Europe is Europe ... and yet somehow not always quite so
Even though Hungary is part of the EU, it is one of the few countries that does not officially use the euro as its currency. You need to be aware of this and should definitely get a few forints (the local currency) before your trip. Alternatively, you can of course check whether there is a exchange office at your destination. You can also pay with Euros in some places (e.g. cabs etc.), but if it is possible, you will definitely be ripped off. There is an official exchange office in the basement of Kellenföld station. But just to get a feel for the prices, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the exchange rate. I had to realize that I am absolutely not used to that anymore 😉 But … it works. And be careful: exchange offices also have opening hours. The problem is that you can’t use the forint anywhere else. So you shouldn’t change too much money there either. Really difficult in our case. We wanted to go straight on to Poland. Then there is another currency … and again not the Euro 😉
English - not everywhere
That’s actually a bit of a problem in my opinion. English is by no means spoken everywhere. For example, we had real problems getting tickets for the train to Skehefehervar. The ticket machines and connections were quite confusing, especially if you don’t understand a word. The staff at the train ticket office simply couldn’t speak any English. I then tried to somehow communicate where we wanted to go through the poor quality carbon microphones on both sides of a thick pane of glass. It wasn’t that easy. Fortunately, in the end we were helped by friendly passers-by (and yes, the people there are generally really nice) who could speak English. Otherwise we would probably still be standing in Kellenföld today 😉
In the end, I can only give one tip: Buy tickets via the apps, order cabs via Bolt (then the price is also fixed), just use the technical aids. This makes things much easier than relying on the staff and their knowledge of English.
