2026 European Spoofing Championship

We are pleased, at £95, to be able to reduce the entry fee from last year’s level, and entry will include the venue, a welcome drink, a fair amount "behind the bar” for beer, wine and softies, a mid-afternoon buffet, and a keepsake of the day.

Please come back with your indication that you would like to attend, following which details will be sent as to how to make payment, along with along-the-way relevant updates on the matters below.

Payments will be required strictly in advance, as to which the last possible day for making payment will - so as to dovetail with the payment schedule which we have to make up front to the venue - by 19 August. Please contact Nick at:

nickwhite7758@gmail.com

Located near the famous Széchenyi Chain Bridge, the spoofing deck through the afternoon on Spoon The Boat will be the Café Terrace and adjoining Winter Garden. For those who have no desire to be taken out, kept captive, and rocked around on the River Danube, please be assured that the boat is firmly docked and solid, apart from the bolted-on smoking deck.

Those with sufficiently long memories will recall the World Spoofing Championship in 1999 on the Tattershall Castle on the Thames. This will be similar but even better, and in the light rather than the dark!

Pilin and Nick went on recce in Budapest from 11–17th February, with the objective of securing a venue for the Saturday spoofing, somewhere for dinner on the Friday night before, an idea for Sunday lunch the day after the spoofing, a general meet up bar, and – random of course because everybody has different ideas and experiences – good dinner venues and things to do (details to follow to those who reply) for those who are making a longer trip of it.

As to hotels, no thoughts or recommendations, as everyone will have different ideas and budgets, and can work things out for themselves from the main locations.

As to the main venues and their locations:

-  Spoon The Boat - is located at 1052 Budapest, Vigadó square, Port 3 - https://spoonboat.hu/ Booked for 40 currently, but plenty more room available.

-  Pointer Pub Bajcsy ut - as a general meet-up place - 1052 Budapest Váci u. 33 - https://pointerpub.hu/ Make sure that you get the correct Pointer Pub!

-  Urban Beyar, Trabant ‘60 Bistro -  https://urbanbetyar.com/#our-story For dinner on Friday night. Booked for 24 currently; 40 max.

-  Elysee Bistro - found by Paul Tuson and Lisa on their earlier recce, this could work well for Sunday lunch. Kossuth Lajos Square, 13-15 - https://elysee.hu/  In process of letting them know.

The idea is, for those that would like to, to meet up at the Pointer Pub in advance of dinner on Friday, and spoofing on Saturday.

As for the Friday night dinner fixed for Urban Betyar, we will be in the Trabant ‘60 bistro, complete with a “Trabby” hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant also has, downstairs, a “Hungary through the ages“ free display, featuring living styles, clothing et cetera, and worth a look on the side of eating.

Walking times:

- From Pointer Pub to Urban Betyar – 7 minutes

- From Pointer Pub to Spoon The Boat - 15 minutes

- From Pointer Pub to Elysee - 15 minutes

Taxis are plentiful and cheap - City Taxi off the street, or Uber, or Bolt.

Other than in the "ruin bars" in other parts of the city, the generality is the continental

European mode of everyone sitting down in the pub/bar – thus it was not an obvious fix as to where to call a meeting point pub, and if anyone has any particular bright ideas as an alternative to the Pointer Pub, please let us know.

Seating applies at the Pointer Pub; however the pub also has a side room where – once we are clear on numbers – we could alert the place to an influx and ask to use that to stand and/or sit in to socialise.

Other stuff:

• Hungarian currency is the Forint– approximately at present 440 to the Pound or 380 to the Euro.

• A fair few places take Euros cash, but at a fairly stinging exchange rate.

• Every transaction seems to be met with “card or cash“ from the merchant, and either are readily useable.

• Service charge seems to come included in most hostelry bills at a rate of 13.5 or 15%.

• Sometimes when using a card, the card machine also has a different percentages set of tip options for you to select from and, magically, the no tip 0% seems to dip below the viewing screen! Especially so in the dark in the ruin bars.

Far too much detail of course for the moment, but when we come to the Calcutta Auction, bidding will be in pounds sterling, and payments calculated at a suitable exchange rate for those who want to pay in Hungarian Forint, Euros, Antipodean Dollars, or otherwise. We will be selecting a local maritime river charity to benefit from a percentage of the Calcutta.

Finally, some trivia:

• When you see a Hungarian’s name written in formal terms, the family name comes first, and the given name comes second.

• Cheese is shite, meaning that sajt, the Hungarian word for cheese, is pronounced “shite”!

• To clink or not to clink glasses? We picked up this nuance from the Rough Guide to Budapest, for the reasons in the Wiki link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Hungary Look and decide!

WTHAO,

Pilin

With husband Nick White, and sister-in-law Jenny Clifford as co-organisers