the new world of Mandala Day Spa!

Good to know
Explored the Castle? Marveled at the Parliament? Admired Heroes’
Square? If you’ve come to the point of feeling kind of been-theredone-that,
our revamped sights-series will become your new best
friend and travel companion. Starting right now, we’ll lead you to a
new and yet to-be-discovered part of the city every fortnight and
tell you all there is to know. Where to get your culture fix? Where to
dance through the night? Where to stuff your face? All your questions
will be answered!
56-OSOK TERE
Now, what’s that weird-looking
disc? Well, it’s actually the wheel
of time: it takes exactly one year
for the 4.5 cubic meters of glass
granules to trickle down in the
sand-glass. And that statue made
up from metal pillars? That one
was erected on the 50th anniversary
of the revolution of ’56 (also
the time the square’s name was
changed to its current one): pillars
standing closer and closer to form
a wedge – this is how the Magyars
joined and eventually overthrew
communist power! Quite a change
for this square – before the regime
change, it used to host party
events and marches of ginormous
scale! Oh, and a larger-than-life
Stalin statue used to stand here
too – felled in the heat of the ’56
revolution. Only Stalin’s boots remained
on the pedestal – popular
speech referred to the square as
‘boots square’ for some time afterwards…
THE ZOO
It may be cheesy but it works:
strolling round the zoo hand in
hand, aaaaaw-ing at the cute
wombats, your hands meeting
on the fl uffy back of a baby
sheep at the petting zoo… pure
romance! And let’s not forget
about the exceptionally beautiful
Art Nouveau architecture
that makes a walk in the zoo
such a great experience. To
make the inhabitants of the
Elephant House, probably the
most notable of all buildings in
the zoo, feel at home, the architects
incorporated African
and Indian elements into their
design. And oh, those colorful
glass windows, eosin-glazed
tiles and animal statues, all
products of the famous Zsolnay
porcelain manufacture.
There’s even a tiny minaret to
enhance the Eastern feel…
First Steps
MUSEUM OF TRANSPORT
If you want to see your man
turning into an excited little
boy, drop by the Museum of
Transport – he will be thrilled by
all those old-school cars and
locomotives (the museum’s locomotive
model exhibition on
a 1:5 scale is unrivalled in Europe
to this day)! The museum
was built for the millennium
exhibitions of 1896 according
to the plans of architect Ferenc
Pfaff. Today it presents the
history of Hungarian locomotive-,
motor-, urban and water
traffi c. It’s worthwhile to make
a detour to Petőfi Csarnok as
well, just a stone throw away,
to get a peak of Magyars in the
air – including the space cabin
of the fi rst (and so far only)
Hungarian astronaut, Bertalan
Farkas.
BUDAPEST FUNZINE 9