Van Gogh in Budapest Museum of Fine Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts celebrates its 100th birthday with a true museum sensation. To commemorate the centenary, a large-scale exhibition from the works of Vincent van Gogh will be launched. Visitors will have the opportunity to see nearly 80 works by the Dutch painter genius till 20, March, 2007. Starting from 2nd December, those interested can view such masterpieces as the Farmhouse in Provence, painted in 1888, on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The importance of the celebratory exhibition is demonstrated by the fact that masterpieces will arrive from more than 40 collections, from museums such as the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Tickets purchased in advance on the Internet, at jegymester.hu, in the museum, and well-known ticket offices in about 50 towns will be cheaper. Tickets are valid for specific time slots. In collaboration with Vince Books, the Museum of Fine Arts will publish a 600-page catalogue in Hungarian and English. The curator of the exhibition: Judit Geskó

Website of the museum: szepmuveszeti.hu

Foreign Language Newspapers in Budapest

Hungarians like to read newspapers. The most popular socialist national daily is the Népszabadság ("People`s Freedom", the name obiviously left from the communist times) nol.hu. Its rightist and nationalist counterpart is the Magyar Nemzet (transl. "Hungarian Nation") mno.hu, which embodies the proud newborn national and cultural "Hungarianism".

Hungarian homeland news for foreigners in English:

Budapest Times budapesttimes.hu
Budapest Business Journal bbj.hu

and in German:
Budapester Zeitung budapester.hu

Late November in the forest

Last weekend we could enjoy the latest sunny day in November. I went for a nice 1 hour jogging in the forest of the Budai hegység. One week before that I saw deers who just runned across the path in front of me. Simply, I just cant imagine better relaxation that to have a jogging in forest. Each season has its colors, sounds or silence. So, if your feel the same while you are in Budapest, call or e-mail us and I take you to the best running places.

Mátra Mountains in Hungary

The Mátra Mountains are part of the Northern Mountain Range and belong by origin to the largest young volcanic zone of Europe. They are situated between the valleys of River Tarna and River Zagyva. Although this mountain range is not of the largest area, the two highest peaks of Hungary can be found here: Kékes rises to 1014 metres and Galyatető to 964 metres. The Landscape Protection Area of the Mátra was established in 1986 - on a territory of 12141 hectares - to protect the nature and landscape of the Mátra region. This organization, which belongs to the Directorate of the Bükk National Park, makes sure that the original state of the Mátra is not disturbed by any interventions that may cause damage to its landscape and nature in the long run. The special natural values are kept safe on a strictly protected area of 2209 hectares, covered mainly with forests. All the beauties of a montane forest landscape can be found here, with natural habitats, a unique flora and fauna, geological formations of various shapes.

The most beautiful, montane beech forest communities can be found on the northern slope of Kékes, where the red-flowered, thornless Alpine Rose (Rosa pendulina) lives. Linden forests on talus slopes and in gorges indicate that this northern area has a special microclimate, with botanical rarities like the blue-flowered Alpine Clematis (Clematis alpina) that blooms in summer, and Honesty (Lunaria rediviva) that can typically be found on rocky areas. Several protected fern species also live here. More details are available on matrahegy.hu website.

Matra with Kékes peak is a famous excursion area for MTB bikers, ideal for trekking, cross-country running and forest walks. In wintertime its skislop is popular for families with small children are about to learn skiing.

Budapest Skating Rink is Open!

One of the most popular places of Budapest in the winter season is the famous skating rink right behind the Hősök tere (Heroes Square) monuments. It is a relatively huge skating ring, where all lovers of skating can enjoy this healthy sport with good hot tea even with red wine... :) The place is owned and maintained by the Budapest Municipality. They recently have launched a website for informing guests on upcomming events and open hours. It is unfortunately avaliable only in Hungarian but they promised to launch the English version soon. mujegpalya.hu Have a good skating!

Sumeg Fortress and Heviz Thermal Spa

I especially recommend you to visit town Sümeg sumeg.hu a legendary 13th century fortress in Middle-West Hungary. The town's fortress is Sümegvár sumegvar.hu one of the nicest restored and preserved forts of the present Hungary. Unfortunately the town and the fort's website only available in Hungarian. Not far from there (about 20 km) you can enjoy the famous Hévíz thermal spa heviz.hu with amazing kinds of wellness services. Hévíz has a well-developped tourism industry specialized on German and Austrian clients. A trip from Budapest to reach Héviz is about 1.5 hours on highway M7 direction SW.

Sziget Festival 9-16, August 2006 Budapest

Please, learn more about the biggest Central European Rock, Pop and Cultural Festival, which has started today.

www.sziget.hu

Budapest Rally

If you prefer to watch crazy rally race you can do this on this weekend in the middle of Budapest. Please read this short intro:

Rallye-funs, Pilots and Journalists,

the webpage of the Budapest Rallye is now ready for you to search for information in connection with the sixth event of the Hungarian National Rallye Championship, the Michelin-Budapest Rallye.

This is one of the most leading races which will celebrate its jubilee this year as it will be the 20th Budapest Rallye, so the organizers promise a worthy event! On the 11th of August after the opening ceremony by the Parliament the race will start with a prologue over the field of the ice-skating rink in the Városliget (Budapest). Then on Saturday the race will taken to the Mátra but will be back to Hungaroring and again to the ice-skating rink on 13th of August.

All information will be on the webpage till the beginning of the race. We also try to bring you breaking news about the other races during the Hungarian Championship or about the training of the drivers. You can find the result of Budapest Rallye 2005 above by the right side of the page with the Photo gallery (pictures from 2005 so far).

Have a good browse,
Katalin Székely-Nagy
chief of press

You are welcomed to visit the official website of the Budapest Rally:
www.budapestrally.hu

Visit Eger

Today on the way to my hometown, Debrecen www.debrecen.hu we stop by Eger, which is one of the loveliest little towns of North East Hungary. The town has an official website only in Hungarian language www.eger.hu but instead of it I suggest a better English one, which is the www.egeronline.com.

In Eger easy to spend a full day since the town is filled with historical sights like the Eger fortress (Egri vár), Archbishop Palace, Baroque Churches, synagogue and Gothic Palace, etc.

Ooops, I almost forget that Eger is famous about its red wine named "Bikavér" or "Bull Blood", which -I think- competes with the best Bordeaux wines. Be aware also that the towns has thermal spa, where wou can spend another day to relax.

Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix

The following website is the best resource to help your orientation about the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: www.hungaroring.hu

Rockhoppers.hu

Ooops, and I almost forget to post adress of our 4WD trip website: www.rockhoppers.hu with offroad adventure trip offers in Transylvania and Moldova...

Badacsony Swimming + Wine Tour

At first let me suggest you an excellent place if you like to swim in a beautiful lake and after swimming you prefer to take part in a wine tour by visiting traditional wine cellars. The name of the village is Badacsony located at the Northern shore of the lake Balaton www.balaton.hu. Under this url you can also find and see the map of the traditional wine route of Badacsony:
http://www.badacsony.hu It is about 160 km from Budapest. We provide there guided tours by air conditioned personal cars or with 4WD Landrovers. So if you are interested in this trip please send an e-mail to the danubebendtour@gmail.com address.
Thank you , Tamas

Hi everyone!

We are working on a great blog to inform you about spending great time in Hungary (and in some cases in the surronding countries also, which were long ago part of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy). Me and my friends will suggest here great places to visit in our fantastic country. To have a look please visit first the: www.hungary.com site for general information.

Have a great time with us!