Spencer Bryan

Three Days in Budapest

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:28:00 -0500

Budapest is awesome. I spent three days there with two classmates and we had a great time. This post will hopefully be helpful if and when you make it there.

We stayed in a great apartment, found through AirBnB: http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/246813. Highly recommended.

Food & Drink:

Két Szerecsen - really good food and the first time we began to understand how cheap the city is. About $60 for a three-course meal with 2-3 drinks per person.

Boutiq Bar - for New Yorkers, a Randolph’s/Death & Co. clone. Bartenders were rocking suspenders and bowties. Cocktails were hand-crafted (as opposed to a machine) and the bartenders were quite generous with samples of Indian whiskey (holy charcoal) and Hungarian grape vodka (don’t light a match). Awesome spot.

Minyon - fun place, and there was no mistaking the fact that you were in Eastern Europe. Hard to explain, but we just knew.

Klassz Etterem - nicer place, beautiful design. Clearly one of those places that 1) gets it and 2) cares about quality, all the way around.

Morrison’s Music Pub - another clutch foursquare explore find. It was full on a dull Monday night, and may have been the only place in town that was. Lots of students and foreigners, but still a great spot. I met a (nerdy, in a good way) sophomore from Milwaukee who was majoring in software engineering - quote of the night when I asked him what he planned to do after school: “With the amount of calls and emails I get, apparently whatever the fuck I want.” Safe to say that he understands his value.

Sights:

Széchenyi fürdő - the largest, most popular bath in Budapest. There are more detailed accounts elsewhere, but I was a fan. If you get grossed out by community bathing, don’t go. Also, bring your own towel - theirs are more like sheets.

Buda - while you should stay in Pest, take a stroll over to Buda and climb the hill (great exercise). The views of Pest, especially at night/sunset, are worth every step. This is a shot of the parliament building from the bank of the Danube on the Buda side:

All in all, the city was great for just walking around and discovering things. And I can’t stress enough how awesome of a resource foursquare was during our time. The simple idea that we could know how many people (at least ones that use foursquare) were at various bars, in real time, was huge. Outdated travel guides be damned.

We also found a few places that we would have never found otherwise - so huge kudos to the foursquare team.

Go to Budapest before it becomes more widely-discovered and inevitably loses some of its charm. I promise you won’t regret it.

Szechenyi baths in Budapest. This place is from another world.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:14:06 -0500

Szechenyi baths in Budapest. This place is from another world.

Central Market - Budapest

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:57:05 -0500

Central Market - Budapest

This beer may be the best sign in the history of beer cc:...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:33:56 -0500

This beer may be the best sign in the history of beer cc: @sonofnichol

Budapest parliament building

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:27:36 -0500

Budapest parliament building

get up stand up: Kickstarter and the NEA

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:00:23 -0500

get up stand up: Kickstarter and the NEA:

yancey:

In an interview last week with the website Talking Points Memo, I mentioned to reporter Carl Franzen that it was probable that more money would be pledged on Kickstarter in the coming year than would be distributed by the NEA. My reasoning was:

The NEA’s 2012 budget is $146 million

More than $150 million has been pledged lifetime on Kickstarter

One survey of only 600 adults, in the UK. Not terribly random,...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:21:05 -0500

One survey of only 600 adults, in the UK. Not terribly random, and maybe not even statistically significant. #statsnerd

thenextweb:

uSamp has just published a study that gives a little insight into what kind of information men and women are willing to share on social networks. Surveying 600 adults in the UK this past January, the survey revealed that 78% of women were happy to share what brand they preferred, compared to a slightly lower figure of 74% among men.

The difference in figures for most topics, as seen in the table above, weren’t vastly different, but with women more willing to talk about or share the brands that they like, it makes them more likely candidates for picking up on social media campaign buzz.

(via Women ‘More Likely’ to Make your Social Media Campaign Go Viral)

Curious result of a workshop on design thinking. Only partly in...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:39:06 -0500

Curious result of a workshop on design thinking. Only partly in response to the advice I have received during my summer employment search to “just build something.”

In addition to above video, see this and this. The amount of...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:29:38 -0500

In addition to above video, see this and this. The amount of creativity and hustle among these job-seekers is no joke. cc @byalicelee @zhamed

austinbryan: “This is my home, and I invite people into my home...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:18:21 -0500

austinbryan:

“This is my home, and I invite people into my home … Life is, you talk with people.”

It may not look appetizing, but cold-brew iced coffee is the...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:03:15 -0500

It may not look appetizing, but cold-brew iced coffee is the only way to go.

Happy Fat Tuesday. Two more weeks until NOEW and the Big Easy.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:41:00 -0500

Happy Fat Tuesday. Two more weeks until NOEW and the Big Easy.