Hungary
I've gone west and south. It's time to go north.
I'm headed to Hungary this Friday. Szeged, to be precise.
Shopping in Timisoara sucks. I've heard the prices and selection are much better elsewhere so I'm going with a Romanian/Hungarian friend.
The pros:
a) good shopping
b) *real* Dots
c) new country
The cons:
a) there are no cons. This is Hungary we're talking about.
Granted, this will having me going to Hungary twice in three days, as I'm headed to Budapest on Wednesday. A week from today!
I guess I've taken for granted the ability my Canadian citizenship gives me to travel to other countries. I can easily go to Serbia but Romanians need visas. I cannot believe the amount of restrictions Romanians have in order to travel.
I can cross the Hungarian border with nothing more than a passport but my friend needs to bring the equivalent of 500 euros with her (as she told me). Seriously. Romanians going to Serbia might have to do the same thing. I’ve been told that when Romanians want to travel to these places, they borrow money from all their family and friends, show the border guard and then return the money when they get home.
That’s so stupid.
The average monthly Romanian salary (I saw this on TV last night) is 3,100,000 lei (true value is 2,800,000 lei). That equals to $124 CAD and $112 CAD respectively. (Granted, the salaries in Timisoara are the second highest in the country after Bucharest). Assuming someone in Timisoara makes $150 CAD a month, they need to bring the equivalent of five months salary with them.
Imagine if we had to do that to go to the USA. We’d have to bring $10,000 in cash with us.
2 Comments:
Have fun! I've never been to Szeged. The only southern city I've visited is Pecs. That's really nice.
Budapest is kick ass, but a bit gray in the winter time. But the bars stay lively year round. :)
And remarkably $10,000 is indeed the amount that you may have to prove you have if you want to spend any real time in the states. Admittedly if you are just nipping across the border it is not necessarily an issue. But if anyone wants to stay for 3 months + you need $10,000.
And I have a friend who is considered dodgy by the customs people (on a list somewhere right,) he needs to show he has $10,000 whenever he goes across (credit cards accepted, you don't need cash in the states : )
- Tony
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