Swimming in snowfall – the Saint Luke’s bath of Budapest
Have you ever swimmed in a pool, while snowflakes were falling out of the sky? When you are in Budapest at wintertime, do not miss the feeling in one of the historical bathes of the city. Saint Luke’s Bath is not the most well-known of Budapest’s many bath houses, with tourist the Széchenyi and the Gellért […]
The largest thermal bath of Europe – Széchenyi bath Budapest
The Széchenyi Bath is largest the thermal spring bath complex not only in Budapest, in but whole Europe as well. It’s also the first thermal bath of Pest. The bath owes its existence to Vilmos Zsigmondy, a Hungarian mining engineer; on his initiative, successful deep borings had been performed in the City Park, where later, in […]
The ‘green column bath’ of Budapest – Rudas Thermal baths
The beautiful building of Rudas bath made a name in the world of Hollywood movies as well, in 1988 the bath was used as a shooting place for the action movie Red Heat, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi, and in 2012 for some sceneries of the Borgias with Jeremy Irons. Rudas Bath’s Turkish-style bathhouse […]
The children of glory – lads of Pest in 1956
The so-called “Lads of Pest” – youngsters mostly in their teens or early twenties who took up arms to fight against Soviet occupation – are a familiar symbol of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and freedom fight. As many of them served as commanders of armed insurgency units, many of them were either killed in combat or […]
The Hungarian McDonald’s story
We were waiting for the opening of the first McDonald’s in Budapest like Christmas Day. In the legendary movie, Time Stands Still, the main characters claim they feel a little high after drinking Coca Cola, not because of the taste, but because of the freedom it represented. I know exactly what they meant. As for […]
A bath whithout hot spring, Kiraly bath Budapest
Király Bath is the only thermal bath of Budapest, which was not built over a hot spring. Moreover, the only bath, which was really built by Turks. A widespread belief, that bathing culture arrived with the Ottoman Reign to Hungary, though thermal baths existed far more before, already in the Roman times, and later also […]
Danube Promenade Budapest
The Danube Promenade or Dunacorso is walking path on the Pest side of Budapest, which extends from the Chainbridge to the Elizabeth bridge. This location was always popular for promenading, especially in the 19th century. The buildings here first were destroyed during the Big FLood in 1838, and ten years later in the Revolution and Freddom Fight of 1848-49, which […]
Funny Funicular of Budapest
At the top of the Castle hil of Budapestl, rising over 300 feet at an almost 40-degree incline, is Buda Castle — with no easy way to get up there. Though in medieval times it was not an object at all, later on the city needed some vehicle to approach the Buda Castle. And that became […]
Cogwheel Railway Budapest
In 1870 Nikolaus Riggenbach the designer of Europe”s first cogwheel railway visited Budapest. His concept was to connect Sváb Hill, a district developing into a holiday resort in the 1850s, to the rest of the capital city of Hungary. The representative of the Basel-based company, the Internationale Gesellschaft für Bergbahnen applied for permission to construct […]
Great Market Hall Budapest
The Great Market Hall in Budapest is something you cannot miss, it is the center of local life in a city, the markets. Hungarian Cuisine is full of ingredients and spices that you cannot leave the country without seeing them. The Great Market Hall or Central Market Hall is the largest and oldest indoor market […]
The world’s most expensive toy – Children’s Railway of Budapest
A „children’s railway” is actually an extracurricular educational institution, where kids can learn professions connected to the rail. The phenomenon originated in the Soviet Union, and during the communist times was greatly developed in the Soviet Block, as in Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The world’s first children’s railway was opened in 1932 in Moscow’s […]
Flying chairs above Budapest. The Libegő (Flutter)
The Chair Lift („Libegő” literally „flutter”) is the one of the most interesting sights of the hills of Buda. The two-way chairlift system transports passengers between Zugliget and the Elizabeth lookout tower on János Hill (the highest peak in the city) since 1970. The 1040 metre-long route spans the 262-metre height differential between the two […]
‘After the war let’s meet at New York!’ – The legendary coffeehouses of Budapest
The coffee houses have a long history in Budapest. Coffee culture began during the time of the Turkish occupation in the 16th century, and flourished under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While many think of Paris and Vienna as the café capitals of the world, Budapest rivals them both with its cafes filled with talented writers, poets, and […]
