Budapest Off The Beaten Path

Quite a few tourists think about watching a movie one evening instead of discovering as much as possible while wandering around.

But it's a wrong way of thinking - you miss a lot if you simply walk past the Urania. It's 113-years-old building was restored in its original Venetian Gothic and Eastern Moor style in 2002. If the Hungarian State Opera House is the queen of theaters - then the Urania National Movie Theater is the queen of cinemas.

Take any of buses 5,7,8,112,173,178 or 233E to 'Urania', buses stop in front of the cinema.

Walk in, choose a film (there are Hungarian, German and English-speaking art movies on screen), buy your ticket (tickets 790-1350 HUF), leave your jacket at the free cloakroom (unusual in Hungarian movie theaters!), enjoy a coffee in Urania Cafe upstairs - but watch your clock! Don't miss your film!

This beautiful Catholic church stands in the centre of Kobanya (Stone MIne) district of Budapest. No wonder the church is not visited by crowds of tourists: the neighborhood - far away from the main tourist area - holds no other real tourist attractions, except for the Jewish Cemetery - even further from the Downtown.

An American friend of mine - a New Yorker - saw the Empire State Buliding in Budapest. And I saw that too. What happened was that we got off the M2 train at the Ors vezer tere terminal, and walked to Ors vezer tere-Kobanya bus terminal, just south to the metro terminal. From that distance view, the church tower looks really similar to the ESB. :)

Take tram #3 (direction Gubacsi ut), 62 (Blaha Lujza ter M) or 62A (Kobanya also vasutallomas) from Ors vezer tere (M2 terminal) to Szent Laszlo ter.

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On one of the main streets of the Castle District in Buda, in a small apartment building, a Medieval synagogue was discovered during excavation works in 1964.

This is a Sephardic synagogue from 1364, from the period when Jews were allowed to live in the Castle District and established a community in New Zsido Street (now called Táncsics Street).

Today this is a museum, called "The Medieval Synagogue" (Kozépkori Zsidó Imaház).
At the entrance there are some Jewish tombstones found in the area. Inside the synagogue is made of two rooms, and the main attraction here are Biblical inscriptions in Hebrew letters, with the symbols of the Star of David and a bow pointing to heaven. One of the inscriptions contains Aaron's blessing.

The synagogue is located on Táncsics Mihály utca 26. It isopen only beween May and October, 10:00-17:00. Entrance fee: HUF 600.

The Museum of Natural Science preserves one of the most special anthropology find of our age, the mummies of Vác. During the renovation mummies were found in the church of The Whites of the city Vác quite accidentally. The crypt lying under the church tower was full with rich decorated coffins. In the coffins being almost 200 years old, 265 mummified residues of people have been found, dressed in mortuary dresses. The special microclimate of the crypt and the manner of the burial made the natural mummifying possible.
The mummies are no longer infectious because the possibly pathogens were destroyed with high energy X-ray radiation. Sight of the mummies is not recommended for children under 12 years .
There is no constant exhibition.

Information:
Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum - Hungarian Natural History Museum
1083 - Budapest, Ludovika tér 2-6.

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It was opened in 1870. It is 95 meter long and it has 48% raise. Its lower station is on Ádám Clark square, its upper station is between in Sándor-palota (Alexander palace) and Buda Castle. The Sikló is an important vehicle for the local people to reach fast their jobs in the area of Buda Castle. The bus transport started in the Várnegyed (Castle hill) only from 1928.

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I really enjoyed our trip to Godillo Castle near Budapest in March 2008. The guided tour of the building was interesting , but a bit overlong in duration after so many rooms etc to see, along with noisy parties of school kids in groups. However we did have a very good Torte and Cappucino in the cafe for free (courtesy of the tour company), and bought some interesting, but pricy momentoes from the Castle shop. In summer, the gardens host music concerts etc, but sadly the Riding School was not open, and the restoration work will take a few more years at a big cost in Florints/Euros.

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If You are lazy or simply too tired to climb the Gellért hill to enjoy the views from the Citadel, you-as recomended by most of the travel guides- certainly go to the Móricz Zsigmond Sqare and take the bus number 27.
Yes, it doesen`t come too frequently, so while you`re waiting for it, just take a look of this beauitiful building. Yes, this is "just" a highschool, but the nicest in Budapest, for sure.
It`s measures are imposing and this cute bell tower gives to it a very special grace.

On our 1st visit to Budapest we were staying over near the circus and found it an enjoyable thing to do in the evening so we went back again on this trip in August 2005.

We were able to get tickets on the same day of the circus, there were plenty of empty seats available. Tickets for adults range from 1200-1900 ft (900-1500 for kids) but there are really no bad seats in the stadium. We opted for the 1900ft seats since the price difference isn't that great.

The show lasted for about 2 hours, the current show is a cross between the Ice Capades and Cirque du Soleil, the entire circus is set on ice skates.

I was just thinking how nice it was to have a circus free of animal acts when out came the trained doves (one of which tried to escape into the audience), followed by the trained housecats which actually impressed me quite a bit having lived with untrainable cats all my life. That was all fine until they brought out the trained polar bears, I really hate seeing such majestic animals doing silly circus acts although they didn't appear to be mistreated.

The website below is only in Hungarian but you can get an idea of the schedule by clicking on "informaciok" and the prices by clicking on "jegyrendeles".

It's an easy walk from the metro station to the circus. Other things to visit in the area are the Szechenyi Baths and the Budapest zoo. It's also close to the famous Gundel Restaurant, the prices were a bit too high for me so we passed on eating there.