Virtua Assistant/Secretary looking for a position in Budapest

Hello Betty,

Thank you for your note. We are here for a couple of months to see whether we will like it here.

I have been living in the West 35 years. For us, it is doubtful we will move back, because of the collapsed health system and a very narrow minded Hungarian attitude.

i though it has got better, but sadly it is even more brutal when I have left.

The majority of people have lost their moral compass!

If you are serious about moving back, make sure that you have a job to go to.

Food is as expensive as in the UK!? but the quality is not there.

Weather is better, but I can hardly find anything else.

Good luck to you.

Evie

Hello Evie,

Thank you very much for your reply!

Unfortunately, you are so right about the narrow minded attitude. Not to mention the price of food! I was horrified to see that I spend less money on food and clothes in England than in Hungary. I am also sorry to hear that you had such bad experience in Hungary.

The reason why we want to move back is that I just cannot imagine being able to buy a  3 bed house here where we live at the moment (West Sussex) and also our family is in Hungary, summers are better and generally I find that there are more programmes for families etc. There are several reasons pro and contra and the decision is extremely hard to make when and whether we should really go back at all.

I love that I have a good job here, my colleagues are very kind and generally we are very happy here except that we still rent a small 1 bed flat that costs just under a £1000 with bills and council tax.

It seems that the decision as to when to move back is a lot harder than what we made more than 9 years ago to move to England. I definitely only want to find a job that is with either a multinational company or involves communication only in English language..

I wish you all the best too and a very Happy New Year!
Betti

Hi
Like you I have found the price of accommodation and other bills a lot cheaper in Hungary. I think food prices are rising all over the world but it is much much cheaper to eat out and socialise in Hungary.
The only thing I am not sure about is the Hungarian character eg what Hungarian people are really like ? So far ok though
Happy New year Anns

Happy New Year to you too Anns!

With cronyism, corruption and bureaucratic incompetence what it is in Hungary today (which is exasperated by the economically incompetent government and poorly monitored EU grants, enabling corruption at all levels), good weather is not really a sufficiently good reason to live here. The weather is better in Spain.

And houses are cheap because people are either desperate for cash, or just want to get out and leave the country. Being near family, is a good reason to live here (especially for Hungarians who still find family ties important), but families can also be detrimental (cross reference Relations by Zsigmond Móricz). Sound business plans can work in Hungary, despite it being a terrible country to have small businesses, if you "know a guy" to sell locally, export to get out of the Hungarian sphere of influence, or import your clients.

Most multinationals, I find, simply exploit the Hungarian worker (lower pay for the same work) -- you can earn more elsewhere working for the same company.

In short, no place is perfect. It will be what you, and everyone else, makes of it.

Hi, Oh, yes, I know what you mean!

House prices are extremely high in the South of England, especially, West Sussex!

One of my fav. county! Beautiful!

Wish you all the luck in the world as you will need it!

A very Happy 2014 to you and to your loved ones

Evie

Szia Betti,

a couple of months ago I was looking for some private healthcare providers in Budapest and I found this link pretty useful: http://www.bisb.hu/essentials/home/heal … -budapest/
I think you could use it to get in touch with them, probably they'll have something on offer for you, even for better salary than the average.

On the other hand I'd like to warn you from the same thing as Szilvi. If you get a chance to just come home for 1.5 months, do so, see if it's really what you want and decide only before binding you here and throwing everything away you have in England. There are certain things I've always missed ever since I left but this narrow-minded, everyone-else-is-guilty-but-me mentality with the loss of moral compass (nice way to put it and I agree with this so much) might be hard to adapt once you've left it behind.

I hope to have helped you
Feri

What patient care??

There is no such thing here in Budapest??

Sorry...

You have such good range of skills....you will be sick to sell this for pennies!!

I have to say, as an older, hopefully wiser woman, that it took me 15 years!! to get my own house with a mortgage in the UK in the 1980's, so in my opinion, it takes more than 9 years to establish in a new country even if it is the UK

The other point you must make sure that they will treat you as an English subject, not Hungarian, otherwise your salary will less than any UK person doing the same job!

Best wishes

Evie