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All the team at XpatLoop.com wish you and yours a Merry Xmas. We do hope you’ve enjoyed what’s been in the loop for you this past year. We’re grateful to every reader, partner and sponsor for all the positive feedback and support, here's wishing you a joyful and prosperous 2013.
The Budapest Christmas Market is said to be amongst the ten best Christmas markets in Europe. The 'spectacular fair' takes place in the heart of the city every year from mid-November until the end of December. It's the 14th time the fair is organised at Vörösmarty Square, this year the award-winning 'Paint Up! Visualpower Group' will light-paint the facade of 100 year old Gerbaud Coffee House several times a day from 30 November until 23 December.
Recently on YouTube, I watched an old clip of the hit TV show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? during which the host asked a perky American blonde the following question: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?” After much hemming and hawing, the woman finally gave her answer: “France." E-gads! After my eyebrows finally came down, I thought…I better make sure no one reading my new blog is expecting posts about the Eiffel Tower or Paris Fashion Week. And so, I offer a brief primer on Magyarland.
Fresh news is that The Caledonia must close on the 4th of March for two months, apparently NAV has just contacted the pub's owners saying they made an "administrative mistake" about the closing date of 3 January. All related appeals by the pub were rejected regarding this punishment, and the authorities insist on closure since two bottles of the same spirit were open behind the bar, and inspectors found alcohol in the kitchen area. This issue made the national TV news, you can find footage of that below (in Hungarian).
On the occasion of George Soros' generous donation to a new entrepreneurship program at CEU Business School, Dean Mel Horwitch led a roundtable discussion of business leaders and thinkers on Budapest's potential as a hub of new ventures.
Join the handheld gaming revolution this holiday season with PS Vita, the next generation portable entertainment system from Sony PlayStation. Treat yourself - or get one for your kids - and play any time, anywhere with an infinite choice of ways to locate, connect, discover, share and game. Vita is loaded with every tech bell and whistle possible – it’s got a quad-core processor, and not only touchscreen it’s got a touchpad on the back too – along with Wi-Fi, and optional 3G, so you can also play with real-time scores, competitive multiplayer game sessions and cross-game text messaging, all on the move.
Central European University's Center for Arts and Culture wound up an excellent autumn concert season last week. It featured an all-Beethoven chamber music program from artists-in-residence the Classicus Ensemble - András Németh and Zoltán Fejérvári on piano, Oszkár Varga violin and Tamás Zétényi cello. No dour intimidating sturm-und-drangfest this. Instead, we had both pianists in Beethoven's early sonata for four hands in D major, Op. 6, a sprightly work from 1797, when the young composer was still enjoying life in the sunset of ancien regime Vienna.
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