Leonard Cohen Budapest 2009

The maker of the Hallelujah song (known from Shrek) is coming to Budapest, and he will perform in Budapest Sportarena 31. August, 2009. Tickets for the Leonard Cohen concert can be bought from WorldTicketShop.

Leonard Cohen Budapest
Monday, 31. August 2009, 19:30
Papp László Budapest Sportaréna

Press release: (Eventim)
Legendary singer songwriter Leonard Cohen follows his critically acclaimed 2008 UK shows with a return date at the Liverpool Echo Arena on 14th July. Tickets will go on sale on Friday 27th March 2009 at 9am.

Leonard Cohen’s 2008 World Tour proved to be one the year’s hottest tickets. The sold out concerts wowed arenas, opera houses, festivals and Edinburgh Castle. The shows received rave reviews, bringing Leonard’s music to his devoted fans and hoards of converts, including a moving set at the this summer’s Glastonbury Festival.

About Leonard Cohen:
A celebrated singer/songwriter of the classic 1960s generation, Cohen is beyond comparison and a true original, providing some of music and literature’s most illuminating writing on love, sex, death and religion.

Albums like Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967), Songs Of Love And Hate (1970) and I’m Your Man (1990), right up to 1992’s The Future and 2004’s Dear Heather are considered visionary classics. Uniquely for a revered musician, Cohen’s literary plaudits rival those for his music.

His songs have been famously covered by the great and the good, each version a fascinating attempt to move closer to Cohen’s enigmatic muse. From Judy Collins’ Suzanne to Jeff Buckley’s seminal rendition of Hallelujah, Cohen’s songs have travelled as far and wide as their author.
U2, REM, Sting, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and the late Johnny Cash are among other famous devotees.

Leonard Cohen in Bratislava
Other events in Budapest
Leonard Cohen on WorldConcerts.org

German Budapest guide

Our Budapest guide now exists in yet another language! The new language is German. The page still lacks information, but the basics are up and running, and hopefully the updates will come within shortly. The name of the German version is „Budapester Reiseführer” and the address is https://www.hungarybudapestguide.com/de/

Tell all your friends in Germany, and maybe we will meet them when they come to Budapest as well!

AC Milan vs. Hungarian team (goals, summary, video)

Wednesday was the day when Beckham, Ronaldinho, Seedorf, Kaka and the other heroes in AC Milan entered Puskas Ferenc Stadium, facing a team made up by players from the Hungarian league. The match started with a shocking goal from the Hungarian team, but as the match ended it looked as we all expected; Milan won 5-2. Below you can see a video showing all the goals and the biggest chances from the match!

Video summary

Other events in Budapest

Budapest Fashion Week

Budapest Fashion Week(end) is starting today and will last until Sunday. The event will take place in VAM Center, in the seventh district of Budapest. Tickets can be bought from TicketPro. Among the designers names such as Le Corset, Kenguru, EXP and Réka Orosz can be found, and also quite some new international designers will show up as well.

Saturday evening there will be an after party for those fed up with fashion and fancy dresses.

Events in Budapest

Prague vs. Budapest

There is a constant fight between Prague and Budapest; which city should the tourist visit? In 2008 Prague had almost 5,000,000 tourists coming to visit the city. Hungary had a total amount of 10,000,000 tourists coming in 2008. London alone has around 27,000,000 per year. Quite some numbers! But the real fight is not between Budapest and London, but between Budapest and Prague. As the cities are located quite near to oneanother, some people decide to combine the two cities, while other feels as if they have to decide… Budapest or Prague!

Beautiful Budapest

I need to decide – Budapest or Prague?
Last week I visited Prague and I had quite high expectations. As a guide in Budapest I know the city, the buildings, the history and love the city. Could Prague compete? Yes it could. This should be an objective article, so I will try to keep it that way.

What I liked better in Prague!
In Prague the center felt much more compact and concentrated. It was not only one shopping street (as Vaci Utca in Budapest), but if you went into a sidestreet from the shopping street you could still find beautiful shopping streets, romantic sidewalks, outdoor cafes and restaurants. Of course we visited a shopping center, and it was a great experience to walk into Palladium, which from the outside looks as an oldfashioned building, but on the inside a very modern shoppingcenter (just like WestEnd in Budapest). But what I enjoyed the most was the really nice and compact inner city, and also the feeling that you will probably find something interested in the sidestreets as well. In that inner area of the city there was not much cars (big plus). The walk towards the castlearea can also be done in such circumstances! Enjoyable!

What I like better in Budapest!
There are a lot of things to say, but the view from the Pestside towards the Danube where you can see the Gellert Hill, the Castle, the Fishermens Bastion and so is to me much more enjoyable than the panorama in Prague. The panorama given from the Gellert Hill is as well outstanding! The bridges of Budapest is nicer as well (in my oppinion), though I have to say that the Charles Bridge in Prague is a nice piece of art. Of course this might vary (due to the fact that I did not eat in the best places in Prague), but I do prefer the restaurants in Budapest compared to those in Prague. Especially the principle of taken payed for placing bread or ketchup at your table (even though you do not eat of it or ask for it) feels a little bit strange.

This article could last forever, but I have to end it here. So, the decision is yours, but if you come to Budapest, join us on a guided tour, and fall in love with Budapest as well!

AC Milan in Budapest (22 April)

– To see the result and the goals from the game, go here

Ronaldinho, David Beckham and other celebrities will come to Budapest in these days, and Wednesday they will play against a Hungarian team set together by players from the top league in Hungary. The tickets can be bought for around 5000 Forints, and the most expensive tickets are around 18,000 Forints. The match will start 19:00.

AC Milan – Hungarian Soccer team
Puskás Ferenc Stadium
April 22, 19:00

Tickets can be bought from: www.jegyelado.hu

Giant pub crawl in Budapest

Last week we had the joy of arranging a giant pub crawl in Budapest (more than 80 people). A group of dutch students visited the city, and we needed for guides to lead the different groups around in the pubs of Budapest. It was a great experience, and the guests got to taste Palinka, Unicum, beer, wine and whatever they wanted. This is a quite new service on our list of tours we offer, but if you would like to experience one of these, check out our pub crawl page, and if it sounds interesting, send us an email!

Other interesting services:
Guided tour in Budapest
Helicopter tour Budapest
Airport transfer and guided tour (extremely popular)

Most popular restaurants in March

As some might know we help our guests reserve tables in Budapest restaurants. This is a free service we offer, and more and more people use this help. In March we helped quite a lot of people, and the three most popular restaurants based on our amount of table reservations were the following:

1) Sir Lancelot
2) Mátyás Pince
3) Trófea Grill

In April it seems as if the list might change a bit, but there are still many days left in this month, so time will show!

Driving license in Budapest

Driving license BudapestMany of the international people in Budapest are curious about what it is like to make the driving license in Budapest. They look for english speaking teachers, but that is not really what this article is about.

Some weeks ago a friend of mine made his second try to get his driving license in Budapest. The first did not succeed and the reason was a mistake he made during the driving. The second time he failed as well, but he received no real explanation. Though, afterwards the teacher pulled him aside and told him that it would only work if he payed, around 20,000 Ft. As I heard about it I was quite shocked. Since then I forgot about it all.

Today I met the wife of my friend, and she happily told me that the boy got his driving license today. I asked if he payed… and yes he did! Congratulations!

I heard about this in cities outside Budapest, but I did not really know that this existed in Budapest. When I made my driving license I used Csigavér and there were absolutely no problems. The teacher was great, and we did not have to give any money except from what was the actual cost for the driving lessons and for the exam. I failed once, but that had nothing to do with money; for the first time in my life I did not recognize a red lamp… Suddenly my teacher stepped on the brake, and I understood that I had failed. But the second time everything was perfect, and since then I have my driving license!

Car rental in Budapest

Sziget festival in 127 days

The Sziget Festival is approaching and the list of artists coming are frequently updated with new names. We are updating our Sziget festival page as well, and today we added the following artists to the list of artists and band featured at the festival:

Armin van Buuren, Backyard Babies, Birdy Nam Nam, Blasted Mechanism, Bloc Party, Calexico, Coldcut, De Staat, Die Toten Hosen, Disco Ensemble, Donots, Expatriate, Fatboy Slim, Figli Di Madre Ignota, Guajiro Mirabal, Haydamaky, Jesus Ramos, Klaxons, Manuel Galbán, Matatu, Miloopa, Pendulum, Placebo, Ska-P, Snow Patrol, So Kalmery, Speed Caravan, Squarepusher, Tankcsapda, The Offspring, The Prodigy, The Ting Tings,Tiken Jah Fakoly.

Sziget Festival 2009

Other events in Budapest