Thanks for the great responses.

Pol - yes, the language is tough. I've started out with the Pimsleur course as the method worked for me when I decided to learn a little Japanese. But I'm only on lesson 4 or 5 out of 30 and I'm already struggling. Honestly, Japanese is a piece of cake compared to Hungarian. The biggest problem for me is pronunciation and mangling those unusual vowel sounds makes my face muscles hurt

Regarding some of your other cons: although I might have sounded like a bit of an anarchist earlier, I don't really engage with politics. I like to moan about stuff but then do naff all about it. Although I'm with JR4e - death to the NWO! And money-wise, I'm actually budgeting for slightly more than I spend in the UK and I'm going to ditch some of my UK-type expenditure like satellite TV, magazine subs and maybe even try and manage without a car. I'm aware that fuel prices are as high if not higher than the UK and food can be expensive if you eat processed garbage (guilty as charged, I'm afraid but I hope to be a little self-sufficient in Hungary and have bought some veggie seeds in preparation).

I was half-joking about throwing away recyclables - I actually like to recycle. It's just the almost fascistic manner in which it's imposed upon us in the UK that I object to. I mean, say what you like about Pol Pot - at least he always separated his cardboards and his plastics

But all your tips have been invaluable - for instance, regarding tools and blokey stuff - AA batteries are AA batteries wherever you buy them, right? So I'd probably be better off buying a Hungarian battery recharger? Or not? See, we need you guys to tell us these things.

cathyg - I'd be outraged if I was forced to get a UK I.D. card. But I'm also the type of person who's prepared to accept the rules of a country I choose to live in. If that's the way it is, then I'll be happy and maybe even a bit proud to get all those different cards. I'll need to get my hair done first though, if they're photo IDs. And in fact, from your healthcare experience,it would seem that the cards are a positive thing. Anything to do with health can be a stressful time and it helps if it can all be done as quickly and smoothly as possible. And I like the idea of more patient responsibility too.

Thanks again for the input guys - some food for thought.

Thanks for all your post's it sure is a minefield when looking to move to another country.

You would be very lucky to find a Hungarian battery recharger, just as in England you would be pushed to find an English manufactured one, most (all) such things tend to be made in ROC or at best components made there and assembled in EU (which usually means ex-eastern bloc)

Similarly with white goods, models may differ but most are badge engineered.

Peter, I suspect you are teasing me However, you make a very good point and have also reminded me to try to better phrase my questions. So let me rephrase - is it preferable to purchase a battery charger that has been manufactured and assembled for the Hungarian/Continental European market and therefore has the requisite plug and voltage demands or to take my trusty old (manufactured and assembled for the U.K. market) battery charger and faff about with a plug convertor? Do battery chargers operate within a voltage range or are they specific for each market? Do I even mean voltage? But regardless, your answer highlighted the fact that a seemingly simple decision can be more complex than it would first appear.

As for white goods - yes, you're right and it's the same for TVs and hi-fi equipment (do people still have "hi-fis"?) I've got a Bush T.V - except it's not really - it's exactly the same as a Wharfedale or several other brands - same innards but different badges.

Jessica - sorry for hijacking your thread.

No problem all very amusing and interesting.

I found it more cost effective to bring as many tools (including battery chargers) from England and just change the plugs over when I got here. I also brought some trailing sockets and put a Hungarian plug on them so that I could use electrical items with English plugs until I got round to changing them.

That is what I did 20 years ago - some of the tools still have English plugs on them - when I get around to changing them.........

But new stuff I would reckon to buy here 'cos the guarantee would be here in the event of problems

I still have UK plugs on most of my stuff, mainly because I can't bring myself to cut off a well designed plug and fit one of those horrible Schuko German designed plugs. I do indeed still use a hifi system and I even play vinyl records sometimes! I have an old '40s radiogram I was given in UK. You have to be quite careful with equipment like that when plugging it into a Hungarian socket as the live and neutral can be reversed. This can result in parts of the radiogram such as the aerial socket becoming live!
A lot of houses in Hungary have no earth connection to some or all of the sockets. If a fault develops it is possible to get a shock from the metal parts of your washing machine, electric cooker, water heater etc.
Don't worry about the voltage, anything that works on UK mains will work on Hungarian mains. Amps are more of a concern though, as the standard house supply in Hungary has a much lower current rating than we are used to in UK. If for example you have the washing machine, tumble dryer and electric oven on all at the same time you will quite likely trip the main circuit breaker.

We didnt realise that until our house was stuck by lightning in the second year here...it blew up our laptops and burned out a few sockets...luckily no one was hurt. And the insurance people were very good about it.

Ours is earthed but we still blew a PC and some sockets during one really bad storm about 4-5 years ago

We were advised to buy those power circuit breakers from MediaMarkt

But to be honest, once a Hungarian storm hits...anything can happen!

Yes, we always meant to buy those but never did!

Not just the storms either.... I remember the time one of our neighbours took half the village electrics out when trying to cut down a tree for fire wood but it fell in the wrong direction

We have had 3 lighting strikes that have damaged electrical goods in the 20 years we have been here (and a few more that 'just took out trees') The 'best' one blew the electric fence unit to bits - literally, destroyed a circuit breaker in the meter box and took out the control card for the bore hole well half a kilometer down the road. Oh and stripped the bark of the tree that it first hit before jumping to the fence to continue it trail of destruction.

But we still like to watch the spectacular light shows

Thanks for all the info about voltage, amperes, plugs and what not. Glad to know all my old games consoles will work OK, but I must admit to being a little worried about the thought of things or parts of things being "live". I assume one could pay an electrician to earth an entire house? I've had a PC blow up on me in the UK (and another time a power surge blew my surge protector and turned on an old PC that was still plugged in to it), so it could happen anywhere I guess. Those circuit breakers sound like a good idea too. Thanks again for the advice and info.

Yes, the missing earth wires can be put in at a later date but how easy or expensive that would be will depend on how the wiring was done originally. If you are lucky there will be conduit embedded in the brickwork and it will be possible to feed an extra wire into that. If you are unlucky there will be figure 8 shaped 2 core cable nailed to the walls with plaster direct on top of it. To upgrade that you really need to start from scratch with channeling out walls, putting in new conduit and junction boxes etc. At least then you can also relocate the sockets to more sensible positions at the same time. Most houses have the sockets too high up the wall. My kitchen only had one socket and that was directly behind the sink!