16 things foreigners say about Budapest

Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu compiled a list of reasons why foreigners hate or love the capital city of Hungary. See these 16 points to gain an insight into the life in Budapest from the perspective of people coming from abroad.

The site reports that they have been collecting the opinions of their acquaintances, friends and former colleagues from abroad regarding Budapest. Also, when making the list they bore in mind what was written on different forums about living here or just visiting the city. Of course, both positive and negative remarks could be found within the lines, thus, the writers chose to include the most common or salient opinions in their list.

1. Interesting combination of river, mountain and plain

The geographical location of Budapest is regarded exceptional by many people. They further highlighted that from lots of places the view of the city is mesmerizing.

2. Exciting look

Visitors often cannot really tell what makes them so fond of the city, they just feel so. Some of them sees Budapest similar to Vienna, others are reminded of German cities, but Paris also came up as a potential association. Weird it might seem at first, but not a coincidence, as John Lukacs wrote, in his book called Budapest, 1900.

Also, in 1901 Americans visited the Hungarian capital as part of their project to establish Washington according to the (then) contemporary patterns and trends. Hence, a committee was sent to Europe by the US government to examine the six most important cities of our continent, including Budapest. Joseph Stübben, architect also wrote about Budapest aside Paris, Vienna, New York and London. At that time the design of Nagykörűt (Grand Boulevard), the construction of the Andrássy Avenue, later the Városliget and several other changes carried out in the city were considered novelties.

3. Old buildings, houses with courtyards and the castles of Nagykörút are appreciated

At this point the author mentions how an American friend of theirs was surprised when it turned out that, in the old staircases of certain buildings, the lifts do not only look as if they were from the 19^th century, but they are indeed from that time.

4. Lots of statues

Foreigners find it amazing that Budapest is full of statues. Many wonder about how and why the statues were set up at their locations or what they represent. People from Northern Italy – especially the elder ones – are somewhat familiar with the history of Hungary, the events of 1956 are not completely unknown for them.

Therefore, they are interested to hear about the stories of the Imre Nagy Statue (politician, significant figure at the time of the 1956 Revolution) or the World War monument on Liberty Square. Besides, they found the Little Princess Statue of Duna-korzó funny and lovely, just like the gendarme near the Basilica.

5. Finding a parking lot is difficult

Even though it is a pleasant activity to walk around in the city and go on sightseeing, those travelling by car get into a challenge when looking for a place to park their cars. Also, parking itself presents some troubles for people, as the system is sometimes rather confusing.

6. The phenomena of metros

All in all foreigners regard metros interesting, however, metro line M3 is considered quite surreal and run down. Many suggested it is like time-travelling when using the obsolete, often repaired Soviet subway cars of the “blue metro line”.  Though, metro line M4 and especially its Gellért Square station was called stunning by an Italian friend of the authors, while Americans found M1 cute.

7. The night lines of public transport

Further remarks on transportation were given in connection with the night buses and the non-stop available trams, as abroad these are quite unknown, people either take a taxi home after a party or find themselves in an uncomfortable situation.

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8. Graffiti all over the city

Some might consider graffiti as art, but Szeretlekmagyarország writes that foreigners think that these paints are awful and the tags on the fences, buildings and whatnot give the impression of a messy place and are ugly to look at.

9. The unpleasant case of dog poop in the streets

It looks disgusting and people find it obnoxious to keep on watching the pavements all the time in order to avoid stepping on something they would rather not. Especially in the summer, when the smell is stronger, they find this situation disappointing.