Hungary

Although Hungary is named for the Huns of Attila fame, the Huns were long ago absorbed by other groups. 95% of Hungarians are Magyars, descendants of Central Asian nomads who settled here in the Middle Ages. Their language, Hungarian, is distantly related to Finnish and has nothing in common with English. Supposedly, its structure is more logical than English, with fewer exceptions to its Byzantine rules. This may be true, but it doesn’t make it any easier for English speakers to learn. Aside from Hungarians, Roma and Germans are the largest minority groups.

Hungarians are an intensely patriotic people, and very knowledgeable about their past. People in pubs here are as likely to talk about history as sports. Well, not as likely, but a hell of a lot more likely than barflies in the US. Memories of their formal Imperial status linger—during your stay here, you’ll probably see several people selling maps of how the Hungarian Empire looked before the First World War. Many Hungarians have these maps hanging in their homes.

Like most Eastern Europeans, Hungarians haven’t had much contact with non-European foreigners, and anyone who looks exotic (i.e., non-white) is bound to get a lot of stares. However, overt racism is rare, except at soccer games. Hungary and the Czech Republic compete for the title of least anti-Semitic country in the region. The exception is the Roma—Hungarians, like most Europeans, don’t like or trust Gypsies.

Hungarians are not the most outgoing and friendly people in the world. Many of them walk around with a permanently morose expression that doesn’t change even when they’re drinking and telling jokes. Don’t expect a store clerk or waiter to smile or tell you to have a nice day, or to make any kind of conversation beyond the absolutely necessary.

But at least the Hungarians don’t roll their eyes when you ask for help with something, like people in Romania and the Slavic countries often do. If you go out to a pub and try to strike up conversations with people, you’ll make plenty of friends.

Hungarians are a bit more religious than their neighbors, which isn’t saying much—the majority of Hungarians never go to Church. Out of the 70% of Hungarians who claim to believe in God, about two-thirds are Roman Catholic, the rest Calvinist and Lutheran. There are about 80,000 Jews left.

Religion was discouraged heavily during the Communist years, and as a result, the Hungarians who are still religious take it pretty seriously. They have more conservative social attitudes than Catholics further west. Hungarians don’t cheat on their spouses on Saturday and pray for forgiveness on Sunday like Italian and French Catholics. The huge rise in prostitution, pornography and strip clubs since the fall of Communism is deeply offensive to many of them.

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