Quirky Budapest
the new danube
From chic boutiques to quirky nightspots, Sterling takes you on a tour of the hippest locales in and around Budapest’s District V
If you’ve ever taken a short break in Budapest the chances are you’ll have marvelled at the views of Buda Castle and the Parliament Building from the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, listened to an aria or two at the opera house, and taken dip at of one of the many thermal baths. But it’s unlikely that you caught more than a glimpse of the new underground trends that are reshaping the city.
District V on the Pest side – Budapest’s traditional city centre – has undergone a transformation in recent years. Away from Váci utca, the main strip, streets that rarely saw much action beyond old folk walking their dogs are now providing the setting for a vibrant alternative social scene. Artfully shabby clothes shops are packed with dark purple and flourescent yellow nu-rave club wear. Sooty facades are brightened by grafitti art and during the summer months they are plastered with posters advertising the huge Sziget music festival. Now is the perfect time for visitors to get under the skin of this new Budapest.
new budapest shops
clubwear to crafts
At first glance, the sign for Poster Urban Outfit looks like just another thirty-second graffiti doodle. But inside the shop – a meeting point for Budapest’s trendy twenty-somethings – is a sea of bright geometric patterns, with racks of hoodies, denims by Cheap Monday, and shiny lamé purses and sneakers.
Not far away RetRock Deluxe – younger sibling to venerable vintage store RetRock – has rails of slinky partywear of the kind you’d expect to find in a Milanese boutique. But instead of Moschino and Pucci all the creations here are by the cream of Hungarian designers. Brands to look out for include Nanushka (www.nanushka.hu) whose grey and black signature pieces are made from satin and jersey fabric, and Je Suis Belle (www.jesuisbelle.hu) with its sporty but feminine dresses.
To stock up on clubwear drop into Lollipop Factory, a fresh new store that has only been open for a matter of months. Owner Albert Bezzeg describes his typical customer as “happy” and “open-minded”. The latter is a popular euphemism here, although what it actually means varies. ‘Open-minded’ can be code for anything from ‘young’ to ‘liberal’ to ‘gay’, but needn’t necessarily mean any of above.
Another store for the open-minded – whoever they may be – is Eclectick. Upstairs you can find recycled jewellery made from Lego and computer keys next to appliqué purses and look-at-me hats. Downstairs, in the homeware section, you can buy the innovative spoon egg-cup by local design studio Geppetto (pictured) and the iconic Garden Egg chair, designed by Peter Ghyczy in 1968.
For original accessories and fabrics, check out the nearby Eventuell Gallery, where a collective of new designers are reinterpreting traditional crafts. Folk tales and wood-block patterns inspire the screenprints of founder Szilvia Szigeti.
new budapest bars and clubs
barges, bunkers and ruins
Tune in to Tilos Rádió (‘forbidden radio’), the station of choice for local scensters. Crank up the volume and get ready to hit the town. When it comes to new Budapest’s buzzing nightlife, reinvention is the name of the game.
A38, a former industrial barge moored to the south of District V, near the PetöfiBridge, is one of the city’s most popular clubbing spots and shares house DJs with Tilos. Since its existence isn’t exactly a state secret, it’s quite popular with tourists. To rub shoulders with the local bright young things, try Fecske Terasz, located on a terrace overlooking an Olympic-sized swimming pool up river from District V on the Buda side, near the Margaret Island. There are loungebeds to sprawl out on and there’s even a fake beach upstairs with deck chairs and real sand.
For live music, head to Gödör to hear local bands playing everything from jazz to rock to electro to Hungary’s own jazz-techno fusion genre, eclectrik. Gödör (or ‘hole’) is so-called because the club is in an underground space earmarked as the garage for a new national theatre which, thanks to bureaucratic disputes, was never finished.
When they’re not here or on the party boat, revellers can be found in the ‘ruin pubs’; punky drinking dives hidden away in crumbling stone buildings around the once derelict Jewish quarter in District VII – home to Europe’s largest synagogue, which only survived World War Two because the Nazis used it as a radio tower.
Bike-riding has become Budapest’s latest counter-cultural craze and pop-art-influenced ruin pub Szimpla Kert provides a garage with racks for customers to stow their wheels. It also hosts related events such as women-only bike maintenance classes. Down a few glasses of Dreher beer but stay sober enough to cycle home by munching on a traditional farmer’s snack, like bread with lard and chicken liver, carrots dipped in lemon and saltwater, or a salty scone. They taste better than they sound.
new budapest spas
mostly for men
There may have been a time when Hungarian men professed to take little interest in their personal appearance but these days you can find the zenith of 21st century metrosexuality in Budapest. Masculin is an exquisitely decorated “gentlemen’s salon and day spa” where the most popular treatments are mani-pedis and anti-ageing facials. Sports channels play silently on television screens around the elegant, black-lacquered rooms.
To help customers achieve that Photoshopped look, Masculin also sells men’s cosmetics – subtle concealers, lip-liners and even mascara – hidden in discreet containers which look like fountain pens. Male vanity on this scale may be a new thing, but founder Mercédesz Nagyné Gara’s business strategy also relies on a more traditional male attribute. “Men are lazy and they’d rather buy a product while they’re here than go out and look for it later,” she says. She has plans to expand to Paris and London in 2009, and to open a Budapest women’s spa in response to popular demand.
In the meantime, gals about town should make their way to the chic Omorovicza Boutique and Spa, founded by ultra-glamorous couple Stephen and Margaret de Heinrich de Omorovicza – he the Swiss-born scion of an aristocratic Hungarian family, she his American diplomat wife. They hit on the idea of developing a new line of beauty products using Budapest’s mineral-rich spring waters after moving to the city. Book your treatment in advance though, because there are only two treatment rooms in the spa, which also serves as a storefront for the exclusive Omorovicza skincare range.
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