Ray51

@ Jon-Bxl :
Hi , I hope to be in Brux ( Ixelles/Uccle ) 4 a few days , in the 2nd half of April ( I ive in Surrey & London @ the mo ) ; drop me a p.m. and I look forward to meeting ya ,
Cheerz ,
R.J.M.

gioppino

I hope this was tongue in cheek. I've net met any Bulgarians in my life, but I know many Romanians and Hungarians and they are very nice people. We see them as poor because they're used to living in dignified poverty, but they are not savages.

Not to mention their women, they're sweet and gorgeous.

If one day I fulfilled my dream of working from home, I'd definitely return to the south of Italy, but otherwise why not Hungary for example?

Ray51

Easy answer :
Hungary ( magyar ) = incredibly dificult language ( unless you are Finnish or Mongolian ) ;
bad , unhealthy food
most wines : not up to standards
some of the shortest lifespans in Europe
poor work ethic
except for a few parts of Budapest , very remote , insular , out of touch/step
communist mentality pervades all & every expectation/s
Budapest , for the last 15-20 years remains undisputed Porn Capital of Europe - wander : why ?

fizzytom

Personally I love Hungary. Never had anything but excellent food and some good wines. Been to some lovely places outside the capital (though I do like the capital too). Szombathely and Keszthely spring to mind. Also the very beautiful Tihany peninsula on Balaton. Pecs is another great city.

I thought the 'savages' tag unfair too. Nice people, beautiful places.

As for the food being unhealthy, I didn't find that ALL of it was - no more than other places and as the person who posted the question was looking for somewhere cheap I presume he doesn't expect always to be eating out and therefore can make as much healthy tucker as he likes.

No coastline in Hungary, BTW

scot47

Well there is Lake Balaton !

fizzytom

There is indeed though I would suggest that it has a much shorter 'season' than most coastal places (compare it with Croatia's gloriously long summer for example).

We usually visit Balaton too early or too late. In May 2011 we were in Tihany and Keszthely just as preparations were being made for the season to start - we took a boat trip from Keszthely which was like being out on the open seas!

Jon-Bxl

FYI here is a post I did this morning on another thread, which may be relevant here

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...73&postcount=2

forgottenlife

Hi James, if you want to know which country is the cheapest to live in, Bulgaria definitely comes near the top of the list. I used to live in Varna which is a Black Sea resort town. Nice summer, cold winter, easy to get back to the UK, and definitely cheap to live and eat. Telecom infrastructure is good too. The only problem is the language....

cathyg

Having just moved to Hungary I can confirm it is a lot less expensive than many other places in europe. Whilst not quite a seaside location we live near lake balaton which is stunning and as good as many seaside locations.
BTW food is great and people are lovely and very helpful. I would never dream of being so disrespectful to another country's people as has been posted on this thread previously and am surprised it wasn't deleted by the moderators.
Yes it is a hard language but more and more people speak enough English so that you can get by. I use the google translate app which is brilliant. I also translate and write down in Hungarian what I need before I go anywhere. Nowadays language doesn't need to be a barrier.

forgottenlife

Hungary is a lovely country, when I lived in Bulgaria I used to travel to Budapest for long weekends. There are definitely more things to do in Budapest than in even Sofia (capital of Bulgaria). I did find prices much more expensive though.

Sofia citizen

8 712 821 foreign tourists in Bulgaria in 2011, about 30 000 only British relocated constantly to Bulgaria in the last year, keep talking about savages.

Rural Hungary

Wow, just seen this and the savages post. Bit OTT Ray.
Hungarian, though definitely one of the most difficult languages to learn, is not impossible if you are willing to mix with the local "savages" and not socialise solely with the expat crowd.
The food, albeit far from rivalling the cuisines of France, Italy or even Bulgaria is not all unhealthy and what you eat is down to personal choice.
Wine quality is varied here and some of the best and worst I have tasted is homemade. Granted much of the £1 a litre wine is of a quality that is questionable even for cooking but if paying £2.50-3 a bottle, there are some decent local wines.
Work ethic, I'll give you this one as most need a rocket up their backside to get them going and then they work at a slow or extra slow pace but this is, to some extent, understandable for an ex communist country. Interestingly, we find the Hungarian Roma, in general, have a better work ethos. Other theories are that they are happy with their lot and do not see why they should work themselves to death.
Remote, we live in a remote rural village and yet are within 30 minutes max of three large towns, lake Balaton and within an hour of the Croatian and Slovenian borders.
Insular, I can only comment on this part of Hungary and yes the people can be insular with much effort needed to break down walls but at the end of the day, I would rather have real, earned friendships than fake friendships based on my being a foreigner and them seeing me as a cash cow.
Savages, well this beggars the question as to just how many Hungarians you have actually spent time with. Hungarians are far more cultured, well educated and well mannered than the majority of British people I know. Children are taught to open doors for females regardless of their age, even the poorest Hungarian children I know always greet me with the more polite version of hello and I have yet to see gangs of Hungarian youths or indeed a single Hungarian teenager staggering down the road drunk.
There are issues in Hungary as in every country but they are far more complex than fried foods and bad wine!

fizzytom

Yay! Well said all -

I would happily re-locate to Hungary. We sometimes fly into Hungary on our way to our place in Slovenia and spend a couple of days in Hungary tootling around first. We love it. I thouhgt 'savages' was a pretty shocking thing to say

booboo24

We just had two very friendly women stay with us for the weekend from Hungary. Don't like the food there but then again I am a bit fussy about what I eat. It was cheap but it tasted cheap! I liked the ice cream. Oh and everywhere I have had coffee I got real cream
Not a place I would chose to live! Our next stop will be somewhere warmer in winter

forgottenlife

All the people I met and worked with in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary are all very nice and genuine people. They might seem a bit passive at the beginning (I assume because of the language barrier) but once you started talking you will find that they are all good, nice and generous people.

To be honest, it's gonna be difficult wherever you go if you don't mix with the locals and local culture. Keep thinking "I am an expat from a better country" is definitely the wrong attitude to take, if you think that you shouldn't consider moving abroad in the first place.

Back to James, have you found some potentials yet?