Hungary - magicofeurope

The Magic of Europe
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Hungary
by Mate Szedlacsko

You don't have too many options in Hungary; the only place to go is the capital, Budapest.

Budapest is a fairly large city with 2 million citizens.
After the end of the Soviet rule, Hungary began to develop at an amazing speed.
Budapest, for instance, has Europe's largest mall, Europe's largest concert line-up is held there anually, and so on.
All this happened in the last 5 years. There aren't many shops you won't find in Hungary...almost all western chains have branched to Hungary, e.g. GAP, Banana Republic, Four Seasons, Friday's, IKEA, and yes...you can also find (gasp!) McDonalds' here.
Budapest is mostly Renessaince-style (Budapest's "golden days" were in the 1890s, and that's when most of it was (re)built; e.g. the world's second subway was built here, after London).
Actually, Hungary is pretty strange architecturally...for instance, Europe's largest mall, a very modern building, "WESTend City Center" is built next to (and actually ends in) "Nyugati pályaudvar"=Western Railway Station, a building designed by Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel tower. This mixture of Reneissance and modern architecture is getting to be Budapest's speciality, although big, rusty buildings in Soviet '60s style can still be found almost everywhere.
The currency is called 'Forint'. 100Forints roughly equal $2.50. (stats from the beginning of 2000...the inflation is a little less than 10% a year.)
The Danube, Hungary's longest river, runs through Budapest and divides it into 2 parts (Buda and Pest...pretty original, huh?).
The traffic in Budapest can be pretty awful, although public transportation is fast, cheap and reliable; it's kinda complicated to navigate through, though, because there are a lot of busses. Another speciality are the yellow trams.
"Igen" means yes, "nem" means no, and "jo reggelt" (pronounced yo reggelt) means good morning.
But whatever you do, DO NOT try to learn Hungarian!
It's grammar is related to finnish and japanese, its words are turkish, german, slavic etc., and there is no way you can learn it! Trust me!

Magicians are pretty popular, although it's quite hard to get a job as a magician, as most restaurants don't feel they need a magician all the time.
People usually hire a magician for just one night or for a birthday party etc.
If the event is somewhat fancier, say something in Hilton or something like that, than they'll probably hire a close-up magician.
Street magic is almost totally unheard of.
The best places for earning money are nightclubs, hotel restaurants and bars. Normal restaurants aren't too willing.
All in all, if magicians want to earn their living doing magic, they usually do a group act or something really exotic.

the chain bridge and a view of Pest - budapest.hu

Bicycle cards are hard to find and over-priced. Your best bet would be "Figaro bûvészbolt", Budapest's only magic shop, where you can get a deck for around 1500Ft which is roughly $6.00! This shop is very small and only sells the basics of magic.
address:
Figaro Büvészbolt
Bp., Bartok Bela ut 31
Hungary
1114

another place to get cards would be "Gondolkodó", which is a store for card games, chess, and other "intelligent" games.
address:
Gondolkodó
Bp., Feny u. 10
Hungary
1024

and

Gondolkodó
Bp., Király u.25
Hungary
1072

If you need any help in Hungary, or have any questions, e-mail me at [email protected].

Links:
(note: most of these links' content is a little outdated...)
Yahoo! Travel: Budapest
Budapest.Hu
www.tourinform.hu

Oh, and be sure to visit the Zoo!

By Mate Szedlacsko

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