FenTiger

Next Tuesday 9pm features a couple in surprise, surprise Gadacs, Hungary. Seen a clip ..... am wondering what's so wild about Hungary!

blackwaterman

I'm unfamiliar with the TV series, but I remember feeling how 'wild' Hungarian countryside can seem especially in the dark. I remember getting out of the car late at night, looking 360 degrees around without seeing one speck of light. Factoring in my complete ignorance of the language, I realised that even a tiny problem could easily escalate to result in great difficulty, if not disaster, if I had been alone. There's many people in UK who get almost hysterical if you ask them to travel a few km along unfamiliar, unlit roads. As for walking along such roads, that's completely beyond their comprehension!

wolfi

A bit OT:

When we have visitors (whether from Budapest or from abroad - Germany, UK, USA ...) and they stand in the garden at night, they always marvel at the sky and the wonderful view.

It's so dark in the village that you can see stars which you can't see from the big cities because of lights, smog etc ...

mawood47

"Wild side of Hungary" Yes my place as such, on way up along the main track and within 300 meters of the front door, first to find Red Squirrels in tree tops then r/side one of two Fox seats, many times passing by the side of me with their daily catch mostly Pheasant, further along on l/side is the Badger setts they are very loud early morning on their way to enjoy the lower branches of Grapes, yes they are a pest and take some controlling, but the sweets time is July when the Deer arrive with young at foot grazing there way through enjoying the young fruits on lower branches, and all ways around many birds to give signs of day break as night falls under clear night sky's, there final songs for that day fade away leaving a blanket of Stars lighting up that night, and its so sad have to sell but can not as no one once this Life digger47

FenTiger

In today's Daily Mail ....
British couple who live on £6 a day in rural Hungary say they couldn't be happier | Daily Mail Online

fidobsa

In some ways I envy them, as I've often thought I would like a "back to basics" existence with very few (ideally none) bills. They remind me of a young guy I often see when driving from Hungary to Croatia. He has a tiny delapidated cottage and spends a lot of time outside so he's kind of extended his living space out into the garden. He also seems happy with his life. He smiles and waves as I pass by.

FenTiger

I've only watched half the programme so far and of what I saw I was truly disappointed with Ben Fogle. I thought he was patronising towards Hungarians. The idiot arriving in his hire car walked along the road asking in English where the English couple lived! Also at a market he was imitating a chicken in an attempt to find out whether the stall holder sold chickens! Of all the programmes I have seen I think this is the worst. Suffice to say after watching the second half I might think differently.
I must add to be honest I thought this programme was about people venturing out into the wild, miles away from anything .... but am beginning to think maybe every place he has visited in the series probably has a supermarket a couple of hundred yards away and the places are not as isolated as he is making out. It's all about TV entertainment and himself earning a packet!

scrubbedexpat0105

Google has Street View of Gadács, worth taking a look.

Pollypaprika

Agree. I found the programme depressing and it did not show Hungary in the best light at all.

As for the couple, I thought they were naive...sorry...I know we all were to some extent...but moving somewhere with zero income, next to no savings and with just an outside tap is bizarre. How did they manage through the winter? They didn't seem to have any support network or even access to the internet where they could have reached out to forums like this to get help and advice. I know I for one relied heavily on the great advice I found here when I first moved to Hungary.

Also, the fact that the woman allegedly had a privileged upbringing and threw it all away to live like that. (Although I am guessing this was part of the narrative which the show blew out of all proportion).

I get the whole sustainable thing...most of us here do grown our own veggies etc..but what is going to happen when they need help/get ill/need medication?...Rely on the goodwill of he poor villagers I suspect...

Having said that I really hope they are successful and make a great life here, but they are not exactly making the best of starts for themselves.

PaulinEger

There's always Mummy to fall back on who I'm sure will not them suffer or go without to any great extent.
I also wondered what's going to happen to their English registered van in the long run...return trip to UK for m.o.t., insurance, tax, not being resident in UK etc etc

We've always said that we'd like to go back to basics....but not to that extent.

Pollypaprika

That's what I thought...but living on 6 quid a day they are not going to get very far!

PaulinEger

Before we came here we thought we could live off about 100 GBP per month and we'd visited about 10 times by then :/.....then the reality kicked in

Sachina

I haven't seen the programme, only read the newspaper article.

When I moved here nearly 10 years ago I knew no one and apart from counting up to 10 couldn't speak a word of Hungarian. I lived in a shell of a house for 9 months with only an outside tap, a loo halfway up the garden and a bottled gas cooker lent to me by a neighbour. My son sorted out the electricity so at least I could have a light in the evening and run a fridge/freezer. The only furniture was an old bed and a couple of chairs the previous owner had left behind.

I did have savings which were spent on a baby bath which I used until the bathroom was finally installed plus all the necessary crockery, blankets, and most importantly after about 2 months when the weather got colder, a wood burning stove which I sat in front eating my Christmas dinner surrounded by rubble! I didn't have a phone or a TV for the first year and had to wait 2 years before internet arrived in the village.

Some might say I was naive to move halfway round the world to live in a country where I couldn't speak the language, knew no one and to live in what my grandchildren called "Gran's Hungarian hovel"in a remote village in deepest darkest Hungary! In mitigation I had done a lot of research before I made the decision plus having sold up I did have the money to fund any renovation and support myself and I wanted to get out of the rat race and live a simple life.

Nearly 10 years on I'm happy where I am and although I still don't speak Hungarian well, I've made loads of friends, who if I have a problem are always willing to give support. And I also have 2 lovely dogs and a cat for companionship ... what more can anyone want?

fidobsa

Yes, no matter how cheaply you can live it won't work long term unless you have some form of income. Like Sachina, I've not watched the programme so I missed out on details like the fact they were running a vehicle.

I'm on my 4th house renovation so I can understand the attraction of buying a cheap place and making it into a proper home. Jokingly I tell people when I've done most of the planned work on a house that I have a hankering for somewhere more squalid. In my case the most basic one was my first house in Scotland. When I bought that there was no bathroom or hot water system, just an earthenware sink with cold tap in the kitchen and an outside loo. Part of the upstairs was just bare stone walls and no ceiling as it was a fishermans cottage and that was the area used to mend nets.