I’m sad tonight. I’m sad because tonight is one of the few nights this week I’m not propping up the bar in Szimpla Kert, the most famous of Budapest’s ruin pubs. These grungy, mostly outdoor bars have sprung up all over the city’s Jewish district in buildings that have fallen into disrepair. Szimpla Kert was the first and is still the most famous of them, but is it also the best?

Obviously, I don’t live in Budapest, so it’s a question I’m not really in a position to answer – but I could have tried at least. I’m a little ashamed to admit, though, that I was a very bad travel blogger this time around; when I should have been bar-hopping around the city to collect a big enough sample size of beery experiences to make a call on the city’s nightlife, I was actually lounging around in Szimpla Kert, a leisurely ten metre amble from my apartment.

What can I say? From the moment I walked in, I just didn’t want to leave.

Like a circus crammed into squat, this place is a curio-packed playground. A gauze separating the upper and lower floors is threaded with coloured lanterns and strung with disco balls of varying sizes. Over the course of several evenings I drink and chat, but mostly I stare. I’m drawn to a boxy old TV in one corner. Behind the pane of glass, a 3D scene glows eerily from blue to green and back again. I don’t know what I’m looking at exactly – it looks like an empty fish tank — but I can’t tear my eyes away.

After dark, the whole place slinks down the rabbit hole. There’s no dancing, but DJs take to the booths and old reels of film (installation art-type stuff) are projected onto screens pulled down from the ceiling. One room would be completely dark were it not for strings of fairy lights and multiple TVs pulsing kaleidoscopic neon patterns in sync. In another, groups sprawl across low sofas, clustered around shisha pipes. Upstairs, a warren of corridors provide a view out over the courtyard, where on top of another bar perch a collection of old lifeguard chairs.

I order the standard draught beer at the bar. “You like beer?” the barman barks. “Well don’t have Soproni. Soproni is s***. Have Dreher. Much better.” It’s the most convincing point-of-sale upselling I’ve ever been subjected to. I suspect very little Soproni is consumed in Szimpla.

From beer we move to palinka, a fruity Hungarian brandy that lingers on the tongue and scorches the throat like sweet lava. Nothing is more than £2. Not the beer, nor the palinka, nor the hunks of Hungarian pizza being doled out from a little counter near the entrance.

Because I was stationed so close to Szimpla, I also got to see it during the day. Every Sunday morning, only a few hours after the last of the revellers leave, the place fills with little stalls and beer-swigging traders cheerily tempt shoppers into trying paprika paste, soft, pale cheese, mushroom pate and chunks of sausage. It has the feeling of a fair at a community centre, where the community is basically dedicated to having an awesome time.

I’m not the only one who thinks Szimpla is a pretty sound establishment. Lonely Planet has it pegged as the third best bar in the world (the first was also in Budapest – whoops, too late!). I’m quite lucky that in my line of work I get to visit the kind of swanky bars in London which are squirreled away inside private members clubs, or towering high over most other buildings in the city — but Szimpla Kert shows that neither views, nor exclusivity and not even expertly shaken cocktails are what’s needed to give a place its cool. The only joint I know of anywhere that gives it some real competition isn’t actually a bar at all, but a little beach shack serving cold beer against a backdrop of sunsets and fire poi on the southernmost tip of Gili Trawangan.

If there’s a bar you go to regularly where the bartender knows your order, everybody knows your name and you’re allowed to run up a tab and not settle it until payday, then you don’t need my recommendation — you already know the best bar in the world. Fortunately for everyone who’s yet to settle on that spot, there’s Szimpla Kert. It might be “the best bar in the world”, or it might not – for what it’s worth, though, I suspect it is.

After he had been a member of several student
bands since 1959, János Kóbor and the
keyboarder László Benkö founded OMEGA
1962 in Budapest. With his m multifarious
vocal style, his expressive rendition and
powerful presence on stage he significantly
shaped the character of the band.

It was mainly due to him that Omega soon
became an internationally renowned headliner,
who contributed to several chapters
of the history of rock music, who sold 50
million records and CDs world-wide and
became the most successful band in Eastern
Europe.

In connection with the 50th birthday of the
group last year, János Kóbor effectively implemented
his idea to record a studio album
of the most successful songs from the seventieth
and eighties with a classical orchestra.
In October 2010 the album “OMEGARhapsody”
was released, produced by
János Kóbor. Meanwhile it is available in 26
countries.

Just in time before the start of the jubilee
tour 2012 – which included three concerts
in Germany – they additionally released the
OMEGA-Symphony, a 30-minute orchestral
work of the band’s greatest hits. The live performances
of the OMEGA-Symphony and
the OMEGA-Rhapsody thrilled the audiences
of their jubilee concerts in 2012.

In appreciation of their 50th anniversary,
the band was honored with the most
prestigious national award of Hungary – the
Kossuth-Prize – in the Hungarian Parliament
on 15th March 2013.

Starting in June 2013 the band will again be
on tour with a symphony orchestra performing
“OMEGA-Symphony & Rhapsody”.

Next to the Bazilika – St István tér.

We stayed in LA for two weeks. Caught up with family and searched the state for worthy vintage. Now that those things are in order, and our two weeks are up its time to fly to Hungary.

Why?

Because I need to finish my BA and that requires an oral defense of my thesis.  Must study! I will catch you up with I am there! See you soon!

Street with lots of great shops, open only to pedestrians.

Vaci utca

Vaci utca

Vaci utca

Graffiti in Zagreb

I’m the only one who is willing to cross while the little red man says no.

Steve is an excellent photographer after years of tourist photography experience.

Ladies in Zagreb

We ended up walking for almost 3 hours, and the time actually flew by. There’s not a ton of things to see in Zagreb (like Vienna or something) but certainly enough for a day walk.

Cathedral in Zagreb

Folk dancers outside Zagreb Cathedral

We also came across some kind of folk dance celebration outside the Cathedral. We were in the city on Fireman’s Day, so there were a lot of events happening. We saw a marching band in the main square, along with the city’s firefighting regiments and police forces.

Folk dancers outside Zagreb Cathedral

I loved the service dogs.

Service Dogs in Zagreb Fireman’s Day

My favorite part of our walking tour was the planets installation. I hadn’t noticed them last time we were in the city, there’s no signage and they like to keep it as a hidden gem of sorts for the locals to enjoy. The sun is installed in the center of the city, and each planet is placed a proportionate distance away. Pluto was still a planet when the installation was built, so somewhere in a Zagreb suburb there’s a tiny Pluto!

Planets installation in Zagreb

We found Earth!!

We found the Sun!

After the long walk, we found a nice cafe for some much needed caffeine and postcard writing.

Writing postcards in Zagreb

Zagreb is a great little city. The central park is small, but serves as a green gathering place, especially on such a beautiful day. Horse carriages were everywhere, offering quaint scenic rides to tourists and locals.

Horses in the central park

Ban Jelačić Square

We had a great trip, I’m glad I got to see the city again in better weather, even though I missed the Christmas tent with the delicious cheese sausages… It was worth paying tourist prices for a little sunshine!

Photo Credit-Daniel de los Reyes

Grammy Award Winning Zac Brown Band Percussionist Daniel de los Reyes bringing his dream of a music camp to life.

“Where are these Rhythm Trails leading to that you’ve heard me talking about for the past few months?  I am very excited to tell you about my DayGLOW Music Camp™. It is my dream come true. 

DayGLOW Music Camp™ is a a self-contained, independent, educational, youth development facility. It is my heartfelt desire in life to affect our youth in a positive and helpful way.  

I would like to thank Caterpillar and Home Depot along with all of the other companies and friends who are integrally involved in the early stages of the camp’s development. 

Their contribution is helping to bring my dream of the DayGLOW Music Camp™ one step closer to life. Although great progress has taken place to date, there is still much work to be done to bring the camp to fruition.”

]]> http://yadambross.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/online-journal-budapest-day-3-05082013/ Wed, 15 May 2013 15:12:54 +0000 Yadam Bross http://yadambross.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/online-journal-budapest-day-3-05082013/ I woke up and realized I hadn’t washed my shorts after the spill debacle of the previous night.  So that’s how I began today.  Eventually the rest of the group roused and we prepared for our 15 mile bike ride to the nearby village of Szentendre located further down the Danube.  Wa managed to sneak in a quick breakfast before and then we were off!  The bikeshop owner, Imre, was nervous because the path to Szentendre is often dirty following a rain–and it had steadily done so the night before.  He warned us of a potential “cleaning charge” which would be the butt of many jokes along the way.  My dad successfully garnered a honk from a car about thirty seconds after we rented the bikes.   Weaving through the city was both exhilarating and obviously terrifying as the crazy Euros just strolled across streets seemingly without regard for themselves, their children, or us.  We crossed the Margit Bridge and then the adventure really began.  We peddled through city streets and back alleys, following signs sporadically placed in the most obscure places imaginable, further confirming the Hungarians’ cruel and sadistic humor.  We accidentally found ourselves in the Microsoft business center at one point.  We finally found the road we were meant to be on…until we took a wrong turn and ended up in the swamps of the Budapest backcountry.  We biked through water reaching our pedals and the most mosquito infested area on the habitable globe.  Mud sprawled across our clothes and our bikes (#CleningCharge) and it seemed an endless peril.  Finally, we found ourselves on the old road which Imre had originally recommended using–the swamp was apparently the new road…crazy people.  We arrives at a false destination and cursed the sign point toward Szentendre telling us we had another 4 km to ride.  When we finally reached the little town, it was unimaginably disappointing, especially considering the 2 hours we had biked to reach the place.  We ate and almost immediately had to leave because we needed to get to the Opera by 6 and it was nearly 3:30.  Off we went.  We managed to stay out of the return journey, but it was not without drama considering I almost died.  We tried to bike around this very poorly placed lamp posts and I lost my balance and nosedived into the street…a street where the speed limit was 70 km/hr (roughly 45 mph).  Luckily, the car had seen my wobble session and stopped without absolutely mashing me, breaking all my bones, and painting the street a new shade of red…ignoring how oddly detailed I’m beig about the scene, I’ll ease the tension and tell you, loyal readers, I escaped with only a cut on my leg and another joke for the gallery for the rest of the trip.  Pride in tatters and nerves a little spiked, we went to the Opera.  A warning, readers, going to an Opera where the players sing on German and it is subtitles above in Hungarian is about as stimulating as it sounds.  I managed to only sleep through the first act of three!!  After the Opera we went to a little cafe which was far too expensive for its own good.  Then we called it an early evening.

Two and a half day of very interesting conferencing ahead of me, but I had the good fortune to already around my arrival at the hotel to sneak in a run.

Knowing nothing about budapest and much less around where to run, decided to run to The Danube river and follow it for a bit while taking in the view of the “pest” part of Budapest. Call it a quick run around attractions such as the chain bridge and other interesting stuff.

Weather was perfect, a little cloudy, but warm and pleasant. It begged for me to stick to the good old black soles, but I did not know anything about what I would run into in terms of conditions, thus I grabbed my seeyas in the hand on the way out. turned out they were totally unnecessary. While I spotted a fair amount of unpleasant looking glass of the broken beer bottle variety (particularly on the route from the chain bridge to the opera), then it was generally not enough to pose any threat to my feet and was quite easy to navigate.

Plan was for a 5K, but at the natural turning point it said 4K and an average pace of 5:30 Min/K, not bad, given that I really felt good and my feet had no signs of hotspots nor other friction issues.

The surface was generally smooth concrete or paved road, walk/bike lane, but some some fun stuff such as pebbles, cobble stones and even a few obstacles to jump here and there

The run home was just as pleasant as the run out, Developed a bit of a hotspot on the inside of my right forefoot (see the picture below it is clearly visible). It puzzles me a bit, but it is a general issue when running completely barefoot. My own guess is that my right foot is not quite strong enough in the muscles supporting the arch of the foot, allowing it to sag a bit towards the end of my run, but it is only a feeling. On that note I am glad I have a meeting with my style coach soon, hopefully he can pinpoint the problem.

Fast forward to late afternoon today and the second run in Budapest.

Weather spoke for a pure barefoot experience and having done several evening walks after dinners and in between conference days, I had a pretty good feeling of what to expect. I planned for a slightly different and possibly slightly longer route, thus the seeyas came with me in my hand as I put the good old black soles to work.

One of the things that struck me while running the first half of the route, was that I much like Sunday, got an unusually large amount of startled looks and comments in Magyar, English and even a few Swedish ones. I very much doubt they are used to seeing barefooted runners in Budapest or even barefoot style runners. At least I saw none.

Pace, cadence and running style all seemed very good, I have noticed that I need around 2-3K to lock into my running style. Not that it is bad the first couple of kilometres, I just have to focus on the flow until I am in the “zone”

The “pest” side of my run was a fun surprise, a mix of huge cobble stones, and flagstones with a fine layer of pebbles sort of embedded in the surface, lots of construction work going on and, plenty of urban obstacles to run around, avoid or jump, not to mention a massive amount of pedestrians, cars and buses. All in all a load of fun.

As i reached the Hotel the watch said 9K, a 5:31 pace and a cadence of 198 SPM. Ok I am running fairly flat terrain, but I find it quite promising that I am able to run a problem free 5:30 average on completely bare feet, seemingly without compromising my style and that is Improvement to me

Overall Budapest comes highly recommended to barefooters I think and I had a ball here

Strict Degree

Morning Before Midnight

Sunday, 14 April 2013: 

Weirdly enough, within 10 minutes of being in the city and on our way to see our first sights of the day, we were approached by a man (whom we ended up chatting with for 35 minutes) who was actually from Budapest. He was a diplomat (we’re 99.9% positive) who was representing Hungary and was based in London. Talk about a man who has had an interesting life! He was absolutely fascinating! We learned so much from our chat with him, and it was totally worth standing for 35 minutes on the street with him.

After our friendly chat, we walked toward Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, then around Parliament, across the river and back down the other side all the way to the Tower of London. We walked a lot! But at least there were great sites and pictures to be seen and taken!

Along our walk, we stopped to see the Globe Theatre, which was really cool to see in person! (Even though it is a recreation of the original and we didn’t end up touring it).
We then explored the Tower of London. I thought it was so much fun to see the crown jewels (they’re so shiny!) and it was really nice because there were no lines in the entire facility since it was not the summer tourist season (this is the time of the year to travel there…not in the middle of July or August).

After we fully explored the Tower, we headed to the Natural History Museum, where we did a whirl-wind tour of the fantastic museum. And of course, we definitely explored the Dinosaur exhibit (which is awesome). After that we headed to the bus station to meet our friend and catch the bus to the hotel before our flight out to Budapest
in the morning!

The tour was due to last 2.5 hours. The first 30 minutes seemed wrapped up in telling the history of Hungary. Fascinating it is but my bum was starting to feel numb sitting on the steps. Eventually we set off and soon we were bombarded with the sights and stories attached to them.

The tour itself took in the highlights of Buda and Pest. Crossing the Danube and making our way up Castle Hill. The guide was excellent telling stories as we made our way. A lot of these stories were funny and made the walk go a lot quicker. The tour ended up finishing past the Castle in Buda. We were more than happy to tip the guide. She recommend a fine restaurant to have lunch.

Free Walking Tours in Budapest offer four tours. The original morning walking tour, the afternoon tour, the Communism walk and the Jewish walk. All are free with just a tip to be paid out to the guide. It is part of the United Europe Free Tours Group. They also operate free walking tours in Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Ljubljana, Kiev and Bucharest.

As a solo traveller I enjoy walking tours. It is a great way of meeting fellow travellers and also a great way of familiarising yourself with a new city.

Free Budapest Walking Tours Team – http://www.triptobudapest.hu

Until the next post stay safe, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Steve

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But this was not really my intention for today. So i have been hunting around and snooping around some designer or sellers pages from Ustrendy  website. And i just happen to discover a new designer (at least new to me). And it also happens that incidentally fell in love with some of her designs. Surprisingly the futuristic ones.

Now, I love simplicity; you might even call me a minimalist, except for those moments where i like to go all out  and STUFF like that. (said it daffy ducks style). I am not really into lady gaga-esque kind of fashion but i might have just taken my first step into what i think might be a long conviction. I mean one step isn’t enough but Agnes Nora Szimon might make me a believer.  Not your typical known designer which even makes this find more incredible.

Her futuristic approach to ready to wear fashion is elegant, simplistic and utterly adorable. Yes i would definitely spot most of them. I loved her work, so i decided to do a little bit of digging into her to may be give you guys a little background on her. But the only thing i found is that She is based in Budapest and also has an ETSY store (click on the link to go there). I have not ordered any of her designs to see them in person, but i love the fact that the dress are made to order and she caters to different sizes as long as you send the measurements (That”s are claim in her ETSY STORE and it seems legit). …well no need to repeat myself.

So i will let the pictures do the talking…. You the whole saying about pictures being worth thousand words and all

JUST CLICK ON THE DRESSES AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO HER ONLINE STORE called ZOE PHOBIC!!!

I love the black and the White but i have a thing about white outfits and on this one i even like the white better. Just so lovely. The lower picture, she paired the futuristic dress with a futuristic top she also made, but this time the sleeves to the dress are handing on the side making it look even more AMAZING.

So below is the picture of the top she used in the pic above (just different colors)

I can think of better things to pair this lovely top with than just a pair of jeans. I might actually just add some pics of what will look amaze–balls with it

Love the take on the dress. Cant decide if i would have loved it more  being a bit fitted more at the hips/skirts or love it better this loose.

There are good sides to both, this loose it makes the dress look classy and not over board due to the open chest. the looseness give an appearance of modesty. you know the thing about having a perfect balance. why have it hugging your curves when your already showing something else. (Show them one at a time).

But then i look at it from the fitted perspective and it would seem like it will look cleaner and sexier. Still decent actually, just makes it way more sexier. So if you are buying this dress, it depends on what look you are going for.

Effortlessly sexy or Amaze balls drop you jaws sexy. choose you look and tailor according to taste

The two dresses are quite different, there similarity being the thing i absolutely love about them “THE HOODIE”. Again i am not a hoodie kinda girl but i just love this especially the gray dress. Cant pin point why exactly i will shell out for this. But believe i really want to. The draping of the hoodie just gets me. It so high fashion, effortless and just… (can’t find the word to describe it)

I added this cause it was pretty Okay. Doesn’t have the collective look of the others, but the collection looks cohesive with its color. and i love the easy flowy-ness of the dress. Looks like something i could throw on a pair of heels and go to a nice night high class event. and also just tuss the heels and throw on some nice Flat sandals and go about my day. very versatile.

I know Earlier (if you look above) i kind of featured this tops in the all white. Well this is the Black and silver version of it (a little improved and i love it). Almost makes me want to go to a cocktail party out of space. BEAM ME UP CAPTAIN!!!. Jokes aside i love the black better and can definitely see myself rock the hell out of this top.

And then you have this dress, Just lovely all the way round. I WANTS IT…. PRECIOUS…. sexy, just has a hint of peek-a-boo but then everything else is nicely and tastefully covered. Simple dress. very beautiful, this is actually my BEST!!!

If i were to decide to dare myself. I would definitely go with the skirt. Like it.  So go for it, Oh ye brave ones

Simple and Nice can be a day to day wear, or even night wear, cocktail, clubbing. completely works

And last on my list but not least. This black puffy sleeve dress. I love it. Not your everyday outfit  but definitely worth a hanger in my wardrobe for the right occassion. This is not for the timid. Scream “HEY LOOK AT ME”. and yes i am usually the opposite, but it would hurt to have it for those days i feel like the world should center around me.

jnj

As consequence I couldn’t enjoy my time in Budapest as I wished, however I’m sure I’ll visit again this city.

Bridges (above) that connect the west part (Buda) to the eastern one (Pest) separated by the Danube river; The hungarian parliament (below), a wonderful neo-gothic style palace, inspired to the british parliament.