Central Budapest

General Facts

• Country » Hungary
• Population » 1,696,128 (2007)
• Time Zone » Central Europen Time (CET), which is GMT/UTC+2 (Summer) and GMT/UTC+1 (Winter)
• International dialling code » +36
• Budapest area code » 1
• Long distance calls within the country » 06
• Climate » Continental temperature, average -1 C in the coldest month (January), 21.3 in the warmest (August).
• Area » 525.16 km²
• Currency » Hungarian Forints (Ft), listed as HUF on currency exchanges.
• Weights and Measures » Metric (cm and litres), European sizes for clothes and shoes. Weather in centigrade.
• Electricity in Hungary » 220 Volts. Bring European (continental) plugs.
• Visas » EU citizens can stay in Hungary as long as they like. US and Canadian citizens for up to 90 days. Citizens of other countries generally need a visa.

Lifestyle

• Cafes/Bars » Budapest has a continental style cafe/bar culture, where many exist somewhere between cafes and nightclubs, depending on the time of day.
• Restaurants » You can get pretty much everything now Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Russian or even Hungarian.
• Shopping District » There's a healthy consumer culture and a lot of the big, designer names have descended on Budapest over the last few years. Andrássy snd Váci are the main shopping streets for foreigners.
• Geography » Hungary is slightly larger in area (93,036 km²) than all of Ireland. North to south, the greatest distance is 268km; east to west, it's 528km. The landscape consists mostly of plains in the east, low hills to the west, and small mountains to the north. Hungary's two main rivers are the Danube and the Tisza. There are natural thermal springs across the country.

Central Budapest Tourist Site Seeing Map

• Emergency number (police / fire / ambulance) » 112
• Ambulance » 104
• Police » 107
• Fire service » 105
• Inland enquiries » 198
• International enquiries » 199
• Auto club help number » 188
• 24 hour medical service » +36.1.318.8212
• Airport Information » +36.1.296.7155
• Bus Station » +36.1.252.1896
• Train station » +36.1.461.5400
• Taxis » +36.1.211.1111
• British Consulate » +36.1.266.2888
• American Embassy » +36.1.267.4400
• Canadian Embassy » +36.1.275.1200
• Tourist Office » +36.1.488.8700

Public Holidays

• 1st January » New Year's Day
• 15th March » Anniversary of 1848-49 Revolution
• Easter Monday
• 1st May » Labour Day
• Whitsuntide Monday
• 20th August » St Stephen's and Constitution Day
• 23rd October » Anniversary of 1956 Revolution
• 1st November » All Saints' Day
• 25th-26th December » Christmas

Accomodation

• Accommodation in Hungary in English » www.hotelstravel.com
• Apartments in Budapest » www.dunaflat.com

Travel

• Budapest Airport Flights » www.bud.hu
• Airport transfer, Hotel room booking, Wellness » www.flyandbus.com
• Complete travel services in Budapest and Hungary » www.1bigeurope.com

What's On

• Offical Tourist Information Guide, available in 6 languages online and a further 11 languages in print (pdf) BudapestInfo.hu.
• Events and what's on guide, fortnightly. Also available in print around town » www.budapestfunzine.hu
• Official Hungarian tourist web page in English » www.hungarytourism.hu
• Budapest Cityguide » www.budapestby.com
• Vendégváró in English » vendegvaro

Money and Finance

• Exchange rates » Exchange rates
• Best source (in English) for Market News » Portfolio.hu
• Realdeal.hu is fairly new and as yet not very helpful, but this might change » Realdeal.hu
• Another source for Market News, but you have to pay for some content » Budapest Business Journal

Food and Drink

• Dining directory » Caboodle.hu
• Top 33 Restaurants » Chew.hu
• Dining guide » Xpatloop dining guide

Weather

• Local Weather » Budapest Weather
• Yahoo Weather » Budapest

News Sources

• Budapest Times Up-to-date and generally faster at responding to events than most competitors. Website is a mess.
• Caboodle Overall the best general source of news these days. Main strength is its unrivalled (in English) directory. News is pretty good for an English language site. Lacks energy, though.
• MTI English For a state run operation the news is pretty diverse. Read it here before the rest of the pack regurgitate it pretty much word for word.
• Portfolio Patchy and unpredictable (in a bad way). Could be good with a better editor.
• Pestiside.hu Not eactly a news source, but probably the most widely read English source in town. Full of sleaze, bitching and gossip - a must read.
• XpatLoop.com A crisp, clear snapshot of Budapest from an expat's perspective. Has great cinema listings and combines news from lots of sources.
• Budapest Business Journal Web version clear and usable, but spends far too much time and effort on foreign news whilst not explaining about local conditions. Generally OK, but far behind the Hungarian press.

News Feeds

• Budapest Blogs via Google
• Budapest News via Google
• Budapest News via Yahoo!
• Budapest Weather

Other Sources

• Politics.hu Obviously political, but most of the interest is in the extreme nature of the comments. Mostly a regurgitation of MTI and Hungary Around The Clock news items.
• Realdeal.hu Finance, but very patchy. You won't get much of an understanding of what is going on here from this stuff..
• Budapest Sun Now simply an archived search engine over old articles of small town news, with the same look as Xpatloop. No idea who would use this stuff or think it useful.
• Budapest Funzine A list of events and what's on type of stuff. Basically a platform to sell advertising space. Now coverng Balaton and Hungary in general.
• Budapest Index Essentially useless.
• Search4.hu Just useless and ugly.
• Hungary Around the Clock A subscription news source most of the others regurgitate 2 days later (along with MTI).
• Budapest Week Don't go there, just mentioned here for completeness. Not even an historical curiousity.

Note

• The All Hungary Media Group run a set of websites mentioned above that collectively provide the most rounded source of largely up-to-date news about Budapest and Hungary. These are: Caboodle for main stream news, directory services and events listings, Pestiside.hu for shock-value and quirky news, Politics.hu for politics (duh), Realdeal.hu for finance. To get a rough picture of what is going on here you could just stick to these sites and you wouldn't be too far wrong. It will give you a rough idea of the tensions and day-to-day problems of making it here too.

If you're paying a brief visit then knowing just a few words and phrases will help you get by.

If you learn nothing else, just learn the words for 'good day' and 'goodbye'. When you enter a shop, meet someone, enter/leave a carriage on a train... just say these two phrases and you will create a great impression.

Words and Phrases

• Good day (or afternoon) Jó napot (kívánok): Yo NOP-ote (KEE-van-oke)
• Goodbye (See you later) Viszontlátásra: VEE-son-laat-aash-ro
• Yes Igen: EE-gen
• No Nem: nem
• Please Kérem: KAY-rem
• Thankyou Koszonom: KUR-sur-nurm
• Excuse me! Elnézést!: EL-nay-zayshd
• Sorry! Sajnálom!: SHOY-naa-lom
• Hello/Hi! Szia!: SEE-ya
• How are you? Hogy vagy?: HODJ vadj
• I'm well/good Jól vagyok: YOL vadj-ak
• I like it! Tetszik nekem: TET-seek NE-kem
• Less kevesebbet: KEV-esh-eb-bet
• More tobbet: TURB-bet
• That one Azt: OZD
• This one Ezt: EZD
• That's it! Ez az: EZ oz
• Can you help me? Segíthet?: SHEG-eet-het
• Can I help you? Segíthetek?: SHEG-eet-het-tek
• How much is it? Mennyibe kérul: MEN-yi-be KAY-rool
• I don't understand Nem értem: NEM AYR-tem
• Pardon? Tessék: TESH-ayk
• Could you repeat that? Még egyszer?: MAYG EDJ-sayr
• Once more/Same again Még egyszer: MAYG EDJ-sayr
• I'm English/American Angol/Amerikai vagyok: ON-gol/AM-er-ik-o-i VODJ-ok
• Cheers/To your health! Egészségére: EG-aysh-ayg-ay-re
• Bon appetit! Jó étvágyot!: YO AYT-vadj-ot
• I'd like to pay Fizethetek: FEE-zet-het-ek
• Here you are (when giving something to someone) Tessék: TESH-ayk
• Beautiful! Szép!: SAYP

Other useful links and guides to the Hungarian Language

• A fairly complete list of Hungarian Language Learning resources
• English-hungarian Dictionary
• Single Serving of Hungarian

These are pretty much all in Hungarian, apart from Budapest Zeitung (which is German, if you are really that slow).

• 168 óra (hu)
• Budapester Zeitung (de)
• Business Hungary (en)
• FigyelõNet (hu)
• Hungarian National Press Agency (en)
• HVG (hu)
• Index (hu)
• Magyar Hírlap (hu)
• Magyar Narancs (hu)
• Magyar Nemzet (hu)
• Metro (hu)
• Napi Gazdaság (hu)
• Napi Magyarország (hu)
• Népszabadság (hu)
• Népszava (hu)
• Reuters Magyarország (hu)
• The Hungarian Quarterly (en)
• Világgazdaság (hu)
• Budapest Portál (hu)
• Budapest.com (hu)

There's a wide variety of blogs out there, some inane, some insane. Obviously I don't agree with all the stuff they choose to write about, or their opinions, but maybe you will.

For a more complete overview of the blogosphere check out the Central Budapest Newsfeeds

• Budacast podcast Good quality podcasts.
• Chew Food related features.
• Contemporary Nomad A group of peripatetic writers, writing about writing.
• Csíkszereda Musings From Hungarian-speaking Transylvania.
• Hungary Economy Watch Lots of stats and data, with the occasional crystal ball gazing. Written by Edward 'the bonobo', a Catalan economist of British extraction based in Barcelona.
• Hungarian Spectrum written by Eva S. Balogh, from New Haven, CT, USA former lecturer at Yale University. Mainly politics and social economics.
• Pestiside.hu Cheap, nasty gossip. These days it's a communal effort. Pretty much essential reading.
• Mókus Pokus Written by the editor of the occasional literary 'Pilvax Magazine'.