“Expatified,” Hungarian style
In this archival edition of Budacast, the hosts of Legal Alien, a now defunct English language radio show in Budapest, pummel Uncle Drew with questions about what it’s like to live as a foreigner in Hungary.
Finding his smile in Budapest
Drew says he arrived to Hungary in the fall of 1990, when he lived in a town called Szentes, which is on the Hungarian Great Plain not too far from Szeged.
He recalls that his friends planned on going to Hungary for a few months after experiencing the exotic manner of a legendary photography professor at Beloit College, Michael Simon, who was of Hungarian origin. Drew says Professor Simon was a bit eccentric, sometimes suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that students seek psychiatric help based on the photographs they had taken.
According to Drew, Hungary was likely a very popular destination in Beloit’s study abroad program because of Michael Simon’s popularity with students.
Professor Simon had some connection to Szentes, where Drew’s friends told him they were headed. Drew says that after hearing about their impending adventure, he asked “Can I go, too?”
“Sure thing,” said his buddies, Lesley and Matt.
Drew says that before deciding to come to Hungary he felt like he was “23 going on 50.” He just wasn’t excited by the 40-hour workweek and blue business suit lifestyle in the United States. He remembers his job at a video production company in the San Francisco Bay Area as a mixed blessing.
After graduating, and not having been on an exchange program at Beloit College, Drew says he was still searching for something.
“I thought I would teach English for a few months,” he says, explaining that he spent about 9 months in Szentes before hitchhiking a whole summer with his friend Matt.
Crazy things happened to him when he arrived back in Hungary at the end of the summer to gather his things and say goodbyes before heading back to the US: he got involved with a nice Hungarian woman (surprise!), and then someone offered him a job.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do if I went back to the States,” he explains.
Over the years, Drew says, he’s stayed in Hungary for different reasons at different times.
Living out of a suitcase or really setting down roots in Hungary are things that he says he has struggled with for a long time. Over the 20 or so years, he’s lived in about a dozen different flats in different parts of Budapest, dragging that suitcase.
Despite that tenuousness, Drew says he can imagine Budapest as one of his base camps in the long term.
In that context, he adds: “I know a lot of expatriates who live here in a state of suspended animation. They are here for years and years, but still live out of a suitcase.”
After all this time, though, he suspects he’s committed to staying in Hungary.
After having lived here a few years, Drew recalls that he tried moving back to the US at the end of 1996, but it didn’t really take.
“Once you’ve lived overseas somewhere your interests change. It was tough, especially going back to the Midwest; I often think maybe if I’d gone back to the East Coast perhaps I would’ve been in more international circles, and stayed.”
Alas, that’s not the way things turned out.
“My interests just changed and I always found myself gravitating towards immigrant groups in the US; I kind of feel like an outsider there, especially in the place like where I come from.”
Drew says his hometown of Rockford, Illinois is a very blue collar town with very nice people, but there’s a caveat: “People are not really interested in the outside world, or know very little and are really not curious enough to figure it out.”
“For example, my parents own a restaurant and we have lovely waitresses. A couple of years ago, one of our waitresses said, ‘Oh yeah, Drew, I hear you’re over there in…Afghanistan.’”
He says that in much of the US, most people would not know where Hungary is.
So, what’s it like living in Hungary, according to Drew?
He says that while Budapest is such a gorgeous city, he finds most Hungarians in the capital to be joyless.
“Despite the frowns on the metro, this place is like a village,” he says of Budapest. “Over the years I’ve met so many people, and not all of them are my best friends, but I love the feeling of living in a city centre – that’s what’s missing in a lot of America; I can travel on public transportation here and literally probably see one person I’ve met over the years every single day. Maybe it’s delusional, but this really gives you the feeling that you’re connected to a place. You really feel a lot more like you belong, instead of being in the ‘hyperbaric chamber’ of your automobile, and never running into anyone.”
He says that with such a great public transport system, all kinds of people rub elbows in Budapest. Still, he thinks he’s even adopted some of the slightly sulky national character here, for example being irritated by tourists who are having a good time out in public.
“There may be something good in that,” he says of his attempted subterfuge, trying to act like a Hungarian. “I like being discrete and being an incognito expatriate. If you’re quiet, you can just kind of live your life. You don’t have to be pointed at as a foreigner.”
Drew talks a bit about why Hungarians are the way they are and their sense of schadenfreude.
“In connection with that, I have an Iraqi friend whom I’ve known here since 1991,” he explains. “He has a shop in the 9th district and whenever a customers come in, and maybe they’re frowning, he’ll just start singing and snapping his fingers. Invariably, the Hungarians crack a smile. So maybe that could be a personal mission for some people, trying to cheer people up a bit.”
Finally, Drew talks a bit about podcasting and why he started Hungary’s online radio show (and podcast), Budacast: a passion for doing radio in Budapest.
Stay tuned!
Andrea & Uncle Drew
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1Ties That Bind (or not)
In this episode of Budacast, Hungary’s online radio show, “Ties That Bind,” we talk about the difference between how close families are Central Europe compared to in the US.
We also give you the scoop about how to get your residence established in Hungary (like Drew did) when you’re married to an EU citizen (Andrea), give a mention to what happens in Hungary on St. Stephen’s Day, 20 August, and recount how a Slovenian border guard didn’t want to let Drew out of the Schengen Zone (at 4am no less!).
Be sure to contact Andrea, head of Expatriate Services at Helpers Hungary, if you need help with sorting out your work visa, residence permit or any other official permit that you may need as a foreigner in Hungary.
Happy St. Stephen’s Day, August 20th. Drew says that while in the US the July 4th holiday feels like it’s the start of the summer, Hungary’s national holiday is always a signal that the summer is ending. Andrea says it’s because school is set to start on September 1st.
Perhaps you’re an international Erasmus (exchange) student, newly arrived to Budapest and you need some help sorting things out in Budapest? Again, Andrea might be able to help you with your residence permit or anything else.
And speaking of that, as he is now married to an EU citizen, Drew (an American) just received a 5-year residence card to stay in Hungary. If you’re like him, you know that renewing these is much more frequent for US citizens (and other non EU nationalities) than it is if you’re European.
Andrea and Drew talk about some of the steps necessary to get the so-called “tartózkodási kártya.” She says that, for an American, having an EU wife is the same as having a Hungarian wife (or husband). The residence card is much better than getting a Hungarian residence permit, which is like a visa sticker that is placed in your passport, because it’s good for 5 years. (Drew’s last permit was for less than one year.)
Now Drew is waiting for his address registration card (a “lakcím kártya”), which lists your address and basic information. It will be more permanent than the white cardboard thingy he has received so many times and never shown to anyone, and should arrive in the mail.
Ready for action
How was your summer vacation? We just got back from Tuscany, where our goal was to taste a lot of wine. Andrea says the landscape (taj) was beautiful. Drew says he was amazed at how expensive things were in Italy and is thankful for how affordable Hungary still is. They ended their trip in Venice, a beautiful place that can charge whatever the hell it wants.
Here’s a travel alert for those taking the overnight train from Venice to Budapest like we did: Beware of evil Slovenian border guards (at least one) who don’t want to let you out of the Schengen zone at 4 am! The guy couldn’t find the stamp in my passport when I had entered Schengen, so he didn’t want to let me out. It didn’t matter that I told him I was a resident in Hungary and showed him a paper from the immigration office that I was waiting for the renewal of my residence permit.
There was no reasoning with him, but eventually he stamped my passport out of exasperation. Was he looking for a bribe?
So what’s the difference between family relationships in Central Europe versus in America?
Andrea thinks family ties are not as strong in North America and recalls when she used to work on a cruise ship and one of the American guests kicked the bucket. She says that the family members accompanying him stayed on the cruise ship after he’d died.
Drew talks about the stereotype of Hungarians not being incredibly mobile, almost never moving far away from where their families are. He admits that he’s lived on both coasts in the US and that Americans just don’t feel distances in the same way.
While Andrea worked on cruise ships for about 8 years, she says that every 6 months she would spend one month back home to be around her family. She says she can’t imagine moving to a far away place like Australia, and especially as her parents are starting to get old.
Drew says that a long-time Budacast listener recently told him that she listens to the show to give herself a taste of what it’s like to live in Budapest, which she left when she was 8 years old. For him it is just shocking that any Hungarian could stay away for so long.
Budacast listeners, let us know what you think in the comments section of this site.
Our Word of the Week is tűzijáték, which is the Hungarian word for fireworks.
And, finally, I not only promise to stop talking about the weather (which has been absolutely sweltering in Budapest), but also will try not to introduce my wife with her super duper long last name.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew & Andrea
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0That time of the month (Hungarian landlord tips)
In this episode of Budacast, Hungary’s online, English language radio show, Uncle Drew and his wife Andrea attempt to give some tips on how to deal with landlords in Hungary.
House pets allowed?
Hungarian landlords can be a different breed, according to Drew, who says their behavior may be quite different than what you’re accustomed to back in your home country (or not). He recalls one of his first landlords in Hungary – a wonderful guy, but who would show up unannounced at the flat Drew was renting, and just barge in if he didn’t answer the door. It was a bit irritating, to put it lightly.
Another thing he says he’s experienced is that, many landlords in Hungary are eager to receive their rent money (that time of the month), but not so eager to spend anything on repairs or renovations to the flat. Before renting a flat in Budapest, you might want to make sure that the owner commits to making repairs in writing.
Andrea suggests that tenants make sure that their landlord see the flat repair in question, before just sending someone over to fix it.
When you’re ready to move out of your apartment, Drew says don’t sell yourself short when it comes to getting your kaucio money back (the deposit). Landlords may expect the flat to be in the exact same condition that it was when you first moved in, even concerning minor details like peeling paint, and are likely to try and deduct money from the deposit money you gave them when you moved in.
All foreigners living and working in Hungary are required to have a registered address (they receive a “registration card” from the authorities). Unfortunately, few landlords want to officially register their tenants at the address of their flat, because they are concerned that the Hungarian tax authorities will be aware of the rent they are receiving, which officially would be subject to taxation. For similar reasons, it’s also typical that most Hungarian landlords want you to pay the rent in cash – no bank transfers!
Of course there are exceptions to these phenomena, so choose your landlord wisely.
Andrea says that if you do like the flat but the landlord won’t let you officially register yourself there, you will likely need to find a friend who gives you permission to register at their apartment. This can be a bit of a problem, as you obviously will not be living there. Make sure your name is on the mailbox there.
She suggests that before renting a flat one should make sure that they have gone over all of the details of the rental contract with the landlord; clarify everything in advance. Also, make sure you show your rental contract to someone familiar with the law in Hungary who can read the fine print.
Typically, apartment owners in Hungary ask for two months’ rent up front as a deposit, as well as the first month’s rent.
In the final analysis, Andrea and Drew think that it’s almost as important to make sure you have a landlord you can live with, as it is to find a decent flat in Budapest. For more info on finding a flat in Hungary, check this out.
If you’re an expatriate in Hungary who needs HELP with these or any similar issues, be sure to contact Andrea Szalczer-Leifheit, who heads Expatriate Services at Helpers Hungary.
Budacast’s Word of the Week is “tulaj” which is the shortened version of tulajdonos, literally “owner” which is how Hungarians refer to their landlords.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew & Andrea
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0Stay and Start Up (Small Biz in Budapest)
This week on Budacast, Hungary’s online radio show and podcast we have lunch with a local British entrepreneur and get the inside scoop on why he decided to stay in Budapest and start his own small business in Hungary.
(Be sure to LISTEN to our interview at the bottom of this post, or in the audio player on the right-hand side of this page.)
Living the dream in Budapest
Colin Snead is the Managing Director of Fürge Futár, an international delivery service with very friendly rates.
Colin recalls that he first came to Budapest about five years ago to work for his father’s bus manufacturing company as a purchasing manager. But unfortunately in 2008 the company went under, so he had to make a decision to stay or not. There was a flat, girlfriend and cat involved.
According to Snead, it is difficult to find a high-paying position in Hungary (considering Western salaries), so he decided to start his own company, Fürge Futár, which he translates loosely as “fast squirrel.” (Colin admits it sounds better in Hungarian.)
“We are a low cost, international door-to-door parcel delivery company,” he says. “We use major carriers like DHL, TNT, GLS and UPS to deliver the parcels to our customers. We send a huge volume of parcels and for that reason receive a very large discount, which we pass on to our customers. So everyone can benefit from a premium carrier without paying a premium price.”
Fürge Futár, says Colin, can be a great service for expatriates who want to send things home or gifts to their relatives around the holidays. To send a document overnight to the US can cost roughly about 3,000 forints, despite costs having greatly increased for international deliveries in the last few years.
Why oh why Budapest?
“Our main aim is to keep the price as low as possible,” he says. “We don’t want to sell ourselves on price, but it is a large part of what we do: making shipments affordable.”
Colin says his customer base is very diverse, from pensioners to fairly large manufacturers, making it difficult to market the delivery service.
One thing he believes is still a big difference between Hungary and western markets is the service industry. “I think everyone can feel that. I’m not sure of the reasons – the political situation, a splashing of low salaries, which generally makes people feel less valued as an employee, and as a result I think the consumer can feel and sense that.”
“On a business level, we deal with a lot of different types, from moody stereotyped Hungarian businessmen with a big cigar. And they’re great fun, you just have to slowly chisel away at their tough shell and they’ll open up eventually.”
According to Colin, Hungary as a place to do business is slowly changing, because the today’s youth are very hungry to get to where they’d like to be.
“It’s a great place to find skilled employees with great ideas that want to contribute to your company. Over the next 10-15 years we’ll start seeing a big difference in the way people do business – less hierarchy, less stereotypes – and it’ll be a lot more ‘win win.’ There’s a little bit of ‘win lose’ in there and people fight and scrap over a few forints just to perhaps feel they’re better than the other person.”
Before the strike
Meanwhile, Budacast’s word of the week is “disznótoros.” Andrea says it’s a word that has to do with the slaughtering of a pig, a “wake” of sorts in which all of the most delicious parts of the animal are cooked up for a big feast.
Far far from a “light lunch,” we recommend the Belvárosi Disznótoros, which is just off of Egyetem ter in Budapest (1053 Budapest, Károlyi Mihály utca 17). It’s cheap, traditional and delicious. Try the traditional Hungarian sausage, kolbász. Lunch for three people cost us 1,700 forints.
You’ll probably need a coffee afterwards (like we did), so check out the Hungarian retro café Táskarádió Eszpresszó, just around the corner.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew & Andrea
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1Beat the Heat (in Budapest)
At the risk of frustrating my wife, who’s bored with all of our talk about the weather in Hungary, it’s turning out to be one heck of a hot summer in Budapest. Temperatures have been at or near 40 degrees Celsius (which is around 100 degrees Fahrenheit) for several days now.
Coping mechanism
Considering I’m originally from the Midwest of the United States, not too far from Chicago, I almost amaze myself that I’m able to get by here without air conditioning – as do most Hungarians. The heat here in this part of the world is much less humid than what we suffer through back home.
With all that in mind, we’ve dug up an archival episode of Hungary’s online radio show and podcast in which our expert, Budapest resident Áron Mozes, gives us the scoop on how Hungarians beat the heat during the summer. Áron tells us about ‘strand’ culture – the Hungarian beach – as well as Budapest’s hot nightlife.
Aside from Budapest being a sweltering place in the summer, he says it’s filled with tourist sites, thermal baths and places to see, parks and fun nightlife. Áron says he spends a lot of the season biking around Budapest.
But what do other Hungarians do in summer. According to him, going to parks, going to the thermal baths, traveling on the Danube by boat, visiting festivals, or just lazing away on the banks of the Danube.
Áron suggests going to Margaret Island (Margit Sziget) to spend an entire hot summer day in Budapest, to watch people and beautiful women as well as getting a tan.
He says that a Hungarian “strand” is where the locals go to cool off. Out of Budapest’s 20 thermal baths, many of them are open air and great places to go during the summer. The Palatinus Strand on Margaret Island, he contends, is the most popular and has wave pools and slides for kids of all ages.
According to Áron, if you’re headed to the strand be sure to bring a bathing suit, sandals, a towel and suntan lotion. He says that a day at the Hungarian strand will set you back about Huf 5,000 (but don’t forget about inflation; our interview is from three summers ago!). In addition to your entry ticket, have a Hungarian langos (fried dough with cheese, sour cream, etc.) and a froccs (a wine spritzer) and you’ll fit in with the locals. For a quieter atmosphere, he recommends the Csillaghegyi Strand.
Finally, Áron raves about all of the wonderful open-air clubs in Budapest which are loaded with stunning women. He likes the cluster of clubs at Hajógyári Sziget.
Our Budacast Word of the Week is kánikula, which means heatwave in Hungarian.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew & Andrea
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2Bun in the Oven (in Budapest)
No, it’s not what you think. Wink wink.
In this episode of Budacast we speak to Réka Morvay, a psychologist and practicing doula here in Budapest.
Bun out of the oven
Her background – born in Hungary, but having lived a significant amount of time and studying in the US – makes her particularly well suited to helping expatriates with their personal issues or assisting them in having a baby in Hungary.
Uncle Drew learned that a doula is a person who provides support to mothers during pregnancy and giving birth, but does not make medical decisions. (Check out Budapest-doula.com for more.)
In our interview Réka offers her tips for having a baby, gives a rough outline of the costs and says that going to the most expensive clinics in Hungary does not mean you’re going to get the best care, and talks about why this country is such an awesome place for raising children.
And for those expatriates struggling with their personal lives in Budapest, Réka suggests they find a community, whether it be a business organization, women’s club, or sports team. Being, and connecting, with people is an important element to living in a foreign country like Hungary.
You can even get connected through her center in Budapest called Új Életkör. Get info at Budapest-moms.com.
Meanwhile, our word of the week – loosely connected to this week’s interview – is “pocakos” which could be loosely translated as potbelly.
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0Cucumber Time (Summer Holidays)
Summertime.
The living here is extremely easy in Budapest during the sweltering summer. Still, most people get the heck out of town.
Coming Down
In this week’s show, we offer you a few memories of summer holidays past, both in Hungary and abroad.
Then, we tell you what we’ve been up to work wise, and express our relief that things are finally beginning to slow down (and we can devote a bit more time to Budacast).
Finally, we dish up the Word of the Week: “leeszi magat” which literally means to “eat oneself down.” But what it means is to spill something on yourself when you’re eating.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew & Andrea
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1Padlizsán Paradise
Uncle Drew is flying solo on this week’s episode of Budacast in which he contemplates “padlizsán” – otherwise known as eggplant or aubergine.
His Transylvanian wife Andrea is quite a specialist when it comes to what people there call “vineta.” She’s known to burn 20 kilos or so to be able to eat the stuff all winter long (an obsession?). Okay, it’s de-lish, one hell of a dish.
Then, Drew offers five tips for not getting ripped off in Budapest, whether it be through scams, petty theft or money changing. He says the upside is that foreigners are now treated better than they used to be.
Stay tuned!
Uncle Drew
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0Long Haul Larry
In this edition of Budacast (5 April 2011) we introduce you to “Long Haul Larry.” No, he’s not a truck driver, but part of an ambitious retired couple who have chosen Hungary as the place to hang their hats.
Fixing a hole
Larry Ellis describes the weird reaction he received from colleagues when they heard he was moving to Budapest.
Also, Andrea reads a great shout out we received from Steve Gardner in the UK.
We offer you some “hasznalhato hirek” or “news you can use.” Police will be checking bicyclists around the country for whether they have consumed alcohol while getting behind the handlebars.
And, finally, hear our WOW – it’s the word(s) of the week on Budacast, a great way to pick up a few words of Hungarian.
Stay Tuned!
Drew & Andrea
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2- You go to their "who we are" page and all there is is a block of text, no names, no faces. Yea or nay?
- Iced espresso out of our little scorched pot. Make that a double!
