Future Plans for Lost Festivals,Tours,Club Nights Plus Much Much More

Big Plans in the pipe line for Lost In Budapest Connecting Brighton UK / Budapest Check it out!!!!

Big things dont come easy

We knew it is not going to be easy opening up in a month with everything, but everyday, we achieve something and we are happy about, and then just something happens that makes it difficult again. It has been intense today, we sorted out Scotts license for djing on Saturday, basically we got help from Zaj DJ so we did it in a short notice, we got a permit for 24 hours. After we got this done, we had the Dreher representative coming over to sign all the papers. Actually we are very happy to go with this company and Norbi is very nice and helpful with everything. He has been here for about an hour, we even talked about the future of the business and what they can offer. 

All went relatively well today, there is still so much for tomorrow, but we are getting there and we would be able to open right now as we have everything. I dont think my mind is able to understand that this place is going to be open in about 36 hours haha. 

The missing fridge

So, as I said, we had some complications today. All the equipment we get from the drink supplier companies come quite last minute, but today we found out, that although we started straight away with Coca Cola, they still not going to be able to deliver our fridges for the opening. Well, it is a very big disappointment for us, as we were expecting it tomorrow and now we dont have a drink fridge apart from our own one, since we have the Dreher fridges coming in next week. So, Scott wasnt happy about the situation, we looked up other options for us, and we finally found an advertisement with a very nice small fridge, it is only that this was again not in our budget before and now we have new expenses again just before the opening. Somehow we will try to have Coca Cola compensate us for this, as this is a very big let down towards our business, and letting us know just 36 hours before the opening is even worse.

So this is where we stand now, tomorrow is the busiest day ever, we have to get everything sorted what is left, small things like fire signs and drink measurer to getting the beer taps in. It should be the most interesting day so far, and I can say that I am quite excited and nervous about Saturday. But it should be all fine, we came so far!!! 

Quick Chat Part 9 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfLEFUj1L0I

News Just In

News Just In we have passed our Bar Sound Check With The best results ever and received our official papers today!!!!!!!

Where to start?

It is overwhelming how much happens everyday, and as are getting closer to the big day, it is just getting more and more intense. To be honest it is really hard even to think back what happened the previous day, and I mix the events up as well sometimes. Anyway, yesterday we came to the bar early, we expected our first drink delivery from Raiker, which is one of the biggest drinks supplier in Hungary. First in the morning we had to sort out our finances to know how much we have exactly and how much we can still spend, as you know, the first drink order is quite a big amount, so we had to spend a lot on it. It wasnt easy in the morning, to be honest almost everyday I have to deal with the pressure of spending so much money on opening up the bar. But once it is open I will see the results and I can finally work...

So, for the first time we got the drinks, and we even had a problem with one of the wines, we didnt get the one we ordered, but got a probably 10 times more expensive one, and although it was beautiful, I had to send it back to the drink supplier. But it was such a nice feeling to have all the drinks coming in, we have the vodkas, wines, all the main liqueurs that are not coming from Coca Cola. Scott still cant give up his everyday painting routine, so yesterday he finished the very last bit of the bar, so now even the office door has a new look. I really wish I could put pictures on of it, because it looks amazing, but we still dont have our camera working, and we can only get it fixed later. In a way it is good, because everyone is going to see the final results on the opening. It seems unreal that two days from now we are opening, but it is so exciting, seriously I cant wait for it!! To see all the people we know here, after you guys following our journey from the beginning till here. To be honest, I think I can say this for the both of us, when we left Vienna, we said, we give ourselves this summer to set up the business and start working, maybe we relax a little bit, go for some summer festivals, and yet here we are on the 1st of June, done with everything and we have a bar that can be open 2 days from now. It is unbelievable what we achieved...

Best with Baileys:)!

So, there were still some things we had to take care of, I went to get our till and yesterday we already put it on the bar, it is so funny that it is ours. These are the very final things we are doing. We had to talk to a lot of people yesterday, make sure that we have all the drinks, all the order correct and we get the needed promotional stuff in time. This is a bit last minute, but we are getting everything tomorrow. So it is going to be a very busy day. We had the Artisjus guy coming over yesterday and he said they checked our videos in the office and they all really liked it, he loves the idea of the bar. We even got the discount of them, as we reported them, that we are opening. It is not cheap to have the TV and radio on everyday, but this is also a cost you have to calculate with. This way at least we were able to reduce the price a bit. After he left, we had the soda company coming here, and I think they come today to put up their system for the soda. That is going to be the first not bottle drink in the bar so far:). Everything else is left for tomorrow. We finally had our visit from the insurance company, so now we are totally secured, maybe Scott can relax a bit as well:)! 

Scotts dream soda gun:)

We got almost everything done during the day, and we were expecting one of our first customers in the bar, my 2 friends, Dori and Viki came for a visit. It is very cool to have people around and see their reaction to what we have done and it looks like it is going to be a perfect place for people to hang out and have fun. After Viki left, two of Scotts friends came around as well, they are both Swedish and Scott knows them from Vienna. They are coming for the opening, but now they went home, they just had a night in Budapest yesterday as well. So already the bar is very international:)! Scott said, that he had to tell a lot of people on the street last night that we are not open yet, because they wanted to come in...

I guess it is a good sign:)!

Today, basically we have to wit, which is not very nice, but we can still do some stuff, like getting the menus printed and get all of the paperwork in order for the accountant and for us too. In just 2 months we were able to build up so many contracts, we got thousands of receipts, so we have to be very careful and dont loose track of the administration. Tomorrow is the big day drink wise and we have another visit from Vienna, our ex co worker, Jakob is coming here, so it should be a lot of fun tomorrow night!

Now we only have to sleep two more nights before we open up to the big public:)!!!

Every box ticked, we are ready to go!

Its a weird feeling now, that all the stress of opening a new business has been lifted up off our shoulders (I have no doubts for more to come, but for now...). Last night we got a nice guest, Ancsa came around to 

check the bar, which is almost done, still apart from the drinks. It is always so nice to have someone round  it actually feels like a proper place. Otherwise, it was our home for the last couple of weeks, we lived it and breathed it as Scott would say. He passed out, than we came home, but we still had no time to make this place comfortable, basically we have nothing here apart from our clothes. Hopefully next month we will have some time for that as well. 

This morning we went back to the bar early, since we were expecting Zsuzsi, who did our HACCP report. Scott was worried, as he wanted the bar to be up to the highest standard. Yeah, we could have cut corners, and delay a couple of things for after the opening, but we wanted to be all legit before start working, and it was very important for us to feel that we dont have to worry, whoever comes around to check on any of our papers. Its true, that the first reactions we got from the neighbours encouraged us to do everything on a professional level. It was unfortunate that they judged us before they get to know us, but now it became more quiet, we dont have that many people from the building checking on us, and once we open, they can come in and see what the place is about. 

We made all the changes in the bar to get the hygiene check done, and I think we did well, because almost everything was perfect apart from a few signs we have to put up concerning the fire safety law. One more thing we needed was a new fire extinguisher, so we had someone coming out to check it, changed the old one to a new one, and we was told where to put the  emergency exit signs, so no need to worry, from now on everyone is going to be safe in our bar:)!

Before this, we made a trip to the store that sells these sign, but unfortunately one of them was closed, and had to travel all the way to the other side of the city to get them ordered. On the way we walked by the Artisjus, which is basically the place that is reliable for copyright music and for public places to pay for showing TV and listening to music. Someone told us before it is best just to let them come out when they come out, but then we realised, if you dont report yourself, you have to pay for the previous time as well and we are too much in the centre, we cant really hide for long. Anyway, they appreciated this, and they come out tomorrow to check the place. 

The last thing for today was to get the drinks ordered. It was the first time for me to do this, and I went through it a couple of times, calculated the prices and so on before we placed the order. But I think I can get used to it, although probably the first order is the biggest one. Tomorrow we have all the spirits coming in, and Thursday morning we have all the Coca Cola products delivered. It is a very weird feeling that we are done now, and we only have to wait till Saturday, for everyone to come in and have all those people from everywhere around the world and a lot of Hungarians in the same place, at our bar opening:)! Feels very nice:)!! After I was done, Scott was still busy with making some changes to the entrance. As you know, we dont want to put any more pictures on, we want to keep it a secret till we open, but I can say, it looks different than just a week ago, and cant wait for everyone to see it. One word: intense:)!!

Tomorrow we have many people coming around again, Dreher, getting the one year

Beer contract official, Artisjus, insurance, we have to go to the bank, to T-Mobile, getting the last bits in order for the weekend. Tonight is quite relaxing, I am happy, because we slowed down a bit, I had time for a nice run, and even Scott left the bar before 8pm. Of course we get up early tomorrow again, but at least we know we can leave the bar sometimes:)!! Only 3 more days, and we see all of you on the opening!!!  

Excited!!!

Thats how many days we have left till opening

Dont even know where to start this week, there is still so much left to do, but slowly it comes together. The decoration and furniture is fully done now, nothing else to do with it, but setting up the bar is all happening this week. It is going to very busy, I hope we still have some energy for Saturday:)! And, we cant forget, that Saturday is only the first day of so many ahead, no more free days for a while, thats for sure, but it a very nice feeling to come here in the morning, so we dont mind. Yesterday afternoon was our last relaxing afternoon, from now it is going to be non stop. 

The doctor is coming today to check us, so we can have a health permit, and the electrician is on his way here, to put the last bit of the bar in. We have the drink supplier coming in at 2pm, so we can finalise the drink order with everybody, and we can start printing them off. We will keep you guys updated, have a nice day for everyone:)!!

First night away

Small hint of the new entrance design 

I owe you guys an apology for not writing the blog every night, but it is so busy at the moment, that I had no time. It is all okay, I will keep everyone updated as soon as I can, and only 6 days away from now we will see (almost) everyone in person:)! So, yesterday in the morning, Scott was up at his usual hour and he packed all our stuff ready to go, and we were a lot more relaxed knowing that the dogs are going to be out of here. At 10 am, we met the couple in the flat and signed all the papers, so we officially rent the property for a year now:). Every time I go this flat I feel like I am going home, and we have nothing there yet, just all the clothes packed up. It hasnt been easy moving this much, and opening up a business, but it seems like it is still possible. After getting the paperwork done, we came back to the bar, grabbed the dogs and some bags and went back to settle them finally. I think this chaos lifestyle we have been living effected the dogs too, they acted very strange sometimes and we couldnt calm them down. Anyway, now they have a big area in the kitchen and in the front room, and they look like they love it:). After all this time, it is weird not having them around all the time, but it is for the best. 

After this, my brother came to pick us up and he took us to our last IKEA and DIY trip, where we got all the stuff we needed, we bought the last bits of the furniture, glasses, knives etc, so the bar in this case is ready! We had to get fake tiles for the toilets, so all the walls have washable surface. There are so many things that we havnt even thought about before, this way we just realised, that we wouldnt have been able to open any bigger venue. All the way we have been very lucky and everything turned out the way it should be in such a short period of time. We got new tables and seats, so at the moment we are able to seat more than 20 people, and we still have place in the bar for others to hang around:). Scott did the entrance such a cool and unique way, it looks beautiful, and in a way, it is bad, that our camera is not working, but on the other hand this way we can keep it a secret:). Otherwise we are too excited, and just want to show it to everyone now! I had fun at the same time, putting all the chairs and tables together from IKEA haha. But after we were finished, it looked like a bar. Although we are still lack of drinks, but we know that we are ready with everything else, so we can go into next week just finalising the rest of the stuff we need to do. 

Special thanks for Howie
from Black Flamingo Marketing

At about midnight I wanted to go back to the flat, because I wanted to take the dogs for a walk and I knew that there is no bed, so we have to come up with something where we can sleep on. We decided that we are not going bring back the dogs till the opening, since they cant behave and ruined already a lot of our new stuff, so it is just best to have them in the flat, where they cant do anything and just sleep when we are not there. This was probably the biggest challenge Scott had to face since we are here, leave the bar for a night, knowing that everything is here, literally all whole life and work is in here at the moment. Although we have an alarm system and insurance, it was still not easy for him, but a shower sounded too good not to go back to the flat. After basically living here for over 3 weeks, it was weird going somewhere else, but sometimes we have to get away from here and maybe eventually there is going to be a time when Scott can leave the bar without freaking out:).

We thought about having a security guard here for the opening, just in case, and then when we have to shut the doors at 10pm, we can have all our friends in for a private party and go on till we can. I went to the security guards in Alterego, but it is not as easy as I thought it would be, so we would have to go through an agency, and probably it would cost a lot of money (he didnt want to tell me how much they earn), so we said, we dont really need it, I think it would look a bit weird having a guard in front of a nice and friendly bar. 

First sample!!

Scotts friend Howie from England, who did our logo and all of our posters sent over the first version of our drink menus, and we love it. It represents the bar so well, he did such a professional work through the whole project, so special thanks to Howie:)!!

The next thing was, that we really didnt have a bed and all our stuff was in the washing, so I am not proud to say, but we slept on the floor with our clothes under us and not only it was very uncomfortable but it was really cold as well, so I kept waking up every half an hour, till about 6am, when Scott came back to the bar and then finally I slept a bit more with the dogs, took them out for a walk, did some washing and come back to Lost. But as I entered, it felt different, now I see it how it is going to look like and I love it. I can really imagine us coming to work here everyday, only with a big difference, that this place is ours. Such a nice feeling... In the morning as I said, Scott finished the entrance wall, it is probably his best work so far, just gives the final touch to the place, without his ideas, speed and creativity, this place wouldnt be the same. For today, we have some things to do, hopefully my mom is going to come around, as they visit my sister in London tomorrow, so they are not going to be here for the opening, but they have really been part of this project. This is one of the goals of Lost, to work together with other people and we cant say enough how thankful we are for everyone for their support, and in return we can offer you one of the most unique bar in the city! We are more than happy to see everyone as much as possible. In the past few weeks, although we had no time to meet anyone outside of here, but it felt very nice to have so many people coming around and be interested in what we are doing. With tomorrow we start the last week of the project, it is not going to be an easy week for us, but at least we know, that we can open on Saturday! Not long now and the next level of the journey begins....

Last 7 days

It is all happening now, after all the hard work on the bar in the past 25 days, we are opening in just a week. Every day is so eventful, and goes by very quick, we meet a lot of people and we try to get as much done as possible, but it feels like there is not enough time in a day. This morning we were waiting for our new beer supplier, the representative from Dreher. Who we already met before when we got here, but after that we thought Heineken would be a better brand for our bar, only because of the foreigner customers. Unfortunately as we said before, that didnt go very well, so were stuck here 8 days before we want to open, with no beer in the bar. This is when we decided to meet him again, and we can say that we are very lucky that it turned out this way. He came around this morning and we went through everything, our ideas, what they can offer and a lot more. This contract is going to be for a year and after that we can see how the bar was doing, how much beer we can sell on average, so it will be easier to plan with the following year. Anyway, he was really nice and helpful, and he has to do his best, but we have the beer coming in on Friday. Very last minute of us:)...

Template for our Friday nights!

As you know as well, the Coca Cola fridges are going to be here the day before, so the schedule is a bit tight but it should be all right. We had an unfortunate accident with Scotts bank card, because about a week ago Ruby got his wallet, and she damaged it with a couple of notes too, so we cant use his card at the moment, and mine went missing for two days, so we have to go every time to the bank and take money out in person. We really need to sort ourselves out after we open, because our stuff is all over the place, and sometimes we really feel very unorganised. It is

hard to keep up with the speed we are opening. 

The electrician is coming on Monday, to set the rest of the lamps in the bar and he is going to do the bar as well, so on Monday everything should be ready for the drinks. We need a few stuff tomorrow from IKEA and the DIY store, but this should be our last trip till next week. Every day new things come across, things we havnt thought of, so we need to finish with everything before we open. But no worries, we are doing very well:).

One of my friends was here today to help me with the wine selection, because although I really like wine, I am not at all an expert and dont really know what to get, but we know that we only want quality drinks in our bar. So, we got some good tips, and he also going to help me with the order as he knows a lot of people in the wine industry. 

Scott had his dream come true today, as he bought the old Super Nintendo from 1992 with two games that he loved: Super Mario Cart and Royal Rumble. I almost forgot how annoying their background music is, but apart from that I am sure a lot of people is going to love it!!

Our days already packed for next week, I never thought this is going to happen with me, but I bought a calendar and it is full till the opening. We still have a health check, the fire safety, all the drinks, getting the toilets done, moving tomorrow to the new flat and the list is almost never ending. At least tomorrow morning we can have the new flat, so the dogs dont have to be in the bar anymore, which is going to be a lot easier. We thought that it is going to be easier with them and we can get them involved once we are open, but having them around here for the past time just proved that we are wrong about it. We have to come up with a system how we are going to do the next week, but I really want to pay enough attention to the dogs, because this past couple of months wasnt easy for them either. 

Fingers crossed everything is going to go well, but soon we can meet you all and celebrate:)!! Enjoy the weekend!!

Quick Chat Part 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHSYUYw_am4&feature=share

Not enough hours in a day 10 days and counting!!!!!

There is not a single day going by without something happening. It is crazy how we cant really relax for a moment, we have to be in contact with too many people and sometimes it is not easy keeping everything under control. As much as yesterday was a very successful day, and we got so much done, today didnt start very well. So, yesterday morning we were up early and we were waiting for the guy to come from the fire safety department and check the place, so everything is according to the laws. It turns out, that the fire safety licence is another bigger project, it takes time and it is quite expensive to make.  

Anyway, he pointed out all the things we have to do before we open, and some things that have to be on as soon as possible. Also, we have to do the health check for ourselves, so we have the doctor coming here on Monday, so we can get the permission to work behind the bar. Fingers crossed, everything is going to be fine eventually...

We went to the DIY store after this, and we realised we cant really get the work top for the bar, because we dont have a car, and we cant put it in a taxi. At the end, we bought some more decoration (always...) and a vinyl floor for the bar, so it looks cleaner and nicer. On the way home, for the first time we got off at the next tram stop, and this way we found a small store that sells second hand electronic stuff, and as we entered, we found straight away what we needed: a fridge and a dish washer both in brand new condition for a very good price. Also, one step from here we got two flags for the ceiling like we wanted, now you can clearly see that it is an English-Hungarian international bar. We got more and more promotional stuff from the drink suppliers, last afternoon we got some glasses from Heineken. We were very busy with the final touches of the bar, Scott was decorating and revamping while I was doing the drink order, the first one, so it is very exciting for me, and I have to estimate now without knowing exactly how much drink we need. Of course it is not a problem to have left overs, but we want to provide a really nice variety of drinks already on the opening.

We were just cleaning up, when all of a sudden someone knocked on our door, and it was a very nice surprise, because our ex-collague, Greg came around with a friend of his. It is still a rare occasion for us to have people around in the bar apart from the builders and the suppliers, and we havnt really socialised for about 2 months now, so it is always relaxing to do so:). When someone is here, I feel like this is a bar, which sounds funny, but we spent so much time and money and energy on creating something great, but it still feels far away to open, yet it is only 10 days now! We went out for one drink, and then came home, so it wasnt too bad, but unfortunately I lost my card on the way, so I had to cancel it today. It wasnt the best start of the day, I stressed out and I was tired. 

But that was only the beginning, since the beer provider came out to put the taps in, but the work top is not on yet, since we didnt know the size of the unit it comes in, so we had to tell the provider to come on Monday to do it. When we decided to go with Heineken we were not too happy about their representative, because she hardly picks up the phone, she gave no information and didnt really show any interest in our business. On the other hand, the Coca Cola representative reads our blog, he made an effort and got us a lot of cool stuff for the bar and always reachable. So we were thinking about if we should stick with this beer or no, but this morning just helped us make the decision. We called her, and she called us back after a while, and told us, she though we had experience, so we would know how the beer goes in. So,telling us how we do our business is not cool, it is just best we decided not to work with them anymore. I quickly called Dreher and since one beer tap is enough for now, we will go with them and get a premium Hungarian beer in the bar. He is coming tomorrow, and we can sort out a contract and a good deal. They also offer a financial help for the new businesses. 

 The electrician comes tomorrow to put on some lights and sort the bar out, we are going to have some nice shelves inside, where we can make the drinks etc. This morning Scott made a sports design under the TV, which was a good idea, but it didnt turn out as good as he wanted it to be, so we had to take it off and now he is making a new one, but it should look really cool once it is done. We always think we are getting there and then something happens to make it more complicated. It is a very big challenge to stay calm, I cant do it most of the time. But seriously, it is only 10 days left till opening and deep down I am sure that till then it is going to look perfect and everything will fall into its place eventually.

Busybusybusy Part 2

As I said before, so much happened today!! We are finally done with everything apart from writing the blog, but tomorrow it starts again, I guess till we are opening it is going to be non stop. So much good news today!! So, the day was all about getting ourselves a new flat, a normal home finally where we can relax after work, take a shower, and where the dogs have a perfect place. The whole weekend I called so many agents, but we were still not sure what is going to happen with the flat above the bar. I was less and less interested in it everyday and just felt like it is such a commitment that it would just be stupid to take it on in the state that it is in, saying that we would be able to 100% buy it eventually. It made it a bit more difficult, that we knew, the flat can only be maximum 5 minutes walk from Lost, and it has to take the dogs and it should be at a reasonable price as well. Anyway, I talked to a lot of people and arranged some viewings for today and tomorrow. Yesterday we decided that we are not taking the flat above for sure, Scott said first, that he is going to sign it for himself, but since we have a budget for the two of us it doesnt make a difference, plus I told him, I do him a favour not letting him signing the papers, it is just too much at the moment. So this is were we were yesterday, we knew, we have nowhere to go and only have 11 days till the opening, and we have to get the dogs a nice home.

In the meantime Scott took care of the outside bit, he went to the printers and now the front just looks amazing, it is done, we even put two signs on the light above the door, so people can see it from the street, it is perfect! Last week the painters done the front of the building and they painted it a greyish purple colour, but some of the main house tenants had a problem with it as usual so today they re-did it, now it is plain white, but actually it looks even better for us, you really cant miss the bar once you go pass it.

The representative was here from Coca Cola, he is really cool, we think he understands what we are trying to do here, and I guess he can help us a lot. We signed the papers and got some promotional stuff, I am especially happy about the Jack Daniels ice cube holder, it is so classy! We only have a couple of things on the bar now, but it makes such a huge difference, that it actually looks like a bar now... and there is so much more to come this week. Tomorrow, we get the first glasses from Heineken and on Thursday we are getting the beer taps too with the fridge hopefully, so it is not long now and we can practice for the opening and test pour our first lost in budapest beer. To be honest there is still a lot to do, we have to come up with a system how we are going to work, but I think it is just going to be a matter of time, and this place is going to run very smooth. I cant believe that I can do what I love to do, and not only that, but all the decisions made are ours, everything here represents us and our way till here. One again, it wasnt easy, and it is nowhere finished, but now we can see the results. It was such a journey, crazy!! The Coca Cola fridges and the first order of drinks come in on next Thursday, so it is a bit last minute, but everything else is going to be ready by then. For this, we had to get our company stamp done as well, so I think we are almost finished with all the legal parts of the company. 

After signing with Coca Cola we had to hurry for a viewing across the road, only about 5 minutes away from the bar. The building was a bit similar to our last flat in Vienna with Dori as you enter, she will know what I am talking about, but I had a good feeling, because that flat was very nice... So, it wasnt dirty or anything, just a bit old. As we entered, we went into the most unique property I have seen recently and I moved way too much in the past 3 years. It is a home of a painter, Marta Kiss, who by the way paints beautiful pictures. The flat is about 60m2 but it has a gallery as well all the way through. The best part is the kitchen and the bathroom, which has a black and white tiles on the floors it reminds us so much of alice in wonderland. We just need a big mattress on the gallery and that is it. They built it up really beautiful and it feels like a relaxing island in the middle of the city, 3 minutes away from the bar. We told her, we wanted it straight away, and she said, there is also a friend interested in it, but we were quicker, so we can take it. And they have a dog and a cat too, so she doesnt mind us having the monkeys in. Ruby and Sky are going to be so happy there!! So, the next step is that she is going to send us the contract and then we can move in fingers crossed before the weekend. YAY! so many results in a day, we start the week knowing we have a place to go and we can focus on the bar. The first flat was far, the landlady not nice, no hot water, weird neighbours, now we get a very nice landlady, we have already been introduced to our neighbour, who is lovely. We can cook a nice meal and sit down in the kitchen at a table, it sounds weird but we have not had that for ages... Can it get any better?

A lot left for tomorrow, we get the fire safety person coming over in the morning, than the Heineken pr and

glasses and we can work on the bar setup as well. Finally...this past 3 weeks felt like ages, it seems unreal that we can sleep in a bed in a few days. It looks like all that hard work and a couple of nervous breakdowns are going to pay off:). 

Busybusybusy

So much going on today, it is very lucky we could rest a bit before this week ahead. It is only noon, but we have done a lot of things already. Company stamp is getting done, ELMU was here, checking our meter, Coca Cola representative was here finalising the fridges we want to get and signing the contract. We have a viewing for today and another one tomorrow morning. Scott was busy with getting the entrance done, it feels so good, just taking care of the last bits before we open! 

We will be coming with a very long post at the end of today, till than have a great day everyone:)!!!

We our very pleased to announce that NDJT PROJECT will be hosting our Friday nights @Lost Coming very soon summer 2013 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cAG29Oz4K0

Finally Our Camera Is Fixed!!!!

After the weekend painting outside of the three connecting shops We have to start again on the front design of lost so much more to do but its looking really fresh window graphics arriving next week then drink sponsors etc but we still stand out from the rest!!!

One of the last quiet Saturday nights at Lost

Today, we can relax a little bit, Scott is already done with his masterpiece for the day, and I think he needs a bit of a rest as well sometimes, because he passed out on the sofa. Finally the dogs calmed down, so it is one of the rare moments when Lost is quiet. Yesterday we have done a lot, Scott finished off with the painting (again, I think it is never ending, but he loves it:)) and now the inside of the bar and also in front of the toilet looks very cool with the Kurkuma colour. Also, we brought a bit more personal stuff to the wall painting, so now we can say, that everything that is here, decoration, furniture and so on represent us, and what we imagined when we started it. It feels such a long time, and our ideas changed so much through this time, but I think it turned out even better than what we ever imagined. 

Lost Toilet entry Art work in process!!

You saw on the blog yesterday, but now the front door is done too, it is going to look crisp and clean, popping out of the building, so whoever is going to walk by will take a look at it. This already happens now, we are in the bar working and constantly we hear people talking in front of the door, discussing what they read on the window as our goal. It will be very exciting to see what kind of customers we can get, but the hotel next to us has such a potential that it is unbelievable. Dont forget, we still havnt been to any of the hostels in the surroundings, so that might boost up our clientele as well! Fingers crossed, the building is also happy with the new colour and they are not going to change it...

Time Machine entry now with lighting effects

I was busy yesterday doing the drink menu and creating the prices. As we said before we dont want to go high with the prices, but too low neither, in the area, there are quite a lot of places to go if you are only looking for cheap drinks, and we dont want to, and couldnt really beat them. Our goal is to have a standard, a nice crowd, who can have fun, and even when there is a Friday night special or a DJ playing, we are not going to make people pay for the entry. It still needs a lot of experience to see the financial side of the things, so I created something that I as a hungarian feel is a reasonable price, and than according to later events we will change this.The other thing that keeps me busy is the flat situation, we decided to tell the above flat owner that we are more than happy to take the flat to rent, we would make it look beautiful in the next seven months till January and then we can sit down and talk about buying it, but at the moment it would be too big of a risk to have that pressure that we have to pay a big amount of money in a couple of months. Hopefully she will understand this, and rent the flat to us anyway. Otherwise we are ready to go somewhere else, it is not a problem, we already have a couple of viewings for the week. Of course, the ideal would be if we could move upstairs...we will see.

scotts dream!!!!

Now Scott is looking at old arcade machines, I guess I will never understand men in this case, for me sound systems and pinball machines are not too exciting, but we might be able to rent it off from someone and in that case it would look cool in the bar. 

Anyway, for today we only have to finish the drink menu and create some shots and Lost drinks, but otherwise, since it is a long weekend and nothing is open, we can relax a tiny bit before a super busy week, where finally we are going to have our bar and order the drinks!! Cant wait, it is so exciting!!

Have a great weekend everyone:)!!

13 days to go!!!!!!

Where to go from here?

Nice way to go into the weekend, to the final countdown, it is only 14 days left till the Grand Opening!! We had a lot to do today, and the day is not even finished yet... We are now waiting for the people to come to do the sound check so after that we can get the licence to be open till 2am, which we cant really do in the first couple of weeks for sure, but it is all good, we have plans to make it perfect even with this opening hours. This is a very nervous wait for Scott, since he put so much effort into the sound system install.

Anyway, the day started as normal, and we were expecting a friend, who is doing HACCP checks in shops and restaurants, bars, so she said, she can help us, what to take care of and how to make sure that we are going to pass this check. She came here at around 10am, and we went through everything, I never thought about the things she pointed out, but after all it is not too much, we can do that in the next week, and she can come back on Friday, and even sort out the possible mice and bugs that appears everywhere in the city. It is very comforting every time something gets done, or we finally know how it is for sure, because sometimes it just feels like we have so much ahead, but step by step it is possible to get through everything. 

We just got the company registered as you know, so the next step is to open up a business account. We went to Raiffeisen to do that, so we are going to get a contact person, and this is where we are going to have our cash flow from the bar. Unfortunately as usual there was something missing, so we have to wait until Tuesday to open it, but after that we are really ready to roll! Our other problem is the UPC from the old flat, but we dont know yet what to do with it, either find someone to take it, or we take it, or cancel it, but is is very expensive...our usual great internet deal!!

After we came back to the bar, we shot the video of the inside, to show you guys how it looks like and the process it has gone through in the past 2-3 weeks. Crazy just looking at it, looks amazing! Check out the video to see the results!! 

At night we were expecting the guy for the soundcheck and as you know, we needed the agent from the above flat to open it for us, so he can check the noise and measure the decibel we have the music on. It is a new regulation that everyone has to get their place checked, I can say, it is quite expensive and funny at the same time, since they dont tell you what sound level you can have, they tell you to put the music on the level you want to have it, and then say if it is too high or not. The thing is, that when Scott stayed downstairs to do the music and we went to the flat it wasnt too bad, but what you can clearly hear is the bass in the songs, which is quite annoying to listen to the whole night. But officially we are in the bracket of the legal sound level. He also measured it in front of the door, and we have no problem there. After this he is going to send a statement saying we are fine, the only thing is that we can have problems in the flat above even if we are in the legal level. What can happen in this case is that someone can call the police saying we are too loud and we can get a plan done how we have to decrease the noise. But finally this is all done as well. 

Now, the biggest issue we have at the moment is to move in the flat upstairs or not to move in. I have been upstairs yesterday, and that place is alright to live in but it is not nice at all apart from the layout. There is a big potential in it, but the question is, are we able to afford it now or not? Should we get into such a big financial commitment in the first year of our business, saying that we are going to buy it in a year, which we dont know, or even in this 5 years, it is quite a lot of money. So, Scott really wants to move in, he is very determined he could turn it into a beautiful place, which I am sure of, but we have to spend so much money on it, that it is crazy, when we could spend that money on the bar, reinvesting. Or, we can look for a place near here, have a bit of time away from the bar, have a life outside of here as well for a couple of hours and move to a place where there is a fridge, a washing machine, a nice bed and we can finally unpack our stuff and relax, have a good night sleep. I come across sometimes, that I am the one who didnt believe in this project as much as Scott did. It is true, his speed is most of the time overwhelming for me, giving everything into one project is too much, and now jump into buying a property is again too much for me. I wish I could be such a believer as he is, but I stand on the ground and try to do things that I know we can do, afford and handle. It is not the case, that Scott can work 18 hours a day for about 3 weeks now, but I like and need to sleep my 7-8 hours before I can function. We have our arguments and we had before, he doesnt care about spending money so much, I know how hard we worked for it, and for me, I like to think it through twice what we spend on. I have to admit most of his ideas are brilliant, but at the same time if it was up to him, he would have spent the budget already. We are fine money wise, it is not the case, I just want to feel a bit more safe in a nice environment, work when the bar is open, get people in, enjoy our time and have fun, but knowing that we didnt put too much on our shoulders. I feel like this flat would be too much. Oh well, this is a difference between us that we always had, I never wanted to kill any of Scotts dreams, actually helped him make them come true, but I have to take care of myself as well, and what my dreams are, to have a nice bar and a home where I can go to after work, which is perfect for the dogs as well.

Two things before I finish, one, I know he doesnt celebrate it, but it is my dads birthday today, he helped us so much, moving back to Hungary and so on, just like all my family, so thanks a lot, and Happy Birthday!

The other thing, is that Igor, Skys brother is on the way here, we can have the two most beautiful dogs next to each other, yayyy, cant wait, beauties xxxx

Quick Chat part 7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjD1Wqo8JhU&feature=share

So we finally take you inside Lost In Budapest with the Bar 70% Complete it give everyone a ruff idea of the vibe and style of lost!!!

Music Support by Di Paul feat. Hugo Rey - How Deep Is Your Love
(Soul Avengerz vs. System Update Remix) is out on Conkrete Digital now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSV9-nTSLWY

Exciting start to the day just received our Blog Adventures Part 20 Inside Lost Music Support By Di Paul feat. Hugo Rey - How Deep Is Your Love (Soul Avengerz vs. System Update Remix) which is out on Conkrete Digital plus Kaa San ft Daisy Dela Diva - Show Your Love (Original Mix) which is out on Mjuzieekal Education for our up and coming Adventures!!!! Amazing labels such an international sound!!!!!!

Final touches of the revamp

So, early morning, we woke up, well Scott was quicker and he cleaned up the bar for about the 1000x time. We had people coming in at 8am, from Zaj DJ for putting up the 3D TV onto a bracket and the electrician for doing the lamps above the bar. It looks so much better and brighter finally. Not only that, but after he was finished with this, Scott and him went to Baumax again and bought everything we needed for the bar. It is funny, because the electrician doesnt speak english, so they couldnt understand each other always, I had about 20 calls from them interpreting what to get, what is not there and so on We have now a very cool bar shelf around the whole wall area, so people can stand by it and have their drinks on the shelf it now gives lost two looks day time chill on sofas and in the evening more party and dancing scott did some more amazing hand painted artwork  some as well to finish the place off.after this, all we are going to do is concentrate on furnishing the bar and setting it up with the best drinks and best equipment.

Also today the painters started with the front of the shops in the building, tomorrow they do the whole front of the house, so it going to look a bit different that what you have seen before, but very clean and refreshing, the style of the bar is not going to change by this painting.  

A little clue into scotts new Art work!!!!

We have no news from the flat above, but they said yesterday, that the contract is done, now the owner checks it, and then we can have it well and decide. The only thing is that now we have no shower really, and our stuff is in the small room in the bar, so it would be very nice to finally have a place to go home to. It is not perfect above, need a lot of revamping, but it has such a good character, I really cant wait to have a flat and settle down a little bit! We came to a conclusion today, I am not able to get up in the morning, seriously it is killing me, and I remember, even when I had dayshift in Vienna, it was hard to get up before 8am, I am just not a morning person, so we are going to create a roster, where we are going to have different shifts, and at closing we are going to be in the bar the both of us. Of course, Friday, Saturday we both have to work, but living here has its big advantages, like we only have to call the other one if it gets busy. This way we can relax a bit maybe and keep a routine in our lives. 

I just went to an aqua fitness class with my mom to relax a bit and take a long shower...who knows when is the next occasion, and when I got back, Scott was done with everything. Too bad that the dogs ruined the top of the camera, as we cant take any pictures, but he just did my favourite painting so far in the bar. It looks really cool, we got rid of one of the previous ones, and did a new one instead. But I am not going to say anything, since tomorrow, we will be filming inside lost for the first time for  Blog Adventures Part 20, where we reveal the bar progress so far for you, before the opening:)!! All I can say, is that with today it feels a lot more complete and -I know I say this every day- when the bar comes in, the beers and the fridges, it is just going to be perfect!!!

Tomorrow, so much to do, we have to go to the bank to open up our business account, than we have to cancel our UPC contract from the previous flat. We have a visit from a friend, who is helping us with the hygiene check and then at night we have the very important sound check done, so after that we can go to the city hall to apply for the longer opening hours. Everything is on track, and here you can watch Scotts video of todays events:):

More amazing Music Support for Quick Chat Part 6

Quick Chat Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzvB_9ExW8&feature=share

The lost twin found!!

We havnt really talked about this topic much, but it was not certain the whole time and we also didnt want to get in trouble in any way. I have weird feelings about all this moving around, and its funny to say that we still have a flat in Vienna, a flat in Budapest which we just left today, an up and coming flat above us and of course the bar. This means four properties in total that we are actually paying for as well, and yet, we still sleep on the small sofas we bought from IKEA in the bar. It is not that it was too uncomfortable, because it is not too bad, and although Scott cant sleep, I have no problems with it, but all our stuff is all over the place, we didnt settle down and make a home into our new home. So, today we left the flat from before, the one, that was our dream at the lake house and a month later we are already out of it, and we never felt like it belonged to us. From day one, the flat was strange and we couldnt just relax there and create what we had for example in Vienna. What the two flats have in common, is that both of them cost us a lot of money, but we always knew we are going to end up being in the bar all the time, but we never thought that we are not going to be able to have a nice shower after working. It could have been the flat that we stayed in for years, but it didnt happen like that. 

This is not Sky, its IGOR!!!

So, lets count, we know each other for over a year, we have been a couple for about 8 months and we have been in two countries, we lived in 3 flats and now own a bar together. That is what I call a speed, haha. Now for 4 days we have to wait for out new flat, so we can move in and hopefully we are going to stay there on the long run.

Anyway, everyone knows how it is, Scott was up at 4 or 5am and he was preparing for Zaj DJ to come in and set up the equipment for the sound. I was in bed till about 7, and then had to get the Consumers Book (Vasarlok Konyve) before I went to the City Hall, where guess what happened? Yes, we are now officially registered, so if we wanted to (and we would have any drinks here), we could open today! I can only imagine what Scott felt like when he had all his sound system in and he was standing in his first own DJ box, probably this is how I am going to feel like when the bar is done, because that is my second home...Having everything in, fridges, glasses and shelves and ready to open still feels so far away, although I know it is only about a week or two and we are going to have everything. So far, sometimes I felt like it is a never ending work, a mountain that is very hard to climb through paperwork, people who dont want us here, budget that is for me very important to keep up, and which we already spent more than what we planned. So, this is kind of nerve wrecking, but I keep telling myself it is only two weeks now and we finally open the doors for the public!!

The thing is, that we are going to have to wait with the late opening hours, because the committee at the City Hall only meets once a month for making decisions about it, so we already missed the one in May. Oh well, the most important thing is that we can operate. Also, I have been to the T-Home, we have to change our private contract to a business one, but it is not so difficult as they first told us. After that I talked to the owner of the parking lot, since we have to set up the smoking area with an ashtray at the fence of their property, so they are going to get back to us tomorrow, but we might rent a bigger place for the opening, so everyone can feel comfortable:)!

Scott made a video of the sound system set up, which you can check out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=draex9gcrMw&feature=share

We had to decide who is going to take care of cleaning the flat we are leaving and meeting my brother who is going to take our staff here. Of course, Scott is a lot more suitable for this, he finished in about an hour, cleaned the whole place, emptied it and than took all our belongings here. We have to wait for the other flat till Monday, but it is all okay, it is just 4 days, and we actually has been here for 2 weeks anyway. 

Skys daddy:))

One funny thing happened today, the owner of Igor, Skys brother contacted us through Facebook, and we are going to meet them on Saturday, for a nice pit bull reunion:D. Igor is just like Sky, and he already won a beauty contest a month ago, I knew we could take Sky easily, because everyone is amazed by her when we walk:)). Today was a nice day, things are moving forward... We are finalising the drink menu this week, thanks everyone for the replies on Facebook:)! It is overwhelming how much support we are getting from all over the world, Hungary, England, USA and so on, we cant thank you guys enough. We already have people interested from England as groups coming here and we are planning to create packages for tourists, with the best restaurants, hotels, hostels and places to go.  This is the future though, till then lets get this bar open!
Have a nice evening, I am now off for a nice run to recharge myself for the rest of the week:)!!

Its Time to put the lost sound system in!!!!

Feeling a bit more organised

This is the first time Scott and I have decided to share some of the bad news that has been part of the Lost project that has happened to us over the weekend. In any situation like ours opening a bar you will always get some people in the local area who moan or complain about new things happening on their doorsteps. We have had some problems with a couple of people in our connecting building who see Lost in Budapest as a nightclub or disco so they decided to cause us some problems as we explain, but this is a fact of life. We tried to  start Lost fully ready for any situations like this and we are. If people take the time to check out our Facebook page,Blogger and youtube it can show them we mean no harm and want to bring something very special  into Budapest connecting local business creating a tourist hotspot and showing people a overall good time with our many years experience with bars,clubs and general nightlife scene. We can pull this off to the best and most professional level without upsetting anyone on the way, at least we can try to do so.

 Although we knew that this week is going to be very important and eventful one for us, this was still a surprise:). Yet again, I dont know what happened last night, if Scott went to sleep eventually, or if he was up all night, if I have to guess, it is the second one, I was in a coma till about 8am, since we were cleaning last night till 4am getting the bar ready for the sound system install later in the week from ZAJ DJ and getting us into a proper system. The first job on the list was that we had appointment with a lawyer  to get some advice on the flat we lived in and find out the best solution in leaving the property and go through with him  about the crazy woman in the building here who had been causing us problems over the weekend and find out what real power she has legally, that could be bad for our business. It had been so nice to hear finally a legal person telling us, that all she can do is make it more difficult to get us the license till 2am, but other than that she is not entitled to do anything else and he confirmed everything we was doing and planning was in perfect legal order.

The other confirmation for us was that we met a woman who lives also in the building who we see regularly coming in an out of the connecting building with her little barking dog  and she stopped us today and told us basically the same thing, that she has nothing really against us, and only a few people supports her, so we should be okay, and she loves the bar already:)! That gave our day a nice start straight away. After this I met my mom aka the legend who once again helped us move our stuff from the flat to the bar till we have a new place, so I packed most of the clothes and we only have to go back tomorrow to finish off, clean and then just give back the keys and we are finally out of that nightmare. It looks like we are not really lucky with the properties we are renting, but in this case we were quite desperate to rent a flat in the city, otherwise we would have been stuck at the lake, and we fell is love with the flat when we first saw it, only what came after made us change our minds. The difficulties with the landlord and the hot water, the neighbours and we were not able to create a nice home in that place, so we have to move on.

I am not the best with changes, I like things I am already used to, so this past month and a half was just such a roller coaster, had its ups and downs, but now we can see the end of it. Seriously, it is enough to just change a work place, but we left a city, moved to another, got a new flat, we didnt know if we are going to find a place for the bar or not, is our budget going to be enough and so on, the list is never ending. Many times it was not easy, we had our arguments over things, but today both of us feels a lot better, and sometimes I can already imagine having friends and customers around and it is soooo exciting!!

So after we came back with all the packages, we sorted our TV out, now we have sky channels sports etc, and then finally we got the best news so far, which wouldnt be such a big thing but for us it felt like we have been waiting for it for ages, we got our company tax number. We are now able to order from the suppliers, we can have the beers in and already contacted Coca Cola to get the fridges. Hopefully soon the bar is going to look like a real bar:)! The landlady came around today, because the owners of the three shops in the building are going to paint the front of the house and they are making a couple of changes in the front of the bar as well, but still, it is going to look amazing!!

Much to do tomorrow, we are going to start with having ZAJ DJ around to set up the sound system at a nice early 8am appointment but knowing scott he will be awake and ready at 5am lol, after that we have to go to clean the flat and I have to go to the city hall too, and start with the registration now that we have the company. Busy day ahead as usual, but now the count down really starts, because if I am correct it is only 18 days till the Grand Opening:)!!!!

Quick Chat Part 5 The whole truth and nothing but the truth!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhsxvxwE-zg&feature=share