Night of Museums 2010: June 19

Night of Museums Budapest 2010
Night of Museums Budapest 2010

Night of Museums is an annual event in Hungary (though it was arranged twice last year – and it seems like it will be this year as well), and it is a very popular event. In the film “Night at the Museum”, featuring Ben Stiller, the museum turns alive after the sunset. That is what will happen in museums all around Hungary this upcoming Saturday as well. There will be special programs in all museums around in the city. You buy one ticket for the entire program, and with this you can enter into all the different museums in the city, and use the public transportation buses travelling between the different locations.

The adult ticket costs 1300 Forint, the ticket for children is 600 Forint.

The event starts at 18.00 and lasts until around 2:30 in the night.

Participating Budapest museums:
‘Zoltan steamer’ non-profit foundation, ‘Debrecen’ ex-‘Kassa’ Danube-sea ship
Ability Park
Endre Ady Memorial Museum
Collection of Veterinary History
Collection of Regional History of Angyalföld (Budapest 13th district)
Aquincum Museum
Bajor Gizi Actors’ Museum
Stamp Museum
Budapest Center for Architect (FUGA)
Budapest University of Technology and Economics-Jendrassik György Laboratory
Budapest University of Technology and Economics-NTICL
Budapest History Museum
Labyrinth of Buda Castle
The Exhibition Hall of the Csekovszky Collection
Museum of Electrotechnics
Eötvös Loránd University, University Library
E10
Erdős Renée Ház – Public Collection and Art Gallery
Ernst Museum
Lutheran Museum
Gallery Eventuell
Ferihegy Aircraft Memorial Park
Underground Railway Museum
Fonó Budai Music Hall
Gallery Lénia
The collection of local history of the XII. th district
Military History Institute and Museum
Holdudvar Gallery
Holocaust Memorial Center
Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts
Museum of Applied Arts
Kassák Museum
Piety Museum
Museum Kiscell
KOGART House
Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum
Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art
Hungarian House of Photography
Hungarian University of Fine Arts
Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism
Museum of Hungrian Agriculture
Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport
Hungarian National Gallery
Hungarian National Museum
State Archives of Hungary
Hungarian Television Co.
Hungarian Natural History Museum
Hungarian Railway Museum
Hungarian Jewish Museum
Children’s Railway, Budapest
Respect for All – Kossuth Klub
Millenaris
Pál Molnár-C. Studio-Museum
HAS’s Collection of Art
Museum of Music History
Kunsthalle – Budapest
National Dance Theatre
Museum of Ethnography
Museum of Óbuda
Öntödei Múzeum
Hungarian Meteorological Service
National Educational Library and Museum
National Széchényi Library
OSA Archivum/Galeria Centralis (at Central European University)
Pesterzsébet of Museum
Petőfi Literary Museum
Post Museum
The Bartók House of Music in Rákoshegy
Police-history Museum
Semmelweis Museum, Library and Archives of the History of Medicine
SYMBOL Budapest
Szántó Piroska-Vas István Emlékmúzeum
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Hospital in the Rock – Secret Civil Defence Hospital and Nuclear Bunker
Tabán Museum
House of Terror
Tűzraktér Independent Cultural Centre
Museum of the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard
Vasarely Museum
Former Szikra/Metro Cinema (Ruttkai ÉvaTheatre)
Local History and Schoolmuseum, Pestszentlőrinc (Budapest, XVIII.)
Zwack Unicum Heritage Visitors’ Centre

Museums in Budapest

Event press release:
The eighth Night of Museums, held nation-wide on 19 June, will offer hundreds of programmes and exhibitions to the public.
In keeping with the traditions of major European capitals, Hungary has, since 2003, hosted the Night of Museums on the Saturday closest to Midsummer’s Eve, the longest day of the year. On this day, exhibitions are open after-hours until late at night, and in addition to tours, many other active programmes are available from late afternoon until dawn. A mix of fire juggling, presentations, dance and theatre, special performances, musical events and discussions will be offered nationwide on the Night of Museums.
The first Night of Museums in Hungary only attracted a few thousand people, but by last year, their number had grown to over 380,000 nationwide. This is also the outcome of more and more museums participating each year: a new record will be set this year, with 84 locations available in Budapest and 191 in the country.
Last year, a new tradition was established in the form of the Autumn Night of Museums, which was also well-received by visitors. The initiative was spurred by the huge success of the Night of Museums and by surveys which revelaled that there was public demand for more “Night of Museums” type of events.

Lower riverside roads open again

The topic says it all, but I guess I should write it again. The lower riverside roads are open for traffic again. This did not happen this morning, but they have in fact been open for some days. This means that things are a little bit better again for car owners in Budapest, but to claim that things are good would be a lie (because it has never been so)!

And, right now as this text is written there are clouds on the sky, and it has in fact been raining a little bit. Refreshing after some days with no clouds, and just a lot of sunshine!

Earlier flood pictures from Budapest

We would love to help, but…

From time to time we receive emails from people requesting airport transfers, guided tours, winetasting and similar activities who type in email addresses not working and so on. That is always sad, as we are not able to give the help we would love to give!

A few hours ago we received an email from someone requesting a winetasting outside of Budapest, tomorrow! We would love to help, arrange and make this true, but then we sadly realized that the person did not use a valid email address. So much for the help we wanted to give!

Therefore, when you contact us make sure to give us a working email address, cellphone number – and help is on the way within shortly!

Budapest Guide on Facebook

We have just created a Facebook profile for our Budapest Guide. We do not have to many followers currently (the actual number is 1), but if you like our page and would like to stay updated about what’s going on at our page and in Budapest, you should consider dropping by our Facebook page from time to time.

We do have a Twitter profile as well, though that is not so often updated, you might want to follow us on Twitter in addition.

Have a nice day all ya nice people of Budapest (and all you on the way to Budapest)!

Matthias church updates and pictures

Matthias Church in 2003
Matthias Church in 2003

I remember making a photo of the Matthias Church in 2003, and I liked it quite a lot. I did of course not imagine, that just some months later the church would be wrapped with scaffold for the upcoming years, making it impossible to take a good picture of the church. The good news is now that they have removed the last scaffolds from the main entrance of the church, and it is finally possible to make good pictures again. Now the backside of the church, facing the Danube is under construction, but hopefully they will be finished with the entire church within shortly.

During the work they have in the last days found some caves beneath the church, just one meter away from the main entrance. These caves (two in total) needs to be strengthened, if not they are afraid that the church will sink down into the ground. It is not possible to visit these rooms, so if you want to go “underground”, you better visit the Labyrinth, or join us on a winetasting and guided tour underground in the castle area!

Matthias Church 2010
Matthias Church 2010
Matthias Church in 2010
Matthias Church in 2010

100 followers on Twitter

Wow, today we got our follower number 100 on Twitter. That could be a great thing, but I do not really feel too enthusiastic about it. Why? Because we do not really use Twitter. We have got 100 followers without really advertising our Twitter profile or without being active. Why do people follow us then? Maybe because they hope that we will follow them as a consequence that they follow us? Or maybe because they are really interested in what’s going on at our Budapest Guide? Who knows?

Would you like to follow us as well? Guide to Budapest on Twitter

For the rest of you reading this: Enjoy the sun in Budapest today! The sun is shining, the temperature is back above 20 Celsius again, and life is great!

Tasting beer in Budapest

Hungary is known for Tokaj wine and quite some tasty red wines, but not especially for the beer produced in the nation. Beerlovers rather travel to Prague instead, normally! Unfortunately most breweries in Budapest are closed to tourists, and if they arrange guided tours it is so seldom, it is almost impossible to fit this into the schedule and timing of a tourist.

But, we have now composed a new “guided tour“, or a so called Breweri Tour. We must admit that it is not a big breweri, it is not an amazing, but it is a place where you can see beer production take place, taste special unfiltered 100% beer, and later taste three beers produced at the place, while eating some small stuff served next to the beer.

So, if you are interested in beer, like drinking it, and would like to see how it is made, then this trip is made for you! More information at our Breweri Tour page.

Terrible May in Budapest

I guess the topic says it all, but this May has been terrible in Budapest. It feels as if the sun has left the capital of Hungary the last weeks, and the last days it has been raining more than it normally does within a month. This has also caused great problems around in Hungary, and in some cities people have had to leave their houses, as they have been flooded with water. It can also be seen on the Danube within the borders of Budapest that much water has rained down in the last days.

The weather reports tell us that by the end of the week the sun might show up again, and I really do hope so. During a guided tour today I almost felt as if it was impossible to move up at the Gellert Hill, due to the wind. We could also see leafes all around, and trees that could not stand against the wind of the last days!

Weather in Budapest

Cancellation updates from Ferihegy

Not long ago we always had to write about “strike at Ferihegy Airport” and all the problems this caused. Luckily no strikes are coming up nowadays, but there are problems with this vulcano again, which seems to be a returning problem all around Europe.

It is not to serious this time either, but today flights to London has been cancelled from Budapest Airport. There are some more problems around in Europe, especially in the Benelux area (Amsterdam Airport was closed for arrivals), but if the cloud keeps moving south, or to the east, more trouble might come.

So far only one flight is cancelled tomorrow from Budapest (15:30 to London), but time will show, and we will keep you updated!

Budapest News

Ferihegy Airport runs smoothly

Some new ash from the vulcano at Iceland is causing problems again at some airports around in Europe, especially from the northern parts of Italy (like Milano) to Munich in Germany. All flights from Budapest Ferihegy Airport runs as normal, except from departures to those areas mentioned above. So far, so good – and let us hope that it will stay that way in the nearest days and weeks and months as well!

We will stay updated, so in case something should happen, we will keep our readers up to date!

If you are in Budapest, why not visit a Budapest restaurant for a nice dinner today?