Drinking habits in Croatia, Hungary and Ireland

Drinking habits in Croatia, Hungary and Ireland

According to the Forbes list of European countries based on alcohol consumption, my fellow Croats ranked as number one. However, what article did not mention are our daily coffee dates which keep us sharp between the occasional glasses of wine.  Surprisingly, the Irish were not that high up the on list even though the only liquids poured into a glass after 5pm on weekdays and 2pm on weekends are those of drafted stouts and ciders. Not to be too harsh, people of the emerald island also consume large quantities of breakfast tea. Differences in drinking culture between these two countries encouraged me to choose this particular topic for our brief ethnographic research and compare them to the drinking rituals of Budapestians.

            

        Due to Turkish influence, an average Croatian does not start his or her day without a cup of strong Turkish coffee. These coffee rituals are so strongly embedded in our culture that work places offer a half hour coffee break both before and after a lunch break.  In fact, Croatians love this dark beverage so much that we use a term coffee as a verb when meeting our friends for gossip chats. In Hungary, on the other hand, people do not seem to have a habit of sipping coffee every few hours. Here I mostly see young university students gulping cups of coffee in Starbucks while cramming for exams.  There is rarely a sight of people sitting down in a cafe and sipping their coffee while having a look at the daily papers.  Also, tea does not seem to be too popular with the people of Budapest. Only two out of ten people that I have asked about their tea drinking habits said they would maybe have a cup of tea a day. 

      

         However, boozing habits don’t seem to be too far off from those of alcoholic Croatians and Irish.  Middle aged people both in Hungary and Croatia seem to enjoy a shot of either palinka or rakija before their meals and a glass of wine after. Apart from this though, you will barely see any middle aged people out drinking which is hardly the case in Ireland. Both during the week and the weekend Irish pubs are full of middle aged men watching sports accompanied with the pint of Guinness. People who drink the most in Hungary seem to be youngsters from the age of sixteen up until those in their thirties.

 High school and university students are usually out about twice a week and probably get drunk at least one of those days. However, they do not seem to take particular interest in what and where they drink. I found that they don’t really like paying too much for their drinks so they either hang around cheap and nasty little bars or drink outside. As they mostly drink for the reason to get drunk, you hardly see them sipping on cocktails, but rather taking palinka shots or chugging draft beer. More often than not, you can also find Budapest teenagers sitting on a grass and sharing a bottle of wine.  Those who are a bit fancier and like dressing up on the weekends usually end up in one of the night clubs. Not surprisingly, younger generations in Croatia have quite similar habits regarding drinking outside. During the spring and summer most parks and beaches are full of high school and university students enjoying the nice whether with the bottle of wine in their hands. Nevertheless, I still find it that Croatians do hang out in nicer bars, as there is not that big of a difference in the price of drinks. Croatians would happily pay a bit more in order to mingle in the posher venues.

Still, neither Croatians nor Hungarians seem to have the same habit of going on a bender as the Irish. By bender I mean being heavily intoxicated for few days. If you are Irish and go out on a Friday night, especially in Budapest, there is a high chance that you will end up coming home on a Sunday night. Since Irish are (in)famous for their drinking habits, most bars and clubs in Ireland close at 3 am. Nonetheless, they found a way to deal with that problem by starting to neck (swallowing very fast) their drinks as early as possible.  When I say drinks I mostly mean pints of Guinness.  It is a rare sight in Ireland to see someone drink wine. Girls usually either drink beer or sip on mixed drinks.  Men obviously stick to heavy Irish stouts which they spice up with a bit of Irish whiskey in between the pints.  

All three cultures seem to have pretty different ways of handling their booze. Hungary and Croatia, however, appear to have some similar traits. We can pin that on Eastern Europeanness!

Morning - The public transport hell

When I started to observe Hungarians, the first few things which came to my mind about us was all stereotypes. I was aware that foreigners think that most Hungarians are pessimistic or that we are very proud of our country which was once a large empire. After collecting a few things about us that I have heard before, I have decided to observe one aspect of our everyday life: Hungarian public transport. As I can see, most of the time we are in a hurry and trying to get on the public transport vehicles as quickly as we can to have a seat. After a few years of public transport experience I can tell that mornings are the worst part of the day to use public transport in Budapest. In the following essay, I have collected the major groups of morning passengers.

Firstly, as a student I have to write about students’ behaviour on public transport. Students are the majority on public transport vehicles in the morning as they usually do not own a car and they use the buses, metro or suburban railways to get to school. Most of them are trying to make their way to the school as noisily as possible, shouting their stories about last Friday and the big house party which they usually cannot remember at all. They like to complain about retirees who choose this time of the day to go to the doctor just to take the whole bus away from them and to glare at them when they are joking with their friends.

Secondly, there are the retirees. Retirees always get on the bus or the metro first; they are trying to push everyone away who is brave enough to wait closer to the door or fool enough to get on before the, and of course they need a seat – even if they only travel one stop – and they are always complaining if younger passengers do not give their seats to them. They usually carry a little carriage for the things they buy at the market, but no matter how small it is, it hurts so much when it goes over your foot. Although retirees have enough time during the day to do their daily routine, for example, shopping or seeing the doctor, they always choose the rush-hour, when the buses are full with students and workers. Sometimes I think this is just to have someone to complain about.

The third group is workers, who only try to survive the morning sandwiched between the noisy younger generation and the elderly people. They are holding their daily take-away coffee in their hands and pretending to read the free Metropol magazine, while in reality they are listening to the students’ stories and once again they make a vow that they’ll never ever let their children go out on a Friday night.

To conclude, morning is the hardest part of the day to survive on public transport. Most of us are trying to get on the bus as quickly as possible and we even use our elbows if someone gets in our way. After the rush hours, a peaceful change happens and we can use the public transport without major injuries.

Oh, the good old days!

Oh, the good old days!

                        Speaking to elderly people it is inevitable to reach a point when they fall into bittersweet nostalgia and tell you wondrous anecdotes of the once shiny past, when they were occupied by communists or suffering during both World Wars, just to mention the most recent, 20th Century.
            How could then such controversial phenomenon shape a whole country’s  way of thinking? Our country has definetely seen better days, and worse, too, to be fair, but it is sure that the hardships and perpetual condradictions of this land’s history lead to a specific attitude towards others and each other. Living almost half a century under the reign of the Soviet Union and therefore communism, it is no wonder that there are still major impacts on today’s society, even after 25 years. In that system there was no one to be trusted, in some cases not even in one’s family, but still most of the senior citizens would happily run back into the arms of Kádár János, insted of living in Orbánia.
            Furthermore, even those on the other side of this debate, who support Orbán Viktor would possibly say they would rather live a good 30-40 years earlier, but it is most likely only because those were the times of their glorious youth and let’s face it, who would not like to be forever twenty one?
            These phenomena could be observed in other countries that were under the influence of communism and we could probably make a general deduction and realize that these are true for all of these lands. However, the point I would like to make here is that it seems like, Hungarians (mainly the elderly)  tend to be very pessimistic and always dissatisfied with what they have, which ultimately leaves them to eternal complaint and bittersweet nostalgia.
            For instance, the trips of BKV serve as a good example. If someone is not sleeping, reading in silence or listening to music on the way, but speaks loudly or even shares a good laugh with their friends, they immediately get into the center of attention and are burned by all other eyes through the rather thick glasses. For me, it also means that we cannot take delight in other’s happiness. An extreme case I experienced the other day was when a seemingly sick old lady was trying to get on a tram with two huge and heavy packs. Of course Hungarian politeness showed itself as quick as lightning (to mention one of our good features, as well) and three young men helped the old lady, one even gave up his seat. After that in a very unexpected turn of events, the lady showed her ticket inspectorial armband and penalized two out of three helping lads.

            Sadly most of us think it natural and obvious that in need, someone helps us, but when the table is turned, it is suddenly none of our business anymore. Could all this be again clarified by the historical fact that Hungary went through simply one too many storms and stresses throughout its history? Supposedly, any nation would be pessimistic and full of negative ideas after a 150 years of Turkish occupation and two national tragedies: Trianon and the miracle of Bern. The idea, however, that these national tragedies made almost equally harm to Hungariannes is intriguing and ludicrous at the same time. Nevertheless, Hungarians were almost always on the losing side of international affairs, but at least it helped us get into leading positions in depression, smoking and alcoholism.
                        To conclude, controversiality made an impact big enough on Hungarians that it does not let them realize what they recall as haydays, they were rather tragic eras. Anyhow, of course I also hope that one day I would sit in my rocking chair and start wondrous anecdotes of the once shiny past, the good old days.

Nagy Bence

Travelling by coach

Travelling by coach

Reflections On Hungarianness 

When Hungarians hit the road, they usually choose to take public transportation to carry them to their destination. We use different kinds of vehicles, for instance, buses, trains and so on to travel from one place to our final destination. Nowadays, more and more people are forced to move outside their hometown because of their studies or their career; however, there are many people who choose to commute everyday, which could be very tiring and time-consuming. As a student living approximately two hours from Budapest, I have had a chance to encounter many forms of travelling. Most of the time, when I want to go home, I take the long-distance bus. Throughout the years, I was lucky enough to observe people during these journeys.

To begin with, if I should categorize the travelers on the coaches I would set up three groups: young people, adults, and old people. Each of them has their own unique style and habits. First of all, young people, who are between the ages of 12-25, are usually travelling to their high school or university and their final stop is mainly the capital so they are on the bus during the whole journey. Some of them tend to be always in a hurry and burst into the station at the very last minute, arriving from their last class with their fully packed suitcases. This is particularly true for the university students towards the end of every week. High school students are usually the ones who commute from the nearby small towns to Budapest daily. The members of this category usually pay with lots of small coins and are situated at the back of the bus. Everyone in this category is travelling with their smart phone, tablet, or laptop in their hands and they are listening to music, reading, or they are about to sleep the stress of the day off.

The second group consists of adults between the ages of 26-50. They are the ones who get up early in the morning in order to catch the first bus just to get to their workplace in time and travel back around 5 or 6 p.m. You can tell just by the look on their face that they are also forced to choose to commute on a daily basis as a result of their career goals and it could be very tiring and time-consuming. Unfortunately, these people often wear a worried look as they live a stressful and demanding life.

Last but not least, the members of the third group are the senior citizens. They usually travel with a big pack of groceries or with a huge backpack. They are always calm and relaxed. Furthermore, they are eager to share their life stories with the person sitting next to them quite loudly so the whole bus gets to know what they are up to on that particular day. They sit near the back door of the coach so that it will be easy and quick to get off the bus. When they are not talking to their neighbors, they are speaking to their relatives on the phone for a long time and quite loudly, I might add.

To sum up, we could see that there are many different Hungarian people who are forced to move outside their hometown either because of their studies or to pursue their career goals. Each of them fits into an above described category and has some kind of characteristics during their stay on the coach which says a lot about the Hungarian travelling style.

Take a look in the Mirror

by Gusiachkin Anastasia

I had to spend a brief period of my life in the country of exhausting sun, sand and the lack of culture. As I was born in Russia, a country of thousand years of history and rich culture, I wasn't enjoying my time in Israel at all. Finally, I escaped Israel for Hungary. The following is my comparison of people belonging to two different nations - Hungarian and Israeli, both of upper middle class.
            Israeli people are extremely loud, wherever they go and whatever they do. This is not a generalization, unfortunately. I personally asked a number of my friends from different countries and nationalities, what their short description of Israeli people would be; loud - they said. The majority of Israeli people lack basic understanding of what being well-behaved is. For instance, this is a common thing for Israeli people to ask for a discount on anything in a very demanding and rude way. I recall some years ago I needed to buy a dress for my prom night. Since we were still new in the country back then, my mom asked her friend's boyfriend to come with us and show us shopping places in Tel Aviv. I will never forget the embarrassment I had to deal with when this guy started arguing with the shop assistant over my soon-to-be prom Versace's dress. Fortunately, it did not last long. The shop assistant cut off the argument by saying that "this is not a bazaar where you usually shop". 

Hungarian people, on the other hand, are generally quiet and well-mannered. Hungarian people are usually humble and very gentle once you engage into a conversation with them for the first or second time. It's very unlikely that Hungarians would ask you too many questions or go too far in the conversation. Israeli people, on the contrary, have no shame at all regarding private questions. After seeing you for couple times, they will feel comfortable enough to ask when the last time you had sex with your boyfriend was. Russian people can be extremely open in those kind of conversations, but with friends, specifically good friends. We respect our privacy and this is the reason why Israeli behavior is alien to the majority of us. We don't feel comfortable when a person you saw couple times in your life walks into your apartment as if it was his or her place. I used to rent an apartment back in Tel Aviv with a couple of my Russian friends. It always annoyed me how their "tzabari" mates (this is what we call the locals who were born in Israel and had at least couple of generations living there) would come into our flat without taking their shoes off and go directly to our shared fridge and grab whatever they felt like eating at the moment. Never have I seen a Hungarian person behaving in this way. I suppose that Russian mentality is somewhat closer to Hungarian.
            The majority of Hungarian people, however, do not speak any English, which makes them an isolated nation in some way, I believe. They also tend to get angry at you for them not being able to speak English. I used to get annoyed by this sort of behavior, but then realized that there is nothing I could personally do about it. It seems to me that the level of nationalism is dramatically high in Hungary, and the majority of people stick to their one and only language. 

Contrary to that, Israeli people of different age will be able to express themselves in an understandable way in English, so it's highly doubtful that you will ever feel desperate and lost in the country. They will smile at you if you start speaking English to them and will gladly answer all of your questions and, sometimes, even guide you to places. Even though Israel also has a strong sense of the nation, they are not nationalists. Racial prejudice exists mostly within non-educated lower class families, carried out by teenager kids who do not yet understand what they are talking about.

To conclude, I must say that this essay was not written in order to offend any culture or nationality, but rather to observe and comment from the other side. Even though I was born in Russia and consider myself a hundred percent Russian, I do associate both with Israeli and Hungarian cultures in some way. I also respect the local traditions and ways of thinking, because as they say "when in Rome, do as Romans do".

When Hungarians Visit Each Other

One of the most interesting observations one can make of Hungarians is how they behave when they visit each other’s house. There are fantastically annoying mind-games played, but most Hungarians still feel like they are obligatory or seemly in these situations. Here are my observations.

Almost no Hungarian would argue with the fact that we don’t invite someone over without cleaning the place before their arrival. Of course, there can be short-notice or spontaneous visits when we don’t have time to vacuum or mop the floors, but even then we try to do our best at cleaning up in the short time we have. We quickly put away used dishes from the dinner table or our clothes that have been lying around on chairs. We straighten our shoes in the hall, so that it looks less messy. We might even sweep the floor a little or wipe off the table.

Knowing this, it is highly interesting that in most traditional households you can easily bump into the typical Hungarian host, who seems to be dedicated to convincing you that you should not take your shoes off upon entering their house. You know they have probably cleaned before your arrival, and they know you know they did, but they still downplay the significance of that fact, almost convincing you that they don’t even clean their house. Ever. In fact, even they themselves don’t take their own shoes off usually. Still, you don’t want to be rude, so you make the – this way significantly harder – decision to take your shoes off anyway, and luckily you win the battle because secretly the host was also hoping you would not be convinced even though they tried their hardest.

After this unnecessary round comes the part where the guest is told to take a seat and asked whether they would like something to drink or eat. Even when they just quickly dropped by for something. Most guests feel obligated to bring something for the host, and that is most of the time some kind of alcoholic beverage. However, they probably already possess all the alcohol they need, since they were expecting guests.

For me, the most annoying custom is when the guest is told to feel at home, but that is quite hard to do at someone else’s place, so they still ask whether they can use the bathroom or pour another drink or wash their hands or go out on the balcony or sit on the couch. The answer in always yes, but they still feel obligated to ask for permission to do almost anything. Yes, they were told to feel at home, but that has become a sentence that sounds very clichéd, so they think the hosts probably don’t even mean it. Even when they do.

Finally, there is the age-old Hungarian tradition of overstuffing the guests. Whenever you are invited over to a traditional Hungarian household for lunch or dinner, you should expect two things for sure. First, the host who prepared the food will exercise a large amount of modesty about their cooking, and secondly, they will not accept “no, thank you” as an answer when they ask you if you’d like a next serving. You can hear the likes of “I’ve made it too salty this time, haven’t I?” and “I’m sorry, the rice is usually not this dry” or “Oh, it’s no big deal. I just fixed this from whatever I found at home.” When you are told to help yourself to some more food and you decline because you are full, the reaction of the traditional Hungarian host is usually among the lines of “You can tell me if you don’t like it” or “Come on, you can’t leave all this food here! We are never going to get to the end of it!” So you either leave feeling guilty because you hurt their feelings by not eating more, or feeling overstuffed and guilty for eating too much. All the while, the host was only afraid that you are just being polite, not realizing that you really had enough to eat, and the size of your stomach is finite.

In my opinion, no matter how Hungarian or traditional they are, these games are unnecessary and dishonest, so in my own household I try to break these traditions and to be honest, and I urge my guests to do the same.

Hungarian Swear Words

How do Hungarians Swear?

Amongst the many special characteristics of Hungarian people, one of the most interesting is the act of swearing. For them the most difficult part of learning a foreign language might be that they cannot express themselves accurately when they want to use bad language. Swearing for Hungarians is a wide spread, well developed and frequently used opportunity to reflect their opinion and their feelings.

Of course they have many words that refer to intercourse, just like in English. They have at least two expressions for the same thing: bassza meg or csessze meg (fuck it). Hungarians often mention prostitutes in a very derogatory way, or they refer to each other’s mother as a prostitute, which is a quite insulting attitude. For example, the adjective kurvára (like a bitch/for a bitch) means the same as ‘very much’, or they say kurva anyád (son of a bitch), but it actually stands for ‘your mother is a prostitute’. It is probably even worse, because the subject is not the concerned person, but his or her mother. They also usually call their mates female and male genital organs, if they are angry at them, or in some groups it only counts as some sort of a joke, or a light rebuke. Te fasz (you are a dick) or seggfej (asshole) are the most common expressions in this category. Sometimes they call each other gay, if they are angry, or again, sometimes when they are mocking; even if the other is openly heterosexual. Some Hungarians call each other buzi (gay), with several possible adjective variations like kis buzi (little gay), or hülye buzi (stupid gay). It is difficult to believe that sometimes it is not supposed to be offensive; they only joke about it when the other is obviously not homosexual.

Not only sexual references, but a fairly different layer also appears in Hungarian cursing: Christianity itself. A less serious form is mentioning God and Jesus, which might be disturbing for some Christian people, but the non-Christian Hungarians do not really want to hurt others with these expressions. They usually say Úristen (oh, my God) in every situation when they are surprised, shocked or worried, or Jézusom (Jesus), when they are shocked or disdainful about something. In some areas and some groups, people are not satisfied with the previously mentioned swear words, and they found out a very productive method of cursing: mixing all the mentioned words in different ways and putting them after each other. They could say a kurva Isten bassza meg (the bitch God may fuck it), or buzi seggfej (gay asshole); these are already very disturbing and assaultive, but it is possible to enhance it even more.

People might wonder on what occasions can Hungarians use so many bad words. Actually, they do not really need any occasion for that. They might swear if they hurt themselves, when they are angry, when something does not turn out as they planned, or simply when they are bored. Hungarians also use swear words in everyday language if they get used to it. There are people who get quite annoyed by hearing a large amount of swearing, and there are some who are not frustrated, but they do not use them frequently. Hungarians are sometimes happy to say that people who use swear words are more honest; others say that if someone uses them less, they take it more seriously when he or she is cursing.

To conclude, there is a very wide variety of swear words in the Hungarian language. It is nearly impossible to list them all, not only in English, but also in Hungarian. They use them in several cases and it might be difficult to agree about its ethical attributions.

The Perfect Time for Shopping- The Rush Hour

             Public transportation can serve as a perfect place for ethnographic observations, of course not in a strictly scientific way, but it still can reveal some interesting behavioural patterns in a society. In Hungary, it is a common and favoured way of maintaining or initiating a conversation by complaining about something, – and public transportation is an ultimate subject of public discontent. However, besides of our negative sentiment and our love of complaining as Hungarians, the problem of transportation does not only lie in the poor condition of the vehicles or the underdeveloped system of ticket inspectors but also in the attitudes of people while commuting.

            In Hungary, similarly to other countries, the most frustrating, uncomfortable, crowded and annoying times of travelling by means of public transportation are the rush hours of the morning on weekdays. However, some people find this time of the day the most appropriate time for doing the shopping. According to my experiences and observations, which I gained mostly during my high school years, pensioners tend to do their daily shopping in the morning rush hours.

            The bus that I had to take to get to my high school also touched upon three other schools and a marketplace. Besides being a relatively infrequent route, it was a small kind of bus. However, these hardly negligible factors did not divert the elderly from taking this forty-minute route to a marketplace during the most crowded hours of the day, and in the heaviest traffic. An important observation that I made at that time, and I usually face with it nowadays as well since at university I do not have early classes, is that from about  10 a.m. to noon this route is not crowded at all, with plenty of free seats and suitable level of personal space. However, pensioners do not choose this time of the day for travelling to their shopping destination, and prefer the same hours as those who have to keep themselves to a constructed time schedule, whether because of school or workplace and have no other time option.

            Interestingly, this habit is not uncommon; I have heard the same complaints from several people. The problem of this phenomenon was not only the crowdedness but also the mean remarks and complaints elderly people gave voice to during the route. It was quite annoying to be crammed into an airless bus, pushed onto the windows, trying to rescue your feet from under the weight of a shopping bag on wheels while listening to the condemnation of your generation. Not to mention the outrage arisen by a seat taken by someone under the age of thirty.

            Naturally, the situation of pensioners could be understood, too, especially if we take into consideration that they have a different biorhythm and they tend to get up early in the morning. Moreover, in many countries people commute in incredibly crowded vehicles compared to Hungarian ones, for example, in Japan.

             Nevertheless, I think the problem lies in that common Hungarian sentiment which neither takes into consideration the situation of others, nor cares about it too much. In this issue of shopping in the rush hours, I recognize this ignorant and selfish attitude from pensioners towards those who have to make their way to work or school. I think if there was an underlying and unwritten convention concerning the preferences of commuters it would make public transportation much easier and also comfortable for both the elderly and the youth or active workers. I think these nuances, which I think are also very logical, could improve the opinions of both the elderly and the youth about each other thus reducing the tensions between the two age groups.