Budapest Catalogue

Budapest Catalogue will show you faces, stories, people’s lives or just simple moments. Their dreams, hopes, sometimes their tragedies. Some of them are longer and some are short ones. Budapest is full of colours, just as much as its inhabitants and...

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Adrienn | Keleti Railway Station

„I am a kindergarten teacher. I started working in the countryside in a dead-end village, and I saw some curious cases, indeed. It happened that they threatened me not to try to educate the children or why I do it in such way. The situation in Budapest is different. I experienced here that there are many children with attention deficit or children who cannot play, they get a ball and they do not know what to do with it. I think it could be because the parents do not pay attention to them that much because they do not have much time, of course. They put them in front of the television or another technical device and it is not good. In there, we play a lot, we try to be really creative, and we brainstorm what we can build or what to draw. We have a different task every day.” “When do you feel that the day was a success?” “I love what I do, I adore kids. It is great when I do not have a lot of paperwork and I can really be with the kids.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi /

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Gábor | Erkel street

„My mother was a teacher and my father was a soldier and a revolutionist in 1956. My mother divorced him in 1961 when my father was in prison, according to him she was involved in the company of Pál Maléter and my lovely mother traded my father’s flat for a crappy rented flat and 24 thousand forints. He got married again in 1964. I moved to him in 1971, but I did not get on with her wife then, so I had to go to an institution, after that I tramped all around the country for years, I picked up girls, and made MÁV debt galore, I suffered from the consequences for years afterwards. I have been painting since 1979 whenever I have been able to. I needed 20 years to acquire the professional tricks and to form my own world view. Last year at the place where I live I got a workshop, I have the opportunity to paint in a kitchen that is not in use. I had exhibitions before the system change; in the last few years, I only had exhibitions with others; otherwise I get awards at art tenders regularly. I have written poetry since 2006 and I try translating poetry from English. Poe and Shakespeare are both on the menu, The Raven among others, although I am not satisfied with it, it is almost impossible to translate it adequately, as it can be seen from the number of the already existing translations…” “What are you most proud of?” “I am most proud of being human, and that I can do what I am interested in, what I like, what I cannot live without.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Benedek | Jurányi Ház

„I am not a motorcycle mechanic, although I am interested in what is inside but I am mainly interested in the looks. It all started with this beauty that I am sitting on right now. Riding the bike is cool, isn’t it; and after a while fixed gear became boring. I didn’t find such a bike that I really liked so I put together one for myself. Before that, I rode a BMX, quite well, so I kind of do it since I am conscious. I spent two years in the USA, where we toured the whole country with a circus, we performed in every stadium which could accommodate twenty thousand people.” “What did you have to do in the performance?” “I had to do flips. I had to jump five times and the point was to make the last one a backflip.” “How do you start practicing a series of movements like that?” “Well, my timing was not the best, because now, for example it is easy: here are these foam pits, whatever you do, you land on something soft. Back then, this didn’t exist. You cannot really practice this. You talk to people who have already done this, you think over what it could be, how to pull your body, how to move, and such things. And once you manage.” “What was the most extreme case?” “There isn’t such thing as the most extreme case. Basically you wake up in a train in the morning because we lived in a train, which is like a kilometre long so everything and everybody, all 350 people would have enough space and you do flips to entertain people for a lot of money.” “How did it feel about getting back to Budapest?” The funny thing is, what I’ve just realised is that when it all started I was at the Sziget Festival when I got the phone call that I could go. And when I came back two years later, it was the third or fourth day of Sziget, and of course I went straight there.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi /

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Miklós | Nyugati pályaudvar

„I am fond of energetic things, and punk is such. I listen to real punk music, but really real and especially classics; for example Exploited. There must be talents here in Hungary too, but as I examined they are drawn to certain sides and that doesn’t work for me, they aren’t even tough enough for me, I guess. We used to have our own band, the monster, called Shitpump, but it was likeable.” “What is the most important for you as a punk?” “The most important thing for punk is never to be satisfied, it has to find a mistake in everything otherwise we could not go further, that is the most important.”

/photo:  Mátyás Szöllősi /

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Fanni | Astoria

„Seriously, what can a small child do when they are teleported somewhere? I was born here in Vas Street, but suddenly I found myself at Lake Balaton. My parents carried me like I was a suitcase. But I do not complain, of course, because it is not that bad to start the day at the beach, and it is said that men’s lives are easier in a humid air so that is why my parents, indeed my father, decided that we moved there.” “What do you do?” “I take care of my grandmother mostly, she is 93 years old. Poor soul, she cannot really get out of bed alone. We talk a lot. I ask her about her work because she is happy to tell me about that. She was an editor for 40 years. Once she told me to sit down, and said she would tell me her life-story. She talked and talked, and after a while she said: “It was enough, go home.” I asked her: “Where to go? I live here.” She forgot meanwhile that I live with her, too. The next day she said that she skipped 30 years from the story, so she should continue from then.” “And did she?” “Yes, she did. With one sentence: we lived in a block of flats.” (laugh) “Your outfit is exciting. What does it symbolize?” “That I am against Chernobyl. I mean, against radioactivity. I do not really like it. And that I am interested in so many things. Maybe too many, that is my “problem”. I love walking in the city, I’ve just walked along Múzeum körút and it was so great.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Ágnes | Móricz Zsigmond circus

„Originally, I am not from Budapest, I graduated in Pécel two years ago. I am going to apply to the University of Medicine now but I thought that before that it is useful to spend at least a half year abroad so I went to Denmark. I lived at my acquaintances’ place, they were there with a scholarship. I met really different people there; German, Dutch, Norwegian and American people, it was a very useful and very unique experience. Education is free in Denmark and it is very good that once you get your degree you can even get a very good scholarship.” “Are you planning to move there or maybe work there?” “On the contrary of this, I think I will work in Hungary. I want to be a dentist, to be more precise I want to deal with orthodontics, I think it is a very important issue. I was lucky, I had a dentist for years who saw that I am interested in this very much and after a while he let me stay there. He explained a lot of things, he showed me the equipment and introduced a lot of useful things to me. I feel that you can make a living in Hungary too, if you are good at what you do. But of course, I can imagine myself living in another country.”

/fotó: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Ünige | Práter street 29/B

„I studied art history but what I am really interested in is architecture. I like old buildings, I feel that all of them has its unique story, its own spirit. They are creatures with a thousand eyes that come to life by the stories that are told by its residents. This building in Práter Street is similar. For me, it is like an elderly gentleman, he still has his elegant cufflinks but his clothing could do with some renovation. And its residents do everything to make it liveable. I consider BP100 a very good initiative because it shows such side of Budapest that we cannot see every day.  It does not only remind us to old times through one-hundred-year old buildings but it is also a socio-trip that confronts us with who we live with and how in this huge city. That is exactly what I enjoy in it. It is a work together with the residents, organisers, volunteers and of course the visitors, who spend a whole weekend by walking into old houses, climbing stairs, looking into all the cellars and at the end of the day they drink raspberry syrup on the macadam pavement of one of the houses. I have been part of this project for three years now. Two devoted survey organisers came to one of my university seminars and they throw us with a lot of enthusiasm into the endless depths of the hundred-year-old houses. I enjoyed it very much. I saw the contours of a totally different world when we were doing research on the houses and residents of the old Budapest. The ruined buildings came to life, the urban legends woke up, and we see a different face and different beautiful facades of the city. The residents are also very enthusiastic and direct. They baked cakes for us, they

/fotó: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Barna | Rákóczi road 74.

„I was a teacher and I began in the Institute of Criminal Psychology. This was a special institution, the home for children having problems. Soon I was promoted to be the director, my task was to get all the eighty children into school so they would get an education. I dedicated my whole life to pedagogy and I could tell you a thousand things but that would last until the evening. The house where we are now was built exactly a hundred years ago, originally its purpose was to have shops in it. The Divatcsarnok (Fashion Hall) was here in the 1920s-30s. Then in 1956, when the Russians came, they started shooting the building in number 70 into ruins, and the part of this building which was inside, a wing of it was burnt down by the fire-bombs so it was demolished also. Then from the 1960s it was the place for Otthon Áruház (Home Department Store).

On the 4th November when the Russians came in and invaded the area around Keleti (Eastern Railway Station), then started shooting, a group of people at Astoria attacked them from here, so we were being shot at, too. The ground floor was interesting because when a fire-bomb came we extinguished it immediately. But, as I said they did not only come to the ground floor but upstairs too. And slowly the floors started to burn, too. On November 7th, the refugees, around forty people and the residents of the house were down there in the cellar. We slept on the bedsheets of the department store. I brought food from the house in number 72, there was a buffet before. Then we had to flee in the direction of the hospital because the situation became dangerous in the house so we could not stay there. We heard a series of shots, one man fell at once. By the time my wife said something, she got shot too. I got a bullet also, it went into my lungs. I got a lung shot. I got pleurisy but I hardly remember what happened after that because I lost consciousness, I was pulled into the hospital in Péterfy Sándor Street. I was operated there after some difficulties. Then four days later the patients who could move, were taken to the upper floor but I stayed there because they told my wife that I was going to die. My family was moved to Buda, it was safer there, only my wife came to take care of me until I could move. Unfortunately the bones heeled poorly and when I move I feel a pressure where the bullet went in, and I will feel it for the rest of my life.”

/fotó: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Eszter | Bródy Sándor street

„I saw it in an advertisement that I can join the team of Budapest100 as a volunteer, and I was very glad. I study sport organising, and although it is not very sporty, I was and is very interested in this thing; I thought I can help, I can add to this whole thing. Unfortunately, the house in Népszínház Street where I first applied for did not open at the end but then they wrote to me that they need somebody here, so I got to Bródy Sándor Street. It was good to see how many people are interested, from the really small ones who may have never seen these buildings from the inside to the elderly who return, everybody was amazed by the houses.” “What tasks did you have?” “There was a local history walk on Saturday morning, for example, I led that in this street but I also helped anyone who came into the house, of course, I told them what I know. I led a group around the house to tell about it on Sunday morning.” “Do you often do volunteer work?” “Yes, I have been doing it for a while, I’ve been to several places. It is very good experience for event organising and things I would like to do.”

/photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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László | Teleki square 5.

„I am a Jewish Studies teacher, I got my degree in 1994, but I taught mostly privately. I had a lot of private students, I went to all parts of the country, to the most different places. I did this for about ten years, because after that there was not a student who would have paid for that, unfortunately, most of them wanted me to teach them for free. There were several students who I taught for free, of course, because of my enthusiasm, or because they were especially susceptible for the topic. Besides this, I am a cantor at funerals because I went to rabbi training in the 80s when the joint training started, there was an opportunity to visit the lessons of the rabbi training, too. I enrolled to the pedagogy major in 1990 and I graduated from there, at the end. Tamás Raj was one of the teachers there, I know him from the church here in Teleki Square, and of course from Nagyfuvaros Street where I have also been reading the Torah and pre-prayed since 1985. I work in three different churches presently. In Teleki Square 22 on Saturday mornings, in 22 Nagyfuvaros Street on weekdays and Saturday afternoon, and in Nagykőrös during the big holidays in autumn.” “How long have you lived in this house?” “Since I was born, so 1957. I am the fifth in line, there are four other people who have lived here longer than I did. There are two sisters living in the second floor, they are close to being 90 years old, the have lived here for the longest time. When you look down to the yard, you can see that the floor is darker in some areas; the reason is that there was a synagogue here inside the house. We went there to pray at the beginning of the 60s, but as it was used only by a few people so it was demolished. The remains can still be seen.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Tibor | Herzl Tivadar square

„If you ask me about my life, I have to tell you: my fate is a traditional Central-Eastern European one. When the Germans marched in Budapest in 1944, in two days I was arrested, I was taken to Bácstopolya, which was a kind of transit concentration camp. There were Serbian people who were suspected to be partisans, Jewish people, left-wingers, many kinds of people; and do not ask me, why I was arrested, because nobody has ever told me that ever since. It happened in June in Szeged, that they moved all the Jewish people to one place, it meant more or less 15-16 thousand people. But of course, people from all over the gendarmerie area were collected. The first train went to Auschwitz, my mother and my nine-year-old sister were taken by this train, they never came back from there. As I learnt later, when I tried to find them, they were both gassed immediately. We were taken back to Szeged, it hasn’t got much to do with reality, but I feel the remorse up to this day that I stayed alive but they died. We got into the second train that left, it was also directed to Auschwitz, but it was turned back at Felsőzsolca, and we got to Austria finally through the railway station in Józsfváros. This railway station was not far from Vienna, only 20 kilometres. From here, I got close to Heiligenkreuz, into a little village, where I worked on logging for 9 months, it was considered a kind of slave labour. It is important that the Austrian people who lived here were very nice humanly; the work headman treated us fairly well, the people helped if they could. The hard thing was that we did not have any warm clothes for winter; I had a pair of small wooden shoes, I remember, I had to work in them.” “What direction did your life take when you returned?” “I finished grammar school in Szeged with very decent results. Then I was in the army: this Eastern-European fate is like this, unfortunately, that one has to live in the shadow of politics all the time. Then I went to the officer candidate school, and before the inauguration, I was blamed to have taken part in a Zionist movement and I was removed from the army. Then I got to Csepel, into the metallurgical plant, I worked there for a long time, then I got into cultural life, and I was nominated to be the director of the Workers’ Home in Csepel. It still operates today, that gives me pleasure, they invite me to their programs, and they count on me, which is a good feeling. I finished a university while doing three shifts. I worked in the book business: I was elected to the head of the Hungarian Publishers’ and Book Distributors’ Association. I think I did something for this profession, or at least I have always been trying.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Attila | Margit round 64

„I have lived here for almost five years now, I moved here during my high school years, because it was easier to go to school from here. The flat here is my sister’s, but she already has her own family, so now only I live here. The community in the house is really great; it happened not only once that we got together in the courtyard and we had a little picnic, we had very good conversations, every occasion like that was really great. Famous people also live in the house, for example Dezső Váli, the painter, who has a very well planned schedule, and he always keeps it. He is an extremely kind person, by the way and he is also an active member of the community.” “You have a unique hobby, don’t you?” “I have been fond of Lego since I was a little kid. Practically, I was raised into this, as my older brother had a huge collection that I got from him later. I was interested in constructing, and in building things for myself. Then there was a longer pause, then I found my way back to this passion, of course, as an adult; first of all it means that I do not only buy sets but individual parts also; and I build in such way. The most interesting about Lego that it has so many building styles. It also means, of course, that there are as many styles as people playing with it but in Lego itself there are many styles too. There is city building, there are sci-fi topics, several versions.” “What was the most complex thing that you have built?” “Now, the figure that is about 60 centimetres tall. It contains more or less 5-600 pieces. He is my biggest figurine, Goliath; he is the record holder with his size, I built him well, so he can hold himself. He is an experimental piece, so he is not perfect.” “How old is the Lego?” “Lego is a Danish company, which first produced wooden toys. They found this solution accidentally, because one of their older blocks burnt down and they needed a new material because wood was terribly expensive then. Then it came, that they try plastic, and this is how the thing, that everybody knows, started. The name of the company comes from the Danish expression ‘Leg got’, which means ‘play good’.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Géza | Práter street 29/B

„Our house was built to be a building of the post; when it was finished, the employees of the post office lived in it. There are other houses like this in the area, and when you go along Üllői Road outwards from the city, you can recognise these four-storey buildings with their green, lattice windows and doors. I lived already nearby after the war, also in Práter Street, in a house with lift, that we, children never used, of course. I took the stairs by threes up and down, when we rushed from one place to another, constantly. The small, one-storey buildings were typical at the time, and if one car or any kind of vehicle, a Csepel truck went by, it was a great thing then. Mostly carts pulled by big, Muraköz horses went by. Cool guys lived in the neighbourhood, they stood up for their truth. Of course, it happened that we climbed the back of the cart and we took a couple of treats, but only food, and what we needed, or just to tease the person delivering them. Well, we were big rascals. At the corner of Tömő and Szigony Streets, there were horse shoeing smiths, for example, so it was a different world really, than it is now.” “You mentioned that you had been in touch with the people around here before you moved here.” “Yes, I was a regular already in 1948-49 because I came here often; a very cute little girl lived in one of the upper floors, we went to the same school, and I always ticked after her. I carried her bag, I brought it to the gate, then I gave her a kiss on the cheek on he left and on the right, and as it was a back staircase, and her parents let me go in. We came here to play war of numbers, and the one whose number was read had to give a forfeit that had to be earned back. It sometimes happened that up to 15-20 children got together to play here.” “I guess you were in the middle of the events in 1956.” “Yes, the 8th district was one of the centres. One of the accommodations of the rebels was here in the school in Práter Street, and the Kilián military base is nearby, so things were busy here. I remember, a shot guy was brought here on a truck that was open all sides, they put him down near here, they covered him with the national flag, and then the skirmish began. The guys took a 57 mm weapon from the military base or somewhere like that. It was very big, and they shot the tanks coming from Nagyvárad square all along Üllői Road with that. Somebody stood next to the road and gave a sign when the tank was in the right lane. There was a terrible roughhouse, the buildings were more or lass the same as now, and I remember that dead bodies were piled up like wood after a few days. Poor souls had nowhere to be taken to.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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István | Szilágyi street

„This is the Reményi Ede Gipsy Music Association, which includes the active gipsy musicians of the district (Józsefváros). As part of this, we deal with playing music, helping the beginners, and making musical instruments in an amateur way. I was a first violinist for 35 years, myself, but I thought that it would be worth dealing with the musical instruments in a different way. We only make string instruments, such kinds that are used in our orchestras by our young talents.” “So is this mostly for young people?” “Yes, indeed for them. I mentioned that we do not make our violins, violas and basses in a professional way, we get them half ready, most of the time from Transylvania, and then we work on them. It is good when a young guy can get an instrument that he can use to practice and train himself.” “You mentioned that you were a first violinist for 35 years.” “Yes, I had a music store nearby, in the Népszínház Street. Meanwhile I played constantly. But not only in Hungary, but abroad also. We toured Europe, I played music in Poland for two years continuously. But we went to the Netherlands, Finland, many places. The culture is a good connecting medium, isn’t it? And we played Hungarian gypsy music! Once it happened in Italy, in a very nice place, when a Hungarian woman who lived there came to me and said that these people here are Italian. I told her, okay. After a few minutes, she came again that they here were the Italians. I told her again, okay and I am a Hungarian gypsy. I knew that she suggested that she thought they wanted to hear something different, maybe Italian music. When she came to me for the third time I asked her: What did you cook for dinner? She said beef stew with barley. So, then that’s it. Our task there was to represent Hungarian culture. It is also sad that if you go to a Hungarian restaurant in Hungary, you cannot hear such music, just American and who knows what else.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Péter | Blaha Lujza square

“It happened five years ago that we were driving to Balassagyarmat with my wife, the weather was similar to this, foggy and slushy. We were turning and a big IFA truck came opposite us. Its trailer brushed us away from the road. We turned upside down immediately. I was lucky, because the guy stopped and took me out of the car.” “And your wife?” “She died at once. I started to have problems with my spine. The person who caused it gave me a significant amount, that’s what we agreed in.” “And how is it possible that you found yourself on the street?” “I gave most of the money to my children. They went abroad and promised that they would help me join them, that they would organise everything. To be honest, they f…ked me. We had a land, as big as it is from the bus stop to here, with animals, but everything was gone, or, well I sold them as I could not do that anymore. Now, I either live in the shelter or in the street. I usually beg if I do not have money, I cannot really do anything else.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Réka | Kis Diófa street

„I have been paying attention to Heti Betevő and similar food sharing initiatives since the beginning. This was the first time that I joined them as a volunteer. It has always disturbed me that there is a contrast in Budapest: there is an evolving trendy image and there is the sight of those who are swept aside, the ones who cannot keep up and the poverty in the big city. I spent last spring in Berlin thanks to a media scholarship, I got a lot of inspiration and motivation. I got to know the food sharing movement also there and I decided to initiate the creation of an overall food sharing platform in Hungary, too. It seems that there are some partners. The aim of the movement is to stop the food waste as it reached extreme quantities and to use the excess food in a rationalized way. Germans started with attitude forming actions in 2011, and now they are operating a nationwide platform so the extra food from households and supermarkets which are still useful and valuable but cannot be sold reaches the people who need that. They do not manage a food bank, but help that the extra food finds the people who need it. They installed food sharing fridges close to markets, in shops, anybody can put food in them. The system is based on trust, volunteers help its sustainable operation. It would be great to make the food sharing art of everyday life, not only the food donations. There are some food boxes in the countryside already.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/

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Réka, Boróka, Berni, Noja, Dorottya, Emese, Fecó and Zoli | Bárczy István street (Silly walking day flashmob)

„We come from the Reformed Grammar School in Lónyay Street, we are in 10th grade and of course this is one of the best classes in the school (big smile). We heard about the event from the radio and the social sites and we thought about taking part in it as a relaxation.” “How demanding was it?” “It was not easy, by the way. If you wanted to do it properly and fairly to walk in such a silly way. We tried to create some movement together, but we didn’t really manage, one lurched this way the other the other way…” “Have you thought about organising a similar event?” “We haven’t thought about that so far, but that would fit us, to be ourselves, so it is time for Lónyay to organise a good flash mob.” /photo: Mátyás Szöllősi/