budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

Up in the cool Buda hills, amongst the lovely oaks hides the Budakeszi Game Reserve. It is a combination of a zoo for local wild animals, a shelter for orphaned animals and a small farm with typical Hungarian farm animals. It takes approximately 20 minutes on the 22 bus from Szél Kálmán (Moszkva) tér to get there, and it is a 12 minute walk from the bus stop to the entrance.

The reserve is the forest and it is pleasantly cool in hot Hungarian summers. There are various discounts and services for families: you can use all terrain buggies free of charge (I still prefer babywearing and carried my little one in a mei tai), there is a nappy changing and a nursing room. There are also a massive playground, fire pits and picnic tables right outside the place.

From the entrance we climbed up the hill and saw the wild boars, four types of deer, bison, mouflons, brown bears and wolves. There is a big petting zoo: you can go into one big enclosure and feed the deer with some zoo snacks you can buy for 200 hufs. We did this and the kids were thrilled even if some Bambis were a bit too keen..

There were plenty of picnic tables and we could have our lunch there overlooking the playing bears. Right above the bears there is a wooden look-out tower with great views of the Buda Hills.

We walked back to the entrance and checked out the rest of the zoo; well it is a bit less attractive, smaller enclosures and cages.  There are birds of prey, owls, ducks and geese, and some smaller mammals like hares and badgers and this beautiful wild cat:

Open all year round! In the summer from 9 am till 5 pm on weekdays and 6 pm on weekends.
http://www.vadaspark-budakeszi.hu/index.php
tel: 06-23-451-783; 06-20-661-7963, 06-20-661-7967
email: budakeszi.vadaspark@pprt.hu
youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/BudakesziVadaspark

The cold weather has caught up with us, it was -15 C last night. The Danube, Lake Balaton and all other waters are frozen solid, time for ice skating!

Budapest has several outdoors ice rinks, the biggest and nicest is Műjégpálya at the city park. The artificial ice rink and the main building have recently been fully renovated. It is open every day in the morning and in the afternoon (closed at lunch time) and you can rent skates or sign up for classes. I prefer weekday mornings, it is a lot more relaxed when the teenage kids are at school and not playing tag at 90 miles/hour. You will notice some elderly people doing pro dance moves, these pensioners are a delight to watch, but the music leaves a lot to be desired.

By prepchik07

You can find several other smaller rinks in the city and many schools turn their football pitch to an ice rink for a few weeks. We visited Lake Omszk this morning, it is a few kilometres north of Budapest, a former gravel pit turned into a recreational area. The lake is totally frozen and there were lots of happy people skating, playing hockey or just sliding around. Lots of happy doggies too! Can you see the dad with the pushchair in the middle of the lake? You can see James and our toddler there too.

If you fancy skiing you just need to get over to the Buda hills and bus no. 21 will take you to Normafa, where you can find 7 ski slopes! Not exactly the Alps, but very convenient.  Most people will sledge down, then take the bus up again, drink some mulled wine, or pálinka, have a rétes and off again! Great fun!

by Zsolt Bugarszki

Sledging you can do almost anywhere on the Buda side, there are hills everywhere! The best slopes are around the Normafa, Sas Hegy and the Hármashatárhegy. Wheeeee!