"Budapest 1988 / Budapest 2002 impressions" Budapest Travelogue by diocletianvs

My first visit to Budapest was in 1988. It was a school excursion – our school teacher had an idea of us visiting our former capitals. After a visit to Venice the year before we sat on a bus directed to Vienna and then Budapest.

Budapest was rather grey city. And it smelled. The first thing you would notice was the smell coming from numerous Trabants and Wartburgs. In several places throughout the city a new socialist car-miracle was on diaplay. The Yugo.

Speaking slavic language on the street or in the metro wasn’t a great idea. Most Hungarians would confuse it with Russian. They wouldn’t comment, but you could see by their looks that the language wasn’t welcome.

On the other hand, if we would say we were from Yugoslavia they would become very helpful. Not many people knew foreign languages, and if they would try to be helpful they would start speaking Russian – the language they had to learn in schools. Most of them would be very surprised when they would realise we didn’t speak that language either. In our socialist country we had free passports, we were able to travel freely. We didn’t have to learn Russian in schools. And our national car was Yugo.

Budapest was a large city. There was one thing that they had and we still lacked. McDonald’s! I did try one in Vienna but it didn’t stop me to try them in Budapest as well. They were almost the same. I guess it was the first time I tasted globalisation. Although I wasn’t aware of it.

Everything was cheap for us, so for the majority of my schoolmates this was a shopping trip. I bought several t-shirts and a pair of Levi’s jeans “Made in Hungary”. The t-shirts lasted untill they went to the washing machine for the first time. The jeans lasted almost a month.

When we left Yugoslavia a week before the Yugoslav customs officers were very suspicious, and Austrians were totally relaxed. On our way back from Hungary after a 1,5 hour – long “treatment” by Hungarian officials at the border our Yugoslav officials were surprisingly relaxed. We were still in the socialist empire. But we were outside the fence.

Fourteen years later I was again in Budapest. It was more than a decade ago that I changed my red Yugoslav passport for the blue Croatian one.

This time Hungarians had their passports. And they travelled freely. So freely that the train from Split to Budapest was packed - when I entered in Zagreb I had no free seat and had to stand in the corridor all the way to Nagykanisza. Hungarians were returning from their favourite sea. The Adriatic.

The lady-officer at the Hungarian border was almost offended when I gave her my passport for inspection. In pure Croatian she said “But you don’t need a passport for Hungary! WE all cross only with ID’s. Welcome to Hungary!”. Of course, she refused to stamp my passport, still proud of the new freedom.

There was no smell this time in Budapest. And there were only few remaining Trabants. I was told that they had a big “action” and if you returned your Trabant-licence plates you would get a free public transport pass for a year. I guess that was a fair price.

Most people knew English now. And they were still reserved when they would hear me speaking Slavic language. Untill they would realise I’m from Croatia. Wow! Not only that most people had to learn Russian in schools, but their History program was far better than ours. Everyone knew a lot about our joint history. My Hungarian guides would point me from one place to the other to show me historic coat-of-arms where Croatian chess-field was a part of the official insignia of the Hungarian kingdom.

McDonald’s weren’t interesting to me this time. I avoided them same as I avoided them in Zagreb. But Hungary was changing fast. Ikea was proudly here, still refusing to open their shops in Croatia. The Nike shoes were of the same quality as the ones sold in Croatia. Both made in China, the only difference was the label showing the import company. Banks had known signs and well-known German names. Like in Zagreb. And the labels on shampoo bottles and toothpaste boxes were also familiar: from Estonian and Lithuanian to Hungarian and Croatian, saying in all languages how to shampoo your hair twice so you would empty your bottle faster and buy a new one sooner.

New markets of Eastern Europe! The signs “Offices to let” (in English) could be seen all over the city, showing the new role of the city. Budapest was attractive to many foreign firms seeking business in this region, closer and still cheaper than Vienna.

Prices in Budapest were still lower than the ones in Zagreb. But they were closer to prices in European Union, and they were heading rapidly in this direction. The countdown has already begun.

On my way back to Croatia the Hungarian customs officials were asking many questions. Almost ashamed, they told me (in Croatian) that they have to practice the Schengen border protocols.

This time I was crossing the new fence.