Category: Hungary

15. March in Budapest, Hungary

Posted on by Budapest Guide

A new national holliday is on the horizon, and in a few days Hungarian will celebrate March 15. But what is the day really about? Why do the Hungarians have a national holliday on this day?

History of Hungary

About March 15:
In 1848 the Hungarians started a revolution against the Habsburg empire, and they were fighting for liberation. It can be said that it started March 15, 1848, as Petöfi Sándor, one of the biggest Hungarian poets ever, held his speach in front of the National History Museum. After this the revolution continued, and it lasted for quite a long time, before it was finally stopped August 13, 1849. Some would also say that the final end was at October 6, 1849, as the Habsburgs exectued 13 generals from the 1848-1849 revolution. More about this in our article: “The 13 Martyrs of Arad – Clinking of beer mugs“

People come to shop in Hungary

Posted on by Budapest Guide

People from Slovakia are packing their bags together and every weekend they cross the border to Hungary to go shopping. Due to the week forint and strong Euro the prices has made it worth for them to come to Hungary shopping. The prices are around 20 % lower than back home in Slovakia, so therefore they come to shop clothes and groceries.

In a shoppingcenter in Györ one of the leaders said that around 20 % of the customers in the weekend come from Slovakia. On the other side of the border the shops are though complaining. Until now the Hungarians went there to shop, but now the Hungarians do not come, and the Slovakians come to Hungary… double miss!

We wrote an article about this earlier, what these price differences mean… you can read that article here (it has several interesting examples showing how much money you can save).

Weak forint and strong Euro
Currency in Hungary

The annual flu is on the way

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Every year some kind of flu arrives to Hungary and makes lots of people sick. Old people normally go to the doctor to receive an injection to avoid this, but the young and strong stay at home, and believe that the flu will not hit them. According to Népszabadság the amount of people visiting their family doctor the last days has increased with 1/4, and it is expected to continue to increase. The flu is to blossom from next week, so be prepared and watch out!

Gas coming to Hungary again

Posted on by Budapest Guide

This morning at 08.00 Russia opened their taps again, and now gas will be coming to Hungary and the other nations again within shortly. Hungary has not received gas from Russia since the 6th of January, so it has been two weeks without any incoming gas.

Luckily Hungary had great reserves, so the lack of incoming gas has not caused to big problems in the nation, except from the fact that some big factories were closed because they were consuming a lot of gas, and in the very cold weather the government had to be cautious with the gas reserves.

But now the gas crisis is over, and we are all hapy about that!

Increasing number of tourists coming to Hungary

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Hungarian State OperaI 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.

It’s winter in Hungary

Posted on by Budapest Guide

weather budapestThe 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!

weather hungary

A cold weekend coming up in Hungary

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Weather HungaryWhen 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 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 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 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!