Hungary

Budapest

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This club is located next to St. Stephen's Basilica and offers both day and night activities: lunch and exhibitions and awesome Hungarian music bands and DJs. Friday and weekend nights you will have to stand in a line to get in.

Ötkert

The square received its name after a law faculty that is standing right in the middle. Future lawyers attend their lectures in a white baroque mansion with flying skulls on the facade to scare others away. Next to it stands a smoked but still beautiful university chapel, also baroque, whose ochre or rust-colored facade is unique. It was built in 1742 and above the altar you can see the replica of the The Black Madonna of Częstochowa revered in Poland. The square has a couple of popular places: gourmet restaurant Sonka Arcoc, a burger joint and Hummus bar. The square never sleeps but everything is more decent than in the impudent Erzsebet té.

Egyetem tér University Square

Even though Budapest is now seeing a revival and year by year is getting rid of its shabby past, renovation is not that quick so even in the center – around Andrássy Avenue and in the Jewish quarter – you still can spot some bullet holes – the reminders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. To make a long story short, Hungarians dreamed of toppling their Soviet backed government since the very end of WW2. The country had quite a Stalin-style regime with repressions. On October 23, 1956 hundreds thousands of young men took it to the street to support Polish workers arrested on a riot in Poznan. They sang Hungarian songs, read Petőfi Sándor poems about freedom and everything looked like street celebrations. They were joined by passers by and soldiers, banners were made on the spot saying Russians, go home and Free Hungary. The symbol of the protest was a Hungarian banner with a hole – they cut out the Soviet hammer and sickle. By night, some 200,000 people were outside. The head of the communist party Ernő Gerő called the protesters fascist hooligans in his radio address, called for immediate surrender and really offended the crowds that rushed to the Radio City Hall and faced fire. That’s how the 12-day armed uprising began when even teens and women took guns and the Soviet managed to suppress it only with the help of tanks that were resisted by barricades of piled trams. The streets were packed with corpses. Then the Soviets replaced Gerő with liberal Imre Nagy and people had an illusion that the revolution won. Imre opened the border with Austria and 200,000 people managed to flee. But Soviet tanks were back on November 4 with the Red Army – Budapest saw the bloody suppression of the riot, thousands were arrested and 350 executed.

Bullet holes

This treasure trove of Gothic Hungarian, medieval Italian and old orthodox art (icons and wooden altars) looks like it has never seen a living soul. Timid ushers rush ahead of visitors to turn the lights on in the next hall and are eager to answer any questions. The museum opened in 1825 and has its lady and the unicorn by an unknown artist, works by Gothic painter Master MS, all passions of Christ, tapestries, household appliances and tiled stoves. To get to Esztergom, take a bus from Arpad hid bridge.

Museum of Christian Art in Esztergom

This year the restaurant in the Buda Castle celebrated its 50th anniversary and again made it to the city's best places. It also shines in all its glory after a recent renovation. Its chef Attila Bicsár, the Bocuse d'Or finalist and the winner of numerous culinary contests prepares his signature marinated Danube carp, lamb steak, lecsó, different kinds of goose foie gras and other gems of Hungarian cuisine. You can book a table on their website.

Alabardos

Óbuda today is a quiet residential district but it actually is the place where Budapest began – it used to be home to Romans who left the traces of a 14,000-seat amphitheater of II century AD. If you walk around you can stumble across a synagogue with a colonnade and a neoclassical portico of 1820 which has been converted into a TV studio as well as ancient churches and monuments. Szentélek tér still has the 19th century estates, including houses of the op art guru Victor Vasarely, the gallery of sculptor Imre Varga with a sculpture of ladies with umbrellas by the entrance and mosaics with Hercules in the Roman villa ruins by the square.

Obuda

Budapest doors tell everything about the style of the house (though sometimes facades are really badly damaged) and what's inside. Was the architect a Jew or a Hungarian patriot, or maybe a fan of Secession or classicism. The beauty of doors is shining even from under graffiti and destructions. The magnificent doors of Budapest are all around the city and are worth a separate collection. My favorites are in Síp utca – doors with beautiful Jewish motives and firebirds and the brutal aggressive door in Baross utca 11.

Doors of the Jewish quarter

Kazinczy Street is home to the funkiest bars, kosher restaurants, the Orthodox synagogue and a mikveh ritual pool next to Szimpla ruin pub. All this makes for a harmonic mix in Budapest's Jewish quarter. The 1913 synagogue is the most impressive building in the street. The splendid art nouveau facade has recently been renovated and now nothing reminds of the decline faced by the area not so long ago. Together with the buildings on the corner of Kazinczy and Wesselényi Streets the synagogue form the real Jewish community fortress – a spacious hall for prayers, a smaller hall, a school, a mikveh, two kosher restaurants, a butcher shop and houses of Orthodox Jews. On shabbat when all doors are opened you can look at the patio garden. The main hall of the synagogue is sparkling in blue, green and gold filled with the light streaming through stained glass. The entrance ticket also includes a tour offer (in English)a kippah for men and a shawl for girls to cover bare shoulders.

Kazinczy Street Orthodox Synagogue

The legend of the stone soup is part of Hungarian folklore: soldiers were returning from the war and the only food they have was a stone and a pot so surprised villagers watched them making a stone soup and helped with a carrot and some potato – bite by bite the soup appeared quite edible and everyone enjoyed the meal. Kőleves is a restaurant in the heart of the Jewish quarter with a patio, a street bar and a hostel. The interior is quite creative: grater and wine glasses chandeliers, plate-tiled bar and a collection of vintage coffee machines and pots scattered around the hall. One wall bears Kőleves manifesto: no pork, frozen food, GMO or additives: only fresh products grown at least 60 km far from Budapest. The menu honors Jewish ancestry of the place and Hungarian culinary traditions: goose-matzo-ball soup, goose leg with mashed potatoes and red cabbage, flodni cake (a matzo recipe). They have a special menu for vegetarians and Asian food loves (made of Hungarian ingredients)

Kőleves

Sour cherry soup, Mangalitsa hairy pig, lángos flat bread, Hungarian goose liver, flodni dessert – try it to feel the Hungarian cuisine. And don’t forget about the wines – Tokay from rasin grapes, red Kékfrankos wine, Olas Riesling white and dozens of other sorts to be found in enotecas around the city. And we give you five addressed to become the Hungarian cuisine expert.

Goulash and paprikash: Hungarian food in Budapest

Sundays in Budapest are time for farmers and designer markets. Traffic is not that heavy and locals lazily get out for a brunch and coffee, go to public baths and walk in the parks. Nothing reminds of the crazy Friday night and residents of party districts can enjoy their sleep. Follow our guide for a relaxed day in the city.

Perfect Sunday in Budapest

Budapest loves spring: the city welcomes the season with Spring festival, Easter fairs and concerts and April 18-19 is the weekend of 100-year old houses when their residents let everyone in to admire ancient Hungarian architecture from inside.

Spring Budapest

If you are lucky to have more than a weekend in Budapest choose untouristy routes as the city is not only Andrassy Avenue and the Jewish quarter. Follow our guide to discover all its secrets and layers.

Budapest Studies

Budapest used to be really cheap but it was before the crisis, so we've compiled a list with affordable, cheap, discounted or free activities.

Affordable Budapest

The craziest nightlife, the most decent Saturdays, kosher restaurants and shops, three splendid synagogues, menorahs on balconies decorations and beautiful doors with birds from Jewish tales, together with the tragic history of the Hungarians Jewry of the 20th century – coexists in the ex-ghetto. Our list offers the most curious places.

Budapest

Routes

Places of Budapest