Szimpla Kert, Budapest

In every major city there seems to be some spot for locals, and some others for tourists. Szimpla Kert in Budapest seems to please both audiences. Although you can find it on every major tourist guide like Lonely Planet, Szimpla Kert is also frequented by locals and expats as well. On every average visit to the place you’ll hear all kind of languages, and yes, a good part of it will be Magyarul (Hungarian).

This cafe, bar, beer garden, screening house, pub, and almost disco (depending on the time of the day or night you go there) consists basically of the courtyard and few apartments of an old building in the VII District. Word of mouth is clearly bringing most of the people, because if you were a tourist passing by you would hardly thing of entering the big old gate, with a little sign just distractedly hanging over it.

Especially if you visit in winter, you’ll enter into a dark and weird looking corridor, if you manage to go through some plastic stripes hanging from the doorway (the kind of industrial ones, butcher or market style, to keep in the warmth). Once inside though, you’ll discover a perfect heaven of comfy, relaxed atmosphere.

The furniture is very peculiar indeed: old benches, armchairs, and coaches; sitting places made out of old bath tubs, film reels containers, old cars (a Trabant converted into table and chairs can be seen in the garden) and disused sewing machines. This appears to be a trend in many nightlife spots in Hungary; a local one said with an ironical accent: “looks like, if a spot has got two similar chairs, it’s not trendy these days”.

That said, Szimpla Kert remains one of the most favorite spots; for the way it’s located, for the atmosphere, but most of all for the people: wether you’re an Hungarian, an expat or a tourist, it’s good to go to one place and know that you can meet all kind of people in a special atmosphere!