hangouts to meet other english speakers in Budapest?

I am only in Budapest for one week, 9-13 April. This is my fourth visit. I won't have much time but would like to meet others who have decided to stay there. Any expats welcome.

I have actually met my fellow country people from the US just by chance in the shops or on the st.
I would guess almost any overpriced pub or eating place would be full of English speakers.
The locals do not frequent tourist spots much unless they are scamming or seeking something.
My opinion of course.
Too pricey for most locals and they know where to get a better deal.
There are many British style pubs around Budapest, I would probably look there first to find English speakers.
If you had more time you could look for a English language club where locals and English speakers go to practice the two languages.
My husband is a Hungarian and I hate to rag on some locals but there are some out there looking to get "hooked up" with someone from another country, English speakers are a good target.
My son who is from the US had that happen allot when he was in Budapest for over a year.
Many young ladies seeked out his co. so they could have nice dinners and little gifts and hopes of more.
Got to the point where one pretty young lady actually tried to scam him hard with tears of her mother needing heart surgery in Romania and could he just give her $1,000.
He actually considered giving her the money, we almost had to tie him up and have a 24 hour guard on him, these players are very good at their game.
Later we found out ( through a older HU women who worked with the younger women) that she actually had a boyfriend and was often sent out to look for innocents to get cash, gifts and prizes so she could support him.
A real eye opener for us.
This happened more then once to my son who was 23-24 at the time, he was silly and trusted too easily.
Just keep an eye open if dealing with English speakers who take you in too fast, not normal in Hungary to be buddy buddy fast with anyone. If they are too friendly to fast then watch your back.
This usually only applies with people who are not native English speakers.
I realize this sounds hard but we still have a few scares that have not yet healed, if ever...

There are a lot of us about ... eg ex UK. Just send a private message when you arrive. Budapest is a very peaceful and interesting city. I feel totally safe and even like the tourist places  but I live more or less slap bang town  Regards Anns

Thank you! I will.

Thank you. I've also had 'interesting' experiences in my previous trips. One 'friend' who I'd met on a previous trip, who offered to show me around on the second trip and then presented me with a bill, which I did not pay. I escaped the incident without much more than a bruised ego because we had discovered we had the same birthday, and that seemed to mean a lot to her, as in 'family'. I still consider my visits to the city to be some of my best travel and art/music experiences. Love the culture.

Sorry to hear about your bill scam.
I can promise you not everyone is like that, Ann is legit and a good friend to know.
When I first got on this site I saw a message from a young women around age 17 who was HU but raised in the US.
She was sent for the summer to stay with her grandparents who didn't speak any English, her HU was weak.
She was bored out of her mind and wanted to see some of the city.
I thought she seemed like a nice smart active girl so I invited her to meet my husband and I and to bring her grandfather with her so he could be sure she was in safe company.
I am also a parent and would like to know my child was not alone with some" weirdo's".
She was not at all what she seemed to be on the internet, too shy and no energy at all.
Ok, shy I understand being young and all but she got a bit too demanding for me, wanted to come over and hang at our place just to use our internet.
Hardly knew her at all, a bit too much too fast, had to cut her loose.
Sometimes you meet good people over the internet and other times not so much.
Next time make it clear your going"Dutch" before going out with a stranger.
My son met a young lady 15 years back in Budapest over the internet somehow. When he called her up for a drink she said great but she would also be charging him $80. for her time...Ok then, he passed up that "date".

The tale of Calbrz made me think over some very amusing, sad and off tales from my son's hook up experiences in Hungary.
He is half Hungarian but from Calif.
His father was born and raised in Budapest during the swinging 60's, was very much of a Dandy and ladies man in his youth, good sense of humor, easy going way good dresser and good dancer never had issues with dating . Was one of what used to be called," The Downtown Boys" of the 5th district. Knew everyone that was a Mod in the day.
Our then shy  private school slightly nerdy son wanted to meet a Hungarian girl to have as a girlfriend while we were in HU on a long family visit. He was serious wanted to find himself a long time mate /wife.
He was 23 at the time and not very experienced in love matters.
My husband thought it very odd that he would need help finding a girl as he never had nay issues with dating, women used to ask my husband out, buy him drinks so having a son who didn't know how to date was slightly embarrassing for my husband.
He realized it was not about him so searched out ways to help our boy find his true mate in Hungary.
Of course the lady would have to speak a bit of English as our sons HU was very weak.
Asked neighbors if they knew anyone free who was interested in knowing our son.
He made a few friends but nothing serious.
He then asked his dad for help contacting dating services in Budapest.
My husband had a hard time with that but let his ego go and called up these dating agents.
It was very strange, I went along to see their"books" had photos of young ladies with a bio on each of them.
The dating agent told us about the fees that came with the contact number for any women he might be interested in.
I forgot the exact amount but close to $100. for each contact number.
Hummmmm... Seemed very shady and slightly illegal if not out right illegal.
We didn't use any of those contacts.
My son later met a young women by a strange set of events.
We moved into the 5th district for a couple of months to get a feel of the city life, had been in the lake area for 4 months.
One day I noticed an elderly man leaving our house wearing a sporty shirt that had AZ fire dept. written on it.
I asked him if he was American or not.
He was, had been living in Budapest for 2 years in that house and was a retired fireman from AZ.
He had divorced his HU wife but stayed in HU.
He knew a women though his massage therapist who had a daughter who spoke English well and was single.
Long story as is everything in my life, They met, dated and later married.
Turned out to be a nightmare marriage once she got to the US.
Although my 80 year old HU MIL had warned us that this was a bad idea for him to marry this women. Granny always does know best after all.
My husband really was not fooled for a second by this young women and her crazy ways but our son was in "love" and nothing we said or did could stop him from ruin.
Should of known better myself after getting to know the old AZ fireman better, what a nut job he turned out to be as well.
He was a healer who would lay hands on people and burp to make contact with the spirits, ok I am open minded to some degree but really?
He later moved to the UK so he could learn to fly without a plane as he put it, fly by night I suppose on a broom?
Anyways, don't feel bad young men, not always easy to find true love while on holiday.
We have learned that in many cases most young, very young Hungarians already have serious boyfriend or girlfriends while they are still in school, usually these became first marriages and produce a child or two, maybe later a divorce come around, maybe not.
To find a young lady age 22 single without issues is hard to find in Hu as most are either very serious about their education and too busy to date or they are already spoken for.
Not saying this is always the case but we learned allot from our son's growing experiences trying to date within another culture.
In any case he will not set foot in Hungary again, got burnt too badly last time.
Don't feel badly if you get stuck paying the bills for taking people out in HUngary.
This also happened to our son while he took out an old friends daughter and her friends for a fun night out dancing in Budapest. He wound up paying for 6 people to get into clubs and have drinks, they just handed him the bills since he was from the states.
I totalled disliked that friends daughter after that came out.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

He was a healer who would lay hands on people and burp to make contact with the spirits, ok I am open minded to some degree but really?

That is hilarious but ridiculous. I'm sorry about your son's experiences, we definitely do learn from our mistakes though!

Thanks for the sympathy Pepsitruck.
My son... what can I say, strange one for sure, situations we never would of even thought possible all courtesy of him!
Yes this American man was something all together new for us, we laughed so hard when he offered to "heal "my neck injury from a long time ago auto accident.
He lived across the hall from us on the same floor in the house. My husband came with me for my "healing" session, thought why not give it a go, darn we laughed so hard we thought he would throw us out of his flat, he put his hands on my neck and started burping and makes all sorts of odd noises with his eyes rolling. A good laugh for sure, nice man just odd.
A week or so later while walking on the street we ran into him, he asked about my neck, silly me I said it had felt a bit better( wanted not to hurt his feelings) he asked if I wanted another treatment, we said ok , good for another laugh, thinking he would set a date, well he started on me right then and there on the st. Burping and holding my neck as people walked passed us. The looks on their faces was so great my husband and I could hardly stand up straight because we were in hysterics laughing so hard we almost fell over. No wonder some Hungarians think Americans are off, some of us are!
He said he was married for awhile to a HUngarian women, when we asked why they divorced he said,"she would not drink water". Guessing she was a big booze hound.
That's what I enjoy though meeting new people all people are very interesting and most are not all that bad, some just cross the line a bit.

Did all that laying of hands and burping work or not? Hard to say but all the laughing did make me feel great.
If I only had a camera to film my street healing, the expressions on people's faces, would of gotten at least a million hits on u tube.
The poor guy was serious though ,hard to believe, didn't wish to stomp on his believes but  really...

Ann, I'll be staying near the National Museum. Best, Cynthia

CALBRZ wrote:

One 'friend' who I'd met on a previous trip, who offered to show me around on the second trip and then presented me with a bill

Wait. What?

CALBRZ wrote:

which I did not pay.

Good for you. It was a scam. Far, far too many of those in Hungary. On so many levels.

One time on a hot summers day we had a gyro,( my fave street food)
Noticed a bar near by and thought, yes a cold beer would be lovely after lunch.
They also just happened to have a sign posted on the sidewalk with their price list, a low price for a draft beer of under 300 forits a glass( forgot the exact price but it was cheap) We walked inside and noticed there were about 6 men and one barmaid inside, looked like locals who all knew each other, their hangout place.
My husband ordered the drinks in Hungarian and we sat down to drink.
He gave the women a 1,000 forint note, the smallest he had on him.
She told him ,"sorry I have no change for a 1,000". She had already poured the beers by then.
We did plan on tipping her of course, we always are tippers.
We just didn't like the way she tipped herself and her rude attitude about it. The guys at the bar all sort of laughed when she said she didn't have any change.It was very uncomfortable like they were ganging up on us, like we would be too afraid to ask again for our change.Their little inside joke or whatever.
We drank our beers and then my husband returned the glasses and again asked for his change.
She pulled a naker, a long face and asked her customers to front her our change, Made a big deal about it.
My husband left her a hundred forints , she really didn't deserve anything.
We never go inside local looking places like bars, we usually only have drinks at home because of this sort of BS.
So very low class to do those penny and dime scams.

Ha... maybe everyone realizes now why I'm looking to hang out with expats!

I'll be back in "Boodie "town in late April, Anns is a buddy of mine, we can "hook up" for a drink somewhere, promise not to stick you with the check!!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

We never go inside local looking places like bars

Allow me to rewrite that for you:

Never go inside a place like a bar unless you look like a local.....

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.... we usually only have drinks at home because of this sort of BS. So very low class to do those penny and dime scams.

A local business that I use to do business with was upset because they delivered to us a product that had the wrong CE certificate (basically, they imported an illegal tool). I complained (the issue was about 800 EUR in total). But that business threw a fit, ended up in a rather nasty response from them. Rather stupid overall. I now have about a five figure EUR purchase I would have given to them before they acted up like that. Guess what? They ain't gonna get any more of my business for basically forever. 

Very, very, very stupid to annoy what should be a good long term client for short term profit. Too many Hungarians seem far too money eager today, while being rather dumb in a long term profit minded business sense. That pretty much sums up Hungary for me.

Yes I live near there I think ha ha. Your note about a friend willing you also made me laugh . I recently asked a friend to read a letter for a friend and she asked me to send her a pay pal payment ... I told her politely to push off. This is the same lady that has bent my ear for hours telling me her boyfriend problems . Hungarians ha.

CALBRZ wrote:

maybe everyone realizes now why I'm looking to hang out with expats!

Well, be careful with that as well.

Some expats have found their.... element... in the lax laws and criminal under pinnings of a foreign country. I would not, off hand, just trust expats either. Any expat you meet might be a Harry Lime:

https://archive.org/details/TheLivesOfHarryLime

Or for a real world example in Hungary this blog (now deleted) ended with the author basically listing how they were scammed by anther expat:

https://www.expat.com/en/blog/europe/hu … gspot.com/

And that is just one example I know of in Hungary (yes, that is not the only example).

Sad the world is going insane with no site of sanity in the near future.
I think I live in a bubble, protected most of my life from BS.
Older sisters would have my back growing up, husband  watches out for me since I was in my late teens, dam the world is hard now.
I still remember tagging with my Hippie older sister to love-in's, wish the world was still that simple.
I have met a few ex-pats that I honestly would say had some mental issues and best to stay clear of them.
Most expats are in Hungary I think for school or family or a nice retirement, those trying to make fast money in Hungary are not exactly there to make friends.
We tried our hand at a import business in Hungary back in 1989, Got burnt by 80% of the people we had dealings with, learned not to do business in a place where they have not learned how business is suppose to be run yet.
In the states shops and businesses want return customers, in Hungary they want to make a killing in one deal.

My husband is so embarrassed about how things seem to go these days in Hungary , he is always telling me it never was like this before, he was gone too long or perhaps was too young when he lived there before. He just never noticed or the fact that the old gov. kept wild scams in check, jail time for scammers and people who pulled fast ones on the public.
Social crimes like rip offs were unheard of back in the day, sad to think some people need to be watched that closely or they will sell their own grandmother's.
We try to live in Hungary like we are still just on a holiday, don't take too many things seriously or we would snap.
Of course raising a family or working there would be a different story.
Not sure I could do it with kids or real responsibility.
The US has changed too though, people are all living more insular and keeping private.
I learned a lesson awhile ago .In the US every time I would hear someone speaking Hungarian in public like in a store, I would drag my husband over to talk to them in HU. Like they were buddies just because they shared a common language.
In Hungary he once wanted to drag me over to a group of people speaking English, like we should be buddies.
Lesson learned.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

We tried our hand at a import business in Hungary back in 1989, Got burnt by 80% of the people we had dealings with, learned not to do business in a place where they have not learned how business is suppose to be run yet.

My wife's parents escaped from communist Hungary. They tried to do business with other Hungarians in Western Europe and got burned by them. Then when the wall fell, they tried to do business with Hungarians in Hungary and got burned again.

My experience in Hungary is not much different. Been burned myself here. In the end, I basically do not trust Hungarians off hand. They have to now earn my trust, and only a few have done that (and many of those l learned later are actually ethnic Swabians). One can do business.... but only at arms length and with a healthy dose of suspicion. In short, one must be vary cautious when doing business in Hungary. Not a place for the faint of heart.

My husband also "escaped" communist Hungary.
He came alone was not sure he would ever be allowed to see his family in Hungary again, wild youth.
We have had, let me think,at least 5 businesses with Hungarians.
3 machine shops, we later had 2 of our own  ,better off that way.
At least if you fail you can only blame yourself.
A carpet cleaning business in the S. Bay area of Cal. and that import mess.
One partner my husband actually saw steal small items from the homes of clients, WTF! He had to cut business ties with him and quickly,this person now lives in Hungary in a very nice area, guess stealing pays off after all? We even had to collect a few items he and his wife"accidentally" pocketed when they came to our flat, sticky fingers.
Oh, sorry didn't realize we had picked up your pen, your glasses...ok don't turn your back on them if they come over, no longer have them over, much easier that way.
No way hosey! Never again.
We should of known better in a couple of those cases, they had burnt others in the past so we were clearly just suckers.
If you know someone has burnt a fellow friend they why be surprised when they also burn you?
My husband always trusts people to act the way he does, silly boy.
He would never burn anyone and is shocked anyone would do it to him.
He finally after decades has learned to listen to me sometimes.
Not everyone has your best interests at heart, some people don't play well with others.
I think living in lack for so long has made some people just too greedy to get rich fast no matter who they hurt in the process.
Perhaps we are fools, money and power have never been a motovater in anything we have done, just enjoy seeing what we can do on our own, to be free of corp. jobs. The ol' 9 to 5 deal.
Many people don't see the big picture, get rich fast without any moral compass.

Hello I am an Australian who is currently in Hungary and luckily I speak the language fluently. Since English/Australian is my native tongue I do miss the odd banter. If anyone would like to catch up or need help please let me know as I would gladly help. I have actually met some wonderful people from here and can now happily call them close friends. Also being close in the heart of Budapest I know a few wonderful hidden spots for some great and enjoyable times.
Looking forward to catching up with anyone

Cheers

Marilyn Tassy, the way you, your husband and son get pushed around speaks more of you, not the country. You're not really adapting to local culture and your solution of avoiding bars altogether because of one bad experience is... (yeah I'll keep my opinion). There is a wild world out there, if you don't stand up for yourself, noone else will. I as a local hungarian am experiencing similar situations, but then again, I've been experiencing these or worse in US too when I was there for 4 months. (And I'm yet to come across the hungarian equivalent in .hu of these: http://www.qwoc.org/wp-content/uploads/ … 60h760.jpg ) If the barista tells me she has no change, I say OK, I'll keep the money, you keep your beer. Oh you've already poured it out? Well that's not my problem, is it??!

Sorry for being harsh, or even rude, but getting offended over minor incidents, and then releasing a sea of negativity on forums is not doing anyone any good.

You can find english-speaking people everywhere in Budapest if you're not afraid to talk to strangers, otherwise try meetup.com.

The trouble is that if we are obviously foreigners anywhere, London, New York or Budapest, there is always someone in the bar, restaurant or cafe that will try it on. For instance, when I started to eat out at the Indian cafe ( now moved) on Raday ut they didn't bring me my change. It was not much and I just thought not much of it. However when I returned and they tried it again  I just stayed sitting at the table for a long time waiting for them to bring it. They did eventually and from that point on I never tipped them at all and paid cash with the exact money , including very small coins.
Most of the time staff in such places are respectful but occasionally  Hungarians can be plain faced, rude and unfriendly. When I find this to be the case I make a point of smiling and waving and pretending that I have not noticed their negative attitudes.
Sorry for being contentious but rudeness and unfriendliness from till girls in Hungarian supermarkets is legendary. All my UK and USA girlfriend's comment on it in the town and in the countryside. They especially dislike beautiful foreign women . Maybe they are jealous of our ability to pay for our own shopping? .....sorry girls we can't make ourselves ugly like you.

I am a 61 year old women with  Hungarian 68 year old husband, it's not like we are into bar hopping and hanging out with drunks.
Gesh, I certainly can stand up for myself,guess you missed it when I stuck my umbrella up some dudes rear end for grabbing me and pulling me down a set of steps on the tram, or the time I took my crutch just 2 weeks post major knee surgery and beat the crab out of a would be purse snatcher.
These were Hungarian men attacking me, what ever happened to the old European model of being a gent? ( maybe they had just let the bar)
I am old and thin but not afraid to take it to the limit if needed.
Bars are not places to meet quality people after all, not really.
My husband is 100% HUngarian speaks the language without a flaw in the proper educated form, no slang, no bad manners, I usually act a lady and allow my husband of 40 some years to be a man and stand up for me, I let him handle most public situations of the rude type.

I just know when to pick and chose my fights is all.
Oh, did I forget to mention the time at age 16 when one friend and I stood up to a group of 40 some low riders in Cal who were out for our blood?
Know when to open your mouth and when to keep it shut is all.
Sorry sister, I was raised my a native American mother, we had to stand up for ourselves or she would let us have double what anyone else was giving us.
If I did handle some situations my way in Hungary believe me the cops would be called out and there would be blood.
My peaceful, wonderful, smart husband is my ,"controller" some people should be very happy he is around to keep me in check.
Maybe some day I will turn into a bar fly but for now, not my thing to hang with out of control boring drunks,who knows what the future brings however...
Anyways, all my hassles were with rude Hungarians never with ex pat normal English speakers which is basically what this question was all about.
Hate to say it because my family is Hungarian  but many times as Ann has stated they can be very off the wall and rude. The women have no sense of sisterhood and will murder each other with dirty looks, Never experienced such negative energy towards ones own sex anywhere else in the world.
The women dress only for each other which is disturbing, I doubt most men could care less what a women is wearing, they would say less is best I am sure.
Sorry, this is my month for letting people know I am not a push over, just read the riot  act to a friend of 45 years, don't know you so let's leave it at that.

Atomheart I do find it interesting that you would actually call me out by name and try to let me have it because I am a women, wonder why all the men with issues with rip offs have not been attacked?
See what I mean about the lack of sisterhood?
Tell me I am wrong by showing solidarity.

atomheart wrote:

I as a local hungarian am experiencing similar situations, but then again, I've been experiencing these or worse in US too when I was there for 4 months.

Your profile says you're Romanian 

Some people just like to stir the pot.
I do not think it is cultural in Hungary to be rude, rip people off or to attack physically old ladies.
Have to stand up for yourself anywhere but not recommended to start a bar fight over a couple of bucks.
Not exactly the "cream of the crop" sorts that frequent local bars and dives.
My son, seems lately I am always having to defend him, is a proper gent. Good thing he takes haver his father more then I.
No match for some of the "ladies" of the night that he ran into on his journey to get to know his father's homeland.
No match for the fem ways, had one lady that he was leaving chase after him all the way from Buda to Erd.
He took the bus to his grandmother's home to get away from this harpie. She jumped in her car and met the bus to Erd at every bus stop, jumped out of her car and banged and screamed at he bus for him to come back to her, she loved him ( more like she loved his money) how in the world is a silly little boy from secure S. Cal. any match for a street wise women of Hungary? No match at all, not even a fair fight.

I really should apologize to all the posters, It's just my nature to stand  up for my family, after all isn't that a Hungarian custom?
Atomheart is obviously a child, no grown women and mother would ever berate another women's child or husband without expecting sparks to fly.
Just my luck once again to run into a trouble making Hungarian,I even attract haters over the internet!

Hi, all.  Let's all try to keep cool and please stick to the topic.   

Romaniac
Expat.com Experts Team

Marilyn Tassy, most of your posts are not relevant to any expat forum. You're laying out your personal and family issues and frustrations, and you're stuck on minor incidents that could have been easily avoided or handled. Not everyone has the time to look for the truth behind the kind of subjective irrelevant noise you have created in this topic and many others. I know that your intentions are good, but most people here are looking for acurrate information and advice.

Peace 

I'm an ethnic hungarian from Romania, grew up there, moved to .hu in my twenties.

Hey, at least I am entertaining...
Let's not forget your the one who called me out by name.

atomheart wrote:

And I'm yet to come across the hungarian equivalent in .hu of these: http://www.qwoc.org/wp-content/uploads/ … 60h760.jpg

It is all a mater of perspective of course, but I find those signs when you enter some towns in Hungary spelling out the town name in the "traditional Hungarian script" a pretty similar ideology and world view (i.e. you are now in Hungary, so you should know and be able to read and understand ancient Hungarian script).



In Hungary the message is more subtle, but the end point and intention is the same. And maybe a bit more disturbing in Hungary. Since any ignorant yahoo can wear an insulting t-shirt. But in Hungary it is often the local governments that often decide what signs go up for their towns. Which means it is institutionalized.....

" (i.e. you are now in Hungary, so you should know and be able to read and understand ancient Hungarian script)"

To me those the message of those T-shirts is: You are in USA now, stop using your native language, we don't want to hear it, not even when you're talking to your friends.

"But in Hungary it is often the local governments that often decide what signs go up for their towns. Which means it is institutionalized....."

I'm completely unaware of these hungarian script signs, and the laws around them. Are you saying that towns are allowed to only display their signs in hungarian script? I'm curious, I've never cared about these... The sign on your picture seems to be from Kislőd (google image search has found it for me, I couldn't read it lol). On Street view I've found at least one "proper" sign: https://www.google.hu/maps/@47.1439464, … 56!6m1!1e1

Hi everybody,

We are indeed drifting too much off topic here.
Can we please concentrate on the initial topic launched by the initiator?

However, if you wish to talk on an another subject, please feel free to create a new thread on the Budapest forum.

Thanks,

Priscilla