarter Hungarian

Rachel Weisz
Weisz György, a Hungarian inventor is her father

Tara Reid
Tara is a super mixture of different nationalities, Hungarian is one of them

Andrew G. Vajna
Budapest born, still very present in Hungary and most Hungarians know that he is Hungarian so it is not such a surprise

River and Joaquin Phoenix
The grandparents are Jewish-Hungarian

Estee Lauder
She is the child of a Hungarian and a Czech

And there are also some other such as Tony Curtis, Mark Knopfler or Gene Simmons who also have somewhere Hungarian roots. I think it is quite impressive how many celebrities which we know from many movies, as singers or other world wide famous artists are actually with Hungarian background.

This article was written in Hungary, Odd

The friendly garbage collector

Today morning at around 7.30, I was already awake but still in bed, it rang on the front door so I had to get up and check who is it and what he wants. Well friday morning it is time to collect the litter bin which we put outside the property on thursday night already. As we moved in that house not long ago there was still some other gargabe on the property like parquet, old, ugly lamps, boxes and all kind of shit which doesn’t really fit in the normal garbage… usually.

Well today the garbage collector rang the bell and asked me if we need to get rid of that stuff. I answered “yes, sure”. From now on he called me “főnök úr” as he saw his business coming. So he asked me if I would pay 1000 HUF to take all the remaining garbage as well in this round. So I gave him the 1000 HUF and let them take it. Usually I would have put it step by step every thursday night in the litter bin until it is gone but come on for 4 Euro he took all the stuff. He and his 2 colleagues can have a nice beer in the pub tonight and I don’t have to care about the garbage anymore. Fine with me.

Thats how Budapest and Hungary is working. A bit of money and he just took the garbage. It is a one time thing, he is happy I am happy that’s it. You find these businesses everywhere, no matter if in the taxi, with the water installation guy or in the hair dresser. That is the daily life of Budapest.

This article was written in Daily Life, Odd

Worlds largest bladder stone removed

Kind of sick news but I let you know. In the last days in some hospital in Budapest the worlds biggest bladder stone was removed from a 48 year old man. The stone was as large as a honeymelon with a weight of 1.125 kilogramms. I have no idea how big they are usual but that size and weight is simply incredible.

The bladder stone was found only in a routine checkup so that means the man didn’t feel anything. I mean these are really hard things and having that in the size of a watermelon somewhere in your body must hurt or at least you must feel it.

This article was written in Odd

Dog show in Budapest

Well it is a differnt type of dog show which you might think of. In the Hungarian first devision a dog ran on the pitch and wouldn’t get off anymore. Even the clever security couldn’t force him to leave but in the end the dog himself left the pitch. Check it out:

This article was written in Odd

History of game controllers

Well thats not related to Budapest or travel at all but I recently found this picture demonstrating the history of game controllers. I think it is awesome, thats why I would like to share it with you. Basically it goes from a simple joystick with one button to Wii Mode and XBox 360 controllers with tons of buttons and functions.

history of game controllers
Click to enlarge

Nice illustration, no? So where does the way go?

This article was written in Odd

First smog alert ever in Budapest

A lot of sources report about Budapests first smog alert ever. I can’t quote and link them all but here is an Associated Press article hosted by Google which describes the situation quite good. What is happening at the moment in Budapest is that the government restricted the traffic in Budapest by allowing only pair or impair license plate cars to go on the roads.

This situation is a cause of the gas situation going on in Ukraine/Russia cutting down the gas of in this case Hungary. Thus many companies, shopping centers and productios switched to oil as an alternative energy source which causes serious smog problems in Budapest. The solution of the government is that they allow only pair or impair cars on one day, the opposite on the next day.

However when I was going to restaurant Chez Daniel today for lunch with friends (in an impair car) I saw tons of pair cars hitting the road but no police controlling the situation. I am wondering if tomorrow there will be any difference but honestly I cannot imagine they will check the cars license plates in the morning and evening traffic.

As this blog is read mainly by foreigner who might have taken over their car (like me) and still have their local license plate I was thinking about how this problem is solved. Me as a normal foreigner don’t understand what is in the Hungarian news thus I don’t know what is going on here in Hungary. So even though I know about this situation I will go with my impair car to work tomorrow even though it is pair day, lets see what happens.

So just as a reminder, today is impair day, tomorrow pair, after impair and so on. But anyways I bet I will see tons of cars in the traffic tomorrow with all kinds of license plates.

This article was written in Odd

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.

This article was written in Odd

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 utca 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.

This article was written in Budapest News, Odd

RTL Klub to be fined for “Celeb vagyok, ments ki innen”

Celeb vagyok, Ments ki innen is the Hungarian version of “I am a celebrity get me out of here” which is running at the moment on RTL Klub one of Hungarys major TV stations. Well they are shooting this reality TV show in the jungle of Argentina. So far so good just the problem is that they were shooting it without permission.

Somehow the Argentinian imigration office got to know about this and went for a visit over to the set. There they found 104 Hungarians shooting this Reality TV show without permission, they just stated that they are tourists. The fine for this is between 1.500 USD and 15.000 USD per person. Well for 104 persons this can add up to 1.560.000 USD. In this case the TV show for sure would be a big loss for RTL Klub. Welcome to the jungle.

This article was written in Odd

Budapest is the capital of Hungary!

Now that girl has a deep knowledge of geographics. She new “Turkey” is a country but not “Hungry”. Anyways in her eyes Europe is a country as well and her answer for the question “Budapest is the capital of which country” would have been France… even though she was not sure if that is a country. Check it out, its unbelievable.



This article was written in Odd

Strange record – “Mass kissing”

This weekend a strange record took place in Budapest. 6400 couples kissed at the same time near the parliament. The guiness world record was held by the Philipines with 6100 kissing couples.

This article was written in Odd