Today is our National Holiday. We celebrate our first king St. István (this is his statue on the photo) and the fact that Hungary was established 1007 years ago. You can read here more about the programs and you shall see more of our photos from the events in Zannnie’s post tomorrow:)
Esernyőt vigyetek a tüzijátékra!!
We were here at the FESTIVAL OF FOLK ARTS, the traditional meeting of folk artists will be held for the twenty first time this year around the Buda Royal Palace in the Castle. For four days the best representatives of folk crafts will show the secrets of their crafts while working in their workshops with the participation of the audience.
This year the main subject is leather craft. Craftsmen, who can be seen working will include woodcarvers, mat makers, calico makers, felt makers, embroiderers, wheelwrights, rope makers, blacksmiths, potters, musical instrument makers, harness makers, weavers, lace makers, egg painters and honey cake makers. There will also be opportunity for the children to try the fundamentals of folk craft traditions.
I kind of like those flags flying in the breeze triumphantly in this photo. Maybe because the mood here is all about preparing for the Hungarian’s big day on the 20th August. Wanna know why it’s ‘big day’?:) Click on and you will know ;)
For a few days the Kossuth tér (Kossuth square) became green in front of the Parliament building. Those green poles are actually speakers. Special new technology from the U.S. which is exhibited first time in Europe. You can hear music or sound of river, birds etc. from the speakers but only if you step onto the narrow pathways. They introduced it as revolutionary technology for the future concerts and public events but to be honest I didnt find it as a big deal:)
This is the first time on a boat ride on the Danube for me. We went to the Sziget Festival like this. The saturation on this photo is somehow strange and honestly I didn’t touch the settings at all using photoshop or any photo tuning software. This direction is towards the Island Obudai on the Danube :) Do you remember the waltz tune the blue Danube? This is how blue it can get :)
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Program Budapest
The Dohány Street Synagogue or Great Synagogue (Hungarian: Dohány utcai Zsinagóga/Nagy Zsinagóga, Hebrew: בית הכנסת הגדול של בודפשט) in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world, after the Temple Emanu-El in New York City. It seats 3,000 people and is a centre of Neolog Judaism.
The synagogue is 75m long and 27m wide and was built between 1854 and 1859 in the Moorish style, based chiefly on Muslim models from North Africa and Spain, according to a plan by Ludwig Förster, with interior design partly by Frigyes Feszl. (source: wikipedia)
More photos of the Synagogue you can find here.
There was a new Simultaneous Kissing World Guinness Record at the Sziget Festival on Sunday and it’s another record breaking event! Ha, Hungary broke the record with 7 451 couples kissing for 10 seconds! Wow :)
Are there any recent guinness record breaking news in your city (or country)?:)
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13 August 2007
Budapest – The organisers of a kissing event in Budapest said on Monday that they have earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of couples locking lips at the same time.
They said they would submit video footage and documentation showing 7 451 couples were locked in simultaneous buccal bonding for 10 seconds on Sunday, during a week-long Sziget music festival.
The marathon mouth-meeting session was the latest saliva-laced salvo in a running rivalry between Hungary and the Philippines for the kissing crown.
Filipinos set the Guinness world record in February 2004 with 5 327 couples, only to be overtaken by 5 875 couples in 2005.
The Asian country came back in February this year, with 6 124 couples playing tonsil hockey in Manila to regain the record – but Hungary smacked them down again in June, when it produced 6 613 smooching couples.
With the latest effort, Hungary figures they have clinched the record for some time to come.
“We thought that here at the Sziget festival we can set a record which the Filipinos will not be able to beat. We’d like it if this record now belonged to Hungarians for good,” said Zsuzsa Simon of the tabloid daily Bors, which organised the event. – Sapa-AFP
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program Budapest
Yesterday was Zannnie’s first birthday in Budapest and 33th birthday in this world.:) Happy Birthday Zannnie!!!
Do you know why girls wear immediately the new clothes they just received or bought?:)
I saw this at the Sziget Festival and it looked funny to me :) If only all the bins are illustrated with a touch of humour, it would probably make the streets more interesting looking. Just like how I felt about the mailbox in Singapore, perhaps it will be an attraction for Hungary to start a campaign like that. Do you have funny looking public property like this?
Wish you a fun week ahead!
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Program Budapest
Pöttyös (I have no idea how to explain its pronunciation to English speakers but it sounds like ”per-tier-yursh”) :) It is one of my favourite Hungarian chocolate. In my childhood, they called it Túró Rudi which refers to the sweetened cottage cheese inside and coated with milk-chocolate. On the SZIGET festival they have their own ”territory” since they are always one of the festival sponsors. They held a lot of funny games in that area where also a lot of chocolate:) automated vending machines can be seen.
The laying girls try to force each other out of the circle wearing this huge red “balls”. Its a bit like Japanese sumos.:)
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Program Budapest
I wrote about Day One experience to the Sziget Festival. Today we went again by HEV (a hybrid of train and subway) but it rained at about 10pm. It is forbidden to bring umbrella, even if you know it will be raining. This is something strange to me :) Since we were near a beverage booth that distributes free hvg printed plastic sheet, we went to ‘collect’ one each for ourselves too. The strange design about it is that it comes with a slit in the middle (a rectangular transparent piece of plastic for you to put over your shoulders so that your head protrudes out?) Again it’s strange because we thought it is supposed to prevent us from getting drenched. But this ‘design’ means we will definitely get wet at least our face, head and hair.
The above photo is the Sziget wrist band (the entrance ticket) for today (in Hungarian Péntek=Friday) – It is in Khaki colour (while Day One was BLUE, and Day Two was Grey). More photos about the event on budapest-guide.blogspot.com, with more details about my Day Three experience on SZiGET :)
Sziget Festival passes for 2009 already on sale!
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program Budapest
There is nothing better then a cold beer in the sunset during a hot summer-festival:) Today is the third day of the SZIGET festival in Budapest!
Sziget Festival passes for 2009 already on sale!
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Program Budapest