My new passion is to collect the sounds of Budapest, recording local music all over the city. This is the first recording of my collection, we were extremely lucky to hear a short organ recital in the Matthias Church of the Buda Castle district.
I try to publish beautiful pictures of my beautiful Budapest as often as I can, still, I don’t think I reach many people via my Instagram feed. Never mind, this is the selection of my favourite pictures in 2019.
Lonely Planet has just published a list of the “Best destinations, journeys and sustainable travel experiences” for 2020. I am very proud, because Budapest is listed among 10 destinations in total, we’re number 2. It’s a great achievement, I only wish they didn’t include “Budapest is one of the most rewarding on your pocket” as I don’t want travellers to visit Budapest because it’s cheap. Come and see my city, because it’s beautiful! 🙂
I’m starting a new series to introduce you the most famous statues of Budapest and some of the hidden gems, too. These are the beautiful monuments of Budapest we usually see on our walking or driving tours in Buda and Pest.
The Fat Policeman, aka Uncle Karl is our dear friend watching tourists and locals walking around the neighbourhood of the St. Stephen’s Basilica. Urban legend is that if you rub his belly you won’t have any weight problem and can try all the delicious Hungarian dishes.
With over 250 tours I delivered last year I can’t tell how fortunate I am to show my travellers around the city and the country I love the most. This is my home, my birthplace and I’m looking forward to introducing it to even more people in 2020!
I’ve just had a look at which my most popular tours were last year:
- “THE GRAND BUDAPEST” WALK: a great introduction of Budapest to first time visitors or travellers who only have one day to see the main highlights and some of the hidden gems.
- JEWISH QUARTER WALK: including the visit of the world’s second largest synagogue and a walk in the ghetto which is today the Soho of Budapest with great cultural and creative vibes.
- BUDAPEST FOODIE TOUR: as I also work for a Hungarian food magazin, I’m really happy to take you to local markets and little artisan food shops and to make sure you taste all the great Hungarian treats.
- EGER AND WINE TOUR BY CAR: we love our wines and we love our wine countries, Eger, the postcard-like Baroque little town is famous for the Bull’s Blood, the great Hungarian red wine.
- A DAY IN TOKAJ WINE COUNTRY: another day trip, another tour to a beautiful wine region. I love Tokaj and the Tokaj wines and I hope that my travellers who picked this tour in 2019 loved it just as much as I did.
Budapest in the winter is rather grey and foggy. Also, it’s very cold, so there are only a few outdoor programs locals enjoy doing from early December to the end of February. One of those programs is ice skating in the City Park, it’s great fun and the ice skating rink is usually very busy on weekends.
I’m starting a new series to introduce you the most famous statues of Budapest and some of the hidden gems, too. These are the beautiful monuments of Budapest we usually see on our walking or driving tours in Buda and Pest.
This beautiful sphinx is guarding the entrance of the State Opera House on Andrassy ut. Why is she so special? Because it’s not a typical sphinx with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, but if you have a closer look you can see the she has breasts, too.
The cute little cable car has been transporting millions of passengers from the Chain Bridge to the top of the Castle hill (or the other way) since its opening in 1870. You might have seen it appearing in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, too.
Originally it was operated by steam and was destroyed in WW2. Since its reconstruction it’s been an electric cable car.
My insider tip: if you want to avoid long lines, don’t take it to go to the top but take it to descend to the Chain Bridge from the Royal Palace.
Buda Castle Funicular 
Buda Castle Funicular
I’m starting a new series to introduce you the most famous statues of Budapest and some of the hidden gems, too. These are the beautiful monuments of Budapest we usually see on our walking or driving tours in Buda and Pest.
Julianus and Gerhardus, Hungarian monks who travelled all the way to near the Ural Mountains in the 13th century to find Magna Hungaria, the territories where the Hungarians had lived before they started their migration to Europe and conquered the actual territories of Hungary.
The reason why I love family researches a lot, is because it’s always a great experience to do the research and to find out more about my travellers’ relatives and family who were originally from Hungary. The other reason is that we usually go to beautiful Hungarian villages and towns to see where and how the family members lived 100 or 200 years ago.
Last week we visited the town of Kalocsa which isn’t just another cute little Hungarian town but it’s also famous for the local paprika. We went to see the local Paprika Museum to find out more about the most popular Hungarian spice.
