The nightlife scene in Hungary

There are the ruin pubs all around Kiraly Utca.

Funny, guess we don't have too many party animals on this site.
7th district is full of ruin pubs, went to one a few years ago with another couple,no biggie, just a bunch of junk hanging all around with old ripped up chairs dirty WC's and people who believed they were "happening".
I am just an old lady now, my party dayz are over not because I can't keep up but more like I've been there and we did it better in my day.
Personally I think they should of made a new venue inside the city park where the noise wouldn't bother the residents too much and they could have live bands playing. Much more interesting to have live music then just hear the roar of drunks and some crappy DJ music if they even have that at these pubs.
I know in the US they would be illegal because they would never pass the safety or health regulations.
In the 1960's even though it was communist, Budapest was much more "happening" then now. Young people joined private clubs where you could hear live bands, dance, drink and show off your latest Mod  outfits. Now anyone with a few bucks and a pair of flip-flops can party on,,, Sad really sad that ruin pubs pass as a "groovy hip joint".
My old neighbor in Ca used to tell me all about when she was young and dating her husband in LA, Ca in the 1930's. The clubs used to have slides that went from the sidewalk to underground where the juke joints had live Jazz music till the early dawn.
My old SIL's father was a Sax player in a Jazz band in the 30's, the real deal. Kids these days have no clue what the past used to be like, even in the 1940's my mom was a jitterbug queen. Now just drinking in a dump passes as fun, really sad.
In "my day" the Rainbow Room, The Whiskey A-Go-Go Barney's Beanery, and my fave, The Starwood where places people went to party, of course you had to dress for the part.  The Valley had clubs like FM Station and the Baked Potato was a real live fantastic jazz club. The Palomino was another fab valley club for dancing and live music. Can check these out on U Tube, allot more fun then just staring at another drunk slugging down a pint.
16 years back or so here in Budapest my son used to go clubbing almost every night for a year.They dressed up and danced to Techno music all night long, no dancing equals no fun in my book.
We were great friends with the house band at Starwood in the early 70's, CM Lord, a funk band.
We even babysat for the bi-racial couple sometimes when they had gigs at other clubs and couldn't find a sitter. They never really made the big time but the singer and the band would just rock the entire club, her voice was so powerful.
Heard the Budapest Park area in the 9th has some live music places. Years back we went on a boat down the Danube that was a party boat, live rock band playing with a bar in the back of the boat,it was fun actually. Millenaris in Buda had live music and full bar. Not sure it's still open or not.
Oh well, guess in the end a pint and a hangover are what most people think is a good time out.

Several years back we did go out on a Sat. night to the ,"Old Man's Pub" in the 7th.
They had a good live band playing a bar but we didn't know it was also a dinner house. Steaks and such and not very reasonable priced either. We weren't the slightest bit hungry so we were not about to order food. To get a table to sit at and enjoy the music one had to order dinner. We did get a table and seat but didn't stay long enough to find out if they wold make us move for not ordering food.
Wasn't in the mood to stand up at the bar all night long.
Went to the city park on a summers evening a couple summers back with 2 friends at the old beer tent that used to be set up in the city park.
They had live music several nights a week food that wasn't over priced and a full bar.Room enough to dance too.
My friend and I danced to the beats of Creedence for a good amount of time. Couldn't walk for about a month afterwards since my knees no longer like to dance.
Was fun, beer tent is long gone now, not sure why they took it down, it was there for many summers and was always full of people.

Yes i think there is not many party people on this site! He hee.

Even me i moved here at 35 and honestly even then most of my party days were already done by then. I went to clubs and partied from the time i was like 14 so now in my late 30s the appeal of all this is a bit over.

I mean i think anyone enjoys a nice place but the who nightlife thing, blah.

I used to really enjoy going to Irish Pubs, and hear Celtic music and that sort of thing with people singing and that was one thing i do miss.

And a good martini bar would be really good.

But honestly this "ruin bar" thing is something i do not think is cool would when i was younger or any time. I mean ruin? That is not a positive word for anything. Then i have gone to a few of them and they are just nasty!

FeliciaOni wrote:

But honestly this "ruin bar" thing

15 or 20 years ago, they were quite in vogue. A hack on the post communist period. They were an experience. Sort of a nose-thumb at the PTB and recent history.

But.... I can not believe they still exist. For all the reasons, and others, you mentioned. The real vibe is gone. It is over. People need to grow up.  They are today nothing but a tourist trap and anachronism pretending to be something that is now long gone.

Seriously. There is a difference between a real classic "ruin bar", which should have seen its high days about a decade ago, a "phony" ruin bar that just copies the "concept" but does so badly, and a nicely renovated space that shows the "eccentricities" of the building. I have had many a wine tasting in a well renovated cellar that exposes the original rock or brick work of that structure. But all done in good taste. People, tourists and society in general really needs to grow up eventually. Hungary seems to be taking longer than necessary in some cases. Sad.

FeliciaOni wrote:

And a good martini bar would be really good.

I am in search of a really, really good Margarita myself. 

Hungary. Germany. Switzerland. Austria. Sampled Margaritas in them all. Still searching.

Maybe I need to go to Spain. Any suggestions?

Yes, my parents did enough "partying" when I was growing up that the appeal never really interested me as much as my sister or friends.
She , my sister was  known all over LA, she clubbed 6 days a week, not even sure how she got up to go to work in the mornings.
She even went to the Viper Room when it first opened up, too many people who thought they were "someone" going there so she quit that place.
Just last week I decided to walk all the way home from the HU SS office, my husband joined me for a long walk home.
We passed underground and I noticed one of those old Kochma( spelling) pubs where hard core locals drink. Only one person inside and the waitress, I just had to have a cold beer.That was a real,"ruin bar" feeling.
At 15 my sisters husband was managing several local LA bands and booking them into clubs.
When I would spend time at their place I would go with them to these "adult" clubs.
My sister would slather my face with makeup, draw darker circles under my young eyes etc. so I would pass for 21, wore her clothing too.
Never drank just a soda.

Funny though that Felicia should mention her party days as over with at 35.
Mine were done at 18 for the most part.
Guess I am a homebody even though I've often been thrown into going out.
Used to go to the Starwood in Hollywood when I was 17. Was such a regular that the doorman just let us in without even bothering to check ID's.It was a great place to go hear live music and dance.
It was a over 21 club but back then I used my sisters college ID card, an expired card to get in.Those were the "good ol 'days" when we could get away with murder.
Turned 18 and got my own apt. just outside of Hollywood.
Decided one night to go to the Starwood by myself just for old times sake.
Sat down, ordered a drink and just looked around the room.
It  just didn't sit right with me any longer, just bored me to death and seemed so empty with everyone pulling a hussle or trying to pick someone up.
I left after my drink was done and never went back until I was with my husband and sister and friends.
Going out alone is creepy to me, your eyes are fully awake since you must be on guard when alone. No fun at all really, decided that clubbing was boring , still went out over the years with my husband maybe every couple of Sat. nights or so but it never was anything I was over excited about doing. Mostly enjoy hearing a live band play. No way can anyone talk in a noisy bar. Just not my thing at all.
Would rather take a nice day trip with people somewhere or sit at home with music I like and get to know people one on one without a noisy crowd around.
I am 180 degrees different then my older sister was. I swear no one would believe the stories she told about who she met, who she partied with and who she sometimes hung out with.
Would seem either like I was bragging or making it up. Doesn't matter though it's all true, no one could make this stuff up.
No one would believe she partied with Hendrix in Laurel  Canyon when he rented a house up there, no one would believe she had a drink at the Whiskey with Jim Morrison( said he was nuts) Met Keith Moon( also super nuts), list goes on and on.
She burnt the candle at both ends as the expression goes.
Never thought it was all that exciting to meet these sorts of people, rather scary I would think really.
Guess I'm a nerd after all, love just sitting at home with a nice glass of wine and chillin'.
My husband had memberships to many clubs in Budapest in the 60's. They all were private run clubs back then and you had to pay to join the club.
Lots of dancing, real dancing like Bee Bop style in couples.
He used to go to several different clubs a night if his friends weren't at one club then they were at another.
So many crazy tales he has about dress codes etc. He was a Mod with long hair and a few clubs up in Buda wouldn't allow long hair's inside. They would walk over to the river and slick their long hair down and back with water and get into the clubs, their hair would dry and the management never bothered them because they were spending on booze and the girl's came to dance and they all danced with the girls, sounds like Budapest was a blast to be young in back then.
Even so with all his friends and memberships after a certain point my husband said the same thing as I do. He just got bored with it all.Maybe that's what they mean by,"growing up" most of these places are pick up joints so not really for couples.
Oh well, I digress...
If I were a tourist I think I'd do what I used to do as a tourist.
Go out to dinner, take a nice walk in a good area and see the sights.maybe go to a cultural thing like a evening dinner with floor show of folk dancers or folk music and singing.
A nice dinner boat ride on the river, things that do cost money.
Those ruin bars seem to be geared for the college aged low budget cheap wood-bench Wizz Air types.
The "backpack" crowd if you will.I'd rather not go out or go anywhere if I had to lug my life around on my back. Just old school, all or nothing.
All good I suppose, just can't relate to them. I was a mom at 21 and had no time to go boozing in bars like I see people doing now who look older then 21.
Guess I am boring or just over it all.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Funny though that Felicia should mention her party days as over with at 35.
Mine were done at 18 for the most part.
Guess I am a homebody even though I've often been thrown into going out.
Used to go to the Starwood in Hollywood when I was 17. Was such a regular that the doorman just let us in without even bothering to check ID's.It was a great place to go hear live music and dance.
It was a over 21 club but back then I used my sisters college ID card, an expired card to get in.Those were the "good ol 'days" when we could get away with murder.
Turned 18 and got my own apt. just outside of Hollywood.
Decided one night to go to the Starwood by myself just for old times sake.
Sat down, ordered a drink and just looked around the room.
It  just didn't sit right with me any longer, just bored me to death and seemed so empty with everyone pulling a hussle or trying to pick someone up.
I left after my drink was done and never went back until .....
Those ruin bars seem to be geared for the college aged low budget cheap wood-bench Wizz Air types.
The "backpack" crowd if you will.I'd rather not go out or go anywhere if I had to lug my life around on my back. Just old school, all or nothing.
All good I suppose, just can't relate to them. I was a mom at 21 and had no time to go boozing in bars like I see people doing now who look older then 21.
Guess I am boring or just over it all.

As soon as you have kids, the world changes and one has responsibilities. 

If it's one kid, then it's intense interaction with that kid, second one less so and third one, meh, more like let them get on with it.   

I went to a club when I was about 28 (long time ago) and I felt positively ancient.  For single people over about 28, where do they go to meet people? 

One of my relatives is in his 40s and went to a (modern) music festival this summer. He's been going to them for years but this time, he said he was very out of place and decided he wouldn't go to again.    We keep saying he should find someone on the Internet but I think he sees that as failure.

My son met his current wife on the internet, guess he was about 34 when he did that.
I mentioned before he met and married a "crazy" and I mean it, crazy half Hungarian first wife. Her father was a Gypsy guy, my son said he was really nice, was a cabbie here in Budapest, her mom was some super duper country women that was German. The poor father passed from brain cancer before they wed.
They had money of sorts, a rental apt. in the city, a nice large villa at Balaton that also had a B&B attached to half of the home, vineyard there and a small antique shop at Balaton.
Their home was 3 stories high and nice over in Buda full of nice antique furniture, they had several cars etc.My son even paid rent and all the food when he lived in Buda for a year with her and her mom, even picked up the tab for many vets bills. All of a sudden his wife didn't find the national health dentists to be any good, he paid all her private dental bills etc. Easy to blow through $35,000 in 2001 if you didn't  watch how you spent.He literally had to borrow $50 at the Vegas airport from us after one year with his wife and her mom, picked up 2 casino jobs right away to get himself back in order.In other words, she and her mom had no shame at all.
Even so she was only after money and what my son could do for her.
guess he was only good for a 3 year paid free ride in Hungary, 2 wedding dresses, tons of clothing and designer sunglasses, shoes up the wazzoo, dinner boat rides on the Danube, a week at a spa at balaton, meals all over the city anytime her heart felt like it, a weekly facial treatment at a spa, salsa dance lessons oh, that was before they even married!..
Ok, not going there.
Anyways he learned a hard lesson so devoted almost one year to doing research online to meet a "normal" person of style and class.
Even went to Japan for 2 months to personally screen his 5 or 6 potential wives. Had her visit the US 3 times for up to 90 days before jumping the broom again.
My current DIL is devoted to my son, may not be his "dream girl" of choice as far as looks go but no one could be more devoted to him.
His new wife doesn't even like to go out, hardly even leaves the house, his ex- however knew where to go out in Hungary, the more it cost to go out, the better it was.

MT

What i said was i started partying a lot at age 14 and that ended when i was 25 and 28 totally. So what i was saying that when i moved here i was 35 so my days for going to clubs, bar etc was over for about ten years.

When i was 14 i was a model and i moved alone to Germany and i clubbed and partied a great deal for the 3yrs i lived there. Then when i moved back to USA at about 18 i partied a lot in southern California when i was dating a venture capitalist, god awful person, but then when i moved back to Florida in my early 20s i hit the party, bar scene quite a bit both in my personal life and professional.

So just got tired of it, and when life threw some real difficult things at me this type of stuff lost its appeal.

Like you said once you had spouse, kids things changed which really should be the case with most i think. What is bad is i would go to a club and see some mom that says she has a husband and 3 kids at home and she is on the dance floor all night! Or i had a friend that wanted to see a band play, at the time i was 14 and so was she, i was back in Florida visiting my dad and she wanted to hang out. So i went with her and the lead singer his car broke and he did not want to wake up his wife to come pick him up. He was 28 at the time which i thought was too old to be in a band and doing this crap especially when he was married. My dad was picking my friend and i up and i had him give the guy a ride home to his house as he lived near us. He and i ended up exchanging phone numbers and being friends for several years. He moved to New York right after Sept 11th and we lost touch. Ok right before i moved which was in 2014, we ran into each other. Ok by this time i was 34 and he was 48 and said he was still doing that same stuff! Still married to same woman that he was back then that put up with that crap! He and her had just had a kid their first a few years before then. You would a man and woman married since they were 19 that if she could put up with that everything would be cool right? I guess i knew him a bit better than her, as i told her i felt he was going to leave her. She said, no way if he did the band and party thing all this time and did not why on earth now? A few months later he took the kid and moved to England and dumped her. The min he became a father he was done with the clubs and just turned into a real adult, and since she allowed this stuff before he felt they were not a match anymore!

I mean i enjoy a good time but just in a more mature way i guess.

It would be nice to hear from someone that goes clubbing as i have friends from other parts of Europe that ask me what the nightlife is like in Budapest! They say they only hear about the adult clubs but they ask me about normal places. I honestly do not know as most people only tell me about the adult clubs also.