anonimouse

Hello everyone, Im hoping this is a busy forum that I have recently stumbled across so that I might get some answers.

We are new to the area, near Sarvar, not that far from Balaton which seems to be the most popular place for expats. and Yes Im from the Costas too.

Problem is now we are thinking we may have made a big mistake, we cant, nor think we ever will, speak a word of Hungarian and there doesnt seem to be any English in our area. We are finding the utility bills unbelievably high compared to Spain. We are having trouble finding anyone who knows about Sky television, and also a place to buy English books seems none exsistant. Also when we came we were thinking of breeding Ragdoll kittens, unfortunately our breeder in Spain is seriously ill with Cancer and has been unable to help us sort the paperwork out for our kittens so now we are stuck with beautiful kittens that we dont seem able to even give away here, it seems to me that nobody here has any money to even feed a kitten let alone pay for one.

Anyway its early days here and its gloomy winter so we will wait and see how/if things improve before we dash back to Spain.

It would be nice to meet some English for a natter, and exchange ideas and also find out how they get on living here, we love the place and the people are friendly enough, but everything seems to be going wrong for us, we are shocked at the bank charges as well.

Hope I dont sound so gloomy as I really am, hehhe and hope that there are others posting perhaps close to us that might be able to help us at least find a place to buy English books, looking forward to hearing from anyone bye for now anon imouse

ticmic

Hi there,

My wife and I live live near Kecskemet in a village called Lajosmizse. In regards to TV, we watch everything BBC, ITV through the Internet and have linked it to our TV. If you use Sky, unless you have a very big dish (2.4m) you will not receive BBC or ITV.

English books can be bought from the larger cities, although they cost alot more than in England, so once again we have turned to the Internet and listen to audio books and download books in PDF format.

If you PM me I will give you info how you can get around the IP blocking for UK and a possible way to get SKY here for free.

anonimouse

[QUOTE=ticmic;8238232]Hi there,

My wife and I live live near Kecskemet.....

Thanks for the reply, I will Pm you thanks.

I have tried watching the BBC and other channels but it says only available in the Uk, I do connect my pc to Tv so an unblock of this would be tremendous for us, thanks

Rural Hungary

Hi, sorry to hear things haven't been going well for you however, hang on in there as it DOES get better. We had a few nightmares last summer but are slowly feeling more settled, meeting new friends and life is much brighter.
Regards utility bills, I do find the telephone very expensive, especially when phoning mobiles and now tend to use Skype. Compared to the UK, I actually pay less for electricity and water and my winter heating bills have been reduced from £300/month for oil fired central heating to £40 a month for wood!

Anonimouse is right about the TV, internet is the most feasible option and hopefully you now have it set up, if not PM me and I will give you details of the VPN that we use.

I would imagine you would be better marketing your business to German, Austrian or Budapest buyers, I doubt anyone in the more rural areas of Hungary would be able to afford the luxury of a Ragdoll.

Again, as Anonimouse says, every town will have a book shop selling English books though the prices are high and the selection small. We buy all of our books from Book Depository (not a personal ad mod so hope the links okay) as they offer free shipping worldwide, prices are reasonable and delivery is 3-4 days.

Hope this helps and if you are ever down Balaton way feel free to visit us, a problem shared and all that!

Take care and keep your chin up.

anonimouse

Hi thanks for that, things have picked up a little already, we have managed to get rid of the Kittens now, so thats one load off my mind.

Im afraid I cant take credit for the advice regarding the internet television, nor the English book shops, that credit is due to Ticmic.

Im sure we would feel better if we had some English friends out here, we have met some Hungarian friends but it is tiresome talking on a translator, which incidently isnt very good either.

I tried a program which enables you to watch Uk Tv and it works well. I am running my Tv on a satelite in a suitcase at the moment and get lots of English channels, but It would be nice to get BBC 1 and ITV I have found them but the signal is too weak.

The fourth satelite man that was coming here has let me down (not impressed with them here atall) so I purchased a 1.2mtr dish today, I am going to see if I can get the signal up a bit stronger if not I have only spent about €30 and it surely wont be any worse than this one Im using now, I ll let you know how I get on.

We havent ventured as far as Balaton yet but cant wait to, what is the best place to visit around the lake?

If you Pm me, it would be nice to meet up

Rural Hungary

LOL could you tell I was trying to make dinner, supervise the childrens homework and post at the same time? Of course I meant Ticmic.

Glad to hear things are looking up and yes conversations on the translator aren't much fun but I'm sure you'll pick up enough Hungarian soon to be able to converse. How long have you been here?

I think there are a few on the forums that have tried, without success, to get BBC but Hungary isn't in range and even with a 2m dish theres no guarantee that the signal will be strong enough, though being in the North East you might get lucky.

The lake is extremley varied, something for everyone so it really depends what you like, I will PM as soon as I get a few minutes.
Also, there is the Balaton Brits club, I have never been but believe it's just outside Keszthely and meets the first Tuesday of the month. It's a bit far out for us but hopefully, during the summer, I can arrange a meeting for expats living near Zalakaros, Nagykanizsa and Marcali as there are quite a few of us now.

Speak soon

ticmic

I am now picking up ITV through my SKY box, I have had to add it as an extra channel and not through channel 104 but the signal strength and quality is fine and dandy.

I have a 1,2 m dish and live in the centre of Hungary, ITV are now on Eurobird satellite, which you can pick up if you are picking up Astra 2D (sky)

If you want the frequency etc please PM me

John Gilbert

I get ITV, Channel 4 & Five thriugh old Sky box, a freeview card from Sky (£20 for 3 years but must be sent to UK address), plus adding channels. Astra 2B (not D) covers Hungary easily on .9 dish. Only problem is no BBC accees.