January 2009 - Page 3 of 4

Weak forint and strong Euro

Posted on January 13, 2009December 8, 2022 by Budapest Guide

The Forint is jumping up and down, and currently it is quite weak, at least compared to the Euro. Compared to ther currencies it is doing quite well, but the fact is that the Euro is strong at the moment. This morning as I checked out my desktop I saw that 1 Euro = 283,6 Forints, which is quite a lot. Half a year ago I always thought of 1 Euro as 250 forints, and it was a period when 1 Euro was worth 230 forints. These differences can mean quite a lot of money, even for small customers as you and I.

Euro – Forint
In McDonalds
If you want to buy a menu in McDonalds it will cost you appx. 1060 forints. On a day when the Forint was at its strongest that would cost you 4,6 Euro. Now, as the Euro is strong it would cost you 3,7!

In Sir Lancelot
Normally someone visiting Sir Lancelot uses around 6500 forints. On a strong Forint day that would mean around 28 Euro, but on a strong Euro day (as it is today) that would mean 23 Euro.

Tickets for Mamma Mia concert in Budapest
The most expensive tickets cost 16,900 Ft. On a strong Forint day that means around 73 Euro, but on a strong Euro-day it would be 60 Euro.

As you can see the differences are quite big, so for people visiting Hungary coming from Euro nations these are good news. For Hungarians going abroad these news are not so good, at least if they travel as the Euro is as strong as it is now!

Currency and changing money in Budapest

Smog restrictions removed

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Budapest Guide

The smog alert we wrote about yesterday has been removed, so from today all cars can drive freely in Budapest again. According to statistics not to many followed the restrictions telling that only cars with paired licenseplates could drive yesterday. 1/3 of the cars in Budapest yesterday were cars using impaired licenseplates, and 2/3 of the cars were using paired licenseplates, meaning that they were allowed to drive.

As they measured at several points in the city yesterday they saw that the quality of the air was more than good enough, and therefore they decided to allow everyone to use their cars again, starting today!

Budapest Transportation Guide

Increasing number of tourists coming to Hungary

Posted on January 13, 2009November 27, 2013 by Budapest Guide

I heard on the news this morning that an increasing number of tourists came to visit Hungary in 2008. Around 9,5 million tourists visited Hungary last year. That was an increase, but at the same time the amount of nights spent in Hungary in average has gone a little bit down. This might be due to the economical problems, but then, who knows?

Most tourists come to visit Budapest, but Balaton also draws a lot of tourists in the summer time. To find a good hotel in that area visit our hotelpage, and select Lake Balaton or Wellness hotels from the city-menu.

The picture on the top-right shows a picture from the inside of the Hungarian State Opera, a place loads of tourists and Hungarian visit every year.

Guided tour in smog heaven

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Budapest Guide

Budapestagent just wrote an article about the first smog alert ever in Budapest, and it started yesterday. I did not know about the rule concerning what cars could drive in the city, but I had heard about the smogproblem in television. Therefore I knew that it was a serious problem in Budapest caused by people (mostly big shopping centers, companies and so on) using oil for heating and as an energy source instead of gas.

Yesterday as I walked to my guided tour starting from a hotel near the Liberty Bridge I remembered that I heard someone recommend people to stay inside their flats, instead of going out! No problem I thought, and during the guided tour in Budapest it did not annoy me, nor my company, at all. Hopefully our longues did not suffer from it either.

I wrote several times last week about the cold weather in Hungary and Budapest, and it was cold yesterday as well, but on such occasions it is just to dress up with one more layer of clothes, and it is no problem at all! As I write this it is -6 Celsius in Budapest, and it seems to me as if the freezing cold is about to leave Budapest, and hopefully we will not see -10 Celsius again for a long time!

It’s winter in Hungary

Posted on January 10, 2009November 28, 2022 by Budapest Guide

The snow is lacking, but the temperature is there! Minus 11 degrees in Budapest when I woke up this morning, and in other big cities it was even colder. I noticed that it was -14 degrees in Györ, Miskolc, Debrecen and Szeged this morning at 08.00, which is cold, at least for those who are not used to temperatures as that. The average temperature in Budapest in January is supposed to be between -4 and +1 celsius, so we do not really like when it is getting below -10 celsius.

Below you can see a picture from www.met.hu showing what the weather should look like in the coming days! Click it for a bigger version!

Da Vinci – The Genius exhibition in Budapest

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Budapest Guide

31 December was the last day of the Bodies Exhibition in Budapest. From February a new great exhibition will come to the Vam Center in Budapest, and exhibition called: Da Vinci – The Genius.

The exhibition is said to be the most complete exhibition ever to be shown about the life of Leonardo da Vinci, and in the exhibition we get to meet Da Vinci as an inventor, musician, sculpturer, anathomist, artist, engineer and more. It is said that it took more than ten years to make this exhibition containing drafts of machines he later invented, remarks, notes, anathomical drawings and reproductions of some of his most famous works of art (The Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man) shown in 3D, and also other reproductions such as Mona Lisa, self-portrait, St. Jerome, Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Madonna Benois and some more.

Da Vinci – The Genius
Vam Design Center
2009. 02. 07. – 03.05.

Tickets can be bought on the spot, but we recommend everyone to buy them beforehand. This can be done from TicketPro.

Other events in Budapest

A cold weekend coming up in Hungary

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Budapest Guide

When things go wrong, they do go wrong. And when the gas is not arriving to the nation as it should, it turns really cold. At least that is what the National Meteorological Service tells us. According to them the temperatures in Hungary (which are low already) should fall even more as the weekends closes up, and some places in the nation temperatures can reach as low as minus 20 degrees. Budapest will probably not experience such low temperatures (probably the eastern parts of Hungary will), but it might turn out to be very cold in Budapest as well!

The colder it gets, the more gas we use, and when we have limited gas supplies this might become a challenge, but let’s hope not!

At our climate page it does not seem so bad on the 10-day prognosis, but I guess our international weather tool does not give as accurate information about the upcoming weather in Hungary as the National Meteorological Service do.

Gas crisis in Eastern-Europe

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Budapest Guide

Since Tuesday gas is not arriving from Russia to Hungary and several other nations around Hungary. The Russians stopped sending gas, because they claim that Ukraine is “stealing” gas as it is flowing through their nation on the way to Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and several other nations.

Hungary is not the nation suffering the most, as they have gas supplies which can offer gas for quite a while to the nation. Big gas consumers in Hungary still needed to make changes, so the biggest companies and factories has had to put their work on halt, until the nation receives gas from Russia again.

Slovakia is suffering as well, and now they speak of opening up a nuclear plant at Jaslovske Bohunice. The nuclear plant had to be closed before entering into the European Union in 2004, but they speak of opening it again, if needed.

Let us hope that things will work out fast, because if things does not work out, this might become a cold winter for quite some people!

Euro in Hungary

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Budapest Guide

During our guided tours we receive a lot of questions. One of the most popular questions is the following question: Is Hungary a member of the European Union. Why do people ask? If Hungary are members, why are they not using the Euro? Several other nations which joined the European Union in 2004 has already introduced the Euro in their nations, but Hungary has remained without it. The reason is that the economy is not good enough for it to be used in the nation, yet.

In 2004 after Hungary entered the European Union they had a goal of introducing the Euro from 2008, but as we all now, they did not reach that goal. From 1. January 2009 Slovakia started using the Euro as well, since 2008 Malta and Cyprus use it, and in 2007 Slovenia started using it. Time will show when Hungary joins into the Euro-club!

Forint, the currency in Hungary

New strike at Ferihegy Airport?

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Budapest Guide

That is one of the questions many people have in Hungary and outside Hungary. Since the former strike was stopped on the 22 December, they gave the airport some weeks to make a new offer. The deadline for making a new offer was January 6, and the time of mercy has ended.

The airport and the employees are now discussing and trying to find a solution. If they do, nothing will happen, but if they can not make an agreement the airports of Budapest may suffer from a strike over again in a few days. Let us all hope they will come to an agreement!

We will update our pages with information, especially if a strike will occur, so come back later for more news and updates!