Forever characterised as two towns dramatically divided by the Danube, Budapest is back at the heart of Europe. This metropolis of ornate spas, opulent hotels & elegant coffee-houses is reliving its glory days as a Habsburg hub. Now, after a century of wars, uprisings & Socialist stasis, the Hungarian capital is gleaming again with luxury options. Away from the five-star hotels along the river & city ring, Budapest is also a-buzz with cultural fire-power & underground energy. While inner-city courtyards bloom as bohemian nightspots for DJs (the same DJs who spin at foam parties in all-night Turkish baths), a high-brow arts agenda thrives in a sumptuous opera house & the prestigious contemporary National Theatre. Gypsy, folk & Balkan styles are regular features on the concert programme. New downtown shopping hubs display the best of today's Hungarian art, fashion & design, distinct from the time-warp tourist traps of yesterday. ...

Budapest in the City & Regions series from Time Out; comprehensive guides to a range of cities & their surrounding regions & including some of the most detailed listings & directories of places to eat & drink & things to do & see. Time Out guides are strongly focussed on local entertainment & nightlife, in addition to principal sights & attractions, with expert local writers providing an encyclopaedic knowledge of each city. This unique quality has ensured that the guides have won a reputation for their accuracy & reliability. The surrounding region is also incorporated in some guides, with information on the principal attractions, sites, landscapes & the best way of exploring them. Each of the Time Out city & region guides has a similar layout, allowing visitors to explore their destination easily. An ‘ In Context’ introductory chapter profiles the destination with several local writers providing individual insights into different aspects of their city & the wider region. An extensive sights section is arranged by area &

Includes:: information about principal attractions in addition to dedicated walking tours & information boxes on particular places of interest. An escapes & excursions chapter also covers some of the highlights found just beyond the city limits or the must-see attractions in the specific region. The ‘ Consume’ chapter is organised into hotels, restaurants & cafes, bars & shops & services & provides an enormous array of ways to explore the destination. Individual establishments are accompanied by detailed descriptions & include useful information on opening times, prices, location, address & the type of food & drink available. An Arts & Entertainment section provides extensive listings & details of art galleries, books & poetry, cabaret & comedy, children’s activities, clubs, film & television, gay & lesbian, music, sports & fitness & theatre & dance. There is also a Directory with information on getting around the city & region as well as practical guidance on subjects such as attitude & etiquette, customs, disabled visitors, drugs, embassies & consulates, health, help-lines, insurance, internet facilities, media, money, opening hours, religion, smoking, universities, telephones, times & dates, tourist information points, visas & immigration & working in the city.

...

About this series: City guides for the more inquisitive visitor, this series of guide books gives you everything you need to know about your destination, be it the present, or the past. With guided walks, clear & usable maps, beautiful colour photos & in-depth sections on food, restaurants, history, art, architecture & music, “ Visible Cities” make for ideal companions on city breaks. ...

Budapest in the Wallpaper* City Guide series, published by Phaidon & encompassing a collection of pocket-size guides dedicated to the best design elements in major cities. Compiled by experts at the Wallpaper* magazine, the guides are widely recognized for appealing to design-conscious travellers & are aimed at those interested in art, design & architecture. Each guide identifies the best bars, restaurants, hotels, places to shop, leisure activities & excursions with a unique emphasis on the finest examples of unusual architecture & design. Each Wallpaper* City Guide has the same layout, with separate tabs allowing readers & travellers to access individual sections easily. The tabs consist of Landmarks, Hotels, 24 Hours, Urban Life, Architour, Shopping, Sports & Escapes. High quality colour photographs appear alongside brief descriptions of each hotel, bar or attraction, highlighting distinctive & unusual styles of architecture & design. Extra pages are provided at the back of each guide, allowing readers to record their own notes & sketches. ...

Singer Nicholas Clapton first visited Budapest to record a recently discovered mass by an almost unknown eighteenth-century Hungarian composer. There, he discovered a striking sense of otherness in spite of Hungary s central geographical & cultural position within Europe. & with that, a deep passion for the city was born. Budapest offers an engaging & affectionate look at this beautiful capital from the perspective of a musician who lived & worked there for many years. With rich musical traditions, both classical & folk, & possessing a language like almost no other, Hungary is in the process of abandoning the trappings of its communist past while attempting to preserve its culture from creeping globalization. Clapton delights in the fact that certain old-fashioned attitudes of courtesy, at times stemming from the very structures of the Magyar tongue, are still deeply ingrained in Hungarian society. At the same time, despite its association with world-famous composers such as Bartok, Liszt, & Kodaly, music is far from an activity enjoyed only by the elite. Including plenty of tips on food, drink, & sites of interest, Budapest describes the capital in uniquely melodic terms & will delight lovers of travel & music alike.” ...

In her hugely acclaimed debut Anne Donovan tells an endearing, humorous yet unsentimental story of a working-class Glaswegian man who discovers Buddhism, rejects old habits & seeks a life more meaningful, only to alienate his immediate family in the process. Moving seamlessly between three family members, Donovan`s clear-eyed, richly expressive prose sings off the page. Each character`s voice has its own subtle rhythm & the conclusion is a poignant mixture of hope & lingering reservations. ” Buddha Da” is a delight from one of Britain`s best writers. ...

As he approaches his fortieth birthday, the introverted monk Seido Oda is ordered by his superior to leave behind his peaceful, quiet refuge in the remote mountains of Japan & set up a temple in Brooklyn's Little Calabria. There Oda is confronted with an uphill struggle to get to understand the ways of his new host country, & finds his patience & beliefs tested by a motley crew of misguided American Buddhists
- a shock which will enable him to come to terms with painful memories of his past & finally experience that sense of belonging he has always sought.
...

Buddhism is the single common thread uniting the Asian world, from India to South-East Asia & through Central Asia to China, Korea & Japan. To guide & inspire believers, innumerable symbols & images were made, beginning in India in the 3rd century BC. This phenomenally diverse tradition

Includes:: not only frescoes, relief carvings, colossal statues, silk embroideries & bronze ritual objects but also rock-cut shrines with a thousand Buddhas, the glorious stupas of South-East Asia & the pagodas of the Far East, the massive ”mandala in stone” of Borobudur in Java & entire 13th-century temple complexes at Angkor in Cambodia. The author describes all the Buddhist schools & cultures, & explains their imagery, from Tibetan cosmic diagrams & Korean folk art to early Sri Lankan sites & Japanese Zen gardens.

...

Newly available in paperback, this sumptuous volume presents a dazzling collection of photographs of the majestic landscape & Buddhist people of the Himalayas. The authors profound intimacy with their subject is immediately apparent in their awe-inspiring images, which present a harmonious mosaic of the unmatched richness of the civilizations on the Roof of the World. The pictures are accompanied throughout by contributions from nineteen eminent specialists on the region, who discuss the faith, culture, politics & traditions of the Himalayan world. Reflecting not only the cycle of human existence but also the history of the Himalayas, this lavish volume offers an unparalleled insight into Himalayan Buddhism in the 21st century. ...

In this follow-up to ” Buddhist Himalayas”, Olivier & Danielle Follmi have once more worked in vivid colour to document the beauty of the majestic Himalayan landscape, while delving yet deeper into the wisdom of the Tibetans. Each of the images presented here is mirrored by a meditation from one of the great masters & thinkers of Tibetan Buddhism, among them His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kalou Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa, Anagarika Govinda & Shabkar. These insights, divided into 52 themes to follow the rhythm of the year, encompass subjects that touch all humanity: from money, health & faith to trust & love. Their wisdom & power offer a means for daily meditation, whatever the reader`s beliefs or religious traditions. ...