Here are the top Budapest expat blogs you may found useful and informative:

Americans about Budapest Hungary

• Erika Clements: Erika writes in great details about Budapest Hungary – specifically to expatriates. I especially like her Expat answers column. Shoot any questions and you surely get some useful
• Dr Ryan James blogs about his/ their expat life in Budapest, Hungary. He is also the Frommer’s Budapest. :)

Balkans – two guys from the Balkans blogging about Budapest

Budapest Bits: Ruslan and Jelica writes about living in Budapest and raising their two kids in Hungary

some highlighted blogposts

• Favorite square in Budapest: Szabadsag ter
• Jewish heritage and life in Budapest: the Moorish style
• Budapest is not favoring women? Reflections on stats

What’s more, this travel video is a great educational video at the same time (being an ex-teacher I can’t help but appreciate the educational value of making such a video and traveling in a way so that you have a video making project in your mind):

• the information about Budapest is interesting, well paced for kids aged 6-14
• the video quality is also very good: cuttings, music, the kids in the vid clips, the guest vid clips are superb (thanks to Lora Gray and Clark Gray, the parents of the Traveling Trio)
• the video is authentic, funny, and you really feel the kids had been exploring the city!
• Can you imagine a better way to really make a cultural trip interesting to kids? Make your own video about Budapest, Hungary and let us know at topbudapest [at] gmail [dot] com.

Here’s the blurb of the video:

“The Traveling Trio checked out the amazing city of Budapest, Hungary. Follow Olivia, Ingram and Everett as they visit a church in a cave, swim in a famous public bath and even venture underground to explore the ancient labyrinth under Buda Castle.”

Thank you, Lora and Clark and the BigRedHat!

Currently only streetcars (trams) and buses run on the Margaret Bridge (Margit hid). Until mid Sep Budapest taxis are also allowed, after that no cabs at all (the temp tracks, so called ‘flying rails’ would not be able to support the weight of extra car traffic). Bikers are to get off their bikes on the bridge as there is too little space for a safe ride amongst passers-by.

The bridge touching on the very popular recreational area and park stretched across Margaret Island was really in need of a thorough reconstruction. At least by car or bus, even during reconstruction, you can still go to the island, one of the top ten things to do in Budapest. As for the latest overhaul, and the 21st century history of Margaret Bridge:

All the bridges of Budapest were blown up by World War II Wehrmacht sapper troops in January 1945 during their retreat to the Buda side of the surrounded capital. However, Margaret Bridge had been damaged by this time, on 4th November 1944, when an accidental explosion destroyed the eastern span of the bridge. 600 Civilians and 40 German soldiers died. During reconstruction, much of the original steel material was lifted from the river and incorporated into the rebuilt structure. (wikipedia)

More than 60 years after the WW2 reconstruction, the bridge will be renewed and somewhat redesigned to cater for more traffic on the Buda side with a wider connection, to have two biking routes, to have traffic lights at the island, to make the bridge accessible for wheelchairs, etc. In 2007 concrete pieces were falling off the bridge, and street lights were getting totally rusty. However, the city needed to think over how the reconstruction should be best done.

Hope you will enjoy the new Margaret Bridge (Margit hid) from 2010!

Photo from Budapest Daily Photo

Related Budapest traffic, Budapest transport articles:

• Budapest transport – warnings
• Budapest airport terminals – prepare for your flight
• Be careful with Budapest taxis

Foreign and Hungarian wines will be presented, you can see the noble knights and ‘knightesses’ of the Wine Order (procession on Sep 12), there will be wine tastings, presentations and more.

Learn more about the detailed program and venues of the Budapest Wine Expo here.

If you are interested in buying wines in Hungary, here is a list of good quality stores:

• Buying wine at Somogyi Pinceszet in Budapest (Somogyi Wine Cellar)
• Buying wine at Borkapolna in Budapest (wine chapel at Heroes’ Square)
• Buying wine at Bock Bistro in Budapest (Bock Bistro on the Grand Boulevard)
• Buying wine at Belvarosi Borszalon in Budapest (inner city wine salon)
• Buying wine at Borarium in Budapest (Winery in Mammut Shopping Mall)
• Buying wine at Budapest Wine Society in Budapest

Check out the locations of the wine stores in Budapest on the map (wine shops are indicated by a ‘champagne glass’ – for lack of wine glass…)

View Budapest Shopping Map in a larger map

Some of the programs in 2009 (random pick):

Robert Capa exhibition in the Jewish Museum in Budapest (Dohány street 2, Budapest, right next to the Great Synagogue (1855-59))
Bea Palya Sephardic Sunday (Dohány Street Synagogue)
Cuban Sephardic Journey with Elsa Valle and the Latin Jazz Syndicate (Dohány Street Synagogue)
The Budapest Klezmer Band and the Judrom – guest : Judit Klein (Dohány Street Synagogue)
Edna Mazya: Games in the Backyard (Trafó)
Rande-jew `Lock&Key` social dating party Star guests: The Vodku music band (Symbol Budapest)
Yiddish Tango Evening with Tango Esperimento (Uránia National Movie Theatre – it is a beautiful building, mind you)

etc.

Here’s a live video recording of the Jerusalem Cantors Choir conducted by Benjamin Glickman, performing at Dohany Synagogue, Budapest (Hungary). It was from the 2008 Jewish Summer Festival (1st of September 2008),The pianist: Mrs Rita Feldman-Gelfman. Hevenu Shalom Aleychem, arrangement: S. Silbermintz

Cantor Azi Schwartz sings in the great synagogue of Budapest on Dohany street. Sim Shalom – Grant us with Peace, by Meir Finkelstein.

PS: Judafest is a smaller Budapest Jewish Festival – more info on judafest.org

The American born documentary film director, James A. FitzPatrick made a very nice series of his travels entitled FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk (commisioned by MGM). One of the FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk episodes is a real treasure. It features Budapest, the capital of Hungary in its height, just before Europe started to feel the destructive powers of another world war.

In many ways, FitzPatrick’s Traveltalk ‘Beautiful Budapest‘ is still very informative for those who want to have a quick intro in Budapest (as well as for technicolor travel fans of course).

Some highlights from the travel film script:

• Budapest is a combination of what was formerly two cities, Buda on the left bank of the Danube, and Pest on the right
• “Hungary was formerly part of the great Austro-Hungarian empire, which was disintegrated as a result of the last war” (floral decoration on Liberty square is no longer painfully comparing what Hungary looked like before the first World War and after the Treaty of Trianon)
• Hungarian Archives – thousands of precious manuscripts (the building of the Archives is in the Buda Castle, the Castle District up on the Castle Hill)
• shopping districts – you can purchase the products of Hungary as well as the world at large (true, although Budapest seems to lag behind regarding luxury stores and products lately, even though there are several beautiful luxury hotels in Budapest)
• 1849 – of historic importance, “the year in which the famous Chain Bridge was completed, the first of its kind in Europe” (true, and it was the very first permanent bridge crossing the Danube in Hungary, and successfully joining the then separate cities of Buda and Pest). It is so funny to see the steam boats having their smoke stacks leaning back to be able to go under the bridge – “ingenious method was discovered” as Fitzpatrick puts it
• Royal Palace built in the latter part of the 18th century, during the reign of Mary Theresa (Maria Teresia) – well, the foundations were a lot older, as it was a thriving Royal palace in the 15th century too and taken by the Turkish in the 16th century, but Fitzpatrick is right to simplify in a sense that the present structure of the Royal Palace was developed during the 18th century queen’s reign. You can see the Fisherman’s Bastion too.
• about a thousand years ago, the first king of the Hungarians, St Stephen (born by the name Vajk), was crowned by the Roman pope Gregory VII thus formally bringing a nation formerly under eastern influence into the fold of western civilization (coronation took place in 1000 AD)
• Budapest baths – that is indeed reality, there are several nice spa baths with healing capacities you can pick from right in Budapest (Széchenyi Baths, Gellért Baths, Király bath as well as other Turkish baths) – baths were long discovered back in the Turkish occupation of the 16-17th centuries, re-discovered for modern day tourism around the 1900s. The outdoor swimming pool on Margaret Island is the one called Palatinus (swimming complex of several different kinds of pools – only one of them is spa here). Then the film shows St Gellert baths with the wave bath (Gellért fürdő) on the Buda side. Oh those old-school decent swimming costumes.

Anachronism, changes since 1938

• before 1938 Budapest had 1 million inhabitants, in 2009, Budapest’s population is roughly 2 million
• Matthias Church (Matyas templom) is the terms FitzPatrick mentions as Coronation Church – at least most of the Hungarians use simply Mátyás templom for the Gothic church in the Royal Palace (now under construction)
• I was surprised to hear that the Vajdahunyad castle (Vajdahunyad vár) hosting the Museum of Agriculture would be the best constructed building in Europe – even back in 1938… But it is truly a unique construction in a sense that it’s a mixture of all the various architectural styles and most characteristic buildings in the style in Hungary
• The restaurant with the gypsy musicians is not seen like this any more. There are quite a few touristy restaurants where the main attraction is simplified to goulash and gypsy music and pricey bills, but it is not so easy to find decent gypsy music – unless you like jazz. :)

Music score by Jack Shilkret

One of the ‘greatest hits’ of the Hungarian communist era (if we can apply this highly western term for a real eastern phenomenon) was the song that started with the line ‘Like a squirrel up on the tree, the pioneer is so happy… The title of the song is The Happy Pioneer (A vidám úttörő), but most people know this communist song by the starting line. Sure, we were as happy as a lark, lots of competitions, lots of children’s camps, etc. Being a pioneer (úttörő) with a red scarf or a little drummer (kisdobos) with a blue scarf was tiresome and restricting for some, but I would risk that most of the ex-pioneer people I know look back at those times with nostalgia, as funny, engaging, so all in all positive (even those who rebelled against being a pioneer admit that pioneer times were good times for kids – not for adults definitely). By the way, he pioneer movement was the undeniable eastern copycat of the Scout Movement, I think.

Now here is a beautiful authentic audio – video of the pioneer song ‘Mint a mókus’ (Like a squirrel). The lyrics (in Hungarian) below the video:

Mint a mókus fenn a fán,
Az úttörő oly vidám,
Ajkáról ki sem fogy a nóta.
Ha tábort üt valahol,
Sok kis pajtás így dalol,
Fújja estig kora reggel óta.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyörű az élet.

Fürgébb, mint a könnyű szél,
Gyorsan jár és messze ér,
Nincs túra, ami kifog rajta.
Hívja erdő nyári rét,
Vígan marsol, jól kilép,
És a szemét mindig nyitva tartja.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyörű az élet.

Mint testvér, vagy hű barát,
Megsegít, ha bajban lát,
Munkában alig akad párja.
Hol szöget ver, hol meg főz,
Mindent megtesz, amit győz,
És a helyét mindenütt megállja.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyöru az élet.