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A cultural tour of Budapest

febrero 12th, 2013 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in DESTINATIONS - (0 Comments)

Budapest is undoubtedly one of Europe’s most beautiful and charming cities. Taking a gentle stroll and losing yourself in its streets is definitely the best way of getting the feel of this city, although there are certain sights that are simply not to be missed. So to make things easy for you, we’ve come up with a list of absolute must-sees when visiting the city!

· The Parliament Building, one of the largest in the world, with its characteristic Gothic stone towers, eighty-eight statues decorating the façade and a Baroque staircase with mosaic windows, Gobelin tapestries and paintings. The Holy Crown of Hungary is on display in this building.

· The Hungarian State Opera House, considered one of Budapest’s finest jewels. It opened in 1884 after nine years of construction work.

· St Stephen’s Basilica houses the Hungarian Catholic Church’s most treasured relic: the Holy Right – the mummified right hand of the Saint-King.

· A trip around the Danube Bend, the most beautiful stretch of this river. In this area, the river changes its easterly direction, making its way south around Visegrád Hill.

· Thermal Spas: with 118 thermal springs, Budapest is considered the world capital of medicinal waters. The waters flow at temperatures that range from 21º C to 78º C at a rate of 70 million litres a day. Don’t even think of leaving the city without indulging in the sheer pleasure of bathing in the waters of one of its numerous thermal spas.

· The Bridge of Chains or Széchenyi Bridge (so-called in honour of its designer) is the oldest of the five bridges that cross the Danube in Budapest and also the most popular with visitors. When night falls, the floodlit bridge and Buda Castle form one of the city’s most spectacular sights, and its most popular postcard scene.

· Budapest Castle, also known as Buda Castle, houses the city’s major museums. Together with the famous Bridge of Chains, this 14th century building, which has been rebuilt on numerous occasions, forms one of the most eye-catching cityscapes.  Today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was originally the home of Hungary’s monarchs.

· Margaret Island is considered to be Budapest’s most attractive and peaceful park. Although local residents prefer to spend their leisure time in Városliget, or the city’s huge public park (and one of the world’s first ever public gardens), we strongly recommend you spend a day or even just an afternoon in this delightful green lung that stretches out some two and a half kilometres and which offers the perfect mix of relaxation and leisure.

Naturally there’s loads more to see, but these are the 7 sights not to be missed when visiting this idyllic city!

“IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts has one hotel in Budapest, the five star IBEROSTAR Grand Hotel Budapest, situated in a prime location, surrounded by impressive buildings, embassies and shopping areas.  Built in 2011, the rooms in this hotel are the perfect expression of luxury.”  

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Hungarian gastronomy

diciembre 14th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in DESTINATIONS | SOMETHING DIFFERENT | The View - (0 Comments)

Despite the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables in Hungary, they are not the basis of the country’s gastronomy. Indeed, the ingredients you’ll always find in Hungary’s most traditional dishes are meat and spicy flavours.

The most typical dish of all is goulash, a thick soup or stew made from meat, onion, pepper and paprika.  In autumn, visitors to the city of Kalosca, situated on the banks of the Danube, will immediately spot the strings of red paprika peppers that hang from the whitewashed walls of the houses, forming a colourful contrast. Yet although goulash in undoubtedly the best-known dish, and paprika the most popular spice in Hungarian cuisine, there is much more to the country’s culinary tradition, which includes a wide range of sweet and savoury dishes.

Pörkölt is another delicious stew. A close relation of goulash, it is normally made from beef or pork – although other types of meat can also be used – as well as various types of vegetable, again including a generous amount of paprika.  It is served warm with some type of Hungarian pasta such as tészta, galuska or nokedli.

Pork is the most popular type of meat amongst Hungarians – although their recipes also include other types such as beef, chicken, duck or goose – and they have a local breed that is widely known and admired: the mangalica, a hairy, domestic pig whose principal characteristic is its lean meat.

Other traditional Hungarian dishes include csirke paprikas or chicken with paprika and töltött paprika or stuffed paprika peppers. The Hungarians also eat a lot of cabbage, an ingredient that features in many recipes and is even fermented (savanyú kaposzta). One of the best-known recipes is probably töltött káposzta or stuffed cabbage.

Also well worth trying are the palacsinta, fine pancakes or crêpes that can be served with sweet or savoury fillings. The simplest and most traditional versions are filled with jam or cottage cheese, but there is also the gundel palacsinta –the type normally served to tourists – filled with walnut cream and chocolate sauce.

Special mention must be made of the humble, yet truly delicious pogacsas. These are small bread rolls, normally round in shape, made with different ingredients such as cheese, potato, paprika, onion, garlic and/or a range of seeds like sesame, sunflower or poppy. You’ll find them everywhere you go: they’re a delicious snack and a firm favourite with foreigners.

Téliszalámi or Hungarian salami is another well-known Hungarian delicacy. Originally from the city of Szeged, it is made using traditional methods and has a number of characteristics that set it apart from Italian salami. It comes in several varieties, including a version with paprika (what else!) and is made using a mixture of pork and beef (csemege szalámi) and smoked sausages.

And now it’s time for dessert! The most famous are dobostorta, a mocha and caramel cake; somlói galuska, a sponge cake with walnuts and raisins soaked in rum and served with melted chocolate and whipped cream;   beigli, a kind of Swiss roll filled with poppy seeds (traditionally eaten at Christmas); and rétes, The Hungarian equivalent of Austria’s apple strudel consisting of several fine layers of pastry with various fillings (typical of all the countries that made up the former Austro-Hungarian Empire). One of the most famous versions of this delicious dessert is túrós rétes, which is filled with cottage cheese.

My mouth is watering, so shall we head for Budapest to sample these culinary delights?

“IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts has a 5 star hotel in Budapest, the IBEROSTAR Grand Hotel Budapest, situated in a prime location, surrounded by splendid buildings, embassies and shopping areas.  Built in 2011, the rooms are nothing short of luxurious perfection”.  

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Paprika!

mayo 25th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

 

 

If you come to the Hungarian capital to stay at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Budapest, and if you travel around Hungary, you’ll no doubt be tasting a lot of Hungarian cuisine. And I can tell you from experience that means a lot of paprika. This spice is used in cookery throughout much of the world, but boy do Madyars love them some reddish pepper powder – and in some cases in much stronger versions than the capsicum annuum you might use in your own kitchen.

The word paprika is itself Hungarian but derives from Serbo-Croatian papar which in turn comes down from the Latin piper. The stuff was introduced by the Turks in the 16th century (remember, the Ottoman Turks invaded and lorded over parts of Central Europe a few centuries back), but over the centuries since the Madyars have turned it into their own national culinary icon.  And like Peruvians with potatoes and Inuit with ice and snow, they’ve developed a nomenclature that can be, shall we say, somewhat complex:

Különleges (“special quality”) – sweet with a deep bright red color.

Csípősmentes csemege (“delicate”) – mild but rich flavor, light to dark red

Csemegepaprika (“exquisite delicate”) a bit more more pungent than csípősmentes csemege

Csípős csemege, pikáns (“pungent exquisite delicate”)  - even more punget than the above

Rózsa (“rose”) – strong aroma, mildly pungent, pale red color

Édesnemes (“noble sweet”) – bright red, slightly pungent (this is the one most commonly exported)

Félédes (“half-sweet”) -  blend of mild and pungent, so of medium pungency

Erős (“strong”) – the “five alarms” of paprika, a light brown in color

Hungarian goulash is of course the world’s most famous dish involving paprika, but the spice is used liberally in plenty of other foods, including stews, soups, pastries, and sausages – it even finds its way into a brandy called pálinka. Much of its production comes from the country’s south, in and around Kalocsa and Szeged.

Beyond the kitchen, this peppy little pepper has even done its bit for science and Hungarian history – scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi got the 1937 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering Vitamin C and its properties, which he extracted from none other than paprika.

Be that as it may – I did find that one can certainly overdose on the stuff. I recall the first time I spent a chunk of time in Hungary I was enthusiastically scarfing down the local cuisine at first, but thanks in part to all the paprika I eventually needed a break from it so badly that I found myself taking occasional refuge at the Burger King near the apartment I was staying in (shhhh….). These days, though, I’m happy to say paprika has pride of place in my spice rack. Jó étvágyat!

Photo | Pressebereich Dehner Garten-Center

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Digging Up Budapest’s Past with Nobel Prize Winner Imre Kertész

octubre 21st, 2011 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Local Characters - (0 Comments)

Budapest

Lauded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest, Hungary is a mishmash of Gothic and Baroque-style buildings, riverfront boulevards and atmospheric squares. As Hungary’s capital, it is a global city that straddles between the past and the present. Cobblestoned paths wind through its compact historical quarters while modern glass buildings stand tall by the river banks of the Danube. Amidst Budapest’s poetic beauty, it’s hard to imagine that this was the backdrop to two of the most tragic events in history – World Wars I and II.

When Austria-Hungary lost WWI, most parts of Budapest were severely destroyed. By the end of WWII, Budapest once again faced attacks from the British and American army, and thereafter the Soviet army and German troops. Thousands of Hungarian Jews were deported to the Holocaust concentration camp, including Imre Kertész, who lives to tell his story.

At the tender age of 14, Kertész was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In his popular novel, Fatelessness, he details the experience of György, a teenager in the concentration camps. Although he claims that it is not a biography of his own life, his book truly depicts the fragility of life and the brutality of the past. In 2002, Kertész won a Nobel prize in literature for this powerful work.

Budapest Today

Today, Budapest has moved on from its haunting past. Much of the wartime damage was repaired by the late 1980s, and Budapest underwent dramatic changes with the construction of new infrastructure such as the Budapest Metro and Brzébet Bridge. WWII memorials can be found along the river banks these days. Since democracy, Budapest has experienced peace and tranquility and has now flourished into a popular tourist destination.

The city stretches across the banks of the Danube River, dividing it up into Buda on one end, and Pest on the other.  Budapest is also home to an endless list of World Heritage Sites, including the Buda Castle, Heroes’ Square and the Millennium Underground Railway. If that’s not impressive enough, this is also where you’ll find the world’s biggest thermal water cave system, the third biggest Parliament building and second biggest synagogue.

Photo | Alistair Young

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Soak This: Thermal Baths of Budapest, Hungary

octubre 18th, 2011 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

What to do in Budapest, Rudas Baths

One of my very favorite things to do in Budapest when I spent some time there a few years ago was to spend a nice, soothing afternoon at a wonderful old fürdő (bath house). In the day and age of the elaborate luxury spa, old-fashioned bath houses seem practically extinct in North America except for a few ethnic examples (usually East European, occasionally Asian) in a handful of big cities.

Ancient Yet Popular Baths of Budapest

But here in the capital of Hungary, the oldies are still goodies – and encouragingly for the future, have even developed a certain following among the young. Some of the baths date back more than 500 years, to a time when Hungary was a part of Europe that was occupied by Ottoman Turks. If you’ve been to Istanbul you might’ve noticed bath houses all over town, some quite breathtakingly beautiful. The handful still in operation in Budapest are pretty special, too. The most famous is one at the very popular Gellert Hotel, built in 1918 in a gracious Art Nouveau style. But my favorites are the ones that evoke that medieval Ottoman period, such as Rudas (pictured), built on at the foot of Gellert Hill on the Buda side of town in 1550 and last renovated in 2006. At its center there’s an octagonal pool under a stone dome, perforated by a number of round holes through which daylight streams down, creating mesmerizing interplays of light and shadow. Side pools offer water naturally heated to temperatures between 60⁰ and a practically parboiling 108⁰ F (16⁰ -42⁰ C), and there are other areas for tub baths, massages, sauna, and so forth. Clad only in a linen loincloth, I’d lounge around these pools with a variety of other dudes ranging from young Japanese tourists to Hungarian grandpas (why dudes? Some days are segregated by sex, while on co-ed days you have to wear a swimsuit.).

Soaking and Socializing

This is a social as much as a bathing experience, and I actually made a couple of good pals at Rudas that summer, a Hungarian guy named Atila (yes, as in the Hun – very common name here), as well as Stasys from Lithuania. So while the newly opened Iberostar Grand Hotel Budapest itself boasts a lovely and superbly equipped wellness center and spa, you’ll definitely want to make time for this uniquely Hungarian cultural and sensory experience, whether it’s at Rudas, Gellert, or other historic bath houses such as Király, Lukacs, and Szechenyi. It’s a memory likely to soak into your very soul.

photo  | Giåm

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Fireworks: Live Your Own Music Video Experience in Budapest

agosto 29th, 2011 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in The View - (0 Comments)

Budapest Széchenyi Chain Bridge

The beauty of a classic city like Budapest is undeniable and, for that reason, more than one movie director has chosen it as a film location, due to both its own merits and similarities to equally gorgeous destinations. Cities like the capital of Hungary are also a special gift for creators of music videos, who need to pack a musical story into no more than three or four minutes and make a visual impact from the very first chords. To do so, these directors take advantage of aerial shots of classic buildings and gorgeous nocturnal views in which the street lights and tourist attractions make the beauty of certain sights stand out even more.

As for Budapest, this city was used in one of the latest pop hits, the song Firework by Katy Perry, which showcases two of the most emblematic structures in the city: the Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge, a representation of the classic European city, divided by a river with a stunning palace one side and the classic charm of an old Eastern city everywhere.

Despite its name, the Buda Castle bears no relation to the Oriental deity, but rather to the original name of the city where it was founded, and is at the root of the current name Budapest. The royal palace, which dates back to the 14th century, is today one of the best conserved national treasures of Hungary and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is precisely the need for union between the two old cities of Buda and Pest that give us the symbol of the city, the Chain Bridge, the first to span the Danube in Hungary (until it was built, the only way to travel from one city to the other was by way of an old ferry). You will find it on many if not most postcards and souvenirs; it will surely fill your memory card with its charm as well.

And if you want to live the Firework experience and be there on a special day, take the opportunity to spend the night of August 20th, when they celebrate the founding of the state, and watch as the obligatory fireworks display lights up the sky.

Photo | Wizzard

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A Grand Opening Indeed: Iberostar’s Grand Hotel Budapest

agosto 1st, 2011 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Mystery Guest - (3 Comments)

The grand (and we do mean grand) opening of our IBEROSTAR Grand Hotel Budapest is quickly approaching, offering as of this month an unparalleled opportunity to enjoy the many charms of this magnificent city in true Iberostar style. Wander the pretty streets of the Hungarian capital, sample Gerbeaud‘s famous pastries on Vörösmarty Square, and of course, do not leave town without trying the most famous of Hungarian specialties: goulash. Our new hotel is right in the historic center of Pest, just a few steps from the ‘beautiful blue’ Danube River (which isn’t quite blue, Strauss waltzes notwithstanding), and faces Liberty Square, an area that is home to embassies and monumental buildings such as the Hungarian Parliament.

This boutique hotel forms part of our Grand Collection, with its 50 modern rooms spread over 5 floors (one Junior Suite, 20 Standard Rooms, nine Executive rooms, 15 Deluxe rooms and three Economy rooms) and all equipped with minibar, tea and coffee makers, a pillow menu, 24-hour room service, an iPod Docking Station, and more. The wellness and spa area will facilitate a truly restful stay with its spa, sauna, jacuzzi, massage rooms and Turkish bath, and you can regale your taste buds in our gourmet restaurant featuring Spanish cuisine and gorgeous decoration, designed as an intimate, exclusive space in the heart of the Hungarian capital for business travelers and urban tourists alike.

Photo | IBEROSTAR Grand Hotel Budapest

 

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