Pros and Cons of Living in Hungary

"The people here have strong family values and very high food quality. As mentioned they patiently line up in cues and are generally very polite and warm. I have not experienced any anti-foreigner sentiment at all. I notice that most workers typically do a good job without requiring heavy supervision," said one expat in Balatonfured.

"Family values, being able to patiently stand in cue, that man and women still can be man and women (as opposed to Dutch culture where everybody is almost forced to be the same), clean streets and well behaved," said a person living in Budapest.

"There is a defeatist feeling in many Hungarians that things are bad and getting worse. But, on the opposite scale there is this overwhelming desire to get back the territories lost following WWI. I also find it a bit disconcerting that most Hungarians do not understand they have constantly been on the wrong side of every war they have fought in. It is weird to have a national day of mourning for Stalingrad for the loss of 200,000 Hungarian soldiers there but not recognizing that they were complicit in the Nazi attempts of Hitler to conquer Europe. The same is true for the attempted and failed revolution against Soviet occupation in 1956 only 11 years after the war ended in a country still being kept under control following the defeat of Germany and the Axis nations. So, they have supported Germany twice and lost heavily but still have this amazing desire for increased nationality even now that they are members of the EU and much of this is angering their neighbors which acquired the territories lost following the wars. I find this nationalism and increased right-wing behavior somewhat disconcerting," remarked one expat in Balatonfured.

"Corruption, decades of communist rule have influenced the work ethos, the way the government let's the country run into deeper trouble, lack of truly free press and objective reporting, shady party financing," explained one expat living in Budapest.