Mistakes Tourists Make in Budapest - Wolters World
video description
The first time was in winter, as I was taking the train from Budapest to Hamburg at 5am at Budapest Keleti train station. Just minutes before the train departed, one guy took a seat in front of me, and another guy behind me. The guy behind me padded my shoulder, I turned around, and he mumbled something which I did not understand. Then both guys left the train just 30 seconds before the it departed.
As the train departed, I suddenly realized my winter jacket was missing. As naive as I was, I put my wallet and train ticket inside the jacket! The ticket controller in Hungary knew such things were rampant, so he just let me through. As the train crossed Slovakia and Czech republic, new ticket controllers came, and I had to borrow money from some nearby passengers (10-20 eur) to buy partial ticket for the route in those countries to continue the journey.
At the German side, the ticket controller did not care about my explanation, and just kicked me out at the border city of Dresden. At Dresden Hbf, I went to the police, and they sent me to the next train and explained to the ticket controller to allow me to board to train for free while they will send me the bill later by post. Lucky for me, I wrote my post code wrongly (by accident, and never received the train ticket bill till today: )
Date: 2022-02-04
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Comments and reviews: 9
GUN69
Hi Mark - watched your video and wanted to raise one thing (which could be relevant to Hungary as well) but certainly it will be happening in various countries across Europe. The banking systems in the US and Europe seem to be different (i. e. checks being used up unitl now widely in America, where in Europe I only got a check in the UK and it was ages ago. Therefore, the question do you accept credit cards? can be easily misinterpreted. In many countries in Europe debit cards are way more popular and small portion of people use credit cards. Asking the question about the credit card you might mean do you take cards AT ALL but can easily be understood by the waiter/server specifically do you accept credit cards. meaning amex etc. Many places do not accept credit cards (especially some small shops) but they do indeed take cards (debit cards. I noticed that many Americans tend to use credit card as a synonym of debit card, so these travellers might get baffled at some point while being in Europe. Also staying with the payment side - I would add to consideration linking your card to your mobile phone as NFC payment (contactless payments) are increasingly popular across Europe and could come handy
reply
Hi Mark - watched your video and wanted to raise one thing (which could be relevant to Hungary as well) but certainly it will be happening in various countries across Europe. The banking systems in the US and Europe seem to be different (i. e. checks being used up unitl now widely in America, where in Europe I only got a check in the UK and it was ages ago. Therefore, the question do you accept credit cards? can be easily misinterpreted. In many countries in Europe debit cards are way more popular and small portion of people use credit cards. Asking the question about the credit card you might mean do you take cards AT ALL but can easily be understood by the waiter/server specifically do you accept credit cards. meaning amex etc. Many places do not accept credit cards (especially some small shops) but they do indeed take cards (debit cards. I noticed that many Americans tend to use credit card as a synonym of debit card, so these travellers might get baffled at some point while being in Europe. Also staying with the payment side - I would add to consideration linking your card to your mobile phone as NFC payment (contactless payments) are increasingly popular across Europe and could come handy
reply
Xmarcello88
Places don't accept credit cards? When did you make this video in 2005? I am a local who works in Switzerland but because of the home office world I could return to Budapest finally more than a year ago. I am paying here with a foreign credit card which is attached to my phone, so basically I pay with my phone and smartwatch everywhere, maybe once in month I have to use the actual physical credit card cause my phone or watch payments are not going through. There was not a single occasion I had to use cash in the last 12 months, not even in case of street venders, even they accept credit cards.
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Places don't accept credit cards? When did you make this video in 2005? I am a local who works in Switzerland but because of the home office world I could return to Budapest finally more than a year ago. I am paying here with a foreign credit card which is attached to my phone, so basically I pay with my phone and smartwatch everywhere, maybe once in month I have to use the actual physical credit card cause my phone or watch payments are not going through. There was not a single occasion I had to use cash in the last 12 months, not even in case of street venders, even they accept credit cards.
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Viktria
Biggest mistake in the video:
- if you buy the 24h or the 72h ticket, you dont need to validate it at the little orange machines, just show it to the ppl who are checking tickets.
If you get the one ride ticket though (vonaljegy, you need to validate it. If you are using the metro, you can validate it before the escalators (like shown in the video. If you are using the tram or the bus, youll need to validate the ticket on the vechicle. Dont buy the ticket on the bus, the driver and the passangers will hate you. Buy the ticket from the ticket vending machines or from the app.
reply
Biggest mistake in the video:
- if you buy the 24h or the 72h ticket, you dont need to validate it at the little orange machines, just show it to the ppl who are checking tickets.
If you get the one ride ticket though (vonaljegy, you need to validate it. If you are using the metro, you can validate it before the escalators (like shown in the video. If you are using the tram or the bus, youll need to validate the ticket on the vechicle. Dont buy the ticket on the bus, the driver and the passangers will hate you. Buy the ticket from the ticket vending machines or from the app.
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i86ij99
One scam I experienced was, as one needs to stamp the subway ticket when entering the platform, sometimes the stamping machines were (deliberately) not working. Then, at the exit, ticket controllers would deliberately check on tourist-looking people.
Once, they saw that my ticket was not stamped, and did not allow me to leave unless I pay a fine of 20 eur. I was in a rush to catch a train, and wanted to avoid any police complications, so I just paid and left.
reply
One scam I experienced was, as one needs to stamp the subway ticket when entering the platform, sometimes the stamping machines were (deliberately) not working. Then, at the exit, ticket controllers would deliberately check on tourist-looking people.
Once, they saw that my ticket was not stamped, and did not allow me to leave unless I pay a fine of 20 eur. I was in a rush to catch a train, and wanted to avoid any police complications, so I just paid and left.
reply
Moon
Let me add one more as a local: most tourist avoid 'fancier' restautants, either assuming they are very expensive or 'not hungarian'. Big mistake! One of the best things about Budapest/Hungary is that you can have gourmet level foods at bargain prices. At places like borkonyha (winekitchen, you'll get michelin star winning meals for the price of half a glass of wine in NY.
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Let me add one more as a local: most tourist avoid 'fancier' restautants, either assuming they are very expensive or 'not hungarian'. Big mistake! One of the best things about Budapest/Hungary is that you can have gourmet level foods at bargain prices. At places like borkonyha (winekitchen, you'll get michelin star winning meals for the price of half a glass of wine in NY.
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FIM
Also avoid hookers. I am a receptionist and i have seen guests robbed by them many times. Also watch your belongings and if you stay in a hotel always leave your keys at the reception if you are able to do that. Use the public transportation on the Danube (there is a ship to do that) way cheaper than the sightseeing boats.
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Also avoid hookers. I am a receptionist and i have seen guests robbed by them many times. Also watch your belongings and if you stay in a hotel always leave your keys at the reception if you are able to do that. Use the public transportation on the Danube (there is a ship to do that) way cheaper than the sightseeing boats.
reply
Gerg
There is one more thing! We have a very important hungarian expression, that everyone needs to learn before visiting Hungary! You may already heard or read about this magic word before called: BAZDMEG: DDDDDD We mostly use it for goddamn it but it can also be used in many different ways as well: -)
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There is one more thing! We have a very important hungarian expression, that everyone needs to learn before visiting Hungary! You may already heard or read about this magic word before called: BAZDMEG: DDDDDD We mostly use it for goddamn it but it can also be used in many different ways as well: -)
reply
Andrew
your the first time ive seen a travel video of budapest that mentioned the roman ruins and caves. also a great day trip is ezstergom or lake balaton which also has a cave. and in budapest theres also the childrens railway trip. Your videos ate my favourites: -)
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your the first time ive seen a travel video of budapest that mentioned the roman ruins and caves. also a great day trip is ezstergom or lake balaton which also has a cave. and in budapest theres also the childrens railway trip. Your videos ate my favourites: -)
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HabitusCrft
Listening to the food options with a heavy heart. I am a celiac with a really bad dairy intolerance. So I'm already missing out, on the bread front. I know it's improbable, but are there. non-dairy sour creams options for Hungarian food, anywhere?
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Listening to the food options with a heavy heart. I am a celiac with a really bad dairy intolerance. So I'm already missing out, on the bread front. I know it's improbable, but are there. non-dairy sour creams options for Hungarian food, anywhere?
reply
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