Budapest Local Customs

Tipping is easy in Hungary. In restaurants and bars we usually give about 10% tip. It's notting really strict, just round up the bill and tell the waiter to give you back from the amount you decide on (if the bill is 1235, say 1400, and so).

As you see, we don't leave the tip after paying the bill, but together with the payment.

We don't give tip in shops elsewhere. That's about it :)

The most famous beer brand of Hungary is Dreher. The Dreher brewery was founded by Antal Dreher in the mid 19th century. It is located in Kobanya which is the X. district of Budapest. In local pubs or at market stalls you get a Pint of Dreher for around 200 HUF (2004).

Budapest is a city of many water springs - most of which are of natural thermal water. In the city there are about 10 large spas. Aside from their healing properties, those baths seem to be a favourite meeting place for Hungarian people, or a place to spend an enjoyable Sunday afternoon with family and friends. I visited two of them: the Széchenyi Spa and the Gellert Spa. The Széchenyi Spa is by far the best of the two: it has outdoor thermal pools, it's possible to play chess in the water and it's all ornated with statues. It's also cheap: entrance is 1900 HF, but you get some money back if you stay less than four hours

The 15th March is a National Holiday in Hungary to commemorate the revolution of 1848.

At this time major festivities are being held around the city. This years new "feature": talking columns on the Danube corso between the Chain Bridge and Petofi ter (Pest side of the city).

On the columns we had famous hungarians and people from other nations as well with a recorded speech about what freedom means to them.

GOULASH
Hungarian goulash (gulyas) is a thick beef soup cooked with onions and potatoes and usually eaten as a main course. What we think of as goulash is actually ‘porkolt’, meat stewed with onions and paprika, the addition of sour cream makes the dish, whatever it may be, paprikas. Pork is the most common meat dish.

CABBAGE
Cabbage is an important vegetable in Hungary, either stuffed (toltott kaposzta) or made into a thick cabbage soup (kaposzta leves). Other delicacies include goose liver (libamaj) prepared in a variety of ways and roast goose leg (sult libacomb). Chicken paprika (csirke paprikas served with tiny dumplings (galuska) is always a crowd-pleaser.

SOUPS
Fisherman’s soup (halaszle) is a rich mixture of several kinds of poached fish, tomatoes, green peppers and paprika.
It’s a meal in itself. Lake Balaton pike-perch (fogas) is generally served breaded and fried or grilled.

NOODLE
Noodle dishes with cheese like sztrapacska go well with fish dishes. Strudel (retes) is a layered pastry filled with apple, cherry, poppyseed, curd or cheese. Look out for langos, fried dough eaten with garlic, salt, cheese and sour cream. It’s a very popular snack.

VEGETARIANS
Some dishes for vegetarians to request are rantott sajt (fried cheese), gombafejek rantva (fried mushroom caps), gombaleves (mushroom soup), gyumolcsleves (fruit soup), sajtoskenyer (sliced bread with soft cheese) and turoscsussza (Hungarian pasta with cheese).

BABLEVES
Bableves (bean soup) sometimes contains meat. Pancakes/crepes (palacsinta) may be made with cheese (sajt), mushrooms (gomba), nuts (dio) or poppy seeds (mak).

The Hungarians speak Magyar which belongs to the Finno-Ugric languages making it very different to Indo-European
languages such as English. This makes it a very difficult language to learn as there are very few cognates (similar words). For example goodbye is
Viszontlatasra (polite), thank you is Köszönöm, Excuse me is Bocsanat, Do you speak English is Beszel angolul, which bare no resemblance to any other European language!

Saying that they say Szia pronounced more or less "seeya" to say hello and sometimes goodbye which sounds like the English "see you". I find this amusing.

Another cultural point different to the rest of Europe is that they put the surname before the first name. So Julie Blint becomes Blint Julie! Therefore take care with names whilst you're visiting this country!

The 15th March is a National Holiday in Hungary to commemorate the revolution of 1848.

At this time major festivities are being held around the city, one of the biggest ones at the National Museum.

This day usually is one of the first real spring days. Now it actually happened be the very first "off the jacket" day in the year, that is why people are taking some sunbath on the stairs of the Museum.

(The National Museum is on Muzeum krt., near Kalvin ter M3 underground station)

People in Budapest (just like everywhere else :) like to hang out if the weather is good.

One of the newest "hang out spots" in the city is the little park on Erzsebet square. You can sit down for a chat or for some relaxation, and there is still a café downstairs if you get thirsty.

The place was originally ment to be the site of the new national theatre, but after the city/government changed it's mind, it bacame a underground parking place and the part above was converted to give place to some recreational areas (park, benches, etc.) and also to an exposition/concert hall.

It's on the side of Deak ter, so all the 3 underground lines will take you there.