New train service between Brasov and Budapest
There was train service between the two cities in the past, but it was discountinued till now.
The new rail link called Hargita, will leave Brasov at 3 in the morning, and will go through major cities of transylvania, like Cluj and Oradea, to arrive to Budapest around 4 pm, the same day.
The trains will be modern intercity train (or at least promised to be), and served by the hungarian state company MAV.
First train will go within 3weeks
SOS, MALEV is going down
Malev, the hungarian national carrier, is running out of cash.
According to sources, the airline told its pilots to do refueling on airports abroad, since the fuel co in hungarian airport of Ferihegy is refused to do it due to its large debt.
Another sign is that Malev has suspended its pilot layoff, since there are huge money to pay for pilots for firing them.
The problems with Malev is not new, the company has been struggeling for over a decade now. First it was owned by the state of Hungary, before it was privatised (they tried several times without success) to the owner of the russian carrier AiRUnion. Which was bankcrupted recently.
Malev was affected by high fuel prices, and the answer was they sold 2 of their B767 and cancel all longhaul flights, and keep only the european routes.
For shorthaul routes they are going to sell B737s and ordered several Q500 from Bombardier. But the first Q500s are going to arrive only in November instead of October.
And the original plan, that AiRUnion and Malev will gain some positive new routes to connect russian cities with european also went to the rubbish bin.
Now although Malev has good routes in Central and eastern europe, they are struggeling with underfinancing (sources tell the airline will need at least 10 billion hungarian forints new money - 50million USD), the growing competition from lowcost airlines , like Wizz Air (which has a hungarian, former malev ceo founder,owner and CEO).
The good news is for customers, that Malev is going to be in a rush to have new and more customers, so prices will fall maybe during winter time, it is a good time to have some bargain.
Check out the website of Malev
Kraków second most interesting city of 2008, reports British daily
In a special questionnaire, the British daily asked its readers to pick the most interesting places, the best hotels and the most interesting world tourist destinations.
The capital of Australia - Sydney turned out to be the winner, followed by Krakow and such cities as San Francisco, Singapore or Vancouver.
According to “Gazeta Wyborcza” a high place in the ranking will help Krakow which has recently faced 20% drop in visits by foreign tourists.
Strike at Air France
National strike at Air France will cut about 65-70% of the flights from 14-17th Nov.
French airline pilots´ unions have unanimously called a four-day strike from Friday 14 November at one minute past midnight to Monday 17 November at midnight, to protest against changes to the retirement age currently under discussion in the French Parliament (changing from 60 to 65)
Air France is expecting very severe disruptions to its operations and apologizes to passengers in advance for this highly regrettable situation.
As for Saturday november 15th, between 65% and 70% of Air France long-haul flights and 50% of its short and medium-haul flights are maintained.
The flight schedule to be operated each day will be published the evening before at about 8 pm. Air France cannot however rule out the risk of last-minute cancellations, i.e. at the time of departure.
Passengers who intend to continue with their trip as planned should find out whether their flight is likely to operate by consulting on this site “Book on line / Flight status”, which will be constantly updated with detailed flight cancellation information.
Air France will of course do its utmost to ensure that its passengers are transferred to other airlines, depending on space available.
Air France has set up a toll free number, available in France : 0800 240 260.
Passengers abroad can obtain information by calling + 33 157 02 10 55 or by contacting their usual reservations center.
From experience : all the Budapest flights were cancelled on 14th…and not really good updates on flight statuses.
Drunken bears in Slovakia
Attention, travellers to Slovakia: beware of drunken bears.
Bears will eat fruit that has fallen to the ground and fermented, and while the fruit’s alcohol content is low, bears can eat such large amounts that they become tipsy, Slovakian forestry expert Miroslav Saniga said.
Befuddled bears have been known to approach humans, and they will attack if they feel provoked, Slovakia’s TASR news agency quoted Saniga as saying.
Slovakia’s biggest risk zone is the Velka Fatra mountains, which include a national park, in the centre of the East European nation, Saniga said.
Bear populations have grown in many Central and Eastern European countries in recent years.
Slovakia is believed to have 700 to 900, about twice as many as in the 1970s.
admin comment :
Europe does not have too many bears, largest populations in slovakia, romania, so it is a positive thing to have more and more bears…i like animals in the wildfrom ninemsn.com
Skiing in Bansko, Bulgaria
Bansko is located in Bulgaria, only a short trip from the capital Sofia. Surrounded by the Pirin, Rila and Rhodopi mountains, Bansko is a climatic mountain resort and the town is listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. Over 500,000 guests visited Bansko during the 2006-2007 ski season and over 200,000 enjoyed the summer time activities of hunting, fishing, walking, mountain biking and sightseeing. The alpine character of the Pirin Mountains create excellent skiing conditions for all types of skiers and experts can enjoy some of the country’s best downhill skiing.
The infrastructure of Bansko has been upgraded recently, so many new hotels, pansions, restaurants, shops are waiting for the tourists. The beautiful scenery, the fresh alpine air and the moderate prices are all very attractive, so think about Bansko when you are thinking about skiing.
Check out our ski tours to Bansko
Some usefull resort infos:
- Total ski runs: 70km
- Longest run: 16km
- Off-piste skiing: Yes
- Slopes exposure: North
- Highest ski point: 2600m
- Max vertical drop: 1630m
- Height of resort: 930m
- Drags: 16
- Chairlifts: 6
- Gondolas: 1
- Artificial snow: 100% coverage
- Night skiing: Yes
- Snowboarding: Yes
- Ski-Doo: Yes
- Season starts: middle Dec.
- Season ends: middle April
Ski pass prices :
| Period | Adults | Children |
| 1 day | 50 | 30 |
| 2 days | 95 | 53 |
| 3 days | 145 | 82 |
| 6 days | 280 | 155 |
| 9 days | 390 | 225 |
| 13 days | 540 | 310 |
| 1/2 day | 32 | 25 |
| Seasonal | 1340 | 800 |
| Gondola lift (return ticket)* | 16 | 8 |
The given prices are in bulgarian leva (1 Euro = 1.95583 leva)
20% off on Lift Pass when hiring Full Equipment Package 25% off on Lift Pass when hiring Full Equipment 
Santa’s riding on train and a new program for 2009
Two good short news, from Northern Hungary.
Good because all new tourist attraction is good for the region.
Santa’s train
Actually it is not that new, it will be the 6th event during the winter. There is a narrow gauge forest train from Miskolc to Lillafured. The train ride takes only 40mins, through the forest of Bukk. during the year the train is for tourists, but from 26th Nov till 16th Dec it will transformed into Santa’s train.
That means the engine and the carriages will be decorated with lights, the secondary school students from Miskolc city will turn to fairy creatures and welcome the little ones at the station, where the journey begin to “wonderland”. During the journey they play games on the train, and upon the arrival at Lillafured (which is now the gate of wonderland), the interactive tale story begin, which will end with a meeting with Santa Claus. This year Susu, the dragon (a famous hungarian tale character) will be the VIP guest.
Santa’s train is a very popular among small kids and families…Do not miss if you are in Hungary at that time! Miskolc is only 200kms from Budapest!
New program for 2009
If you are near in Miskolc, stay for a few months 
and you can take a ride on a horse cart in the Bukk mountain.
9 villages in and around the mountains made this project, they built several cart designed in the 19th century, but modernized (with breaks ). It is a post cart from the 1800s. Two horse in front and you can go and take a ride around and in the forest roads, from village to village.
The villages will develop more tourist sights by next year, including wine cellars and tastings, museums, folk houses, but I think only the journey can be interesting through the hills and valleys of the bukk mountain.
Day in Kosice, slovakia
The train was quite empty as it arrived to kosice station in the morning. The train fare is quite cheap, and it was an EC (eurocity) train from Budapest through Kosice to Warsaw,poland.
The weather was fine, although kosice is a bit northern located than hungary, but the downtown worth a trip.
Not long time ago (in the 80’s) kosice was the city we went on shopping for shoes, chocolates, since there were nice things and our shops back in hungary was half empty. And the shoes was cheap as well.
Nowadays, slovakia is not cheaper than hungary or at least not that much worth to go, and our shops full of shoes also
But kosice still have its charm and the historical atmosphere you gonna enjoy.
Kosice is an old city with mixure of citizens, slovakians, hungarians, gypsys, germans, as a magical mirror where you can see the old habsburg empire (or later on austro-hungarian empire). Kosice was a buzzling and busy trader town for centuries, and you can see and feel it as you walk over the main street.
The train station is nothing exciting, a post socialist building, not a beauty (let’s say its ugly), but you can find shop (Lidl) inside, and the ticket and train information is 100% ok. The nice ladies speak english, can print out timetable…superb service.
Front of the train station you see many trams going all over kosice, on the left hand side the bus station to other cities/villages in eastern slovakia.
As we go straight across the park and a small bridge over a busy road, we arrive to the main street of kosice which is only for pedestrians. There were trams in the 80’s but now only the rails remind you.
The locals fully renovated the downtown, it is really nice to walk around, smaller/bigger shops everywhere and not only on the main street but on the narrow paralell streets as well.
Worth to see (you simply can’t miss) the St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral, considered to be one of the most beautiful Gothic structures in the world, was built between 1378 and 1508 and is the city’s oldest architectural landmark. I don’t know how but they always working on one side of the cathedral…but you can go inside to take a look.
Next to the Cathedral there are the Rakoczi bell - which symbolize that history of kosice is really part of the hungarian history. Ferenc Rakoczi was leading a huge uprising (became an indipendence war) against the habsburgs between 1703 and 1711. Ferenc Rakoczi was buried into the St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral in 1906.
Front of the cathedral you can find the dancing/singing fountain and the unique bell statue, which plays different song hourly in the middle of a little park. Its really funny, kids love it. Opposite the park there is the National Theatre.
There are many nice restaurants, cafes along the main street,
Here is some photos :
1956 October revolution in Hungary
Hungary celebrates the 52th anniversary of the 1956’s revolution against the communist regime on 23rd October.
It is still a bit close in history, so many arguments about it in hungary.
After the 2nd World War, the country was in ruins, and the communists party took the lead on the elections. Hungary was going to transferred into a stalinist regime leaded by Matthias Rakosi.
Industrialization was a priority, and building the socialism. Despite the few positive things (they rebuilt budapest after the war, and mainly the whole country, many new factories, etc.) there were a lot of negative as well. Peoples did not like the way the country goes, the totalitary regime, the politically motivated jail terms and security services, whom sometime beaten opposite to death.
They uprised, captured the main buildings and budapest, and there were uprising in many major town in rural hungary as well.
But the army of the soviet union came in and the revolution failed on 10th November 1956.
More about 1956 revolution on wikipedia
Nowadays it is trully about memories, and celebtration, 23rd oct is a public holiday and it is a long holiday in 2008.
Recent years rioters used to disturb the state celebration demostrating agains the actual goverment, violating the streets as you may used to see on CNN
Visitors are maybe better to avoid the downtown of Budapest, which will closed to cars actually and police will patrol the streets.
But if you would like to see the sites of the battles, you can catch a special sightseeing tour. check out
Balaton airport is going to close till March
Balaton airport of Hungary in Sarmellek will going to suspend its passenger operation as Ryanair took off balaton airport from its winter timetable.
After a decision at Ryanair, to cut almost 100 flights throughout europe due to high fuel prices, Balaton Airport came to a hard decision since Ryanair was the major client of the local airport near lake balaton.
Several other smaller airlines also flight to balaton airport mainly from germany and ryanair also had other routes from the airport along the one to london.
The airport will suspend its operation or at least going to a low level of aircargo handling during the winter period till March 2009 till the time Ryanair will start to fly the summer timetable.
Balaton Airport will be reachable from London by Ryanair again from March 2009.