Budapest

Hello again! Tonight I’d like to share some pictures of a fascinating east-European city named Budapest. The cultural centre in which I work, the Moritzbastei – Leipzig- is member of Trans Europe Halles, a great network which gets to connect several cultural centres from all around Europe in order to exchange ideas, opinions, contacts, take part to seminars and so on. There are two meetings per year, each time in the city of a different host member. The first meeting I took place one year ago was in Plzeň, Czech Republic (I will write a post about it as well, nice city). This time it was Budapest’s turn.

The thing about this kind of meeting is that you don’t see the city in the traditional way. The purpose of these meetings is not, of course, to be a tourist but to participate to the several seminars and meetings. You only get to visit the city either very early before the meetings or on the last day. So, the first thing I saw once in Budapest was not the Parliament but this peculiar cultural organisation which hosted the meeting. Its name is Bakelit, situated in the industrial part of the city:

The Bakelit was once an industrial complex which became in 1999 a cultural centre, specialized in contemporary theatre and dance performances. In front of it there was another abandoned building, which my collegues and I visited during the lunch break. Talking with other participants we all agreed that sometimes these places are more interesting than the touristic ones, just because the imagination starts working:

This place might become a concert hall, a big stage, a gallery of contemporary art, everything. And walking there, visiting its ghost rooms, listening to the stillness of the place, thinking how loud it was and how loud it could be once more, it just felt good.

I will conclude this post with the Budapest that maybe most of you know. This is more or less how I saw the city: the traditional sights, the market, Budapest by night and much more (apropos, if you happen to go to Budapest you absolutely have to go to this ruinpub named Szimpla. I know it’s the most famous one and that it’s full of tourists but it’s such a patchwork of things, unrelated one to the other, that it’s just perfect). I hope you will enjoy them!

Travel details:
Soundtrack: The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
Book: Underground, Haruki Murakami