9 culture shocks you might have in Hungary, as experienced by an American

Colm Fitzgerald grew up in Southern California and now lives in Hungary with his wife, he introduces on matadornetwork.com. Here are nine of the most strikingly unusual experiences he’s had as an expat living in Hungary.

1. Witnessing a pig slaughter

His first story comes from having survived a traditional Hungarian pig slaughter, or disznóvágás. The article describes the event in a somewhat graphic detail, from the initial spilled blood to the dismembering of the sow. Fitzgerald’s job was to stir a giant vat of organs, in which “the pig’s head occasionally floated to the surface”. The family also made Hungarian sausages, hurka and kolbász.

2. Everyone seems to be a smoker

Even though only 30pc of Hungarians smoke, Fitzgerald finds this hard to believe. He recounts an incident when, while waiting in the car for his wife to return, basically every person he saw on the street was either smoking or just about to lit a cigarette. At another time, his dentist got a phone call and promptly started smoking while letting the smoke out through the window.

3. “Food reigns supreme over anything and everything”

He describes Hungarians as “serious eaters” who turn any meal into something of an event. A proper Sunday lunch is at least three courses, starting with soup which is either a broth with meat and vegetables or sometimes a creamy fruit soup served cold. The main course is typically a meat stew over dumplings, served with pickles or sauerkraut, followed by a traditional dessert, such as strudel, Dobos cake, or jam-filled bun called bukta.

4. Toilets are not the same everywhere

Fitzgerald goes into detail about the construction of certain Hungarian toilets which have a little shelf where others typically drop down at an angle. He tries to guess its function, and his best assumption is that it is probably to minimise splashback.

5. “Hungarian is unlike any other language in the world”

Even though Fitzgerald has been a regular visitor for over 10 years and knows how to communicate on a basic level, he still finds it difficult to engage in more complex conversations in Hungarian. With its suffixes and vowel harmony, “Hungarian will bring you to your knees”, he says.