If you are fed up with paying 100% tax on minimum wage, here is a legal way to save a bundle. The Hungarian State allows an employer to pay its employees with several kinds of gift certificates that cover everything from hot or cold food, to theater tickets, to bus passes, and more. And they are tax free! OK, you have to pay VAT and a handling fee, but it is still less than income tax on the same amount.Read more »

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"If you want to fly like an eagle, don't let the turkeys get you down." Anyone letting the turkeys get them down today need only stop at the traffic lights at Oktogon (walking or biking preferred) in front of MCDonalds going towards Nyugati. Wait for the lights to change and you will be cheered by a lovely surprise. It kept me smiling and laughing all week. Hear tell, there is another one at Deak ter somewhere. Read more »

I first heard Alistair Cooke’s radio broadcasts very late in life, on the BBC over short-wave radio while working on an organic goat farm in the Netherlands. Late at night there was not much to do except watch football, smoke and drink whiskey – none of which were really of much interest. But Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America was something different. Cooke, originally from Manchester, England broadcast his insightful, biting and human, funny and solemn cultural feature from America on the BBC for 58 years until his death in 2004. Read more »

please note: I compiled this info a couple years ago, and things may have changed. Please call or check on the interenet first to confirm their open hours.If they do not have organic Fair Trade coffee and tea - please point them to Treehugger Dan's!Read more »

Tired of the same old-same old for Easter dinner? Not only can you get  horse sausage and Mangalica at Tomi the Butcher's at Hunyadi ter Market,  but you can also get "fustolt ferj - csont nelkuli!" (smoked husband - without the bone) for just 499/kg!

Someone has been leaving plush toy bunny rabbits around Mecset u. in Buda. They have been spotted last night under the wheels of a BMW, and by a parking meter. If you are not in search of bunnies in Buda, there is still the tomb and rose garden of Gul Babab, a Turkish poet and mystic, at the end of the street with a lovely view. A good place to get some fresh air, walk your dog, or just see one of the only remnants of Turkish occupation left in Hungary. This tomb is the northernmost place of pilgrimage for Muslims. Gul Baba is credted with introducing roses to the country.

I was feeling miserable with flu, like shit put in a microwave, but since I had already reserved a table with friends, I decided to tough it out and go to BUDSUCS' Stand-up comedy night. Read more »

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
By William McDonough and Michael Braungart
Published by the North Point Press, 193 pages

By focusing on design, Cradle to Cradle attempts to steer environmental debate about end-of-pipe solutions into a constructive re-conceptualisation of the way we think about the environment – largely by focusing on manmade products and their often destructive interaction with ecosystems.
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It is far too easy to complain about the state of things in Hungary, and far too many blogs and sites focus on the negative. This blog will concentrate on positive stories, book reviews, and environmental/social justice information relevant to the expat community in Hungary, and particularly those that frequent Treehugger Dan's Bookstore Cafe.