Riding on trains with Hungarians

Everybody knows that we Hungarians are not a very nice lot. Nobody is as sure about that as we are. We are awful, unruly, unorganised. We are arrogant, irritable, nitpicky, and intolerant. It is as if we are somehow faulty by design. We are always negative beyond measure. Hell, even I am so negative that I only realized I could write this assignment about something positive after thinking about one negative trait after another for a good hour.

Being a commuter I generally spend about two hours on public transport every day, more than half of this time on a suburban commuter train between Budapest and Érd. For me, this is not only an opportunity to study, catch up on my reading, or listen to a new album, but also a way to get an impression about the people I ride the trains with, and thus to get in touch with the reality of living in Hungary, of being Hungarian.

The two types of trains used, the huge old all metal blue ones back from Communist times and the pretty new red ones bought a few years ago, greatly express the doubleness of this country. We are still stuck between the past and present, Communism and the freedom of Democracy which is still in its infancy, or I may as well say stuck between past and future.

One would expect, this essay being about public transport and Hungarians, that I am about to thrash people and MÁV endlessly. But that is not the case. Interestingly, my experiences are generally neutral to positive, only rarely with something negative in between.

Hungarians are a quite aloof, very personal people. We like to keep to ourselves and those we know. Before the train departs from the station, people take their seats. According to tradition, everybody sits as far away from each other as possible, one person to every four seats. If somebody breaks this pattern, people give them a funny look, but I have never heard a harsh word being exchanged about anything like that. We have our own little private thoughts, judgements of others on the train, but we are rarely outwardly rude.

During rush hour, people, although sometimes reluctantly and with a sour face, remove their bags so that everyone can have a seat. Nevertheless, despite keeping to ourselves, people on the train tend to treat each other with just the necessary amount of respect, something that may not be entirely typical elsewhere in Hungary. We politely ask permission to sit, and often bid goodbye to our seat neighbours before getting off. The ticket inspector is loud and polite, and almost everybody else goes the extra mile to be polite in return.

Even though I generally dislike stereotypes and aim to refrain from them as a rule, making generalisations about the train riding public is very easy. Little kids are loud and irritating. So are teenagers, especially in large packs. Working class middle-aged people getting on the train at the station by the factory are good-humoured, but smell awful. Roma families are very numerous and very loud. According to a malicious stereotype, you can always spot who got on at Ercsi or Iváncsa from their bad hygene and even worse manners. Of course, fairly well-to-do middle-aged people are the best train riding companions a girl could ask for, being as they are calm, quiet, and rarely smell bad. But then again, the rudest anyone ever was to me on a train was a seemingly well-situated and well-respected middle aged man, no doubt married with children at home.

The train riding public gives an interesting insight into the economic situation of Hungarians as well. In the last few years, the number of people using their own electronic devices during their train ride have largely increased. The sight of people using their laptops, charging their smartphones, or reading on their tablets or ebook readers have become just as common as in any developed Western country. However, the number of devices could probably still not be compared to, say the number of devices on a commuter train in the UK. On this front, as well as on many others, Hungary is desperately trying to keep up with the West. You see more and more iPhones and Kindles everywhere. However, Hungary is indeed in a very poor economic state, people’s wages are stagnant despite the high inflation, and it is definitely reflected in such seemingly banal things as the prevalence, brand, or quality of gadgets.

One thing I am personally quite proud of is the number of people reading on trains. It does not matter at what time of the day I am taking the train, I can always spot at least one or two people reading something, let it be a novel or a newspaper, which in my opinion is a good thing. And this is despite the fact that the line I am taking goes through some pretty rough towns and neighbourhoods as well, such as the aforementioned Ercsi or Iváncsa. This just goes to show that we Hungarians are quite literate people, a feature we should rightly take pride in.

It seems that taking a look at the train riding public in Hungary gives one a pretty good panoramic view of this country and its inhabitants, be it their economic situation, general manners, or level of education. Despite the widespread negative stereotypes about Hungarians I described in my slightly sarcastic first paragraph (propagated mostly by Hungarians themselves), I see my fellow Hungarians as aloof, overly opinionated, but generally polite and well-meaning people. However, one should always keep in mind that my few hundred words of blatant generalisations here entirely fall short of describing a whole nation of 10 million individuals.