Activities Archives - Page 4 of 9

Girls asking for the way in Budapest are not really asking for the way!

Posted on December 4, 2013December 4, 2013 by Budapest Guide

Yesterday we received an email from a group of some guys that we helped with airport transfers and some other programs in Budapest. They were very satisfied with everything, but before the end of the email they share a story we unfortunately have heard so many times before. A very traditional bar scam story where you end up with an extremely high bill.

The guys walked in Vaci utca, the shopping street in Budapest, and as they walked there (around the Ice Bar/Burger King area), they met two girls looking very confused. They stood there with a map asking for directions, and as polite guys these men stood at their service. After describing the way the girls asked if the guys had any further plans, and then they asked if they wanted to join them for some beer somewhere nearby. They went to a bar/restaurant in a cellar nearby (they guess the address it is located somewhere between Vaci utca 11-15, but not really sure) and without looking at the menu they started to order drinks to themselves and to the girls. One drink turned into quite a lot of drinks, and then when they got the bill, a really big one. Just take a look yourself!

super bill in Vaci utca — Very expensive drinks at traditional Hungarian bar scam

Above you can see what their final bill looked like. They drank a lot, but as you can see, the prices are far higher than they should be. This is of course a very traditional story that us living and working in Budapest has heard several times, but we just post this story as a warning to those who have not yet been in Budapest. Avoid night clubs and bars if you are not sure about their reputation and do not go out to have drinks with “innocent” girls or ladies asking for directions, asking for the way or starting flirting with you on the street. It might seem charming, and you might feel young and attractive again, but what attracts them to you is not really your look, but your wallet and your VISA card!

Want to make sure other people avoid such scams? Share the story on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter! Experienced similar stuff yourself? Write a comment and let us and everyone else know!

City Park ice rink opened today!

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Budapest Guide

The Christmas season is here. It does not only mean Christmas markets here and there in Budapest, but it also means that the beautiful ice rink in the city park is opening.

Today was the day (November 28th) when the ice rink opened in 2013. That was exactly one day after the Christmas market at the Vorosmarty ter, but earlier than the Christmas market in front of the St. Stephens Basilica. The latter has a little ice rink as well, but that is super small and quite fake compared to the one in the city park.

Want to do something romantic in Budapest? Go iceskating in the city park. But, dress up, because there is nothing romantic to freezing your ears off, and it can get really cold in Budapest nowadays, at least if feels very cold!

The entrance fee for adults to enter into the ice rink is 1500 HUF (during weekdays). You need to pay 500 HUF more as you arrive for a plastic card, but you will get the money back as you hand the plastic card back. On Friday evenings and on Saturdays and Sundays te entrance fee is 2000 HUF for adults (plus the 500 HUF).

Chocolate museum in Corvin

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Budapest Guide

Sometimes shops are given names that doesn’t exactly describe what is actually is. That is the truth for the Chocolate museum (original name: Csokolade muzeum) located in Corvin shopping center. It is a great place for chocolate lovers, but I guess the reality is that the place is more of a chocolate shop than a chocolate museum.

Not long ago I noticed this place as I visited the Corvin shopping center. Readers of the Budapest blog probably know by now that I am a chocolate lover, so of course I visit the chocolate museum/shop to see what they had to offer.

What can be found in the Chocolate museum?

Inside the walls of the chocolate museum you will find exactly what you expect to find, tons of chocolate. The main product of the shop are all kinds of Rakoczi products, but in addition you can buy traditional chocolates and quite a lot of imported Belgian chocolate and Mozart sweets. They have some special stuff in this shop that I have not seen to many other places, so you can buy a piece of chocolate with a tea spoon which should be placed inside a cup of hot milk, and within a few minutes your cup of hot chocolate is ready.

Since the profile of the shop is the Rakoczi brand you can buy really exclusive Rakoczi chocolate with all kinds of strange ingredients. I bought a white chocolate with strawberries, orange tea, lemongrass and other snacks added to it. It looked and tasted differently and I guess the word remaining on my tongue after the chocolate had melted was „interesting.”

Chocolate museum wrap up

In addition to all kinds of chocolate you can also buy chocolate fondue equipment, tea bags, some toys and other effects in the chocolate museum. Not a place I couldn’t live without, but if you are a chocolate lover you should probably drop by the place if you ever are in the area near Corvin cinema and the Corvin shopping center.

[stextbox id=”info”]As you have understood this isn’t a real chocolate museum. There is though a real chocolate museum in Budapest, so maybe we will return with an article about that some other time![/stextbox]

Three great places to go jogging in Budapest

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Budablogger

Want to keep your body in shape and looking for a place to exercise in Budapest? If you are a tourist you might live in a hotel with a fitness room, but if you’d rather run somewhere open air keep on reading, because here you can find three great places to go jogging in Budapest!

Hungary is known for salami and quite fat food, but if you live healthy and do some jogging you can easily survive the extra calories the Hungarian cuisine offers you. A great way to burn calories is jogging, and it also has a good effect on your heart and makes you sleep better at night. Time to run!

Jogging at the Margaret Island

If you ask any citizen of Budapest about where you should go jogging the Margaret Island it the favorite answer of most people. At this peaceful island in the middle of the Danube you can run along the track going around the entire island. If you run around the entire island you have been running about 4,5km and while doing so, you have been able to see beautiful landscape, monastery ruins, some nice hotels, river boats and lots of other people trying to stay healthy and keep their bodies in good shape. If you live nearby this is a brilliant place to jog, but if not you should either take a shower on the island or walk home, so that you will not poison the people with your sweaty body smell.

Jogging in the Orczy garden

Do not worry, I am not jogging as I write this article, but from where I am sitting I can actually see people running in the Orczy garden. The Orczy garden (Orczy kert) is a park in the eight district of Budapest, not far from the Nagyvarad ter metro station. There are several areas in the park where you can run, but the most popular area is the running track of 400 meter where you run next to the football field (seldom in use). The quality of the track itself is not the best, but for most not to picky runners this is more than enough. The running track is in use from early morning until late evening, but I would be careful running here all by myself late in the evening (at least if I was a girl) since the park doesn’t have the best reputation in the world.

Jogging in the Ox park (Bikas park)

If you live in the eleventh district of Budapest a great place for jogging is the Bikas park. It is located by the Kelenfold Varoskozpont (bus 7, 73, 103 stops here) and in the future metro line four will stop here (if it ever gets finished). They have recently created a great running track in the park which lets you run inside the park in very nice and peaceful environments. They have even made a bonus part next to the track where you will find some equipment which can be used for strengthening your arms, legs and other body parts. If you come here on a Saturday morning you can also visit the market just next to the running track where you can buy fruits, clothes, meat, cheese and lots of other stuff. This is one of those markets where you will find no tourists, only locals.

Wish you all happy jogging! If you have other advises concerning great places to go jogging in Budapest write it in a comment and share your knowledge with other runners coming to this blog for information about where to run in Budapest!

Asparagus cream soup recipe for dummies

Posted on November 27, 2013November 27, 2013 by Budablogger

Some days ago I wrote that it is asparagus season in Budapest at the moment. It truly is, and probably the most popular asparagus meal in Budapest during such seasons is the Asparagus cream soup.

Celebrating the asparagus season I have recently made the cream soup of asparagus several times and here you can find the recipe. It is worth knowing that when I work in the kitchen and whatever I cook is cooked in a „for dummies” way. That means I do everything as easy possible, without loosing to much of quality and taste hopefully. That is why I dare to say that this recipe is so easy that anyone can make an asparagus cream soup following this recipe. If you like the end result or not, that is up to you.

Asparagus cream soup for dummies

Ingredients:

½ kg asparagus (green or white)
1 onion
oil/butter
salt
pepper
1 dl cooking cream (főzőtejszinhab)
1 spoon flour

Making the asparagus cream soup

Start with placing some oil and butter in the pot. Add the onion which should be cut to small pieces. Keep stirring to make sure that the onion does not get burned. After a while add the asparagus which has been cut into small pieces and let them stir together for 1-2 minutes. If there are parts of the asparagus that are very hard, almost like cutting tree, leave them and throw them in the garbage instead.

After this add enough water so that all the ingredients are covered and let them boil for 20 minutes until they are really soft. When you have reached this point you need to find your blender (turmixgep) and pour everything into it. Let the blender work everything for a minute and afterwards it actually starts looking like a soup!

At this point there is something very important that needs to be done. Find a sifter (szürő) and before pouring the soup from the blender back into the clean pot pour it into the sifter. Use a wooden spoon to push the soup through the sifter. In the end you will have a small portion left in the sifter which you can throw away and not use. It feels tragic to throw it, but the reason why you need to do this is the fact that it contain parts almost like fish-bones which can be really annoying if they end up in your soup, and they are capable of destroying the joy of soup eating (been there, done that).

Once the soup is back in the pot you can add the remaining water (if there is anything left). Take the cream and pour it into an empty bowl. Add 1 spoon of flour and mix them together and then pour it slowly into the soup. The cream gives the cream soup a much more creamy feeling, but if you are on a diet and want to skip extra calories, you can skip the cream.

If you have white pepper use that, but if not black pepper can also be used. I would add ½ teaspoon of pepper and probably around 3 teaspoons of salt, but since this is very different from person to person and amount of salt also depends on the quality of salt, you should taste yourself to give the soup a taste the way you like it!

In the end let the soup boil for 3-4 minutes and your asparagus cream soup masterpiece has now been finished.

Enjoy your meal and please write a comment and write whether you liked the end result or not. If you have further advices or any modifications you would like to add to the recipe, write a comment as well!

Christmas activities in Budapest

Posted on November 22, 2013March 27, 2024 by Budapest Guide

Christmas is approaching and if you are looking for some Christmas activities in Budapest, here are suggestions!

The most important Christmas activity is the Christmas market. In 2013 it will open on November 27th and be open until December 31st (the Christmas market at Vörösmarty tér). Here you can eat Hungarian sausage, drink som hot wine and shop all kinds of Christmas presents.

Another place worth visiting is the Andrassy út. This avenue connecting the Elisabeth square (Deak Ferenc square) to the Heroes Square is beautiful lightened up in the time before Christmas, so take a walk here one evening, it is worth it. As you walk you can either do some exclusive shopping in shops like Max Mara, Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Burberry, or maybe just grab a cake somewhere or eat some more serious food in one of the restaurants at the Liszt Ferenc square.

These activities you can easily arrange for yourself. But, there are some Budapest Christmas activities that is harder to arrange all by yourself. Here are some activities that we would love to help you with, if any of them sounds interesting.

If you wonder what to do on December 24th, why not enjoy a river cruise on the Danube?

Christmas activities in Budapest arranged by us!

Christmas dinner by a family

Would you like to eat a traditional Hungarian Christmas dinner in a normal Hungarian home? Then you should try this program. Here you will actually come home to a family and taste the traditional Hungarian Christmas food as they prepare it. They will gladly show you their home, answer all sorts of questions, and simply let you get a close look at what life is like for a Hungarian. You want get any closer to the reality than this. The program is gift-based, meaning that you give to the family what you feel they deserve as the program is finished. It normally last for 2 – 2 1/2 hours and we can of course arrange with transportation to the home if required.

Christmas trip to Vienna

Let us arrange a day trip to Vienna for you. The Austrian capital has beautiful Christmas markets, especially the one in front of the city hall. Spend 7-8 hours walking around, eating some Austrian food and getting a sip of the Christmas atmosphere in Vienna. You can read more about this program at the following page.

Christmas in Szentendre

Come join us on an excursion to Szentendre. The city has a cosy little Christmas market, and in addition to time for shopping, you will also be able to visit the marcipan museum, taste seven Hungarian wines in a wine cellar and enjoy a three course lunch. The program lasts a total of about 5 hours. Read more about the program here.

Big dinners in Budapest

Would you like to enjoy a lot of food and drinks? Then we can warmly suggest one of the following dinners!

Five course dinner with six glasses of wine (13,000 HUF per person)
This dinner takes place in a wine restaurant in the very center of Budapest. It is not a gourmet dinner, but the quality of the food and the wine is more than enough for most people.
Brewery visit with lots of food (10,000 HUF per person)
This might not sound like a Christmas program, but for many Christmas is about eating and drinking a lot, and if that is so, this program is ideal. At the brewery visit you will taste 4 different beers produced at the spot, you get the chance to taste 4 Hungarian fruit-spirits (Palinka) and last, but not least, you will get four courses of traditional Hungarian food.

Does any of the programs sound interesting to you? If the answer is yes, just fill in the forms and contact us today, and we will do our best to help you out!

Raphael exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Budapest Guide

Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo, these three names are familiar even for those who have no idea about the arts. Moreover, if you expressly love renaissance painting, it is a must see program to visit the Raphael exhibition between 13 November 2013 and 16 February 2014 at the Museum of Fine Arts. However, the youngest member of the trio worked only for two decades, he had a great impact on his contemporaries and the next generation of artists too.

Raphael Sanzio was born in art family, so he inherited his talent from their relatives, but he became orphan when he was 11. Two years later he moved to Pietro Vannucci master, who taught him, and he had opportunity to help his master with the make of ordered paintings. When he was 21, he moved to Florence, where Leonardo da Vinci and the young Michelangelo had an impact on him. He met with realist painting here. In his workshop, talented, artists of next generations worked. His works are important part of the art still today.

The Museum of Fine Arts will exhibit Raphael’s 80 paintings in this temporary exhibition, but it won’t only about the artist’s talent, but it will illustrate the next generation’s opinion about the master’s art legacy. Do not miss this unique experience and see the renaissance art’s one of most outstanding members’ work at the Museum of Fine Arts from this November in Budapest!

Rafael exhibition Budapest
November 13, 2013, – February 16th, 2014
Museum of Fine Arts

Rollingbeer – Beer Bike

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Budapest Guide

Probably you know that the Hungarian nation don’t despise tasty drinks. The country’s alcohol culture is very important part of tourism. We don’t talk about alcoholism, it is liquid gastronomy, because delicious homemade beers, fantastic wines and the special national short drink, the pálinka are very demanding drinks which should only be enjoyed with responsibility. There is an opportunity in Budapest where you can burn calories while drinking: the Rollingbeer.

Maybe you have heard about this structure earlier in other countries. The Rollingbeer is a 14 seats + 1 driver seat vehicle with pedals and a round counter, what is safely and easily accessible for everybody. The delicious beers and wines provide for the great atmosphere, moreover there is a disco ball over the counter and a music center, what can play your taste of music, if you bring a CD or an MP3 player. 8 pair of pedals help the progression, but those, who can’t feel the power to ride, can sit on one of the 6 lazy seats, and don’t have to do other, just drink and sightseeing.

This tourist attraction and/or party opportunity is the perfect choice for a friend group, who love tasty drinks, but don’t want to waste their time in Budapest in a pub, but want to meet the local attractions. Smoking is possible on the Rollingbeer.

Sziget Festival 2014

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Budapest Guide

Today the dates for the Sziget Festival in 2014 were made public. This festival, the most popular of all music events in Hungary every year, will come back to Budapest and the Hajogyari sziget again in 2014. The dates? August 11th-14th.

Not much information is out there about the festival yet, but we can know for sure that it will be one crazy party with hundreds of thousands of people, several hunded bands and artists performing and lots of cool activities and fun stuff available at the island during the festival time.

In 2013 they brought the “Budapest Eye” to the island for the festival. Maybe they will do something similar in 2014? Time will show and we will try to keep you updated on further news concerning the Sziget Fesztival in 2014!

Hungarian Song Day, Újpest 2013

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Budapest Guide

On Magyar Dal Napja the outer districts of the capital will prepare too, including the Csomópont Youth and Information Center too. This institution, which does amazing work, wants to reach that children and youngsters between age 12 and 29 could enjoy art and music with the necessary conditions. The Csomópont center will become Csomópont Stage on the Hungarian Song Day, to give young talent the chance for appearances. Between artists you could find the Hungarian music life’s most famous people in turn with the young talents of the Csomópont. View the Hungarian music life’s present and future on 8 September 2013 at Újpest. Have fun!
Magyar Dal Napja 2013

Programs:
11:50 Opening ceremony: Program openers are the two organizers: Tajti Réka and Karacs Miklós
12:00 – 12:35: Ricsi clown’s children show
12:45 – 13:10: ManFred band
13:20 – 13:55. Kugli band
14:00 – 15:00: Vastag Csaba
15:00 – 15:30: Csomópont youngsters’ performance
15:30 – 16:30: Vörös István
16:30 – 17:00: Csomópont youngsters’ performance
17:00 – 17:50: Steel Orange
17:50 – 18:00: Csomópont youngsters’ performance
18:00 – 18:50: Varga Viktor
18:50- 19:20: Csomópont youngsters’ performance
19:30 – 20:20: Sub Bass Monster