Football: Hungary vs. Liechtenstein

On Friday I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see Hungary play a friendly match again Liechtenstein at the Puskás Ferenc Stadion. Now I admit it, I like football, and so I couldn't pass up the chance to see Hungary play, even though it was only a friendly. My Mum and her husband were visiting, but I couldn't not experience watching Hungary play in Hungary, so I dragged them along too—actually, I didn't have to do too much dragging, since they enjoy football too.

So we took the metro from Astoria up to the stadium and, not know exactly where the stadium was, we decided to follow the large crowds of people—I guessed that they were going there too, and luckily it turned out that they were. One of the reassuring commonalities between football matches in all countries is that there will always be hordes of fans drinking cans of beer on the way to the match, as well as industrious entrepreneurs selling beer in their makeshift shops, which consist of a fold-up chair and about 10 cases of supermarket beer.

After getting searched for knifes and other weapons we were eventually let into the stadium grounds, and quickly made our way to the stands. How should I describe the stadium ...? Well, in the words of my father-in-law "It's not Wembley". That's true. It wasn't a newly constructed, multi-million dollar stadium. On the contrary, while the pitch was obviously well cared for and maintained, the stadium itself looked as if no one had invested in it since it was opened in the early 1950s. But still, the stadium was at least half-full and so there was lots of chanting, which mainly consisted of some sort of shouting contest between the stands, where one would shout "Hungaria and the other reply "Magyarok", i.e. Hungary, Hungary. It all created what was actually a nice atmosphere.

Now, we have to remember that Hungary was playing Liectenstein, a country with about as many inhabitants as my hometown in England ... so less than 40,000. The players are therefore part-timers, who probably have day jobs as bank clerks, plumbers and insurance salesmen, so most of the match consisted of Hungary attacking. All in all it was an entertaining match—I won't give a detailed analysis of the entire match, suffice to say that Hungary spent most of the match attacking. So, perhaps it was to be expected that they won 5-0. But that was good, everyone was happy and singing, and they all left the ground in a good mood. I was pleased as well, not only because Hungary won, but also for the chance to see Hungary play, which incidentally is exactly 100% more times than I've seen the English national side play!

Sightseeing: Heroes Square

Since I have quite a lot of family and friends visiting over the next couple of months, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to play "tour guide" and learn about some of the sights of Budapest. And so, in no particular order, I'm going to start with Heroes Square, or Hősök tere as it's known in Hungarian.

Heroes Square is on the Pest side of the river, and at the end of the lovely tree-lined Andrassy Avenue (oh dear, this is already starting to sound like a tourist brochure - I apologise in advance). It's also on the number 1 metro line (the yellow line), and rather unsurprisingly you just have to get off at Hősök tere.

As you can see from the picture, it's a big column along with lots of statues - yeah, okay, that description doesn't really do it justice. It's actually a really nice place, a large square with the Museum of Fine Arts on one side and the Palace of Art on the other - both beautiful buildings in their own right.

The main monument was finished in 1900 and is called the Millenium Monument. It was apparently constructed when Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The statues at the base of the main column are the 7 tribal leaders who originally formed Hungary, while the statues in the semi-circle part of the monument represents various saints and important figures in Hungarian history. The first one is Szent Istvan (Saint Stephen), the first king of Hungary, the rest ... well, I'll leave that to you to find out :-)

Just one more thing ... around the square there are also some other places worth visiting ... there's Széchenyi Spa Bath, Vajdahunyad Castle, an ice skating rink, all in the city park behind Heroes Square. Here's a link to some more information about them on Wikipedia.  

Ok, that's my tourist-brochure bit of the day :-)

The "Ruin" Bars

One of the many cosy corners
 at Szimpla

After having been here a couple of months now I've been to a few of the bars in the city centre - certainly not all of them, because there are literally hundreds ... from small, 1-room bars crammed in-between shops, cafés where you can sit outside and people watch, open-air bars (which I assume are closed in the Winter), to the posh (and not so posh) multi-floor discos.

Anyway, of all of these bars my favourite are the "ruin bars" as they're known, mainly because of the atmosphere - relaxed, friendly, and there's always a buzz about them. They're called ruin bars because they're set in the courtyards of large, half-derelict buildings in the VI and VII districts. The biggest ones that I've found so far are Szimpla and Instant, with lots of different levels and rooms and styles. Okay, maybe the styles aren't all that different - the furniture is a mix of old chairs, sofas, benches all thrown together around an old table. Szimpla is a more relaxed place, where the music isn't so loud, and you can even rent a water-pipe if you want. If you want to dance then I'd recommend Instant, since there are dance floors playing different styles of music hidden away in the building.

You can get lots of different drinks (soft drinks, beer, cocktails, shots), which are all relatively cheap (about 2 euros for a beer). And even though it's a little expensive, you should try at least one of the many different flavours of pálinka - a traditional fruit flavoured brandy - sour cherry was my favourite, at least, from what I remember it was :-)

The Devil Never Sleeps

I got the locks changed,
not THAT one in the end.

I'd heard rumours that there was a lot of crime in Hungary. A few months ago in Denmark, my Hungarian friend was laughing at one of the bike locks, "In Hungary that lock wouldn't last five minutes" he joked. He seemed to suggest that anything not bolted to a building or streetlight would be automatically stolen. Also, I have to admit that it didn't actually make me feel particularly safe that I had an iron gate as well as the regular door for my apartment, bars on the windows and a total of 5 locks. I asked one of my colleagues whether it's normal to lock all the doors when you're at home - her reply was "The devil never sleeps". I couldn't help but wonder whether that meant that God was often asleep ... Anyway, admittedly I can't understand the news reports, so maybe lots of crime is reported, which heightens this fear, but I decided to try and find some statistics, so that at least I could compare Budapest to other European cities.

According to a report from 2006 (see 1), I discovered that Hungary has a similar number of police officers (under 300 per 100,000 people) as England, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and a few other countries. In comparison to other European countries it's not that many. Other countries, such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Russia and Cyprus has many more (over 400 per 100,000 people). But then again, maybe this fact doesn't tell us all that much, how about crime statistics ...

Of course, let's keep in mind that these statistics are just a guide and all kinds of methodological issues can blur the picture, e.g. how often are crimes actually reported and recorded by the police, severity of crimes, differences between laws in different countries, and so on - you get the picture. So, based upon these statistics from 2003, there were less criminal offences (per 100,000 people) in Hungary than lots of other countries. Here are just a few statistics: Hungary 4,110; Denmark 9,013; Ireland 2,634; Poland 3,799; Germany 7,976. Actually, I was surprised to find that Sweden was the highest with 13,995. Does this mean that Sweden is a terribly dangerous place ... mmmm, I doubt that somehow. I've been to Sweden and it's like a blunt wooden spoon, designed for children - there doesn't seem to be anything dangerous about it. So I think we can be a little sceptical about what these statistics tell us.

Okay, so let's move on to something more serious: homicide. So, are there lots of intentional homicides (as opposed to manslaughter, e.g. car accidents) in Hungary? No, is the simple answer. If someone really wants to kill you then, based upon the statistics, they're probably Russian or Scottish. Quite why the Scots (16.2 intentional deaths per 100,000) are so violent I don't really know, but in any case, in Hungary it was only 3.8 per 100,000 according to these statistics. That's actually less than Denmark (4.1), France (3.9), Finland (9.2!!!) and Belgium (8.4!!!). If you're visiting it's rather unlikely you'll be here long enough for someone to want to intentionally kill you (but who knows, maybe you're a very irritating person).

Robbery is another one ... apparently only 33 per 100,000, which isn't all that high when you compare it to Spain (222) and Belgium (248). Remarkably, it appears that you're less likely to get robbed in Romania (12) than in Iceland (13) ... mmmm ... I'm not sure whether we can entirely rely on these statistics. Even Denmark, which I know to be a very safe place, has a higher figure - 59 out of 100,000. So I have to admit that I'm sceptical about these figures.

Finally, burglary - this is the one I'm really interested in, because I want to know whether all those locks are really necessary. Ok, let me just check to see what the figures say ...

... okay, stop. They must have picked these numbers out of a hat. Apparently the lowest level of burglary is in Romania (45 per 100,000) and the highest is in the Netherlands (2,958). Hungary is apparently somewhere just below the middle (470) and similar to Germany (530).

Let me see if I can find some newer, more accurate figures.

Of course, as always these statistics should be taken with a pinch of salt. For instance, I simply don't believe that in Georgia there was 1 rape per 100,000, and I assume that this figure has a lot to do with whether victims actually report it to the police, and whether the police take it seriously. By this count again, Sweden is the most dangerous place (29 per 100,000), however this doesn't take into account that it's probably more often reported in Sweden and that in Sweden the term 'rape' covers a LOT of different things (e.g. consensual sex where the condom breaks).

So, to get back to my initial point, do I really need all those locks on my doors and should I be watching over my shoulder constantly, wondering when the next attack will come from. Sadly, I think the locks on the doors are necessary, but not because burglary is so common, rather because everyone else does it, and so to not do it is just to invite trouble. And as for watching over my shoulder, well, of course you should be a bit careful and not leave things laying around, and don't go walking down any dark alleys late at night in areas you don't know, but on the whole Budapest and Hungary seems to be just as safe as any other large European city - which is nice to know, it means that I can sleep a little easier at night :-)

1) http://europeansourcebook.org/esb3_Full.pdf

Vapiano: é fantastico

At the risk of making a very cool, very popular place even more popular I have to mention this Italian restaurant a friend and I went to last night. It's called Vapiano and it's in the city centre, in the 5th District on Bécsi utca (here's the review and map on Google).

It's an italian restaurant with a nice modern style. The first thing you notice that's different is that they have a swipe card system, so you get a card when you go in to the restaurant and then swipe it when you buy something, so that on your way out you give them the card and pay the bill. The second thing that's very cool is that you order your food directly with the chefs, who cook the food right there in front of you.

When you've ordered your food (I had the ravioli with chilli and garlic, which tasted fantastic) you can sit down in different areas - on bar stools, at tables, there's even some comfy lounge sofas and chairs. A really nice touch is that there's olive oil, spices, and fresh herbs plants on the tables, so you can add some fresh basil or thyme yourself :-)

The price was also really reasonable - sure, it's not the cheapest place to eat in the city, but for the quality of the food it's certainly not that expensive. I paid about 1800HUF for my meal which is about 6-7 euros.

I can't praise it highly enough, it was great, and I've decided that whenever someone is visiting, we'll have to eat out at Vapiano.

www.vapiano.hu

Weekend in Pécs (Part 2)

Saturday started all too early - it was the weekend and getting up before 10 should be banned - we got up at 8am, had a coffee and then drove into the countryside, towards the Croatian border.

We visited one small village near a national park, and on seeing a property for sale, we stopped and went to have a look around. A dear old lady, with thick glasses that covered most of her face came out and began telling us all about the house and the old farm buildings in the garden - of course, when I say she was telling us these things, she was really telling Aron and his father - she kept talking to me, and I kept standing there and nodding, throwing in the occasional "mmm ... okay". She must have been wondering "who is this mute with sunglasses?".

The sun was shining and everything seemed like a normal day - I felt a little ill actually, but Aron did too so we concluded that it was probably in connection with the beer from the previous night. We drove to another village, and stopped to look at some more houses. We then met someone who Aron's father knew through his work, and that's when normality left the building.

[In order to protect the innocent I've changed some of the details here]

Here was a short guy, probably in his late 50s/early 60s, with a beer belly and a thirst for drinking. It was very quickly apparent that he had spent some time smuggling cheese from Holland, because he quickly offered us a suitcase full of cheese. While Aron and his father spoke to cheese-smuggler, I was offered a range of drinks by another man in his 50s who looked constantly shocked - don't get me wrong, he had a happy expression on his face - it just looked as if he'd walked into a room to see 3 semi-naked models waiting for him. After drinking several shots of palinka, a coffee and a coke (it seemed to be the only words they knew ... okay, they didn't know coffee, but I know that's kavé from my many visits to different coffee shops) Aron indicated that it was about time to leave. Of course, first we had to hear a long story involving deers, a jeep, automatic weapons, alcohol, a farmer and the police. Afterwards, I learnt the Hungarian phrase "nem normalis" meaning "not normal".

I thought that the day couldn't get any stranger, but then we drove to the river (the Dráva), which was a lovely peaceful place - nature everywhere, and very few people. Some workers were explaining how they opening up some of the small pools and tributaries alongside the river, so that the local fish once again would have somewhere to lay eggs. It was nice. Then along came a guy dressed as a soldier with two german shephards - I say "dressed as" because there was little chance this guy was anything to do with the military. For a start he had no control over his dogs. As we walked off to another part of the river, and left him to "patrol" the woods we caught a glimpse of a stray dog in the forrest. A few minutes later, we heard the sounds of dogs fighting and it was clear that one dog was losing. It was horrible really. By the time we made it back through to woods the stray dog had disappeared, however from what the "soldier" said, the dog wouldn't last long. That guy was a jerk (and I'm being very polite when I use that term) and we left as soon as possible. Once again I could hear Aron and his Dad chatting, and the phrase "nem normalis" seemed to be repeated many times in the conversation.

Gypsy Steak

By this time it was early afternoon, and we were all rather hungry, so we stopped at a restaurant in a town on the way home. After some discussions, I left my choice of food up to Aron and his father, who selected the gypsy steak for me. After the recent experiences, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in these small towns and villages, however Aron and his father assured me that it wasn't made of gypsy. Which was a relief, because even though I'll try a lot of things I draw the line at cannibalism. I'm pleased to say that the steak tasted great, however there was so much food (english chips and a salad) that I couldn't eat everything.

Decorate by Grandmothers

Later in the evening, once we'd got back to Pécs and some sense of normality, we went out for something to eat and a few drinks. We found a restaurant in a basement (Aron assured me it was good), which looked as if it had been decorated with only furniture and ornaments from your grandmother's house - it was really quite charming. We ate some kind of spicy, paprika/tomato soup, which was covered by a bread "hat", that you eat with the soup, which was really nice. Afterwards we went to a few different bars and, partly because the University semester was just starting, they were busy and there was a really good atmosphere.

The Lock Wall in Pécs

The next day I took the train back to Budapest, but all in all I'd recommend Pécs - it was a lovely town and definitely worth a weekend visit. I can't say I can recommend the towns and villages near the Croatian border, but maybe we were unlucky, maybe their not all crazy.

Weekend in Pécs (Part 1)

I have a Hungarian friend called Aron, who I've been studying with and written a project with, and since he's staying at his parent's apartment in Pécs [pronounced "pea-ch", well, almost] at the moment, while he waits to start his internship, I thought it would be a good opportunity to visit him.  First of all I had to catch the train from Budapest Déli station (on the Buda side).

I always imagine that journeys are going to be stressful events and sometimes they are. This however was really quite straightforward. It was Friday afternoon, and the queue for the ticket office was long - there are a few ticket machines outside the office, but the queue for them was also long, so I took a deep breath and stood in line. Thankfully it was a relatively speedy process, and apart from a rotund middle-aged woman who kept trying to subtly shuffle her way forward, it all went smoothly. A good tip to remember is that there's a 50% discount on student tickets, so the ticket was only 2000HUF (about 7-8 euros) for a second-class ticket in intercity train ... and of course, remember your student card - I showed my Danish one, which seemed to be fine.

The train itself was really very comfortable ... I was a little bit surprised to be honest. After what some Hungarian friends had said, I half expected it to be cramped with no leg room and overcrowded, however the seats were comfortable, there was air conditioning, and there was plenty of leg room. The only thing I thought was a little strange was that there was no carpet - I don't whether they were in the middle of refurbishing the carriage, but after about 30 seconds I didn't think about it again. I'd like to tell you about the journey and the sights on the way, however to be honest I fell asleep for most of the 3 hour journey.

When I arrived in Pécs, Aron was there to meet me and we wandered up to the town centre - Aron was keen to explain the history of the town and show me the beautiful local delights. On leaving the train station you wouldn't think that there was much beauty in Pécs to be honest - the buildings weren't well looked after and it was all a bit run-down - it reminded me of derelict streets on the outskirts of Manchester or Birmingham, well, okay, maybe not that bad. But still, after 5 minutes we approached the main square and shopping street, and it was beautiful - it was full of life, with a mixture of people drinking coffee, sitting by the fountain, chatting and having fun, all set to the backdrop of a mosque/church (it had been used by different groups in its history), fountains and baroque/neo-classical buildings.

After we had visited a few bars and cafés (just to start the weekend in the right way :-) we went to get something to eat and that's when something amazing happened ... it looked like a simple, everyday kebab shop on the outside, however in that kebab shop, with it's KFC-esque, cheap, red plastic illuminated sign and a heating system which meant that the climate was that of a rain forest, they produce magic. I bought a chicken kebab (with everything) which I can only describe as THE best kebab I've ever eaten - it was delicious - it was (to coin a phrase) legendary. While I can't remember the name of the shop (I was in shock at the time), I do remember where it was (on Rákötczi üt, next to a mall, and opposite a small shop). If you want to see it on Google Maps just click here. It's on the south side of the street, opposite the angelic light (seriously, look at the map).

Once we'd eaten our heavenly kebabs, we found a nice bar/café in the square and had a few drinks and a chat, and periodically listening to the cheers as Hungary beat Sweden 2-1. It was a great atmosphere. Then we walked to Aron's parent's apartment, where Aron showed me to my room and mentioned that we had to be up early to look at some properties with his Dad. Feeling exhausted at this point I went to sleep as my head hit the pillow, unaware of the adventures that tomorrow had in store (see Part 2).