The Dutchtub, a streamlined and stylish hot tub master-minded by Netherlander designer Floris Schooderbeek, adds new dimensions to the pleasures of outdoor bathing: mobility and sustainability.

by Anna J. Kutor

Photo by Dutchtub

The ancient Romans are credited with first tapping the healing properties of hot-water bathing, a ritual
increasingly adopted and popularized by Western cosmopolitan sophisticates, but
it was the introduction of modern pool technology and smart innovations in
design that really turned hot-tubing into an icon of high-style hedonism. A
wholesome backyard amenity for high-end homeowners across American and Europe,
today’s tubs come in all shapes, sizes and high-tech bells and whistles. The
trendiest hot water worshipers, however, are looking for energy-saving
solutions  and highly customized experiences that takes their personal hydrotherapy sessions to a new level.
Enter Floris Schooderbeek and his ultra-portable and ecologically-sound
Dutchtub.

Liquid Leisure

A freestanding coffee cup-shaped bathing tub warmed by a wood-burning fire, the Dutchtub captures the essence of Einstein’s ‘everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler’
motto. No electricity, no chemicals and no hard-to-handle instructions: it’s
all about conventional yet clever physics and visually slick,
back-to-the-basics forms.

Photo by Dutchtub

“‘I wanted to make a clear and understandable design so I took half a sphere as the tub with a clearly visual
and technically strong heating element. I magnified the spiral that is used in
many heating installations and used it as a fire basket,” says
Schooderbeek, a 3D and industrial designer who believes in a no nonsense, form
follows function approach to innovation. The tub consists of two main components,
a four-legged 260-cm long and 84-cm high convex shell constructed of
lightweight and long-lasting fibre-glass polyester, and a closed-loop spiral of
stainless steel that harnesses the energy of burning wood to heat up the
800-litre tub. Through a natural convection system, the built-in coils draw
cold water from the  bottom of the basin
and circulate it to the top, warming up the water to a maximum of 38 degrees
within two hours of starting the fire. “Besides the pure functionality of
the spiral it also makes for a direct experience of water and fire. One client
told me he forgot to take the bath, he enjoyed the heating and excitement of
being in control of the natural system so much he went to bed when it was
heated.”

Photo by Dutchtub

Boundless Bathing

Schooderbeek developed the groundbreaking green gadget in 2002 while still studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem. Seeing the designs’ big-splash potential, he set up a company with
long-time friend and business partner Jochem Karstanje, slapped on a 4450 euro price
tag and began marketing the energy-efficient tub with a youthful sporty image
and fashion-forward color palette. The complete model, which can also be
rented for 250 euros per day, includes a cover for shorter warm-up time, a
custom-made wok for cooking that fits on top of the heating spiral and a
beverage chiller.

Beyond its pure and decadent aesthetics and eco-friendly features, what really sets
the four-seater Dutchtub apart from its competitors is its maneuverability and
diversity in terms of placement. When drained, the tub weighs 75 kilograms,
which makes it light enough to strap to a car’s roof rack or even on a raft
behind a canoe. This allows bathers to enjoy a hot soak in the middle of the
wilderness, atop a cloud-piercing skyscraper or in the comfort of their own
garden - the possibilities are virtually endless.

Hungarian culinary ways, both traditional and fashion-forward, converge in one long stretch
on Pozsonyi út with a expanding line-up of restaurants, gourmet cafes, decadent
sweet spots and juice bars. Here’s how this leafy stretch along the Danube side
is staking a claim as Budapest’s next hot food neighborhood.

by Anna J. Kutor

Budapest has a fine reputation in the gastronomy department. Sure, the Jewish district is sizzling
- with its ever diversifying street food spots and impressive bars - the area
around the Central Market is packed with restaurants and cool little gastro
spots, but there’s another area in the Hungarian capital where food and drink
is thriving right now. From beloved mainstays to impressive newcomers and
promising whole-in-the-wall operations, Pozsonyi Út is on the culinary rise.

Halfway between the crazed bustle of the Nyugati Railway station and the leafy serenity of the Margit
Island lies this long stretch of road that offers a little bit of everything.
Gourmet cafes, street food spots rub shoulders with established restaurants and
trend-setting foodie spots, while child-friendly parks, design and clothes
shops and high-end delicatessens fill up the rest of the street.

Start your culinary explorations on the southern end at the foot of the Margit Bridge with a sweet
treat at one of the newer tenants, La Delizia Cookie Manufacturer (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 7, +36 30 304 0531). If premium cookies and lovingly handmade cakes are your
weakness then this tiny little sweat spot will be your undoing. With dozens of
delicious flavor combinations both traditional and boundary pushing, it’s hard
to pick the best, but the double chocolate with dried sour cherry,
lavender-lemon, or the pumpkin seed cookie with chocolate and chili will surely
not disappoint.

Just next door is Pure & Good (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 7, +36 20 272 7137), which - as the name suggests - is all about organic, healthy and nutritious food. The one-room space may be
diminutive but it is packed to the brim with a ever-growing variety of
unprocessed foods, including beans, rice types, noodles, gluten-free
ingredients, herbs, spice, cocoa, coffee beans, honey, sugar-free dry fruits
and snacks and even some goat milk cosmetics. One shop down is Fromage (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 7, +36 1 798 4848), a high-end delicatessen focusing on cheese, bread, wine and ham. This busy,
slightly eccentric and colorful corner shop sells an impressive collection of
domestic and international cheeses, salamis, freshly-baked breads and
croissants, jams, pastas and plenty of wine to wash everything down.

Chocolate is the calling card of Stühmer, the showroom and flagship store of the eponymous company
that was the first chocolate manufacturer in Hungary. Established in 1868 near
the town of Eger by the Hamburg-born pastry chef Frigyes Stühmer, the factory
produced some of the country’s most well-known chocolates and seasonal sweet
treats (think szaloncukor during Christmas time) till Communists nationalized the
company in 1948 and the family fled the country. The factory was revived and re-branded in 2004 and the myriad of chocolate and praline confections can now
be purchased in supermarkets as well as this specialty store on Pozsonyi út 9.

Head across the street for sugary delicacies of a different variety at Édesmindegy (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 16, +361 339 0209), a self-proclaimed dessert bar where traditional confections
reign supreme. Here you’ll find a rotating selection of all the beloved favorites, from palacsinta to túrós gombóc, madártej to krémes offered in the daily breakfast and lunch menus that deliver intangible food pleasures that go far beyond sweets.

Breakfast classics and tempting sweet treats are the specialty at Briós Kávézó (1137
Budapest, Pozsonyi út 16, +36 1 789 6110) customers who drop by for lunch,
brunch or an afternoon pick-me-up never disappointed in this neighborhood
favorite. The muted, pastel interior may be a bit dull, but the solid range of
egg-based breakfasts, sandwiches, pastries, coffee specialties are complemented
by a good selection of soups and mains to keep clients coming all day long. The
toy-filled kids corner makes this a popular spot with families. Budapest,
Pozsonyi út 16, 1137

A few clicks down is The Donut Library (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út
22)  , another edible ode to gluttony.
There’s no denying it - from the moment the smell of glazed vanilla scent hits
you, you’re hooked; then the smiling lady behind the counter suggests you try
the new specialty flavor (like pistachio-strawberry, lime or passion during
the summer). Before you know you’ve polished three orbs (probably at least one
of the banana-cream filled Minion-looking ones or the Oreo-topped
deliciousness) and you’re leaving with a beautifully-packaged box filled with a
dozen different yet-to-be-tried varieties - all presents for family and
friends, of course.

Looking for something a more refreshing and healthy, perhaps? Then cross the street and
a few meter onwards to Tütü (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 37,
+36 1 ) for some cold pressed vegetable and fruit juices. The new cool-kid of
the juicing scene, this health-conscious spot is all about the seasonal
combinations all made fresh to order in a way that ensures more vitamins,
minerals and enzymes get into every glass or take-away cup. Besides all the
colorful juices and smoothies there’s a good selection of coffees and a large
breakfast menu of breads, jams and yogurts.

Over the road is Szent István Park, a busy urban greenery favored by families,
youngsters and dog walkers as there are plenty of benches, playgrounds and
leafy spaces to go around. Or perhaps the parks’ popularity is due to Dunapark
Café (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út +36 1 786 1009), an elegant establishment catering to all
types: fresh pastries and cool drinks for the kid crowd, Mediterranean-inspired
lunch and dinner options for the cool crowd, who also appreciate the assortment
of Hungarian wines and cocktails.

With a healthy glow in tow, hit up Timmy Praline (1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 49,
+36 1 411 9642) for another gluttonous chocolate binge. This tiny little
jewel-box of a shop features exquisite-looking delicacies hand made from the
finest Belgian and French chocolate, alongside a selection of premium Lindt,
Amadei, and Coppeneur creations. The lavender infused truffles and
diamond-shaped salty caramel pralines are alone worth visitor for.

Fueled by our lifelong fascination with the extraordinary
and the eccentric, Europe continues to expand its sizable selection of macabre
museums, as Anna J. Kutor discovers

“When I die, can my favorite football and red fire truck be buried next to me?,” is just one of the
cringe-inducing questions I overheard a five-year-old ask his mother the other
day. In any other place, this would sound terribly absurd and appalling, but it
actually fit right in while standing over an open white wooden casket filled
with cigarettes, silver cooking pans, a lime-green plastic lamp, a boombox, and
a pair of pink-laced tennis shoes. We were witnessing a decidedly offbeat
collection of coffins and funerary heirlooms, as part of the newly opened
Nederlands Uitvaart Museum ‘Tot Zover’, or Dutch Funerary Museum ‘Thus Far’ in
Amsterdam.

Death. For some, it’s just an inevitable end to life that is better ignored, while for
others, it’s a source of intrigue and curiosity. For Dutch art historian Guus
Sluiter, death is an essential part of life that is meant to be observed,
respected - and diligently documented. As the director of the Funerary Museum,
Sluiter’s dedication to end-of-life rituals and the  cultural differences of death and dying were
key in designing the diverse display of death-related artifacts. The collection
- arranged around descriptive themes such as Mourning and Remembering, Rituals,
and the Body - ranges from mummification tools to surgical implants that
survived the heat of the crematorium oven, as well as dubiously-named hair
paintings and coffins showcasing different religion’s funerary practices. And
then there are the faux-skeletons, Elvis posters and computer screen with the
words ‘game over’ featured in the the Mememto Mori section (Latin for ‘remember
you must die’) where the lighter side of loss is explored. Far from being a
palace of the macabre, the museums premises and location, smack dab in the
middle of the Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats cemetery, serves as a sombre reminder
of the magnitude of death

In the Dutch cradle of cannabis and
contemporary life, it is no surprise that one can find a specter of shocking
and stimulating cultural institutions, such as those devoted to scaring the
living daylights out of an audience. The Torture Museum, conveniently situated alongside the
Single canal in front of the floating Flower Market, sets a particularly
unnerving scene with its dark-lit demonstration of pain-inflicting contraptions
through the ages. Sure, it’s much more of a tourist trap than a cultural
big-hitter (as are most torture-centered museums in Europe, namely in Prague,
Gdansk and Vienna), but getting an up close and personal view of hanging cages,
skull crackers and a real-life inquisition chair, can genuinely give you the
hebejebes. For a double shot of fear and a madcap chaser, head over to the
Amsterdam Dungeon where
Holland’s historical brutalities are turned into an adrenaline-raising
attraction, complete with chillingly dramatized stories of the Dutch East India
Company, a mirror maze and a rollercoaster ride. This petrifying playground is
part of a Europe-wide chain of haunted houses, so fear-loving fans can freak
out at other branches in London, Edinburgh and Hamburg.

Photo courtesy of Corpus

Surreal Sights

Perhaps the most culturally eclectic city
in Europe, Paris is home to a variety of wickedly woeful exhibitions that spawn
spine-chilling sensations. The assortment of diseased and deformed anatomical
specimens of the medical museum Musée Dupuytren (15 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine,
+33 (1)4329 2860) and the gruesomely deformed and artistically preserved
skinned cadavers of the Fragonard Museum (7 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, +33
(1)4393 7172, http://musee.vet-alfort.fr) are obviously creepy sights to
behold. So too is the peculiar window display and shop of Julien Aurouze (8 rue
des Halles, +33 (1)4041 1620), a pest exterminator company with
an evocative visual style. This long established vermin-control center is
fronted by an oversized sign reading ‘Destruction of Nuisant Animals’ and an
attention-grabing vitrine filled with two orderly rows of dangling stuffed rat
corpses and rodent poison. Inside, a whole slew of bothersome beasts are
arranged ceremoniously behind glass alongside the menacing tools and elixirs of
their liquidation, which boasts creative solutions to all pesky problems.

Not to be outdone in the competition of surreal sights, the robust Soveit-era
statues in Budapest’s Statue Park (corner of Balatoni út and Szabadkai utca) continue to portray the heavy-handed propaganda
of the Communist era. A fearsome, six-meter-tall figure of Lenin guards the
red-brick gates of this open-air necropolis, based near the borders of Buda.
These dozens of massive monuments of megalomaniac Communist leaders and
strapping workers from Soviet Socialist realist times once graced the streets
and squares of the Hungarian capital. The pervasive sense of power and
utopistic imagery is leveled with a heaping dose of irony and capitalistic entrepreneurship at the museum’s quirky gift shop, where sightseers can by the
‘last breath of communism’ sealed securely in a tin can.

A little less idealistic, but a good deal more gut-wrenching is the traveling cadaver exhibit, ”Bodies… The
Exhibition”, stationed in Budapest’s VAM Design Center through the year. Getting quite
literally under skin, this controversial collection shows a number of real
human body specimens and organs carefully dissected, preserved in polymer and
arranged in dynamic body-in-motion poses. Whether you find it educational,
entertaining or offensive, it will undoubtedly be an out-of-body experience.

Leftovers of Love

Topping off Europe’s bizarre parade of artful displays is Museum of Broken Relationships, a touring exhibition
criss-crossing Europe since 2006, that lands in Slovakia’s Nitra Museum
in October. Established by Croatian artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić as a
creative way of coping with their own failed affair, the museum is a stirring
visual show of painful experiences as it displays hundreds of sentimental
objects donated by heartbroken people the world over. Alongside love letters,
stuffed animals, engagement rings and photo-printed underpants, this divorce
donor center features some idiosyncratic remnants such as a prosthetic leg, a
get-away bike and a hatchet used to smash the ex’s stuff. Well, when I die,
I’ll definitely put my once-beloved belongings in the grave…not on display.

The culinary evolution of Poland, from fusion forces and milk bars to MoPo (Modern Polish) cooking. 

by Anna J. Kutor

In the shadows of weather-beaten Baroque gables and soaring Gothic spires, the walk- and waterways of Wrocław, the cultural and intellectual capital of Lower Silesia, are ripe with a myriad of
historical artifacts, business opportunities, entertainment outlets and culinary wonders.

by Anna J. Kutor