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

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

Enjoy the Zagar video

You can also listen to Zagar music in live concerts quite often in Budapest. This Zagar clip was shot on the Budapest Sziget Fesztivál (Budapest Student Festival on the ShopFactory Island/ Hajógyári Sziget in Óbuda part of Budapest), which is basically the most popular festival on an island cca 30 min from downtown Budapest featuring international big name musicians.

Zagar: Sounds and Lights

Zagar: Three Seasons Fall

And here is the Zagar story/ history in a nutshell:

The story of the band started at the begin of the year 2001, when the three members of Yonderboi Quintet (Zságer, Kovács, DJ Bootsie) after the Shallow and Profound Tour started rehearsing separately from the Quintet. First they were performing as Pulzus. The material they have put together durring the rehearsals and the earlier solo works of Balázs Zságer were synthesized and have created the characteristic sounds of the new band. In the summer of 2002 they already played at different festivals in Hungary and abroad as well under the name Zagar. After that they recorded their debut album “Local Broadcast”. On this album besides a string quartet there are many featuring artist, one of them the singer György Ligeti (The Puzzle), with whom they used to play together with in the band called The End.
Local Broadcast was released in 2002 in Hungary by UCMG/Ugar records and in 2003 in Austria by Universal Jazz. This album has received warm welcome abroad by professionals and collectors alike. The album was selected for the chart of the 50 all time’s most important Hungarian records by music magazine WAN2. The Zagar band has been performing live ever since their formation. Apart from Hungary they have already played in Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Czeh Republic and Russia.

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