So long, and thanks for all the fish
Borrowing from the late comedic sci-fi writer Douglas Adams for a headline (the words were actually a farewell note to the human race from the dolphins, who left the Earth just before the Vogons destroyed it to make way for a hyperspatial express route) may seem a little strange, but then, so does the fact that I am writing them ...

Awe-inspiring Slovakia
In the new Bradt guide to Slovakia Lucy Mallows - who for many years worked as the Style Editor for The Budapest Sun - ventures further into a country that she first scrutinized in her 2005 Bradt guide to its capital, Bratislava.

Bratislava: The Bradt City Guide
THE Slovakian capital is fewer than 200 kilometers from Budapest yet; it is not a frequent destination for people living here. However the economic boom of the "Tatra Tiger" has left its mark on Bratislava, and the long-ignored town has turned into a pleasant tourist destination in the triangle of Vienna, Budapest and Prague.

Letters to the editor
MY New Year's resolutions this year include the annual stopping smoking pledge, a feeble attempt to get fit, and a promise to stop ribbing my girlfriend about her graying hair. A fourth resolution, and one which I shall have no trouble in keeping is never to fly Wizz Air again.

A much more promising effort
OPENING guide books on Hungary or Budapest are usually a source of happiness and uncomfortable feelings for a Hungarian.

Content over form
IN 1948, a Communist Party official from Veszprém strutted into Siófok and scolded its assembled residents, "You are still on the wrong way toward progress, because here in Siófok, the most important people are the priest, the pharmacist, and the landlord, Imre Varga who was a member of the Hungarian Air Force."

Letters to the editor
OFTEN, work takes so much of our time we have little left to think, to stop and to talk. Today I woke up deeply affected, after I read the last letter of Miklós Fehér's mother.

Good bye and thank you - editorial
WE DO not normally make our farewells public, but this is a very special case. After years of remarkable service, during which liver, waist line and viewing sensibilities have all been put on the line for the reader, Lucy Mallows is moving on to pastures new.

Letters to the editor
I WRITE having read the letter from your reader Iván Gulyás (Vandalism vs protest, issue 33, August 14) regarding the character of Winston Churchill.

Celebrating the Union
The Jewish Summer Festival is a celebration of spirit and religion. Lucy Mallows discovers more.

Theater of dreams
Gödöllô's beautiful Baroque theater has been restored to its former glory. Lucy Mallows reports.

Insparational nation
If you would like to sample the baths of Budapest, take a minute to think about who built them. Lucy Mallows discovers more ...

Walks to cleanse the soul
If you feel the need to go green, the Buda hills might just be what you're looking for. Lucy Mallows discovers more... When the heat and dust of the city becomes overwhelming, there are several destinations where you can go to cool off.

Magyar Magic season
KATALIN Bogyay, director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in London, introduced a summer series of events in London with the words, "When Hungarians move to a new home, it is customary for us to call on our new neighbors and say hello so that they can put a face to the new name on the door.

Foreigners just say 'relax'
I SEE that this year Budapest has once again jumped straight from winter to summer. What has happened to spring? One day it's overcoat weather, then it's time to stash the heavy gear in the back of the wardrobe and dig out shorts and T-shirts.

Crimson really needs to be read
THE things I do for that Lucy Mallows. So there we all were, just before Christmas, crowded around the latest dispatch of books publishers wanted us to review. The usual suspects were there, everything from general interest to travel guides.

A journey worth the wait
n THIS month?s winner of a Lonely Planet guide book of her choice is Eyal Opher, from Israel who is currently living in Budapest while studying at veterinary college. His is an evocative recollection of the...

A monkey on my back
THIS month's winner of a Lonely Planet guide book of her choice is Lia Genovese who lives in Budapest and chose the Lonely Planet guide to Eastern Europe as her prize.

Mistranslated in Morocco
This month?s winner of a Lonely Planet guide book of her choice is Christine Wenk-Harrison, who lives in Bosnia and writes, "I am still reading The Budapest Sun on-line from Bosnia. I really am glad to have a way to keep up with what is going on in Hungary and always enjoy your travel, restaurant and book review columns."

A grizzly anecdote from Transylvania
This month?s winner of a Lonely Planet guide book of his choice is Dominic Hipkins who lives in Zagreb and regularly reads The Budapest Sun on-line. Here is his anecdote from a recent trip to Romania.

Letters to the editor
I can just smile on Gorka?s arrogant statements (Missing the point on Nato, The Budapest Sun, issue 47, November 21-27) like "formerly" prestigious journal Foreign Affairs or the Orbán Government was the "last democratically elected Hungarian Government".

Lonely no more
Welsh journalist Nicola Williams made her first trip to Romania in 1991, on an international aid convoy to Transylvania with 10 Welsh police officers. Her visit inspired her to give up her job on the North Wales Weekly News and head off to work at the Baltic Observer in Riga.

Letters to the editor
Congratulations to Imre Kertész who was awarded the Literary Nobel Prize by the Swedish Academy, the first Hungarian to win it. He declared himself Hungarian, as all Jewish people did, they never belonged to a minority and many of them brought fame to Hungary.

Letters to the editor
Investigative committee expert draws fire for his opinion As a former journalist and academician, I find Sebestyén Gorka?s language in his articles on Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy as excessively "hot" and starkly absolutist. No...

Being an author requires some maturity and a thick skin
Arthur Phillips, grow up! Arthur Phillips, for those of you as yet unacquainted with the neophyte novelist, is the author of Prague, a novel set in post-Communist Budapest.

Letters to the editor
I am the author of the novel Prague, a work of fiction set in the real city of Budapest. In this work of fiction, fictional characters express their opinions, some of which include negative opinions of Budapest and of Hungarians. Some readers may find these opinions offensive.

Letters to the editor
Please do not let NATO put baseball caps on the heads of Hungarian servicemen. The baseball cap will invite disrespect. In the USA, the home of baseball caps, the only people who wear baseball caps are un-educated, anti-society, rednecks who cannot fit into any social system.

Letters to the editor
With regard to the "dog do" problem in Budapest, yes, I agree that it?s very unsightly, unsanitary and certainly disgustingly maddening - if you happen to step into it because you?re walking about without the "dog do" radar portion of your brain engaged.

Letters to the editor
In Controversy over US editorial still raging (issue 13, March 28 - April 3) one can read an outrageous and provocative allegation stated by Hungarian-born US pianist and journalist Bálint Vázsonyi.

Letters to the editor
I am writing in the hope of correcting the impression given by a member of your staff in his headline article of the January 17-23 issue (Turbulence at airport), concerning the management of Ferihegy Airport.


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