"Prices In Stores Change Steadily Once A Month." The Cost Of Living In Hungary, Language Learning, Pros And Cons

How much money do you need to live in Hungary? Is it possible to live in this country without knowing Hungarian? How are prices and salaries in the country? Kristina Safonova told us about life in a small Hungarian town, working on the radio and traveling around the country.

About moving to a small Hungarian town and working on the radio

— My name is Kristina, I am 27 years old. I was born in Voronezh and lived there all my life. I love my city very much, I consider it very comfortable to live in every sense. Nevertheless, I have always loved traveling — at the moment I have traveled to 39 countries. In general, my passion for traveling and discovering new cultures overcame me, and I moved to Hungary.

And it happened like this: at the end of 2022, I launched my podcast “Normal People” — the creation process was very exciting for me, but the main work did not allow me to fully immerse myself in this matter. And then fate gave me a gift, there is no other way to call it: I found a project from the European Solidarity Corps, which recruited volunteers to work on radio in Hungary. I immediately sent a request, as I already had relevant experience. As a result, I successfully passed the selection of 500 candidates.

On the project, I am engaged in creating radio programs on various topics in English and Russian. My volunteer team consists of incredible guys from Georgia, Morocco, France, Turkey and Italy. The audience of the radio is young people, students and high school students.

Many people do not understand who will listen to the radio in Hungary in Russian or French. However, in the city where the project is taking place, there are a huge number of schools in which Russian, Italian, and French are the second language. And there is a department of Slavic studies at the local university. By the way, once a week I also teach a Russian lesson at school for 11th grade.

It so happens that in the context of my work, I come across a large number of teenagers and students. And these are great guys! They are open to new things, think positively, and want changes for the better in their country.

By the way, in the 4th grade, Hungarian schools stop teaching all subjects (except basic ones) for a year and teach only English – 15-20 hours a week. Thanks to this, the entire younger generation speaks English fluently.

— I moved to Hungary in March 2023. I live in the small town of Nyeredhaza. It is the 7th largest city with a population of 120,000 people. After Voronezh, a city of millions, Nyeredkhaza seems like a big village, but it has its own charm.

I don’t like big cities, but here there is everything you need: shopping malls with popular brands, the international airport is a 40-minute drive away, and the best wine region with its festivals and the wine capital Tokai is a 30-minute train ride away. Budapest is 3 hours away. Compared to the distances in Russia, it’s nothing!

In general, I knew where I was going: I was not afraid that it would not be the capital, and that, most likely, it would be boring there. Sometimes I lack good coffee shops and beautiful places to go for lunch. There are no clubs in the city, the nearest ones are in Debrecen (a 30—minute drive away). There are only a few bars, but I’m not a big fan of hanging out, and if you’re going to hang out, you can easily get to Budapest — there’s an incredible selection of places!

Provincial Hungarian cities are quite modest, they do not have the infrastructure that we are used to. It is difficult to sign up for a hairdresser or manicure here, and the masters use 10-year-old methods of work. For example, during a manicure, I soak the cuticle in a tub of water — you probably haven’t heard about a hardware manicure here. Laser hair removal costs a lot of money! But these are all small things — in the end, it does not affect the overall quality of life.

About the pros and cons of living in Hungary

— Hungary was one of my favorite countries even before I moved. It is difficult to name a rational reason for this. But it’s just nice and cozy here. Feeling “at home” in the best sense of the word. At the same time, Hungary is a classic European country with a good transport infrastructure, a high level of security, a large selection of brands, products, and entertainment.

Hungarians have a lot in common with Russians: it is not so easy to establish contact with a stranger here, but as soon as you become friends, you will immediately be offered a Polinka (Hungarian vodka) and open your whole soul. Hungarians are quite family-oriented, do not work beyond the norm and like to organize various festivals, whether it is a festival of Polinka or electronic music.

Probably the most significant disadvantage that I have encountered all the time is the lack of English—speaking doctors in the city where I live. But there is a solution to this, too — in Budapest I found an excellent clinic for expats, where all the staff speaks English.

In Hungary, as in In Europe as a whole, there is a staff shortage among doctors, so sometimes you can wait several weeks for an appointment. The rate of treatment in Hungary is largely a matter of price. But narrow specialists here use exclusively evidence-based methods and world protocols. I managed to solve my long-standing problem in just one visit to the doctor, whereas in In Russia, I spent about a year going to different doctors and getting the wrong treatment.

I also can’t get used to the fact that trains in Hungary are constantly late — I won’t hide it, it’s very annoying. There has never been a situation when I arrived in Budapest without delay. 30-40 minutes is the normal time for trains to be late in the country. Therefore, a long journey with connections should be planned with a margin of time.

About average salaries and prices

— Hungary is a rather poor country by the standards of the European Union. The average salary of an office worker in Budapest is €800.

In general, there is no noticeable heavy luxury or pretentious luxury in the appearance of people on the streets. Few people leave the country, even though plane tickets, for example, to Cyprus cost € 20-30 in both directions, and there are many destinations with such prices. By the way, Hungary is an excellent transport hub for traveling to different parts of Europe.

The cost of living depends heavily on the location and lifestyle. For 2022-2023, inflation in Hungary accounted for 33%, and this is the highest figure in the EU. Prices in stores change steadily once a month. But it seems to me that it is still cheaper than in other EU countries. If earlier in the If it was cheap, now it’s not too expensive.

Here are some examples of prices: jeans from the new H&M collection will cost 10,000 ft (≈30€), a single tooth filling — from 20,000 ft (≈60€), cappuccino costs 1200ft (≈3€), 10 eggs — 700ft (≈1.8€)

Provided that you do not have a special diet, you cook at home, take a lunch box with you to the office and do not deny yourself the desire to drink coffee after work with friends, thenYou should have enough food for 90,000 ft (≈220€) per month.

About Hungarian cities and the oldest wineries

— Hungarian is the 4th most difficult language in the world. The words in Hungarian are incredibly long, since their endings contain the whole meaning of the phrase (the reason for this is the lack of prepositions). There are 4 letters “O” in the alphabet alone, and they all have different sounds. It’s the same story with the letter “Y”.

If you live in Budapest, then not knowing Hungarian is not a problem. I have an example of a friend who graduated from college, opened his own business, bought real estate, and started learning the language only after 5 years of living in Hungary. But of course, the attitude of Hungarians towards you will be completely different if you try to learn the language and speak it even a little bit.

I believe that if you intend to live in a country, then it is simply necessary to learn the language — and this is true for any country.

— Hungary is a fairly compact country: you can get to any point from Budapest in 2-3 hours by train or car. Another advantage is that it borders seven countries, so it’s easy to drive to Slovenia for a weekend, for example!

There are great places in Hungary for any type of vacation. Budapest is perfect for hanging out and going to museums and concerts. And if you want to distract yourself for a while, then you can go to a small town where marzipan Santendre is produced (just 40 minutes from the capital).

Tokai produces the oldest Hungarian wine, Tokai, which is more than 400 years old. The city itself looks like a fairy-tale village, and in every house there is a family winery where you can taste the best varieties of the wine harvest.

The city of Eger is famous for the “valley of beauties”, where you can also taste the best wines from 150 local producers. And the prices are just a fairy tale — from 1€ per glass.

I love visiting the city of Gyor, which with its architecture reminds that Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the heat, you must definitely go to Balaton — the locals call it the Hungarian Sea.

— I like living in Hungary: it’s quiet here, but there is always something to do. Hungary positions itself as a country for family holidays, so I think that living with a family here is also great.

I would recommend Budapest to those who want to build an international career, as there are many representative offices of various international companies here — from Lego to Morgan Stanley — and they are all constantly looking for different specialists, including native speakers of Russian.