Lost Adventures @ the City Hall

First of all I would like to warn everyone in advance that I am still quite upset about everything that has happened, so it might leave a mark on what I write. Anyway, when I last wrote I think we were just still in the process of waiting for the Committee Meeting at the City Hall, where 3 lawyers basically decide in these legal things and they tell us where we can go from here. On Tuesday we got the electricity back, so we were already open and had a really good day in the bar with the english, australian and belgian customers we had in. First thing on Wednesday, we went to the City Hall, and asked the representative if all of our papers are fine and if there is anything else we can do. The answer was a weird nothing and all he said, is that the communal representative (kozos kepviselo) of the building was there the day before and she cleared all the votes and all the not clear things about the bar. I asked if there was a meeting and he said, nobody knows, but as far he heard we arranged a meeting with the city clerk (jegyzo), so we should just ask them what is going on. The reason for us to arrange this meeting to maybe get somewhere and finally talk to someone who is responsible for something that is happening. It seems like everyone is just putting responsibility on someone else saying it is not their fault. 

Still full of hope

After this, we just came to open the bar and the last information we had was that it also can happen that there is no meeting till the end of September. To be clear, this bar cant make it till the end of September, so we have to come to a conclusion before, but by law, they cant drag on a thing like this for a 120 days instead of 30. The City Clerk said we can meet, but we should meet earlier as she is busy at 2:30 when we were supposed to meet. Last evening I got a phone call saying there is going to be a meeting regarding the opening hours today and it says on the official site of the city hall as well that the topic of Lost in Budapest is there. We were told not to see the clerk as there is no point now, but we dont trust that much anyone anymore and thought at least we should present ourselves in order for them to hear both parties about the case (Erika is going there all the time and probably has friend in the city hall). 

We dressed up nice and went down there. I was VERY nervous, I hat all these official kinds of things and now our lives and business is on the line. Got mixed feeling, we told the lady how it was, and she said, they heard everything already before from different bars, it always goes the same way, we should cooperate more. I told het, we got 56% of the buildings support and we only dont get along with Erika, who refuses to talk to us and everyone else is on our sides, plus the building has a history which is not very fortunate for us. Absolutely no help from her side, at the end of meeting all she sad was on one hand there is all our money and business and on the other there is someones peace. 

Seriously, there is someone living in the building who is unemployed, basically we are paying for her benefits, and on the other hand there is us, who pay taxes, who work, want to trade in Budapest, make things better (hahahahahahaha naive) and we are ones who get knocked over by the authorities. If it is so, than Hungary is everything but entrepreneur friendly, and it is not worth it for anyone to take a risk in Hungary, because you are about to loose. It would be okay if she was the one living above us, but no, she lives on the 6th floor, the furthest of the bar, so there is NO WAY she is disturbed by any ways by us. 

Sooooo, after this me and Scott were arguing about whether or not to go to the Committee meeting, I really didnt want to, it is so upsetting that there are no words for it. After about an hour we decided to go. There was no one else in the meeting, only the people we already know from the city hall and 4 people on the Committee. As we were there they decided to put our application first. So, than this woman came, who is the Head of the Trading Department, very very very rude, doent even say hi, thinks above everyone women, who said, unfortunately they didnt give the votes to them, as they forgot, but as they see, they suggest they should decline our papers, because it is not clear which vote was when. So:

1. February 50.01% building votes for us having a licence till 2am, in return we pay the building 140 000 HUF a year for 5 years (700000 in total)

2. May 2nd-July3. Erikas votes 53% said they are against any of the shops in the building to be open after 22:00

3. July3/July10. 55.6% without the city hall 6.7% saying that they support us, we can be open till 2am, each signature collected by myself and Scott.

 So this was the order of the votes, but for them something was just not clear, they still hold our licence back. Going there yesterday, getting no answer if everything was okay with it, now not helping I seriously dont understand. What do they want money? It just makes us paralised knowing nothing again, and this was our chance to get it. They said, if we get the order in right they will make a decision next week. As being so trustworthy I would be quite surprised. So this is where we are at the moment, and if anyone has a person they know, who works in the 6th district City Hall, or someone who can give legal advice on what to do, it is more then welcomed. I never though I would become the one who is complaining, but there is no way I will let my bar go down over this now. We will still fight for it....