Just in time for the next edition of the Budapest Bardroom, here is the soon-to-be-infamous theory of local art-historian and long-term expat Dzseff: that the cookie monster is really a . . . . just, kidding, you’ll have to watch the video to find out!

Here’s a link to a text version of the presentation, with footnotes, sources, and more information. Stay tuned for part two, being revealed tomorrow at the Bardroom, and hopefully online soon for the world to see and be shocked!

We recently took a bicycle trip around Hungary’s Lake Balaton, the so-called “Hungarian Sea”, which I feel ashamed to even propagate here, as it is so far from being a “sea” that it’s not even funny. Nevertheless there is a great deal of lore and legend about the temperament of the lake, which, at an average depth of about 2.5 meters, is pretty much a puddle for the Jolly Green Giant.The pictures from the trip are HERE.

So, we started by taking a Thursday evening train from Budapest’s Déli train station to Siófok, on the south-eastern end of the lake and stayed at the Camping Ifjúság, rated at two stars (who even knew campsites got starred ratings?) but really deserving of none, as it was a) not really close to the water, but really close to some amusement park rides, b) infested by noisy brats and obnoxious German-speaking tourists, and c) located exactly between a railroad line (on which endless freights clacked and clanged all night long) and a busy roadway (on which endless motorized vehicles, apparently ignorant of a concept called “common decency” rode up and down all night long). We had packed:

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I’ve been doing a little research into campsites around Lake Balaton for our upcoming goal of circling the largest freshwater lake on the continent in 3 days, and I came across this gem:

“The tent is always up-to-date, but there are some who chose the trailer. Which one is better or more practical? This old question is brought up over and over again by those who fry bacon in camping-sites. You can send your child to collect wood and by the end of the summer he will learn how to ask for a pocket-lamp from the Fleming girl in the next tent.”

Found here, and no I don’t know why.

I was recently hired as mercenary photographer by E and the women’s online magazine she works for to go out to the VOLT Festival and take pictures of festy-fashion. If you’d like to practice your Hungarian you can read the article, or you can just look at the pictures. Stay tuned for more fun news about VOLT, for the other reason we were there: The Roots.

There was another long weekend this last weekend, for the holiday of Pentecost, which I didn’t even know existed until I lived in Hungary, and since I was a sorry excuse for a boyfriend on E’s recent name’s day, I took her to the southern cities of Pécs and Villány.

The pictures are here.

We got up early after a not-too-late-but-still-late night at Szimpla kert and Sark kert and attempted to make the 9:30am train, and even got there with plenty of time to spare, but alas it was sold out. We bought tickets for the next one at 12:30 and went to the Zoo in the meantime, which was actually really fun. I had been meaning to go because of the famous baby rhinoceros (my favorite animal) named Layla, which was the first born in captivity through artificial insemination.

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“Toy Dolls (UK) – Zöld Pardon – május 24. 20:00

We arrived to a historic moment, in fact it’s about the ones, we will keep mentioning for many days – in the form of a substancial headache. A World star comes to the ZP: the Toy Dolls. From London to Tokio everyone knows the name of the band, to whom the not too complicated, but very cheerful punk music based on fuzzy and scrubbing guitar can cause a convenient level of adrenalin. Everybody should start training their calves, a spontain championship is expectable about shifting the centre of gravity.”

Who wouldn’t want to go to this?!

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Ski Jump, Matrahaza

Akos the rambler

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