Author: Budapest Guide

Tourism and the toxic sludge spill

Tourism and the toxic sludge spill

Posted on by Budapest Guide
Red sludge crisis in Hungary, but not dangerous for tourists
Red sludge crisis in Hungary, but not dangerous for tourists

A common question nowadays from tourists is whether or not it is safe to come to Hungary as a tourist, as they have heard a lot of bad news because of the toxic sludge spill. We known of people who have skipped their travel to Hungary due to this already, but in our opinion there are no reasons why you should delay or cancel your Hungary and Budapest holiday due to this.

If you are staying in Budapest, unless you are reading newspapers and watching the news, you will not even notice that anything has happened. Life goes on, and everything works as normal. If you travel towards the Lake Balaton you will not suffer either, and if you travel towards the east you will not feel it either. Hungary, and of course Budapest, is a safe place to visit, even after the toxic sludge spill!

The tap water around in Hungary is safe to drink (as always – reported by the Hungarian National Public Health and National Medical Officer Service yesterday) and the food is safe to eat, but some people are worried for the 2010 wine vintage from some of the areas near the catastrophe. Except from that, no worries!

Budapest blog

Background information about the crisis:
Hungary’s largest ecological disaster took place on October 4, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. when the western dam of cassette X of the sludge reservoir, belonging to a privately owned company, Magyar Alumínium ZRt (Hungarian Aluminum Co), had ruptured. Due to the ruptured dam, a mixture of 600-700 thousand m3 of red sludge and water inundated the lower sections of the settlements of Kolontar, Devecser and Somlovasarhely via the Torna creek.
The spilling red sludge flooded 800 hectares of surrounding areas. The most extreme devastation was caused in the villages of Devecser and Kolontar, which are located near the reservoir.

A message from the US Embassy on October 8 sais the following:
Warden Message for U.S. Citizens in Hungary
October 8, 2010
Toxic Sludge Spill

The U.S. Embassy is closely monitoring the situation of the toxic spill in Hungary through the media and contacts within the Hungarian Government.

According to the information available at this time, most of the damage is concentrated in the villages of Devecser, Kolontár, Somlóvásárhely, Tüskevár, Apácatorna, and Kisberzseny. These towns are all located in Veszprém country, about two hours southwest of Budapest. The Government of Hungary is restricting access to that area.

There is no evidence at this time that other areas of Hungary are affected by the spill. All major highways, airports, and train stations are open and operating normally.

Although there are press reports of the sludge reaching the Danube upriver from Budapest, according to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences there is no indication at this time that the water in the river has an abnormal level of toxicity. Tests of wells and underground reservoirs show no contamination of drinking water supplies. The Government of Hungary is monitoring both the river and drinking water supplies on a constant basis. The situation can be monitored in English on a special website created by the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior: http://redsludge.bm.hu/.

American Airlines to Budapest

American Airlines to Budapest

Posted on by Budapest Guide
Ferihegy Airport
Ferihegy Airport

As of April 2011 American Airlines will start with daily flights between New York (JFK) and Budapest. The first flight is supposed to land on April 4th on Budapest Airport.

Delta Airlines has for quite a while had a direct flight between Budapest and New York, but with American Airlines joining in the competition turns harder!

Ferihegy Airport

The official press release:
The news that American Airlines is to launch a daily flight from New York JFK airport to Budapest was announced in Budapest and London at the same time.

The first American Boeing 767-300 intercontinental aircraft is planned to land at Budapest Airport on 4 April 2011. This is part of the global flight development plan, the details of which and of the trans-Atlantic cooperation of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia Airlines were announced in London this afternoon.

A piece of news closely linked to the announcement in London is that American airlines shall connect their hub in New York John F Kennedy airport to the capital of Hungary by a daily flight commencing in April 2011. As member of the One World airline association, American Airlines considers Budapest an important destination in East Europe, as passengers may continue their journeys using the network of Malév, another member of One World, from here to further destinations. Reservations for the Budapest-New York flight may be made from next week on, while Malév is preparing the so-called code-share agreement also for this flight, thus its passengers can use the network of American Airlines directly and at favorable prices.

The new trans-Atlantic flights were announced in London following the decisions of both the American and the European Union competition authorities approving the trans-Atlantic business cooperation of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia. This means a total of 91 flights a day under the flag of One World. This also means that a strong competitor will face the two other major airline associations, Sky Team (Air France/KLM, Delta, Aeroflot, CSA etc.) and Star Alliance (Lufthansa, SAS, Continental, United, Air Canada, Austrian, Swiss etc.) on their trans-Atlantic routes.

The Budapest Airport airline development team has been working hard to add new overseas flights to the routes of the Hungarian capital for more than two years. Jost Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport welcomed the achievement after personally being involved in the negotiations and noted the contributions made to this success by the Hungarian National Tourism Organization and Malev. “The vision of just a few people in the alliance and network planning team at American Airlines lifted the profile of Budapest within their Fort Worth headquarters as being a One World hub with significant growth potential and we are delighted with their confirmation of this big step.”

Director Aviation Kam Jandu who has been working with his colleagues to realize this project since 2009 said, “Adding another long haul carrier is an achievement in itself under the present circumstances of aviation, but more than that, the appearance of a major One World carrier in Budapest further broadens the offer, and sends a strong indication to other airlines on the market that it is worth putting the Hungarian capital on their list of destinations.”

Based on their business data in the first six months of 2010, American Airlines is the fourth largest airline in the world, which, together with its American subsidiary, American Eagle, serves 250 destinations with a huge fleet of 851 aircraft. The base of the company is at Forth Worth, Texas, which is the eighth busiest airport globally (with 56 million passengers in 2009), but it also has important centers at JFK New York, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles and Miami. Besides their inland flights in the US, American Airlines is traditionally very strong in the Caribbean and the Latin-American regions.

Hungarian Thermal Bath Culture Day this Saturday

Posted on by Budapest Guide
Szechenyi Thermal Bath
Szechenyi Thermal Bath

This coming Saturday, October 9th, is the Hungarian Thermal Bath culture day. This is great for everyone, as almost all baths in Hungary give discount on their entrance fees. For the Budapest baths this means that all visitors only needs to pay 50% of the actual entrance fee. So, if you would like to visit the Szechenyi Fürdő or the Gellert Bath for example, this Saturday you can do it for half price.

In addition three Budapest baths have special opening times this Saturday; the Gellert Bath, Lukács and the Rudas Bath have special program between 21.00 and 03.00 with food, tea, live music and other specialities! The entrance fee for this program is 2500 Forint per person.

Palinka and Sausage festival this weekend

Palinka and Sausage festival this weekend

Posted on by Budapest Guide
Palinka
Palinka

Do you like Palinka and Hungarian sausages? If so, you better visit the castle area between October 7 and 10, because that is when the annual Palinka and sausage festival is arrange in Budapest. Even though the weather is currently bad in Budapest, it will hopefully turn better before this festival start, and not turn out like a rainfestival, like the winefestival did a month ago.

The Hungarian Palinka is a fruit spirit containing in most cases between 40-60% alcohol, made of 100% fruit (its almost healthy), and if you travel to Egypt it is recommended to drink it a couple of times a day to keep the bacterias away.

The Hungarian sausage tastes great, and even if you do not like Palinka, the festival can be worth visiting because of the sausages. More information about the festival can be found here.

Palinka and Sausage Festival 2010

If you would like to taste only one glass of Palinka, why not join us on a half-day excursion to Szentendre. We often let our visitors taste a Palinka as the last drink during the winetasting there.

Fernando Botero: Museum of Fine Arts

Fernando Botero: Museum of Fine Arts

Posted on by Budapest Guide
Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero

A new temporary exhibition was launched at the Museum of Fine Arts at the Heroes Square in Budapest yesterday. In my eyes this seems to be a quite family friendly exhibition, as the paintings made by Fernando Botero looks both funny, interesting and quite cool.

Fernando Botero is a Latin American contemporary painter.

Fernando Botero’s paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts
September 30 – February 20, 2011

Budapest museums

Botero exhibition in Museum of Fine Arts Budapest
Botero exhibition in Museum of Fine Arts Budapest

Press release about the exhibition:
Rotund and voluptuous forms, characteristically simple and expressive figures, people, animals and objects dominate the works of Colombian-born Fernando Botero. The language of his colourful and often luminous works is understandable for all; he opens up a seemingly distant Latin American reality and transforms it into a familiar world. His works are linked by the underlying quality of universality and his use of the most elemental gestures renders his ideas of the world and its various phenomena visible. Botero is a productive artist and a leading figure of contemporary art whose works can be found in public collections in countries across the world including Japan, Russia, Germany, Finland, Italy, Colombia and the United States. A selection of the masterpieces of the last twenty years can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest between 30 September 2010 and 23 January 2011.

Some sixty, mostly large oil paintings and sculptures will be presented at the exhibition, allowing an insight into a unique world that can be described by a kind of striving for monumentality and timelessness rooted in the ancient Greco-Latin tradition, while demonstrating how the artist draws inspiration and pays tribute to the classical European masters and invites visitors to the land of Latin America throbbing with life and colour.

Based on their themes, the paintings can be grouped into still-lifes, paraphrases, as well as the places and events of life in Latin America: everyday streets, colourful houses, the circus and bullfighting arenas. The concept of the exhibition is not exclusively built around a thematic arrangement of the works since it also focuses on the precedents that appear in the painting of the Colombian artist.

Nuda Veritas, Gustav Klimt in Museum of Fine Arts

Nuda Veritas, Gustav Klimt in Museum of Fine Arts

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Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt Budapest

A new exhbition has just been opened in the Museum of Fine Arts. It is named “Nuda Veritas. Gustav Klimt and the Origins of the Vienna Secession 1895–1905.” This will for sure be an exhibition bringing many tourists to Budapest, but it will also draw people from Hungary to Budapest.  On the official homepage of the Museum of Fine Arts we can read that “the spiritual leader and first president of the Vienna Secession, Gustav Klimt, will be accorded a highlighted place in the exhibition, which will not only display his significant paintings, such as Nuda Veritas – “naked truth”, included in the title of the exhibition, but also a group of his drawings evocative of a work that has not survived but which represented an important phase of his artistic career: the three murals symbolising the faculties of the University of Vienna. ”

I guess it is only to get to the museum and check it out, at least if you are interested.

Nuda Veritas. Gustav Klimt and the Origins of the Vienna Secession 1895–1905
Museum of Fine Arts
September 23 – January 9 (2011)

Museums in Budapest

New Starbucks to open in Budapest

New Starbucks to open in Budapest

Posted on by Budapest Guide
New Starbucks to open in Budapest
New Starbucks to open in Budapest

Some months ago Budapest was a city without Starbucks, and Hungary was a nation without Starbucks. Then the first one opened in WestEnd Citycenter, and now the second Starbucks is on the way. The new Starbucks will open in Kiraly utca 56 (if I remember correct), which is on the corner of Király Utca and the Erzsébet Körüt, meaning at the location where a KFC has been found so far. It doesn’t seem like if the KFC will close, they will just give some of their space to Starbucks fo them to be able to serve their coffee and snack bites at the same location.

Good news to people tired of standing in line at Starbucks in WestEnd!

Lots of tourists

Lots of tourists

Posted on by Budapest Guide

September is a busy month in Budapest and especially on weekends the main attractions of Budapest are crowded with people. This weekend a whole lot of sights and cultural buildings can be visited for free, also buildings not open to public normally like the Sandor palace next to the castle. Picture below is taken from the Fishermens bastion!