You know that I love Budapest and I love the public transportation of the city. Some of you also know that my personal protest against the Russian aggression in Ukraine is that I refuse to buy petrol and haven’t driven my car for a while. The video below shows what I experience and see every day while I’m riding the local metro and trams.

I don’t really share posts on politics or my own political views. This post is different though, because I’ve just started to realise how politics affect travellers’ choices. I’ve just received two cancellations because travellers decided not to visit Hungary because of the country’s prime minister’s political statements and approach.

I think generalisation is dangerous. I think that it’s impossible to form an opinion about a country by this country’s politicians’ statements or approach. That won’t tell you anything about the country’s people, its culture, its architecture, its history. Also, it’s just a temporary state, a snapshot in Hungary’s history of over a 1000 years. And none of the election results shows what all the Hungarians think or how they feel. I think that’s the same all around the world and many of you agree with me.

My travellers are always encouraged to ask questions, I’m happy to discuss everything and anything and I think I always succeed in changing preconceptions or clarify things. I just love to spend time with open minded people who try to understand our country and our  culture and also what led to the actual political status quo.

Again, I respect other people’s choices and I don’t want to change them. But the cancellations meant to me that the travellers formed an opinion about me and my country without actually knowing us and it hurts a lot. And, more importantly, Budapest is Beautiful no matter what the politicians do or say. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing it for yourself!

The Citadel on the top of Gellért hill is being renovated, and unfortunately the entire area is closed because of the construction works. It also means that a truly popular tourist attraction of Budapest is closed and it’s impossible to enjoy the most magnificent views over Buda and Pest. The very bad news is that it remains closed for another few years and it’s impossible to estimate when it reopens. It’s just my personal opinion that they could have left a little path open for the tourists to enjoy the view, but that’s not the case.

You can still take a walk on Gellért hill, and you can climb to the statue of Saint Gellért from where you’ll have a great view over the Pest side of the river.

Some of you know how much I love this time of the year, I love the smells and the colours of spring and I’m fascinated by the blossom of the cherry trees all along Tóth Árpád sétány in the Buda Castle district. Walk with me to see more!

Cherry Blossom in the Buda Castle District
Cherry Blossom in the Buda Castle District

I’m taking a lot of pictures and videos while I’m walking around my Beautiful Budapest. Here is a little video to show you some of the attractions I’ve taken recently. I hope by seeing it all of you will want to see it for yourself. Don’t hesitate to book a tour with me, so that you can have the most amazing Budapest experience!

There are a few buildings that I love in Budapest, Mai Manó House is one of them. It’s such a special building near Andrássy avenue, full of little details and a facade that tells you many stories. We walk by the building very often while we discover the Pest side of the river.

It was designed for Mai Manó, photographer of Emperor Franz Joseph in the 1890’s. As he was a renowned photographer, his profession was clearly demonstrated on the facade, you can see the little angels holding cameras and you can also observe the muses of photography. The main front of the building is full of colours and is richly decorated by colourful ceramic tiles. The style is Neo-Renaissance with a lot of flower and animal motifs.

The House of Photography is home to permanent and temporary exhibitions, and the interior is just as fascinating as the outside.

You might have noticed that the Eger Wine Tour is one of my favourite daytrips from Budapest. I love Eger, it’s a charming little town with beautiful Baroque architecture and its castle is still considered as a national symbol of Hungarian patriotism. The tour is topped by wine tasting both in the city centre and in the Valley of the Beautiful Woman, where you can taste Bull’s Blood, the local cuvée.

The weather is getting more and more beautiful day by day so we enjoyed our time in Eger in beautiful sunshine and I can tell you that everybody loved the red wines we tasted. I hope I’ll have the chance to go back to Eger many times this year.

A new museum opened in the City Park of Budapest, the museum of Hungarian Music. We had a private tour in the museum last week and were truly impressed by both the design of the building and the museum’s programmes and exhibitions.

The building was designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, to me it looks like an extremely ornate spaceship abandoned in the woods. For example I love the 12m high glass windows and panels and the hundreds of golden stylised leaves decorating both the interior and the outside. As a result it looks like a huge forest of gold, which is even more beautiful in the sunshine when the lights are nicely reflected on each and every gold leaf.

In the sound dome you can enjoy a unique audio-visual experience with sounds and music coming from all directions. I loved when all the sounds and music came together by the end of the show. It really felt like as if we witnessed a special chemistry experience in a musical laboratory. As an addition the permanent exhibition offers a musical journey in space and time. You must take some time to explore it, because you can easily spend hours in this underground musical maze. Music lovers should plan to spend some 2-3 hours in the building. Visitors can expect to get a better understanding of Hungarian music from the different periods of our musical history.

(On a personal note I have to add that I’m very much against all new constructions in the second largest public park of Budapest. The reason is that I think we should preserve and enlarge the green spaces in the city. However, I like the modern approach and the fact that the building is supposed to use sustainable and climate-friendly solutions.)

Last week we had the chance to meet and cook with chef Zita from BORGANIKA. Zita has an amazing gastro space in Klauzál market in the Jewish district. She offers cooking classes, all sorts of gastro events and she also hosts private dinners. She is amazing and is truly in love with Hungarian culture and food, all of my guests were fascinated by this unique culinary experience.

We cooked green pea soup, chicken paprikas with nokedli and strudel, it was a lot of fun, we enjoyed cooking and eating together and we also tasted some great Hungarian wines.

It’s a great experience for smaller and larger groups and her enthusiasm and professionalism will most probably brighten your day and contribute to an amazing Budapest experience.

Private cooking class at Borganika
Private cooking class at Borganika

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 giant, 8 meters high statue of Stalin was erected in 1951 to commemorate Stalin’s 70th birthday. The statue was destroyed during the 1956 revolution and only the boots of Stalin survived. The replica of the boots is at the entrance of the Memento Park in Buda.

Today is a national holiday in Hungary, we celebrate the outbreak of the revolution of 1848-1849.

Today we celebrate our national independence, the freedom of speech, the freedom of press and we remember the heroism and the courage of the young Hungarians who became united to confront and fight the oppressors.

I hope that the spirit of the revolution lives on in the Hungarian soul and we never give up fighting for the values our ancestors had been fighting for 173 years ago.

 

It all started almost exactly a year ago and we had no idea back then how COVID-19 was going to change our lives. We really hoped for better but the pandemic is still in its full force and unfortunately numbers are indicating that the situation in Hungary is very, very bad. This is the third wave with far more people in hospital and far more deceased people than before. This is just very sad.

Another lockdown starts today, all shops have to close – except grocery stores and pharmacies. People are recommended to stay at home and work from home office. All schools went digital. We’re told this is for 2 weeks but nobody knows for sure.

I continue offering virtual city tours and cooking classes and work on different other projects for after the pandemic is over. Let me know if you want to know more!

Stay safe, stay happy and book a tour!

Save the date! 20th of March, 2021, Travel From Home Virtual Tours Festival organised by TheWaysBeyond. You’ll have the chance to visit virtually several destinations around the world, I’ll be your virtual tour guide in Beautiful Budapest. Stay tuned!

It’s about time to announce Travel from Home, the first virtual guided tour festival @travelfromhomewithus a new project we have been working on for a while already with our dear partner @beyondromaniatravel and @sofar_virtualtours – a team of smart and passion master students from Sorbonne Nouvelle university.

Get in touch with me if you’d like to schedule a private virtual tour!

A film directed by: Dániel Ács

Editor and Graphic Design: Bence Kiss; Directors of Photography: Tamás Botos, Máté Kőrösi, Zsófia Szász; Colorist: Balázs Budai; Sound engineer: Péter Terner; Production assistant: Veronika Kiss; FPV drone: Cinewhoop Hungary; Translation: Anna Klaniczay

The monument was inaugurated in 2020, on the 100th anniversary of the Versailles Peace Treaty. I’ve been considering posting about this monument for quite a long time and the time has come to publish my opinion, as I’m getting a lot of question about it on my Virtual Tours.

As most of you know Hungary was one of the countries which were badly punished after WW1, we can discuss the fairness of the decision but it’s too late now, as it all happened 101 years ago. As a consequence Hungary lost 2/3 of its original territories and 1/3 of its ethnic Hungarian population. From the early 1920’s political leaders continuously searched for the revision of the treaty, that was actually one of the reasons why Hungary entered WW2.

The Versailles Peace Treaty is named Trianon Treaty in the Hungarian folklore, as the treaty regulating the new borders of Hungary was signed in the Trianon Palace of Versailles.

The memorial is dark and somber. I know that it’s not supposed to be joyful as it commemorates hundred years of grieving but I would be happier to see something a bit less depressing. It’s a 100-meter-long tunnel that goes under the ground. What I like about the monument is that you can see the name of each and every Hungarian village or town that has ever been part of our country. What I don’t like about it is that it’s a dead end, when you walk to the end of it, there is no option to go forward, you have to turn back. I’d like to think that my nation’s history is a canvas changing its colours and shapes continuously and we, the Hungarians are contributing to its actual form. Our history was not over in 1920. I miss seeing the continuity and the hope to move forward.

The memorial is at Kossuth Lajos square right across from the magnificent Parliament building.

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 is a beautiful but rather sad love story. You see Prince Buda and Princess Pest, divided by the Danube River. The statue is on the Gellért hill near the Garden of Philosophy.

This time of the year I usually do some sort of summary of the most popular tours I delivered the previous year. Last year was special with mostly virtual and social distancing tours so I decided to put together a list of the tours I really would like to do more in the new year. Here comes my wish list for 2021

“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.

BUDAPEST ART NOUVEAU WALK: the most stunning Art Nouveau buildings and their mysterious secrets are to be revealed on this tour. A great option for architecture fans or first time visitors.

COMMUNIST BUDAPEST WALK: I grew up in the 1980’s so I can share with you a lot of stories from the Communist era which is still considered as one of the most painful periods of Hungarian history.

GYOR, SOPRON AND THE ESTERHAZY PALACE IN FERTOD: three magnificent examples of the greatest Hungarian Baroque architecture, the visit of Győr, Sopron and the simply outstanding Esterhazy Palace in Fertőd.

BAROQUE TOUR IN GÖDÖLLŐ AND HOLLÓKŐ BY CAR: I’m in love with Baroque style, on this tour you’ll understand more about both urban and rural Baroque architecture and about the lifestyle of Hungarian everyday people and royalty from the 18th century to nowadays.

Hopefully we can travel again very very soon and I can take you to the most amazing places in Budapest and Hungary you’ll never forget.

On the very last day of the year after the very last virtual tour of the year I’m wishing you a very happy new year from my Beautiful Budapest. I hope all your dreams come true in 2021! #budapest #beautifulbudapest#tourguide #travelguide #virtualtour#happynewyear #BUEK#boldogujevet #2021