Tuesday 17 April 2018

Eastern Europe

Before meeting my wife I had visited Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Since we are together Bulgaria and most recently Hungaria were added. We spent five days in the capital, Budapest.


Time for a comparison between Warsaw and Budapest. 

First of all there are quite some similarities between the two cities and countries. Poland and Hungarians are called 'brothers', there is a very close connection between the two countries from the middle ages. There is a saying which goes something like: Poles and Hungarians are brothers, they fight together and they drink together.


Also, both countries were part of the Warsaw Pact and exited the communist regime in 1989. You can clearly see that communist influence when walking around through the city and seeing the architecture and pastel colors.


But let's proceed to the things which the two cities and its inhabitants do not have in common.


Which differences we noticed between Warsaw and Budapest?
Before starting I would like to stress that I am always trying to not follow the mass tourism hurd where possible. Below I will describe my observations, not if something is right or wrong, good or bad. 


The language
I can tell you one thing, this is not a Slavic language like Polish.


In other Eastern European languages I recognize words similar to Polish, but this more sounds like Polish spoken backwards. And then drunk. It has less hard sounds and is pleasant to the ear though.


Food
All I knew from the Hungarian kitchen was goulash soup, my wife knew a bit more. She mentioned paprika, salamis and other kinds of sausages.


In Budapest we saw many many cool places to have local food or streetfood, traditional and more modern. The food looked delicious, but I was a bit cautious because I had a very bad experience in neighbor country Bulgaria two years ago.
But we tried and ate delicious goulash soup and streetfood.

Also here one bad experience at a restaurant which looked very fancy but served chicken so cold from the inside that we doubted if it came from the fridge or freezer before heating it up. But it can happen anywhere, it was just us being at the wrong place at the wrong time I guess.


We bought dried sausages, salamis and paprika powder to take home. My wife always takes some local spices back home, to create a memory using a specific taste.


What a legend she is.


Traffic
Comparing Warsaw and Budapest the difference is that drivers in Budapest are so friendly, not one time a car did not stop for a zebra crossing while we were crossing the street. We walked 22 km on average per day, so it was not just a lucky shot. I must say that Budapest has less zebra crossings and it is less crowded than we are used to. Also when crossing the street without a zebra crossing the drivers were extremely polite. Maybe it is just the southern lifestyle...people are a bit more relaxed.


Demography
We noticed a lot of international students on the streets in Budapest. Warsaw also has a lot, but we noticed that there were even more in Budapest. Also the local community is a mix of many nationalities, we really did not expect that. Not that I expected to arrive in a xenophobic place, but I remembered seeing some really scary racist flags at football club Ferencvaros while watching European football on TV when I was younger.


Public transport
The public transport is less modern compared to Warsaw, but good.


We traveled using old and new trams, a very old metro network, by bus and old trolley buses running on electricity.


Not the modern ones with batteries but the ones connected to electricity cables above the roads. We saw old versions and very old versions, but unfortunately I did not make a photo of those. My wife told me that the same trolley buses were used in Warsaw back in the days.



Timetables were comparable to Warsaw, so we never had to wait very long.


Lifestyle
There are so many runners in Budapest, amazing. Every day we saw hundreds of people jogging, most of them were pretty pacey. We also were surprised that not much youngsters were smoking. We are both smokers, but it was good to see this generation of people living a healthy lifestyle. In Warsaw it is moderate, especially during periods of smog during winter you do not see many runners on the streets, as it's simply not healthy.


Pride
Just like Warsaw, you see many flags of the respective countries. In the Netherlands this pride is not showing that much on the streets. You can also notice during international football games when the hymns are being sung. In Hungary and Poland I see and hear more passion and pride for the country, which I love to see. A thing which really surprised us was the fact that many Hungarian flags on the streets of Budapest had a European Union flag next to them. 



Of course you also see this in Warsaw, but way less than in Budapest. In Budapest we also saw lots of them on non-governmental buildings and normal apartment blocks.



Before the trip I was under the impression that the majority of Hungarians was not happy being part of the EU, but I seemed to be wrong. Or the flags are placed by authorities to let us perceive differently, I don't know. 


English
Everyone we spoke to in Budapest spoke some English, and even when their English was not super they tried to talk. In Warsaw this is more problematic, many people can speak the language but are not comfortable speaking. I personally do not mind and am learning the Polish language, but as a tourist I can imagine that you would like to conversate in English.


Hair color
Do not ask me why, but I expected to see a lot more people having a light hair color in Budapest. Reality showed that most people have dark hair. In Warsaw there are more people with a light hair color, natural or dyed.

Strong men
Another mystery why I was expecting to see many Johnny Bravo-like men in Budapest, with arms so muscular that that these guys must have issues finding clothes which actually fit. We just saw one, he really matched the stereotype I had in my mind. He was huge, wearing a halter top and clearly was a frequent customer of a local solarium. Or maybe he liked to take a bath swimming in carrot juice.


Old timers
Old school cars, I would say it is similar to Warsaw by numbers, but instead of Polski Fiats and the odd Trabant we saw some Wartburgs and Trabants.


Really expected to see more, but we mainly stayed in and around the center so maybe that is the reason.


Dogs
My wife will not agree, but in Budapest the populationof dogs are normal. From small to big in many variations. There is not a favorite race or size. Warsaw has a huge number of four feeted rat-sized dogs, by far the most popular size.


Extroverts
Way more in Budapest, maybe not like Berlin or Amsterdam, but I have seen more weirdos on the streets compared to Warsaw. Nice weirdos I mean, people who clearly want to express theirselves. Warsaw really is more conservative.

I would love to visit the city of Budapest more often in the future, an amazing city with a good vibe.

I hope you liked to read the blog post, like and follow the Facebook page to see more!

Much love. 

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Heading coins

Forget about rice, after a real Polish wedding ceremony you will get bombarded with coins.


Yes, coins. The good thing is that the newlyweds can keep the money (I cannot help it, I'm Dutch). The bad thing is that you will need the scrape them from the floor yourself, up until the last Grosz! That is the equivalent of 0.0022 Euro. But when the first signs of a possible hernia start to appear you will receive assistance.



The score:

🇵🇱
0.01 (1 grosz) ✔️
0.02 (2 grosze) ✔️
0.05 (5 groszy) ✔️
0.10 (10 groszy) ✔️
0.20 (20 groszy) ✔️
0.50 (50 groszy) ✔️
1 (1 złoty) ✔️
2 (2 złote) ✔️
5 (5 złotych) ✔️

🇪🇺
0.01 (1 Euro cent) ✔️
0.02 (2 Euro cent) ✔️
0.05 (5 Euro cent) ✔️
0.10 (10 Euro cent) ✔️
0.20 (20 Euro cent) ✔️
0.50 (50 Euro cent) ✔️
1 (1 Euro) ✔️
2 (2 Euro) ✔️

So that's all possible coins which were thrown at us, considering the nationalities of our guests. Just a quick mention that the 1 and 2 Euro cent coins cannot be used in the Netherlands anymore like in most other Euro countries. I could not resist a grin when noticing those coins, very...Dutch.

Now, we're not there yet, the other coins our guests threw...


Spanish, Albanian, Swiss and Hungarian currency. And a very old Polish phone coin 😂 The A stands for Automat I believe. 

To the non-Polish readers apart from the Dutch wedding guests, this is how it went. Check the video below and see the moment I was heading a 5 złoty coin thrown by wujek Jurek (uncle George). Nearly went K.O.😁

After clicking the play button it is recommended to choose full screen mode, click the icon at right top corner. 


All in all a great experience and a nice tradition, I hope you liked to read it. 
Take care and follow the Facebook page for more! 




Statistics

Just some statistic I posted a couple of months ago: Pretty amazing isn't it? Lets go over some other ones, not necessa...