Generation Expat

CentralBudapest.com

I just came across this site that is an aggregation of lots of Budapest-oriented blogs in English.

Harper's Thoughtfully Provides 'A Reader's Guide to Expatriating on November 3'

To depressed to blog. Thankfully, Harper's provides advice on renouncing one's U.S. citizenship and a Coalition of the Willing of countries where yellow-dog Democrats may feel welcome.

(I bet our friend Bendeguz is quite pleased with himself, confused Hungarian nationalist that he is, believing that Amerika is "the freest and greatest country in the world" and proclaiming "HAJRA BUSH! I hope you cry when he wins in November." Well, Bendeguz, you had the last laugh, after all. But your paprika is full of death mold, so fuck you.)

Molvanîa, a Jetlag Travel Guide

Amusing faux travel guide: Molvanîa: A land untouched by modern dentistry. Looks like Dork Zygotian should have written the forward. From Jetlag Travel Guides, "Taking you places you don't want to go." The book appears to be not-so-loosely based on Romania, in my estimation. From the back cover:

Molvania, birthplace of the polka and the whooping cough, is often overlooked as a tourist destination, but thanks to this updated Jetlag Travel Guide, the keen visitor can now enjoy one of Eastern Europe's best-kept secrets...WHEN TO GO: Those wanting a quieter, less-crowded experience might consider visiting in the "off season" periods such as winter or during the Lutenblag Jazz Festival. WHERE TO EAT: Cafe Cravben is run by a married couple — if the arguments from the kitchen are anything to go by — and the menu is changed frequently. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the table linen.

And so on. By Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch. Anyone we know?

For whatever reason, the publisher promises a whole series of these make-believe travel giudes

D'Amato launches Pestiside

A few weeks ago, Erik d'Amato invited me over to his place for a peek at a project he was developing. I was intrigued, but he couldn't convince me that Budapest really needed its own version of Gawker.

Now that I see the result, Pestiside, I've changed my mind.

On his 'about' page, Erik promises "spicy and incisive original items about the things that make Hungary actually worth living in or visiting, pithy recaps of the most important and colorful local news, and unbiased information and reviews of locally-available goods and services you are actually likely to use."

So far, Pestiside delivers. Recent topics include kooky Magyars petitioning the government to be officially classfied as 'Huns', a serial dog killer in the village of Rábacsanak, and Hungary's recent porn Oscar awards night. (Ironically, that item got Erik a link in Nick Denton's Fleshbot - congratulations!)

I especially like Erik's parody news summaries. The 'Serious New Update Service' seems to be items off the MIT newswire, or perhaps from Hungary Around the Clock. 'Sun Screen' presents the latest from Budapest's venerable paper of record:

Here at Pestiside, we read the Budapest Sun so you don't have to! And thanks to our patented Sun Screener™ we can offer you all the important highlights of Budapest's de-facto English-language newspaper of record, with none of its headache-producing rays and toxic emission.

Yes, even though I live in Budapest, I usually can't be bothered to pick up the local English-language newspapers. And when I do read it's usually the Budapest Times, which features Erik's popular gossip column, Stink. Naturally, the column is regular fodder for Pestiside.

It remains to be seen whether Erik can keep up his enthusiasm for the project (apathy being the leading killer of weblogs) and whether this project can actually make money. Erik hopes to build up enough of an audience that he can earn an income selling advertising. That may or may not happen, but I believe Erik has made his first point. Budapest is ready for its own version of Gawker, and Erik looks set to deliver.

Online Maps of Hungary and Budapest

I was doing a bit of research looking for a map of Budapest and came across these, which may be of interest to others of you:

• Térképek.hu - Mapquest-like interactive map for Hungary

• Budapest Map - a great visual map of districts of Budapest from the "Hungarian Home Page"

• Térképcentrum - kind of clunky interface, and all in Hungarian, but seemingly useful