Has anyone been to Hungary?

[techgamer]

I am thinking about taking a trip to Budapest and some of the surrounding towns. It looks like a beautiful country? Anyone have any advice or comments?

 

[Alistar7]

http://www.gotohungary.com/

Eat some genuine chicken paprikash. Exchange rate looks good 4 u 2 btw....

 

[keird]

There's a Buda side of the river, and a Pest side (Pest is pronounced 'pesht'.) The city is, of course, called Budapest.

Eastern European women are gorgeous, but the language isn't Slavic. It's more of a Nordic derivative.

 

[davestar]

don't go in august. it's hot.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: keird
There's a Buda side of the river, and a Pest side (Pest is pronounced 'pesht'.) The city is, of course, called Budapest.

Eastern European women are gorgeous, but the language isn't Slavic. It's more of a Nordic derivative.

The language is one of three in Europe which are not Indo-European, along with Basque and Finnish. It is VERY difficult to learn, and the pronunciation is so different that I had difficult time remembering the default pronunciation of each letter. I have an aptitude for learning languages (at least a test tells me I do, and I speak French), and it was the weirdest one I've ever tried to learn even a few phrases.

Anyway, it's a great country, and Budapest is fantastic. I'd also recommend a trip out to Eger, which is the seat of their wine country, and also try to visit a smaller village if you can (one of the wine country villages is where I went, can't remember the name).

You'd also be remiss if you went there and didn't hop on a 3-hour train ride to Vienna (Wien), assuming you have at least a week to visit. I never went to Lake Balaton, but I have read some great things about there.

I went there back in the early '90s. At the time, there were very few people who spoke English, which has probably changed since then. Most of the people I ran into either spoke Russian or German as a second language, and I had an interesting experience using English and French with someone who spoke Hungarian and German in attempting to order dinner. Great times!

 

[5to1baby1in5]

I've never been to Hungary, but I've been hungry before.

 

[rocadelpunk]

I don't have any particular advice, but both my parents were born in budapest and I had a friend who just traveled through there if you have some specific questions I suppose...

 

[tidehigh]

I've heard of Turkey

 

[josh0099]

I went for a weekend trip while studying aboard in europe, we had a good time for the most part

 

[jagec]

I went. Only to Budapest, unfortunately. Really neat city. Cool bridges, neat architecture, fun to walk around. Apparently they got the crap kicked out of them in WW2, but you'd hardly notice unless you were told...Berlin, on the other hand, is STILL a city full of buildings under construction, and bullet holes in all the old ones that are still standing.

 

[paulney]

I went to Budapest. It was a while ago (about 5-6 years or so), and the city was just starting to recover from what seemed to be long time of neglect and a rather weak economy. The tourist district was gorgeous, but it comprised just a few blocks on the Pest side of the river. Buda side was much more awesome. Anyways, I'm sure it looks much nicer now.

Don't know if the same still holds but I noticed Hungarians to be much like Russians (and I'm one) in their behavior: no smiles on the street or in public transport, rather gloomy people, everyone's dressed in black or cheap clothes imported from Turkey (I visited in early spring). But once you get to know a person closer, they open up and become much much nicer.

The only tradition that kind of annoyed me was tipping at restaurants: when the waiter brings a check, he waits and looks over your shoulder until you pay the complete amount with tips. Then he takes away the money.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: paulney
Don't know if the same still holds but I noticed Hungarians to be much like Russians (and I'm one) in their behavior: no smiles on the street or in public transport, rather gloomy people, everyone's dressed in black or cheap clothes imported from Turkey (I visited in early spring). But once you get to know a person closer, they open up and become much much nicer.

Funny, I remember something distinctly different when I visited Hungary. Perhaps it was warmer when I went, but there were more public displays of affection there than I saw anywhere else in Europe (ie., tongue swapping between couples in public). I saw it often enough that it was particularly notable. I still remember one couple on the corner, very well dressed and apparently affluent, who looked on the verge of ripping their clothes off.

 

[sandorski]

I was raised on Paprikas, great stuff. Be sure to have some if you've never had it before.