Jan 24th, 2013 at 10:00AM: In the Foreign Service, it's easy to calculate who your best friends are. They're the people who will come visit you in places like Khartoum, Yekaterinburg or Bujumbura. Diplomats who get posted to London, Paris, Rome and a handful of other cushy places find themselves running informal bed and breakfast operations, as marginal friends and distant relatives come out of the woodwork to claim a free ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Budapest posts
A Traveler In The Foreign Service: A Guys Road Trip To Transylvania
Jan 24th, 2013 at 10:00AM: In the Foreign Service, it's easy to calculate who your best friends are. They're the people who will come visit you in places like Khartoum, Yekaterinburg or Bujumbura. Diplomats who get posted to London, Paris, Rome and a handful of other cushy places find themselves running informal bed and breakfast operations, as marginal friends and distant relatives come out of the woodwork to claim a free ...World Subway Maps Drawn To Scale
Oct 24th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Think New York has the most extensive subway system in the world? You may be right, but it's a toss-up with London and Berlin. It's easy to judge if you take all the metro systems and draw them to the same scale, as artist and urban planner Neil Freeman did in a series of minimalist subway maps. Comparing different systems, it's a wonder why cities like Budapest even bothered with a metro, yet ...Knocked Up Abroad: Lessons Learned From Traveling With A Baby
Jul 12th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Long before I became a mother, people told me that the first six months is the easiest time to travel with a baby – before they walk, talk or require children's activities. Others told me to travel as much as possible before you have children, as it's too difficult to go places for the first few years. I can confirm that you don't have to turn in your passport when you have a baby, as my ...Cockpit Chronicles: Getting More Out Of Layovers
Apr 19th, 2012 at 9:00AM: For some, life couldn't be any more perfect than if they were paid to travel. I've run across three airline crew members who have discovered ways to keep their jobs fresh and exciting by embracing what is for them the biggest benefit that comes with working for an airline: travel.
You hear about the turbulence in the airline industry nearly every week – layoffs, pay cuts, pensions lost ...National Gallery in Budapest exhibits art of epic Hungarian history
Jan 11th, 2012 at 2:30PM:
The Hungarian capital of Budapest is a popular destination for those who love high art and culture. Its sumptuous National Gallery is famed across Europe, and now it's putting on a new exhibition highlighting the nation's history.
Heroes, Kings, Saints - Pictures and Memories of Hungarian History brings together some of the masterpieces of 19th century Hungarian painting. This was a high ...Video of the day: How to achieve your one travel dream
Oct 7th, 2011 at 6:30PM:
"What is your one travel dream above all other travel dreams?"
This is the opening question from Gadling friend Andrew Evans, who was recently invited to the TEDxDanubia conference in Budapest to present a talk on pursuing your travel dreams. Andrew's one travel dream was to see Antarctica and he details how he managed to get there by planning less, trusting more, and always traveling ...
Photo of the day: Budapest mist
Sep 28th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
I have never visited Hungary or Budapest, but this photo by Christoph Sahle of a misty day in Budapest makes me want to. Touring musicians, travel writers, and wandering friends have warned me of the city's immense beauty, telling me I'll never want to leave should I ever go. Well, those kinds of places are precisely the kinds of places I want to visit. I suspect they are the kinds of places ...Five great European thermal baths
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:30PM: Before the spa revolution saw most upscale hotels offering spa services to guests, there was the venerable European spa town tradition, centered on thermal baths built around natural hot springs. The water on offer for bathing at these sites has historically been thought to possess therapeutic qualities. The tradition of taking a "cure" remains an enthusiastic habit across Europe today, in ...The ten best castles in Europe
Mar 16th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Castles originated in Europe over a thousand years ago. These fortresses were one of the original defense systems, and erecting the structures on hills or just beyond moats was a functional choice. Castles were built to house rulers, impose power, and above all, spurn would be attackers. Conforming to these basic principles of utilitarian design, the strongholds now appear solitary, majestic, ...Q & A with Grantourismo round-the-world slow travel bloggers
Nov 24th, 2010 at 2:00PM:
With all the holiday travel madness just beginning, sometimes it's nice to take a breath and think about taking travel more slowly. I recently had a chance to meet up with blogger Lara Dunston and her photographer-writer husband, Terence Carter, of the round-the-world travel project and blog, Grantourismo while they were traveling through Istanbul. Lara and Terence hosted me at their fabulous ...Drinking Bull's Blood in Hungary's Valley of the Beautiful Women
Oct 31st, 2010 at 10:00AM: There are no beautiful women in the Valley of the Beautiful Women, located on the outskirts of Eger in northeastern Hungary. A true misnomer. At least from what I could see. Instead, the only humans in sight were old crones pouring potent deep-red vino from long stem-like glass wine pourers and ancient portly men passed out in the corner of subterranean wine cellars. Is this one of those bad ...Letter from Hungary: soaking in the history in the bathhouses of Budapest
Sep 30th, 2010 at 6:17PM: For two millennia the citizens of Budapest have nursed a passion for bathing. Far beneath them, in geological fault lines, is a watery cauldron, the source for over 120 thermal springs whose temperatures range from warm to scalding. These waters have produced an obsession. It began as a pursuit of health. It quickly became a pursuit of pleasure.
In Budapest the bathhouse is to the inhabitants ...Browse 70 gigapixels of panoramic Budapest in the world's largest photograph
Jul 27th, 2010 at 11:15AM:
Last year, we showed you an 18 gigapixel photo of Prague, followed by a 26 gigapixel photo of Paris, and a 45 gigapixel photo of Dubai. The world of gigapixel photography has a new winner - a whopping 70 gigapixel photo of Budapest. The photo is claimed to be the largest photo on earth, but of course, at this rate, the record will be broken by the end of summer.
Head on over to the photo ...Courtyard by Marriott opens 2 new properties in Europe
Jun 8th, 2010 at 9:30AM: The Courtyard by Marriott chain of hotels is in the middle of a major revamp - but at the same time, the chain is working hard to expand across Europe.
The chain already has 40 properties and over 7,000 rooms in Europe, and today, they announced the two newest additions to their lineup - Budapest and St. Petersburg.
The 235-room Courtyard Budapest City Center is located on Blaha Luiza Square ...17 great destinations for romance
May 21st, 2010 at 3:30PM:
Some say that romance is a lost art - but it's not. It's just hiding, waiting to be uncovered in some of the most beautiful places around the globe. Whether you are trying to show that special someone that they truly are special, making a proposal, or rekindling the flame you once had with your spouse, setting the stage is your first step to success. Whether you are searching for the perfect ...Ten Great Cities for Photography
Jan 22nd, 2010 at 4:21PM: Some cities just draw you in, beckoning you to capture their souls on camera. There are billions of places in the world where photo ops abound -- The Pyramids, Rome, London, and The Great Wall of China are a few of the most famous examples.
Here are ten less common places where magnificent scenery, people, and everyday life are like no other -- and can lead to some terrific travel photography. ...Worst travel mistakes of the 2000's: Diplomatic Dipsticks
Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:30AM:
As we take time to count our travel sins of the past decade, I get all teary-eyed and indecisive. Where to begin? Couldn't we just say "Iraq" and be done with it? And are we including food mistakes? 'Cuz I got some real doozies: how about shrimp ceviche from a quaint Mexican beach cafe or fresh cut watermelon in India? Uh, those would be travel mistakes, no? But like, since we're trying to ...One-day sale from Intrepid Travel starts now!
Jun 30th, 2009 at 10:30AM: Intrepid Travel puts together some amazing trips, and today's deal will make them even more accessible than usual. For the next nine hours, trips will be discounted deeply ... all Intrepid trips ... more than 400 of them. Price cuts range from 15 percent to 60 percent in this rare opportunity.
Trips departing soonest, of course, come with the greatest price breaks. Book an excursion that leaves ...Hungarian airline stunt too successful
Jun 25th, 2009 at 8:00AM: A crowd pissed all over Wizz Air's attempt to release 1,000 balloons into the sky. The low-cost airline had hoped to celebrate its fifth anniversary, but the Hungarian crowd was drawn to the event by the rumor of freebies hooked to the balloons – coupons worth $49.95 – ultimately ruining it for everybody.
The balloons were held in a net in Budapest. Attendees started to pop balloons ...Stumble down to Budapest's underground labyrinth
Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:00PM: Hungary's capital city, Budapest, has always had a "split history." Everything from the town's name (which is actually a combination of two distinct cities along the Danube, Buda and Pest) to its incredibly diverse architectural styles, to a range of ruling powers from the Ottoman Turks to the Soviet Union after World War II speak to Budapest's unique dichotomy of influences and history. ...
