I arrive in Budapest woefully unprepared. Euros don’t yet work here. I need forints but the cash machine at Keleti station has run out.
Hungarian isn’t from the same family as most other languages in Europe. It’s Uralic rather than Indo-European. That makes my usual survival tactic of guess work difficult. The word for street ‘Ut’ doesn’t resemble anything I’ve come across before, so it takes a little while to figure out what I’m looking for.
Maybe for this reason I end up at the bus terminus instead of my hotel.
I know how you feel about the language.
I had the same problem in Budapest. I was there as the teacher on an exchange with 6th formers.I thought i was ahead of the game in booking our train tickets out west to Miscolz, for the following day. Unfortunately the woman in the station office booked them for the same day. So the next morning, with minutes to go before departure our tickets were checked by a very stern female conductor and pronounced invalid. I ran back to the office and was saved by a young Hungarian woman who was working as an au pair in London.
Have a great trip. May your visa materialise.
Love, Liz
Say hello to Buda and Pest for me and find me a lovely fridge magnet. xxxx
“Egeszsegere!” pronounced “Egeshaygedre” means Cheers! in Hungarian. Should be useful.
The language is tricky – but the people are lovely.