Hungary

I was invited of a friend I know by “BeWelcome”. I was in Hungary from 17th April until 24th April 2015. It was my first trip to Hungary and she prepared such a nice vacation for me. I was so delighted to meet her and her friends as well as her relatives, especially her 80-year-old mother. By the way my host is a true Catholic, while I have no belief at all. I lost it during my life and I have never been a Catholic, but that does not matter for our friendship.

I was able to see a lot of Hungary, but I did not see the “Puszta”. I was enjoying lots of cultural events like concerts and a ballet as well as museums of different kinds. I will describe that more when I will tell you about the different cities I have been. I also tried a thermal bath (spa) and was delighted.

I did not find the real poverty Hungarians are talking about, even I have seen one or another beggar, but not as much as in other countries I was living in so far – except Malta, where it is forbidden to beg. I was surprised about the public transport. It is not only up-to-date, but also working very well – the buses and trains have always being in time. The network is very good and buses and trains are operating often. Even I only took pictures of the oldest line of the underground, there are three more and all are very well maintained. Furthermore I was surprised about the good quality of the streets and pavements. I really did not expect that. Therefore it is so important to go abroad and see with your own eyes. It was like having an old globe in your mind and finding a google map.

My Hungarian friend just told me, that Hungarian politicians set their own landmarks, while there are unemployed people, people with very low-income and lots of people who live of that they bought years ago (e.g. their own apartment, clothes of good quality). The politicians let build expensive landmarks like the “Palace of Art” in Budapest and a big arena while they closed schools and hospitals as well as they let build a 4m-high wall to avoid that refugees are able to enter the country.

I discovered that I really like the Gothic style and I like Budapest more than Prague, even Prague has lots of nice buildings, too. My favorite building in Budapest is the House of the Hungarian Parliament.

I can tell you already, that it was a great and different trip and I have to go back to Hungary another time, especially for the thermal baths.

Please step in and enjoy my experiences:

Budapest

Kecskemét

Szeged