Visiting the disused switch house of the Kelenföld power station is a pet project for any self-respecting architecture and/or urbanism aficionado in Budapest- the building is normally off limits to the public and has recently been serving as the backdrop of several dystopian films instead. The Contemporary Architecture Centre (KÉK) has however taken the pain…
Tag: urbanexploration
Summer’s End in Városliget
The other day it dawned on me that the Budapest exploration project faded a little into the background with the advent of summer. It’s the season I enjoy the most, but also the one I find borderline tiring in its relentless excitement: the travels, the long days when you feel compelled to stay out with…
Arad 50/mm Continued
The first Arad 50/mm installment was a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat of intentions situation, so I can proudly declare that I really meant the second one, as a sort of late spring follow up to the late autumn edition. I also decided to try and take some snaps of my nieghbourhood, which, since I…
Your Ruins to the Right of Me- Discovering Népsziget
Since it transpired that we’ve summited almost all of Buda’s many hills we decided it was time to turn our attention to other places of interest such as, let’s say, islands. Though, as previously specified, of those there are only three in Budapest and we’ve been to all of them, although Csepel has sadly gone…
A Limes Ran Through It- Aquincum and Római-part
Our recent visit to the Kiscelli Museum came with the extra bonus of a free ticket to either the Castle or the Aquincum museums, which can be used for up to 30 days from the purchase of the first ticket. Emboldened by this prospective, we decided to go for the Aquincum museum, which proved to…
Museum on the Top of Town
Encouraged by our Lisbon exploits, we decided that it’s high time we tackled yet another Budapest hill, and the one we picked as our next target was Mátyás-hegy, towering at 299 metres and lying in Buda’s third district, just a little off the more popular Hármashatár-hegy, which we had already mapped last summer. Mátyás-hegy is…
Splendour on the Estuary- Lisbon Guide Part Three
What to see. When a bit of a city looks like a chessboard, it is highly likely some luminary’s fever dream, and in keeping with the maxim, the Baixa was thought up by the Marquess de Pombal, the minister of Joseph I of Portugal, in the wake of the devastating quake of 1755- being on…
A Glimpse into the Hidden Budapest
One of my most frequent compulsions when walking the streets of Budapest is stealing a furtive glance into the inner courtyards of the houses when an unsuspecting inhabitant is going in, perhaps lingering a few seconds to hoist a shopping bag or lead a reluctant mutt over the threshold. Every now and then, I glimpse…
Andrássy Avenue with a Twist or Two
It all began with the thought that we should have a walk along the stretch of Andrássy which starts at Oktogon and ends at Heroes’ Square- I am completely partial to this bit of the avenue, with its ivy clad villas and stately air, as opposed to the shop and tourist infested half that heads…
Suddenly Beethoven: A Visit to Városmajor and Kis-Sváb-Hegy
The newest installment of our investigation of Budapest’s outré places led us to that most outré of locations, The Square Formerly (and Forever) Known as Moszkva, from where a short walk allowed us to better inspect the city park going by the name of Városmajor. We’d of course often glanced Városmajor, either form a tram…
Pocket Diary Budapest 