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Hungary
Impressions
& Musings
Many of our impressions are
scattered throughout our journal entries, but for other generalities or oddities, see
below. These are not meant to stereotype all of Hungary, these are simply things we
observed during our travels. $1 = 238 Hungarian Forints
Coffee: $1.25 for cafe melange
Cybercafes: $1- $3 per hour
Orange juice: $2 for huge glass
Bottled water (1.5L): $.50
Typical Breakfast: (usually included with room) - bread, butter, jam, yogurt, tea
Typical Lunch: $2-$3 - salads, kebabs, deli sandwiches
Typical Dinner: $5-$7 - goulash, vegetarian entrees, paprika, chicken, fish
Ice cream was the most common item consumed on the street
Accomodations: $10 for crappy hostel, $42 for Hotel Orion, nothing in-between
As Hungary was one of the
first of the "Eastern" European countries to be "westernized" it was
eons ahead of Poland, and very modern
People didn't "nickel
and dime" you everywhere you went; if you needed to use the toilet, and asked,
oftentimes it was free. We didn't feel like we had to be on the lookout for scammers every
second either.
When Kelly was there 10 years
ago, virtually everyone she met had been to Cleveland. This was still the case! An exhibit
in the film museum even showcased actors with Hungarian ancestry: Paul Newman and
Debra Winger, who were both from Cleveland; the museum also boasted ZsaZsa Gabor, Bela
Lugosi, and Peter Lorre.
Nearly all of the people we
met spoke some English; this made travel relatively easy.
Paprika is one of Hungary's
main products, so peppers were in everything.
The people we met were very
friendly and didn't seem jaded by all the visitors invading their city. Several times
people stopped to show us the way when we looked confused, and some even walked us to
where we needed to be.
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