Magyarország
Hungary is an island of Asian-descended Magyars in a sea of Slavs. Even though the Hungarians have thoroughly integrated with their Slavic and German neighbors in the millennium-plus since they arrived, there’s still something about the place that’s distinctly Magyar (MUD-jar). Here in quirky, idiosyncratic Hungary, everything’s a little different from the rest of Europe—in terms of history, language, culture, customs, and cuisine—but it’s hard to put your finger on exactly how.
Travelers to Hungary notice many endearing peculiarities. Hungarians list a person’s family name first, and the given name is last—just as in many other Eastern cultures (think of Kim Jong Il). So the composer known as “Franz Liszt” in German is “Liszt Ferenc” in his homeland. (To help reduce confusion, many Hungarian business cards list the surname in capital letters.) Hungarians have a charming habit of using the English word “hello” for both “hi” and “bye,” just like the Italians use “ciao.” You might overhear a Hungarian end a telephone conversation with a cheery “Hello!” Hungarians even drove on the left side of the road until 1941.
Just a century ago, this country controlled half of one of Europe’s grandest realms: the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, perhaps clinging to their former greatness, many Hungarians remain old-fashioned and nostalgic. With their dusty museums and bushy moustaches, they love to remember the good old days. Buildings all over the country are marked with plaques boasting MŰEMLÉK (“historical monument”).
Thanks to this focus on tradition, the Hungarians you’ll encounter are generally polite, formal, and professional. Hungarians have class. Everything here is done with a proud flourish. People in the service industry seem to wear their uniforms as a badge of honor rather than a burden. When a waiter comes to your table in a restaurant, he’ll say, “Tessék parancsolni”—literally, “Please command, sir.” The standard greeting, “Jó napot kívánok,” means “I wish you a good day.” Women sometimes hear the even more formal greeting, “Kezét csókolom”—“I kiss your hand.” And when your train or bus makes a stop, you won’t be alerted by a mindless, blaring beep—but instead, by peppy music. (You’ll be humming these contagious little ditties all day.) Perhaps thanks to this artful blending of elegance and formality, Hungarians have a cultural affinity for the French.
Hungarians are also orderly and tidy...in their own sometimes unexpected ways. Yes, Hungary has its share of litter, graffiti, and crumbling buildings, but you’ll find great reason within the chaos. The Hungarian railroad has a long list of discounted fares—for seniors, kids, dogs...and monkeys. (It could happen.) My favorite town name in Hungary: Hatvan. This means “Sixty” in Hungarian...and it’s exactly 60 kilometers from Budapest. You can’t argue with that kind of logic.
This tradition of left-brained thinking hasn’t produced many great Hungarian painters or poets who are known outside their homeland. But the Hungarians, who are renowned for their ingenuity, have made tremendous contributions to science, technology, business, and industry. Hungarians of note include Edward Teller (instrumental in creating the A-bomb), John von Neumann (a pioneer of computer science), András Gróf (who, as Andy Grove, emigrated to the US and founded Intel), and George Soros (the billionaire investor famous—or notorious—for supporting left-wing causes). A popular local joke claims that Hungarians are so clever that they can enter a revolving door behind you and exit in front of you.
Perhaps the most famous Hungarian “scientist” invented something you probably have in a box in your basement: Ernő Rubik, creator of the famous cube. Hungarians’ enjoyment of a good mind-bending puzzle is also evident in their fascination with chess, which you’ll see played in cafés, parks, and baths.
Like their Viennese neighbors, Hungarians know how to enjoy the good life. Favorite activities include splashing and soaking in their many thermal baths (see the Thermal Baths chapter). “Taking the waters,” Hungarian-style, deserves to be your top priority while you’re here. Though public baths can sound intimidating, they’re a delight. In this book I recommend my three favorite baths in Budapest, a fine bath in Eger, and two more just outside of Eger. For each, I’ve included careful instructions to help you enjoy the warm-water fun like a pro. (To allay your first fear: Yes, you can wear your swimsuit.)
Hungarians have also revived an elegant, Vienna-style café culture that was dismantled by the communists. Whiling away the afternoon at a genteel coffeehouse, as you nurse a drink or a delicate dessert, is a favorite pastime. (For the best options in Budapest, see “Budapest’s Café Culture” on here.)
Classical music is revered in Hungary, perhaps as nowhere else outside Austria. Aside from scientists and businessmen, the best-known Hungarians are composers: Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and Franz Liszt. (For more on these figures, see “Hungarian Music” on here.)
While one in five Hungarians lives in Budapest, the countryside plays an important role in the country’s economy—this has always been a highly agricultural region. The sprawling Great Hungarian Plain (Puszta) that makes up a vast swath of Hungary is the country’s breadbasket. You’ll pass through fields of wheat and corn, but the grains are secondary to Hungarians’ (and tourists’) true love: wine. Hungarian winemaking standards plummeted under the communists, but many vintner families are now reclaiming their land, returning to their precise traditional methods, and making wines worth being proud of once more. (For details, see “Hungarian Wines” on here.)
Somehow Hungary, at the crossroads of Europe, has managed to become cosmopolitan while remaining perfectly Hungarian. The Hungarians—like Hungary itself—are a cross-section of Central European cultures: Magyars, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Serbs, Jews, Ottomans, Romanians, Roma (Gypsies), and many others. Still, no matter how many generations removed they are from Magyar stock, there’s something different about Hungarians—and not just the language. Look a Hungarian in the eye, and you’ll see a glimmer of the marauding Magyar, stomping in from the Central Asian plains a thousand years ago.
Even though Hungary is surrounded by Slavs, Hungarian is not at all related to Slavic languages (such as Polish, Czech, or Croatian). In fact, Hungarian isn’t related to any European language, except for very distant relatives Finnish and Estonian. It isn’t even an Indo-European language—meaning that English is more closely related to Hindi, Russian, and French than it is to Hungarian.
Hungarian is agglutinative: To create meaning, you start with a simple root word and then start tacking on suffixes—sometimes resulting in a pileup of extra sounds. The emphasis always goes on the first syllable, and the following syllables are droned in a kind of a monotone—giving the language a distinctive cadence that Hungary’s neighbors love to tease about.
While the language can be overwhelming for tourists, one easy word is “Szia” (SEE-yaw), which means both hello and goodbye (like “ciao” or “aloha”). Confusingly, sometimes Hungarians simply say the English word “hello” to mean either “hi” or “bye.” Another handy word that Hungarians (and people throughout Central Europe) will understand is Servus (SEHR-voos, spelled Szervusz in Hungarian)—the old-fashioned greeting from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If you draw a blank on how to say hello, just offer a cheery, “Servus!”
Hungarian pronunciation is straightforward, once you remember a few key rules. The trickiest: s alone is pronounced “sh,” while sz is pronounced “s.” This explains why you’ll hear in-the-know travelers pronouncing Budapest as “BOO-daw-pesht.” You might catch the busz up to Castle Hill—pronounced “boose.” And “Franz Liszt” is easier to pronounce than it looks: It sounds just like “list.” To review:
s sounds like “sh” as in “shirt”
sz sounds like “s” as in “saint”
Hungarian has a set of unusual palatal sounds that don’t quite have a counterpart in English. To make these sounds, gently press the thick part of your tongue to the roof or your mouth (instead of using the tip of your tongue behind your teeth, as we do in English):
gy sounds like “dg” as in “hedge”
ny sounds like “ny” as in “canyon” (not “nee”)
ty sounds like “tch” as in “itch”
cs sounds like “ch” as in “church”
As for vowels: The letter a almost sounds like o (aw, as in “hot”); but with an accent (á), it brightens up to the more standard “ah.” Likewise, while e sounds like “eh,” é sounds like “ay.” An accent (á, é, í, ó, ú) indicates that you linger on that vowel, but not necessarily that you stress that syllable. Like German, Hungarian has umlauts (ö, ü), meaning you purse your lips when you say that vowel: roughly, ö sounds like “ur” and ü sounds like “ew.” A long umlaut (ő, ű) is the same sound, but you hold it a little longer. Words ending in k are often plural.
Here are a few other letters that sound different in Hungarian than in English:
c and cz both sound like “ts” as in “cats”
zs sounds like “zh” as in “leisure”
j and ly both sound like “y” as in “yellow”
OK, maybe it’s not so simple. But you’ll get the hang of it...and Hungarians will appreciate your efforts.
For a complete list of Hungarian survival phrases, see here in the appendix.