This is not a political screed per se, just an observational rant. I always tell people I miss the “old” New York City I grew near in the 1980s, I immediately get you like crime, dirt and danger? Uhm yeah?. All kidding aside no, but what I do miss is small niche shops, independent businesses, real neighborhoods with their own identity, New York ( Manhattan) is just a cut and past chain shopping mall experience from tip to toe now for the most part. Every ten blocks you see the same stores, eateries, and no authenticity. I would suspect NYC has some of that old feel out in the boroughs, but I am talking from a traveler perspective. I wouldn’t fly 5000 miles to visit a little Greek Gyro place in Astoria.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to do some traveling to Europe in the last few years and got to see two capitals this time around, Budapest and Vienna. If I asked you if you, if could only visit one most of you would probably pick Vienna, right? Well if you like cookie cutter big corporate chain commercialism, Vienna is your place. The people were nice, now rudeness. Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice, safe clean city for the most part. But it lacked umph and authenticity and general excitement.
I am an extrovert and when I travel I try and go native, stay in neighborhoods instead of hotels, as a matter of politeness I try to speak as much of the language as possible and try to talk with regular people and see where they go out to eat and drink. In Vienna , at least for me, the few days I was there and the good dozen or so people I tried to speak with , were not from Vienna or for that matter Austria. Which is perfectly fine, but very NYCish though. I like uniqueness, The US’s is being the “melting pot’ it is our identity and it is sort of sad to see that is becoming not so uniquely American anymore.
We didn’t have a lot of time there, so venturing way into the countryside might have yielded the a better outcome. To me the purpose of international travel is to learn that culture and customs of places where you do not live and have a different experience from your day to day life. The three days in Vienna was a trip to NYC, Chicago, LA etc. that I took an 8 hour flight to get to, some of the scenery was different, but the feel was pure blahh!
So now onto Budapest, wow what a difference. First off even cleaner then Vienna which was clean. Just as bustling, all the shops were open, restaurants everywhere. The Hungarian people were amazingly friendly and commanded the English language better than any other country I have ever seen ( other than England and Ireland) good thing to because speaking Hungarian is tough!
Remember when you travel you should never expect to get English speaker all the time when traveling and it is rude to assume you will. This is why I try to always use at least please and thank you in the native language as a guest in their country.
Secondly, Hungarians love their nation and preserve their culture, not in a superiority way though. Very modest, always defer and very patient. Just a small example, I broke a zipper to my windbreaker and it was chilly out so I ducked into a small shop in the neighborhood we were staying in to buy one. The clerks greeted me and I asked if they had any light jackets (in what Google translate said) for sale, as the racks had mostly winter stuff on it. The smiled and in really good English said ‘not bad’ on my Konnyu Kabat (light jacket) pronunciation. Asking very polite he said can I teach you something? Sure, I said. He said “a very warm Winter jacket can be very lightweight and a not so warm Fall jacket can be very heavy”. “When you order by season you will not waste your time looking at jackets you do not want…..unless you are bored and enjoy our store, I will bring you a selection of Oszi (Fall) jackets not on display to look at”.
He had the sales girl go to the back room, offered a coffee and asked my how long we were going to be in Budapest, what did we see or what he may suggest we see, gave suggestions for night time and was a joy to talk to. Gave me a good deal on the jacket, told me a great little place for lunch. So it is little things, like buying a jacket from an authentic merchant in a neighborhood that make trips to foreign countries fun for me. For that 1/2 hour living in Budapest not just visiting. That was my experience anyway, maybe if the place was busy it would have been different.
A I recalled throughout the stay in Budapest the whole city had the same feel, modest, friendly and proud of who they were, even though the architecture and scenery of the city would make it seem like a much more upscale, it lacked any coldness or exclusivity to me. It seems Budapest Hungarians do not want to be in the league of London’s , NYC’s or Vienna’s social hierarchy, even though their city puts theirs to shame. in my opinion.
The take away hopefully is this and this is where the not a “political screed per se” comes to a conclusion. NYC, London, Vienna, LA etc. have been ruined by globalism and corporate contrived affluence and were robbed those cities of their real culture and identity. For now, Hungary has resisted, and hopefully others will follow suit.