http://www.start-budapest.com Budapest blog for real Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:35:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en You must have heard that taxi drivers preying on toursists is one of the annonying things in Budapest. With a little caution you can easily manage not to fall victim to these suckers. The main rules: Use a taxi from a big company Order a taxi on the phone if possible Make sure ... http://www.start-budapest.com/taxi-drivers-in-budapest/ The passengers of a night bus are a cross section of the night: young people going to or from a club, workers travelling through the city to an early shift, homeless sleeping on the bus. Night buses in Budapest operate between 23.00 and 4 o’clock the following day. Around midnight ... http://www.start-budapest.com/night-bus-in-budapest/ Not to pay for the ride with BKV (public transport) is possibly the most popular sport in Budapest. The word for travelling without a ticket is “bliccelni”, which means literally “to be like lightning” and comes from the German word “Blitz” (Lightning). Traditoinally, BKV checked the tickets either on the vehicles ... http://www.start-budapest.com/how-not-to-pay-for-public-transport-bkv-in-budapest/ Hungarian language demonstrates its greatest diversity when it is used for swearing. English is limited to the usage of four letter words when something bad happens. Hungarian employs complex, grammatically correct curses with imperative in these situations. It is possible to swear continuously in Hungarian for 30 seconds without ... http://www.start-budapest.com/swearing-in-hungarian/ Legend says when the Romans wanted to conquer the land over the river they found a monster called Főz-Süt-Fűt living in the marshes of Pest. The monster didn't fight the legionnaires, but he had them seduced with beauties from the East. The soldiers never returned to their camp and stayed ... http://www.start-budapest.com/foz-sut-fut/ WestEnd City Center (or West End City Center) is a huge shopping mall / plaza behind Nyugati Railway Station in Budapest. It opened on November 17, 1999. It became fast what it advertised: "a new centre for the city". WestEnd City Center was the role model for all of the ... http://www.start-budapest.com/westend-city-center-budapest/ Budapest map for real. http://www.start-budapest.com/budapest-map-for-real/ As a Westerner talking to Hungarians, you can often notice an element of arrogance. Hungarians sometimes tend to feel a bit superior because “life (or survival...) in this country is harder than in the West” where people are “spoiled by the social system and lack of challenge and ... http://www.start-budapest.com/hungarian-little-big-ego/ English speaking Hungarians often respond to questions like “How are you?” with a stream of complaints. They are not people in despair; this is simply how you are expected to react to such questions in Hungarian. You complain about yours and let your partner complain about theirs; this is our version ... http://www.start-budapest.com/hungarian-culture-of-complaint/ 'Bezzeg' is a very heavily used Hungarian word that cannot be translated into English. Bezzeg can be used in the sense of “the neighbour’s grass is always greener”: Bezzeg in Germany you don’t have to pay for the Autobahn! It is especially used when Hungarians think someone else has unjust advantages: Bezzeg ... http://www.start-budapest.com/bezzeg/