Budapest
blue_lu
8 Posts
hello,I and a couple of friends are planning a trip to Budapest pretty soon. We quite excited, but all the standard literature about Budapest seems somewhat suspect. Any recomandations for really good record shops (for Jazz Funk Soul), any top secret hungarian jazzfunk record/band I should check out?!And almost as important as the recordshop thing: good restaurants, caf??s, hip clubs (again funk and soul related if possible, electro would fine as well) museums and things one should have done in Budapest. Thanks a lot. Later,Blue
Comments
RIIGHT! And its A LOT more work than I thought it would be. I had to stop the whole music thing (listening, playing, recording). No sparetime at all. In fact, I'll have to log off now and dive to joints and bones for the next 5 hours. I'll check back soon. Oh and I read the archives already, some good tips apparantly...
Oh, btw. How did you know?!
Later, BluE
i lived in budapest way back in 96-97, so i'm sure things have changed a lot since then. one great traditional hungarian restaurant is st. jupat's (pronounced yu-pot's), which is close to the moskva ter subway stop. ask around near there and someone will point you in the direction. if any of you are vegetarians, things can be difficult, but there is a good place a few blocks from oktagon ter called "falafel", which is a really good falafel sandwich salad bar place.
when i was there, there was no sign of soul or funk in any club in the city, which may have changed by now. one nice club is in the basement of the economics university. a smaller club is called morrisons, which was a big young college kid hangout when i was there (and i was a college kid so it worked out). there's another club, i forgot the name, which was converted from a train station so it's huge.
also DO NOT forget to check out the turkish baths.
go check out a lonely planet hungary/budapest. it should have all of this stuff in it and more.
Exactly! Berlin is waaay overhyped and loaded with all kinds of pseudo-hip new berliners and stupid wannabes, trying to catch a tiny bit of "the hipness" - its so funny (and sad at the same time) to walk over the Kastanienallee at night and watch all the dumbasses battleing each other with "coolness".
I've been to Budapest for 3 days half a year ago, but had absolutly no time on my hands - but I loved it. Got to know 2 swedish film students studying poland. We went to this art-porn movie, all drunken - and after that we went into some obscure electro club, just a weid, incredible night!
I can see you...
I hope you're having a great time. Don't bother about records too much though. I only heard bad things about records in Budapest. Must be tough... you might wanna ask at vinylvulture.co.uk for further info...
My ex-ex-ex-ex-girlfriend was very very very bad at high school, but still wanted to become a doctor. She had to go to Southern Hungary in order to study medicine. she liked Hungary a lot and said that the university was all good... she actually got accepted at a German uniersity after her basic studies... easily...
What other reasons are there to go to Southern Hungary???
Another area with lots of the record stores is around the National Museum. There's Lemez Dokk (Horansky utca?) geared towards prog-rock I think, but they have lots of jazz records too. I wasn't really impressed with their prices. Then there's Pillecolor which was temporarily situated somewhere around Lemez Dokk, but I think it might haved moved back to Oktogon ??zleth??z already (across the street from the Burger King). Lots of records-- jazz, rock, even some soul (Yugo presses mostly? That's what I remember), pretty much everything. Prices should be ok. Going back to the National Museum, there's Nekrofilia records (?) on Muzeum k??r??t (in a courtyard), mostly current stuff, but some represses and used records too (from Quasimoto to Polish Jazz). There's also a book store right across the street from the Museum, which has some used records. A bunch of crap, but I found a couple of things on the cheap.
You can hit up the flea markets too, but unless you're feeling really lucky, I'm not sure if it's worth it. I've come up on some really nice stuff, but there are times when you won't even see a record.
I found some cool stuff there including Muzas, Amigas and other eastern stuff. One spot I went to in the basement of a shoppingcenter had some great stuff but he knew what some of it was worth... Still good finds!
Great city.
Enjoy!
Dress
Check these for records, Laci Basci was my favourite... (some are much better than others):
Budapest
Budapest Record Shops
Newport Records, Terez Korut 47.
quite small in a courtyard off the main street, largely (but not all) jazz - I picked up some good Polish and Czech pieces here at decent prices. Owner is called Ferenc, only open in afternoons from 2 till 7.
Pillecolor, Terez Korut 21.
This is in the basement of a small indoor shopping centre - will take a while, there's a lot of stock in there, organised by country as well as genre. Lots of prog from Eastern Europe. Lovely bloke (Imre) running it and quite often seem to be a
load of mates in there hanging out and listening to records. He's got a LOT of Hungarian 45s behind the counter which I didn't really have time to get into.
Don't know the name, also at Terez Korut 21
On the ground floor of the same indoor shopping centre, there's another second hand shop which had some nice bits. Erratic opening times.
There's also another shop two doors up Terez Korut, at either 19 or 23. Wasn't all that, though.
Dob Records, Szent Istvan Korut 23
Looks brilliant but I've never found it open! Let me know what it's like if you manage!
All the above are very close to each other right in the centre of town near Nyugati Station.
There are a couple of secondhand book stalls under Nyugati Station that also sell records - and also one at Keleti Station.
Concerto Records, Dob Utca (not sure of the number, it's on the right if you're walking from Karoly Korut)
almost all classical, but might be worth a look.
Lemek Dokk, Horansky Utca 27
near the Hungarian National Museum
excellent, mostly jazz and prog stuff. Very friendly bloke too. Erratic opening hours again.
There's another shop very near called something like the 'CD Library' which has an unimpressive rack of vinyl at the back.
Laci basci's record store
Andrassy ut 46
Afrofilia Records
1055 M??zeum k??r??t 7
The flea market on Sunday Morning in the park at Heroes' Square (Varosliget) is definitely worth a try, though it'll be bitterly cold. Look on a map and head for Petofi Csarnok in the park.
Have fun, i'm sure you'll have a great time...
I agree!
I bought some records from him via eBay and internet. Dope selection and superb service. You should go there. I didn't even know that he got a real store. You definatley want to check it out.
The club scene should be vivid. That's what I hear all the time...