Apartment Sale Progress Timeline

Apartment Sale Progress Timeline August 21, 2003 – Negotiated for the sale of the apartment October 20, 2003 – Contractor started with the electric and plumbing November 4, 2003 – Re-painting of the apartment started April 30, 2004 – Signed the contract to purchase the furniture in the apartment and a pre-agreement to purchase the flat. We paid for the furniture and made a deposit on the apartment. June 10, 2004 – Made the final payment for the apartment. Totally paid off. January 26, 2005 – WE signed the final papers for the sale of the apartment, but the previous owner has not yet. February 18, 2005 – We received the final sale papers signed by everyone. Papers to be submitted to the Housing Authority by the attorney on Monday.

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Luxembourg

First let me start with the positive. It was great seeing two of our friends in Cologne were we flew into. We had some good sharing time. We are thankful that they picked us up at the airport and arranging the train tickets to Luxembourg. That was quite a savings over buying them online. Randolf found a special and saved us over 236 Euros. We did not want to spend the night with them, since they had other plans. We booked a gay B and B through the same agency that books for us. It was convenient and not expensive. We left there the next morning and took the tram, which was conveniently around the corner, to the train station. We picked up a delicious chicken dinner at the station for very little money and took it on the train. The train ride was nice, but only scenic in short spurts. We remembered Koblenz and our time there with with Randolf on a different trip to Cologne. We have heard that Treier is fabulous and we have that on our list of places to see now. We passed through it on our way. Now the negative: Again, we booked a B and B through out booking agency. In Luxembourg, we found our bus to the B and B. We had bought our tickets. The bus which we were told would take 20 minutes, took 50 minutes to our stop. After we got off of the bus in the middle of NOwhere, we had to walk another 15 minutes to the house. It is way out in the country with nothing around, but a small church, a little restaurant, a few houses, and two ponies in the field grazing. This was not a good sign. As you enter the building, there was a small hallway. You walk into the living room, then the kitchen is on the next floor. The third floor is the owners bedroom and bath. Then the guest room was what was probably once and attic. In Philadelphia, this is called a Trinity house, one room above another, but only three. The stairs to the guest room were like your stairs to your loft bed, left, right, left, etc. However, these were curved in a semi-circle and there was a banister on one side only. The room was nice, but the bed was small. There was a skylight with no shade for morning light. There was no door for privacy on the room and nothing to cut the sound from downstairs. First we were really upset that they told us 20 minutes to Luxembourg City, but it was 50. Then they told us they do not allow smoking in the house. They then asked that we take our shoes off at the door and put them in the closet. We dumped our luggage and then we wanted to head back to the bus to see the city. We were informed that they bus only runs once an hour and stops coming back at 7:15 pm. By now, it was 6:00 pm and if we took the bus to the city, we would have to come right back on the next bus or be stranded in the city. The other option was the Night Bus,which only runs on Friday and Saturday nights. This bus, though, does not start until 12:10 in the morning and only runs once an hour. We opted to take the last bus to the city and hang out there until 12:10 in the morning to see something or the whole rest of the day would be shot. We took the bus to the city, but they did not tell us that everything closes at 6:00 pm. All restaurants, stores, museums, EVERYTHING downtown closes. So now what the hell do we do until midnight and it is freezing cold out? We asked some young women and they suggested a movie. We took a bus to the edge of town. We had dinner at the Coyote Cafe, since there were limited choices in restaurants and we had hours to kill before the movie. We went to see "The Closer" a good, but bizarre movie with Jude Law and Julia Roberts. 15 EUROS for the two of us. Holy cow!!! We still had an hour to kill before the bus, so we just hung out in the lobby. We did not get back to the B and B until after 1:00 am. When we walked in, the owners had a movie going. They rigged their TV to a projector and had a full wall sized screen that pulls down from the ceiling. The movie is projected onto it. The sound system must be awesome since the sofa was vibrating. They were watching some action movie with lots of LOUD action of guns, waterfalls, etc. When we went up to the bedroom, they still had not turned down the volume. Because of the layout of the house, there was nothing to block the noise. The movie went on until after 2 am. The next morning, Saturday, we took the bus to the city and planned for a long day. We knew we would not return until the night bus at 12:10 the earliest. We went back to the movie theater and bought tickets for the 9:30 showing of "The Aviator". We then went back downtown. We walked all around the city and looked at the sites. To try to stay warm and waste time, we went into the only two department stores there were. At 5:30 pm, we went to a restaurant and planned on an early dinner. The restaurant stopped serving food at 5:00, so we could just get a beer. When we left there, nothing was open anywhere. We walked around some more and then took the bus to the theater. The plan was to go to the Au Chan next to the theaters, thinking that in Hungary, they are open 24 hours. Being a hyper-market, we could look around and kill some time. When we got there, it was closed. All of the stores in the little mall were closed. We went back to the theater and had a 'relaxed' dinner at another chain restaurant to kill time until the 9:30 movie. We left there at 8:30 and sat in the movie lobby for an hour, before we could get into the theater itself. The movie was over 2 1/2 hours, so we missed the 12:10 bus and had to wait for the 1:10 bus. We got back after 2:00 am. Again, they were playing movies and the sound was rocking the house. Sunday morning, we were planning our get away early, since there was no night bus on Sunday. We would have to return by 7:00 pm or so we thought. As we were walking out the door, one of the guys said to us, "You know there are no buses at all on Sunday?" A duh, how would we know this? So we were stuck there all day. They offered to drive us to the city, but told us there is nothing at all open on Sunday, except the churches. The museums are closed. We would have had to take a train to another town from the city and they would pick us up after they did what they were off to do. We said, thanks, but no thanks. The dilemma was that there were no options for food. They had not prepared us or we would have bought some things for Sunday dinner/snacks. We went for a walk and across from the bus stop is a little restaurant and cafe. It was open, so we went there to get angry and vent. This is when I sent you the SMS. We thought, great, we will eat here. Nope! They close at 2:00 and did not serve food on Sunday. We went back to the room and read. Ron had brought a jar of peanut butter, so we ate that. Before the couple left for their outing, they had this delicious smelling chicken dinner. Just make us feel worse, why don't you? When they returned, we asked them if there were any options for food. They said there were not, but did invite us for a salad with them. It was nice and we had a good talk, but I had to keep from telling them how much I hated where they were located, the number of things we should have been told in advance, and their lack of respest with the noise from the movies at night. We spent a long evening reading and Ron trying to get the CNN sound and picture at the same time. We were more than happy to take the early bus at 7:12 am to the train station for our 8:32 train to Cologne. We had breakfast at the station and bought sandwiches for the train ride. When we got to the station, I was looking for the airport bus that I had taken in June last year, but was told there is a train. For 2 Euros, we took the train directly to the airport. That was very convenient. We had two hours to wait there and hopped our flight home. When we returned there was a snow blizzard going on. Quite surprising. Our first real snow this winter. Today is it almost all gone though. After we got home, I ran off to my last Spanish class of this semester. I register today for the next one. So Luxembourg is now off of our list of places to go to. It really is a pretty little city and country, but not worth more than a day and a half. Ryan

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Lisbon December 04 to January 05

Lisbon Notes – December 18, 2004 to January 8, 2005 Getting from the airport…there is an airport bus that goes from the airport to the downtown hotels. However, when we finally approached someone at the tourist info desk in the airport, they neglected to tell us of this option. They did not recommend the Tourist Taxi, to their credit, they said it was overpriced at 16.00 Euros and a regular taxi would be cheaper. They were right, the taxi ride cost us 8 Euros. We never did find out the cost of the airport bus since our return flight was at 6:00 am and they do not start running it until then. We took a taxi back to the airport. Our luggage was lost on arrival. There is a central zone for lost luggage for all airlines. Take a number and wait your turn. We were number 85 and they were serving 54. It took us three hours to get served. They found that our luggage was lost in Amsterdam and would arrive at 10:30 that night, but not be delivered until the next day. They could not tell us what time and we were held to our flat until it arrived. We had made multiple calls to the luggage place, but they did not have a phone or radio contact with the driver that delivers. They finally delivered it to the fruit stand across the way, but we did not know until we called the landlady’s friend. We finally found it at 1:00. This seems to be a common occurrence since this office was the busiest place at the airport. People smoke EVERYWHERE. Although I am a smoker, it felt strange to see them smoking in the airport, stores, in the mall, and in the subway. You are not supposed to smoke in the subway, but they do, though not on the subway itself. Non-smoking areas are small and not ventilated, usually right next to the smoker’s section. If you are a staunch non-smoker, I would think twice about a vacation here. Most apartments do not have central heating. They get cold in the winter, sometimes colder than outside. The advantage of having an apartment for us was that it was cheaper than three weeks in a hotel. We were able to cook when we wanted to and we had ready access to making coffee or tea at our leisure. This alone cut down our expenses since the apt. was $40.00 a night. It was about 50 square meters with a bedroom, small living room, and a tiny kitchen. It did give us a place to separate from each other when we wanted some privacy. We found food in the grocery stores to be cheaper than in Budapest, where we live. We were also able to cook some foods that we cannot get in Budapest, like Italian sausage and sweet potatoes; things that you miss from living abroad for years. This was a plus in itself. It was also located two blocks from Figeroa Square, where many of the bus lines and trams stop. Across from our front door was a produce stand and there were two others within 5 feet. We enjoyed many of the fruits and vegetables that are not available in Budapest. I would highly recommend this flat for one or two people. For more than two, it is unsuitable. The landlady is a charming young woman who is working on her doctoral dissertation in sociology. The streets were beautifully decorated for Christmas. The streets had loud speakers playing Christmas carols in English. Each street had different songs and decorations with the major squares having huge central displays of ornamentation. Most of the stores were closed on the Monday after Christmas and New Years. I believe from the signs on the doors that this is usual to be closed on Mondays. The transportation card is cheaper 8.30 Euros for five days, rather than 1 or 3 days. The card itself is .50 cents for the first time only. As you enter the tram or bus, there is a scanner. You just need to scan your card. Always get on at the front unless you see a sign on the larger buses to do otherwise. The metro is faster than the above ground transport if you have a choice and don’t care. Trams and buses are scheduled for every 6-15 minutes, but we waited over 30 on several occasions for a bus or a tram. This card is good on all elevadors too. They are fun to ride and the views are wonderful. St. Justa elevadore is a work of art in itself and the view is great, but it can get quite windy (and cold in the winter). Bus 37 goes to the castle entrance if you don’t want to walk the hill after tram 28. It is recommended that you ride up and walk down. As you walk down, you will go through the Alfama section of the city. This district survived the earthquake of 1755 on All Saints Day when 40,000 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed. In this area is a store called Tradicoes at Rua de Saint Pedro 41 www.portugal2u.com We found some modern pottery here that we did not see anywhere else. Although many of their items are priced high, they are reasonable with the pottery prices. The cork products are available many places, so if this interests you, shop around. Tram 15 goes to Belem. This is where the Monument of Discovery, the monastery and the famous pasteleria is. Pasteleria do Belem. The Lisboa Tourist office at Commercio Square is very expensive for souvenirs. The tourist office can be useless depending on the clerk of the hour, regardless of the location. We received different information regarding the same questions on three different trips in. The directions printed for some museums are outdated or misprints. They did admit that their maps are not very good either, especially the transportation one. It is always best to double check the maps at the bus or trams stops. Our landlady later told us they have a reputation for being rude to the tourists. Many places you have to pay for your coffee and pastry at the cashier and then take your ticket to the counter to order it. Other places have table service with a bit added for the service. Watch what others do and follow their example. The best café latte I had was at the post office at Restarandures Metro stop. It was only 95 Euro cents. The Casa do Alentejo is on the street behind this post office. This has a magnificent tile collection. It was once a private club, but anyone can wander in and have dinner if you choose. We wandered all over the second floor to look at the tiles. Rua dos Portes de Santo Antao (no number given in our book). There is a flea market behind St. Vincent’s Church on Tuesdays. On the hill going down on the left, there are two stands worth visiting. One sells ceramic tiles and the other pottery. Both sell new and they are cheaper than the tourist shops, but the quality is the same. They refused to bargain with the people next to me, so I did not try it. El Corte Ingeles is worth going to for the food store in the basement. There are many foods there you do not usually see elsewhere. It is like Harrods food court only less expensive. If you live in Europe and can use PAL system DVDs, you will find some good buys here. There are ATM bank machines everywhere, they all seem to be tied into MultiBanco. This means that regardless of the machine we used, we could only get a maximum of 200 Euros a day. Since our bank charges $5.00 per withdrawal, it hurt to have to take money out more than twice in a week. In Budapest, trying to cash a traveler’s check is a major hassle. I have not used them for years. The only exchange offices I noticed were the Western Union offices (2 in the city). The rates are not good, so I will eat the $5.00 charge that my bank charges me. Although I found over 2 dozen Wi-Fi Internet cafes listed on the Internet before I left, the tourist office said there were none. Hard Rock Café has one that is supposedly free. However, when I went to use it, I found I needed to buy an access card from PTT, the phone company. They charge 5 Euro for an hour or 20 Euro for an all day card. This was the same wherever there were “free” wireless connection cards. I never did find any hotspots for really free access. Western Union has Internet access, but it is about 2 Euros for a full hour, but costs more if you get it in 15 or 30 minute increments. This is about the cheapest I could find. I only went to clean out mailboxes so nothing would bounce while I was gone. If I could have found a Wi-Fi café, I could have written my notes on my laptop and then just uploaded them. I also wanted to upload my photos, but needed the Wi-Fi place to do it from my laptop. Discounts in Lisbon: Some museums like the Puppet Museum are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so double check before you head there. The Azulajoz Tile Museum is closed on Mondays, but only opens again at 2:00 pm on Tuesday. My partner received a senior discount of 50% of admission (cost was 1.50 Euro rather than 3.00). I just by chance asked about a teacher discount and received the same 50% for teachers. On Christmas night when nothing was open including the restaurants, we found lots of activity at the malls. The stores were closed, but the movies and some restaurants were open. My partner was given a 50% discount on his movie ticket for being a senior. If you are over 65 y.o. ask for a senior discount. Most places will give it to you and only ask to see a driver’s license or passport. Free Admission: Gulbenkian Museum and the Modern Art Museum on the same grounds are free admission on Sundays. They will give you a ticket, collect the stub, but the admission is still free and the backs of the tickets are quite pretty. The Cemetery of Pleasure at the end of the 28 tram line is a cultural experience. If you have ever been to Buenos Aires to find Eva Peron, you will appreciate this one as well. It would be worth taking the 28 tram from one end to the other. With your transportation card, you can hop off at any point if something catches your eye. There are many lovely places to stop and look at views or interesting sites along the way. The 12 tram is a circular route that will return to where you started. It is worth a ride around at least once. One book we have found very helpful is Lisbon: A Cultural and Literary Companion by Paul Buck and published by Interlink Books NY/North Hampton © 2002. Part of the Cities of Imagination Series. Sintra- You can easily get to Sintra as a day trip, but two would be recommended. From Lisbon at the Jardim Zoologica Metro stop there is a connection for Comboios. These small commuter trains run about every 15 minutes to Sintra. Tickets are 65 Euro cents for seniors with a passport or drivers license each way. Regular adults are 1.30 Euros each way. Get off at the last stop. There are two Sintra stops. When you come out of the train station, turn left, follow the signs for the historical center of town. This is what we did our first day. We walked a lot!!! On the second day, we turned right outside the train station and next to Pizza Hut (ugh!) there is a bus that does the whole circuit of castles. It is number 434. A day ticket is 3.60. This provides unlimited hop on hop off possibilities. It goes to all of the castles, so you can take your time and then hop on the bus again for the next castle. Beware that the crowds get large. There was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on. The bus driver finally admitted people to a limit and then stopped letting others on. They do not come as frequently as you would expect considering the crowds. We had to wait for two buses to pass us by before we could get on. Due to the crowds, the driver refused to stop at some of the stops in between castles, though they are listed on the schedule and there were bus stops with people hailing him down. At the end of the day, if you are tired, you just take it back to the train station. There is less of a crowd at the end of the day. The Regaleria Palace is 500 meters uphill, while the Palacio Palace is 1400 feet up very steep hills. I overheard someone say it took them 1 ½ hours to climb up the winding roads. The roads are also very narrow and you have to be on the look out for traffic at all times. We went to the Palacio Palace and would highly recommend it. It is still quite a hike after the bus lets you off. Do not be turned off by the long line waiting to buy tickets. It went really fast. Seniors combined admission for the Palace and the gardens was 4.00 Euro and the regular adult was 6.00 Euro. There is a little shuttle which will take you closer to the top, but it is 1.50 Euro per person. There is a lot of stair climbing. We also went to the National Palace. It is interesting, but not furnished as well as the other. It is more old world castle feeling since it was used in the 16th century. Portugal’s last King left the throne in 1910. The Toy Museum was fun, but they claim over 20,000 toys. I believe this, but they should have stopped at 10,000. The exhibits are stuffed and it is difficult to appreciate many of the things since they are crowded in a small space. There are three floors and they really need more to do these gems justice. There are toys from all over the world. 3 Euros regular, 1.50 Seniors, no teacher discounts. Restaurants are a bit pricier in Sintra, but many have fixed meals starting at 8 Euros. There are dozens of tourist shops. Our third week, we rented an apt. in Bélem. This was only due to our first rental lady having to move back into where we were staying since the roof was being fixed at her other flat. We rented the Bélem flat from a friend of hers. She charges 50 Euro a night, 10 Euro per person a week for utilities and 40 Euro total for cleaning when you leave. Bélem is only 4 miles from downtown Lisbon, but can take over 20 minutes to get there due to traffic. The flat could accommodate about five people comfortably. Although it was a first floor flat, it did have a downstairs. On the first floor was a kitchen and living room combination. The room was very large with a sofa bed and a single futon. The kitchen had a stove with oven/broiler combination. The stovetop was gas, but the oven was electric. We used the broiler a few times for steaks since we do not have one in Budapest. The downstairs has a long hallway, with a huge bathroom. There are two sinks as well as the tub with shower. Two people could easily get ready at one time in this bathroom. There was also a very spacious bedroom with a very comfortable double bed. Off of the bedroom is a closed in sun room with a hammock. It was too chilly during our stay to try it out. The flat is located near the Hospital Militar, by two blocks. A bus that stops there going down the hill to the center and then trams and buses there into Lisbon downtown. We walked the hills back to the flat for the first three days, but then succumbed to the bus. It is quite a hike up at the end of a long day. The public library in Bélem is worth visiting if you are a lover of children’s books. The whole first floor is a children’s library. The second floor is the adult section. You will not find anything in English, not even newspapers, but they do have one computer with Internet that you can sign up to use for a half hour at a time. The children’s librarian speaks adequate English to assist. From Bélem, we took the commuter train to Cascais, a beautiful little beach town. The ticket was from a machine: 1.30 Euro regular one way and 65 Euro cents Senior ½ price ticket. It took about 40 minutes to get there and it is at the end of the line. Trains run about every 10 minutes all day long. The town is wonderful with many little shops and restaurants, but my favorite part was strolling the small beach area and collecting an amazing variety of seashells. If I had known, I would have brought a baggie with me, but I utilized my jacket pockets instead. The cultural center is small, but they did have an interesting art exhibit which was free. They also have restrooms. To the right and around the corner is the entrance to a park. The park is huge and magnificent. There is a large pond with swans, ducks, and dozens of turtles. As you wander through the trails, there are peacocks and peahens roaming freely and being very used to people, do not move from your path when you walk by them. There is a children’s playground in one section, an open field in an another, and many little walking trails through what feels like little sections of a jungle. There are spectacular statues in various areas and water fountains with surprising statues as well. There is a children’s zoo of various kinds of birds, which needs some attention. There is also a children’s library at the other end, but we did not venture there. In little openings on the trails are picnic benches and tables for warmer weather. There are a few restaurants to have a meal or coffee overlooking the beach and the boats moored in the water. You can watch the men baiting their hundreds of crab traps getting them ready for the days work. On our return trip to Bélem, we did not pay close attention to the schedule and our train by-passed our station and did not stop until the next one. We had to take a bus back to Bélem from there. From Bélem, we decided to go to the Oceanarium at the Expo 98 site. We had to take a bus to one metro, take this metro to the end, then switch to a second metro to the de Gama Center. The ride took us an hour total to get there. I was not enthused about the Oceanarium having been to the one in Monterey, CA a number of times and to the New Jersey State Aquarium shortly after its opening. My partner received a 4.50 Euro discount on his 10 Euro ticket and I received a 1.50 Euro teacher discount. As soon as we entered, I was enthralled. The set up is wonderfully designed. In the center and from all areas, you see the huge aquarium of the global ocean. The aquarium is done is such a way that you can see the different varieties that like to swim higher and lower in the water’s depths by having viewing areas on two levels. In each of the four corners, there is the Atlantic Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Each has its own species of fish, plus birds, and in one case a pair of sea otters. There are many break-out areas with scientific information that is quite interesting and written in English and Portuguese. One such area has an on-going movie about the care and feeding of the animals. It is well worth the time to watch. This scientific center works in cooperation with Monterey Aquarium in CA as well as some others. From here, we returned to the de Gama mall to see a movie in English with Portuguese sub-titles before wandering home again. We retraced our route taking one metro to the end, then switching lines to the second metro. We waited for our tram back to Bélem for over 20 minutes before we realized that it stops running at 7:30 pm. We had to take a different tram and was on this for 3 stops before it stopped dead and we waited 15 minutes for it to move again. It turns out there was an accident on the tracks. There were seven other trams log jammed ahead of us waiting to get through. It was difficult to find alternative routes to get back, but finally made it back to Bélem. We then looked for the bus that would take us back up our hill. It was now close to 10:00 pm and we were too tired to hike it. No bus came and we finally opted for a taxi to the hospital and then walked from there. One thing to be wary of is the time that different lines stop running. Some stop as early as 5:30 pm while others stop at 7:30 or even as late as 11:00. They all stop fairly early for a large city, but this is the same in many cities. The Monastery in Belem is well worth visiting. The art museum is not unless you are really into Portuguese art. Discounts at both for seniors. Ryan James, Ed.D. drjames@aces-hungary.org

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More FAQs Moving to Hungary

Hi guys, Could you recommend districts of Pest we might look to rent a furnished flat our first year and buy in the next year? At this point in time, I would recommend Dists. 5, 6, 7 (parts of), or 13. There are good and fair points about each district, but I would live in any of these on the Pest side. I do not know any of the districts on the Buda side, since we would not consider living there. One thing to keep in mind is that the trams stop at midnight, the subways at 11:00 pm and if you go to a late movie, you want to be able to catch a night bus to get home again. Some taxis are cheap, but if you are living on a budget, why waste the money? We are trying to work with HungarInvest at the moment. I sent them a snippy e-mail about their needing to learn how to work with foreigners if they want our investment dollars. I will report back on our satisfaction level. We are planning on buying our flat, but need to do some comparative shopping. We personally think that the older buildings have much more character than the new ones do. It adds to the cultural experience of it all. We love our flat. Like the States, they start high and you work them down. Our rent here is $500. a month, so it is to our advantage to buy it. Would it be safe to assume that we will not be able to rent for only 6 months? However, if we are not yet residents will we be able to rent for a year either? You most certainly should be able to rent for six months. It may not be the apt. of your dreams, but for six months, who cares? For a six month rental, you should probably think in terms of a much smaller apt. for two reasons. 1. The rent will be cheaper. 2. It will accustom you to living in smaller quarters. Large apts. do not rent well here. Ours was vacant for 6 months before we took it and the prior tenant was the owner's daughter. Apts. over 70 square meters are not rented by Hungarians. They cannot afford to rent/run a larger apt. If you buy a larger one, you will be dependent on ex-pats to rent to and this could be a financial risk. Unless a large apt. can be renovated into two apts. where one can be rented out, they do not sell fast either. Our apt. cannot be broken down to two since both bathrooms are next to each other. We don't intend to rent it out or to sell it for the near future, so it is not a concern for us. We have 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a walk in pantry, huge living room and quite a large eat in kitchen, with a good size entry hallway. We rent out our large spare bedroom to Fulbrighters that need a night to a weeks lodging for 20 euros a night and we provide breakfast. Some day, Jean will include us on his web site for accommodations, but the summer is his busiest time. I have been editing the English of his site, but he does not have the time to make changes until the Fall. The lease laws have nothing to do with the Visa laws. They will give you a lease for 5 years if you want, but whether or not you can actually stay in the country is your problem. They will have all of your passport details to make sure that they collect from you eventually. Be careful of the agents that you use. All utilities go in the apt. owners name, not the tenant. When we first came, we rented off the Internet for fast service. The agent screwed us royally on the utilities and way overcharged us. When we asked to see bills, we were told that they were combined with other apts. that they managed and separating them and translating them was more than they were willing to do. When we moved, we found our utilities dropped considerably. Within your apt., you are responsible for repairs. The building itself is handled by the “homeowners assoc.” You can always have an apt. inspected like you would in the States to see if there are problems before buying. Having lived here in this apt. for over a year, we have a sense of what is what. Of course, one never knows either. One other thing to think about with buying. We just found out that most flats/apts. are sold unfurnished. What we did not realize was that also meant they also rip out the ceiling fixtures, the refrigerator, the stove, and anything else they like including the kitchen cupboards. It is not like the States, were you have to leave whatever is attached as a fixture. So, you need to consider furnishing a place too from top to bottom. Do you think that $1,000 is enough for basic monthly expenses if we own a flat. If you own your flat, it should be fine, but you have to consider the fluctuating exchange rates. When we first came it was 280 HUF to the dollar and everything seemed like we were paying with play money. Now it is 230 and we are more cautious about it. The opera depends on where need/want to sit. You can get seats for $3.00 if you are not prone to nosebleeds or you can spring for $20.00 seats. It does depend on the performance and the company too. Some are a little higher, but not all that much. Theater – Last year, we bought season tickets to the Merlin, the English speaking theater. The season ticket was $36.00 and include 6 performances with one bonus for a total of seven. The theater is small and it is first come, first to grab a seat theater. We have been pleased with most of the plays. “Stones In My Pocket” and “Two Blind Mice” were especially good. Movies – The highest priced one so far has been 1,000 HUF (about $4.00) depending on the exchange rate. There are cheaper ones, but they usually run the same English movie again and again or you have to wait weeks for it to arrive there. There is an English video store, you need to buy a VCR here since it is the PAL system. The VCRs here will play American videos as well as PAL, but not vice versa. There are usually tons of musical things that are free or under $5.00. You may not be able to see all that you want due to the cost, but there is plenty of free stuff to take advantage of. All other plays “CATS”, “Phantom”, “My Fair Lady”, etc are only in Hungarian. By the way, the opera house and the Merlin are closed during the summer due to no air conditioning. Being from 'the sunny South', we always have to ask about air conditioning. We monitor the temperatures in Budapest and it seems like it would be tolerable in the summers...warm days but cooler nights. July and August are by far the hottest months. It is not unheard of for the temp to be in the 90’s. Last year, we thought we were going to die and we came from Central CA where 105 is usual from June to September. It is the humidity, here which makes it unbearable. We have had a relatively lovely summer this year, but we still have had days that have approached close to 100 and the nights have not been cool. Yesterday was a scorcher. Now, I have to take a pause to stop laughing about the air conditioning. Okay, I am being snide, but WHAT AIR CONDITIONING???? The malls are not air conditioned, most of the movie theaters are not a/c’ed. Though interesting, the movies in the mall are. They were not last year. Have you been here in the summer? If you stayed at a place with a/c, unless it was a 5 star hotel, I would be shocked. The only places with a/c that we have been to are the embassy, 5 star hotels, and the theater in the mall. There are some casinos that advertise it, but we have never been. Window units are few and far between due to the very large windows. It would be hard to place a window unit in most of them. The a/c units that one of our friends have is a small unit, but they had to cut a hole over his kitchen door to install it to the outside. His electric bill skyrocketed. For the number of days that you really, really need it, we get by with a couple of fans. Pest has more traffic than Buda, but we have not had any problems with the air quality. It is far better many U.S. cities that I have been to, but since I have only been in the Atlanta airport, I cannot compare. If you have been to Athens, it is pure air here in comparison. As hot as it gets, I still drag my ass to the thermals on Tuesdays. What part of the year is considered the coldest? I would venture that January and February are the coldest. It was still cold in March, but all of the Hungarians said that this was strange since March it usually starting to be Spring-like. I was still wearing my winter coat into the middle of March and changed to a lighter coat around second part of March. I still needed a jacket until May, but it was not glove weather. The thermal makes you warm inside on the coldest day. Could we ask for the name of your Israeli friend's insurance company in the UK? I will have to call her for this, but that means at least an hour on the phone, so I will get back to you with this. Sounds like being Directors of a Corporation is an imperative. Does this corporation have to be profitable? Does it require taxation, reporting, other oversight by government? We have an idea for what our 'corporation' might be but it would not be a full time concern. Would that be a problem? Just like the States, you are given a few years to make a profit. The bad part is that by Hungarian law, you must have an accountant. This can turn into a hefty fee. Most that we talked to wanted the equivalent of $75.00 to $150.00 a month for services. They know that they have you over a barrel, so they can charge a high fee. Although, you may not have any business activity, your accountant still has to file monthly forms on your behalf, quarterly reports, and do your income tax. All of this is legally required. Yes, you have to pay taxes, but you can have write-offs similar to the States. It does not need to be full-time. When we started our company, we were shocked and horrified to find out that just because we owned the company, not only did we have to get Work Permits to work for ourselves, but we also had to compete with Hungarians for our own jobs. As part of the Work Permit process, we had to send a job description to the local employment office where it had to be posted for I think it was two weeks, before we were cleared for the jobs. I had forgotten about this piece until now. The employment office could have sent us a potential employee for our company even if they did not have the same qualifications that we did. We sweated those two weeks. In line with this, you have to produce all ORIGINAL diplomas, certificates, etc. that you want to be used to qualify you for your “company” job. They will not accept photocopies or transcripts, which is what we had with us. I had to fax all of our universities and get duplicated done since all of our originals were in storage. It was a nightmare. They also wanted one for every degree I received, which made it worse and very expensive getting the duplicates. They then have to be translated into Hungarian by a government authorized agency and notarized. Only lawyers here can be notaries. Since I am only at three pages, here is some info you have not asked for. There are low cost airlines moving into Budapest. Right now, there is Germanwings (one word) and is an offshoot of Lufthansa and Snowflake, an offshoot of SAS the Scandinavian airlines. Germanwings only flies from Budapest to Cologne at this time, but from Cologne, you can go many other places. These are similar to Southwest. If we had booked when we talked about it, we could have gotten a r/t ticket to Cologne for 19 euros or to Copenhagen for 49 euros. We waited to discuss it more and the flights sold out. We are however, leaving for Cologne tomorrow for 5 days on Germanwings. The cost was $145.00 r/t each. Still not bad, but could have been better. Ryanair and Easyjet are looking at Budapest, but I heard that Ryanair is going to start service out of Debrecen, Hungary in a few months. Debrecen is a three hour train ride from Budapest. Okay, I ran into page four and need to get some things done for a very early flight tomorrow. We will be back on the 29th, so mull over your answers, think of more questions and I will answer them when we return. Regards, Ryan

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FAQ - Moving to Hungary

We are asked questions about our move all of the time. We are happy to assist others. I am glad that Jean had the forethought to refer you to us. We will be more than willing to give you our take on things here in this grand city. Just for some info, we moved here in Dec. 2001. We had been here once before for less than a week at that time, while also traveling to the Czech Republic, Poland, Vienna, and Berlin. We left CA in August of 2001 with the intention of traveling for a year or so, then settling down on the Northeast coast in the Boston area. That was the hope at the time. Now let me preface all of the rest of this with the fact that Hungary will be joining the EU in May of 2004. All rules and laws will be different by then, but until then and most likely after that they will continue to change daily. When we arrived and still after the EU, U.S. citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a Visa. E.U. regulations are such now that U.S. citizens can only stay in the E.U. as an entity for 90 days every six months. That means after 90 days in any E.U. country/countries, we must leave for 6 months before re-entering. They are beefing up their inter-country passport control computers systems to make this much more of a hassle than it has in the past, Hungary included. When we came, we just crossed a border to have our passport stamped. This was not a problem at the time as we had U.S. friends living in Slovakia and Croatia, so we could take mini-vacations. Investigating things with other Americans and a lawyer, we were told that if we started a corporation here, we could be managing directors and not need Visas to stay. We found an attorney and did do this. The cost was $300.00 (at the exchange rate then, which was 280 Huf to the $). The day we had our last Notary stamp put on the papers, the attorney received a call from his office. His researcher told him that a law had just passed stating that we as corporation owners would still need Visas for staying in Hungary. Going from inflated to deflated in minutes, we then checked out that process, something the attorney said he did not do. We found an agency called Business Umbrella (since has gone out of business). They for a hefty fee, arranged Work Permits, which was necessary first and then our temporary Visas. At the time, they were the best deal cost wise around. We were constantly running around getting paperwork for them to submit our papers. The clincher was that the new law made it impossible to get your Visa without returning to the States. This was a cost that we did not want to deal with, but there was no choice. Up to January 1, 2002, you could go to any other country, go to the Hungarian Embassy and have your Visa issued. This right was taken away from Hungarian Ambassadors with a change in government. The law is now that you must apply in your country of citizenship for part of the process. Ron was newly retired in the States, giving us the time to travel, so he had to get a work permit to get a Visa. To get a work permit, you have to be accepted for employment from a Hungarian company. He found a language school to hire him as did I, but we both shortly thereafter, found university teaching positions. We flew back to NYC to the Hungarian consulate and submitted our applications. They were less than helpful and did not know the rules and laws that we were assured of from the agencies here. As public employees of universities, we did not have to pay the $50.00 fee for applying. We left with such bad feelings, that I was sure we would be denied and I was sick about it for weeks. Finally, they sent a letter to our NJ address that our Visa was ready. We had to UPS our passports to our friends in NJ who had to send them with a certified check to the consulate as if it were us doing it. The check was to cover certified mail to send our passports back to NJ. We were then in Hungary illegally during this time and without passports. Our friend then had to Fed Ex our passports back to us here. Unfortunately, the Visa was for less than a year due to some crazy system of how they calculate. Business Umbrella had since gone under during this time, but we followed our worker to the Ex-Pat Relocation Center (www.erc.hu) to finish the job. These darlings charged us $75.00 each just to register us with the local police, which is a legal requirement. If we had realized this ahead of time, we could have paid a Hungarian $20.00 to do it for both of us, but we were dumb in the ways of the land. We got along fine until this year when we had to renew it. ERC is just about the only game in town and the small others charged just about the same fees, so we bit the bullet and continued with them since they had all of our files anyway. We just got our bill and it was $1,700.00 for both of us. That was about 700. more than anticipated, but too late now. During the first year, we needed a physical for the Work Permit. Very simple, in and out. For the Visa renewal, we had to have a chest X-Ray for TB, HIV test, stool sample, Salmonella test, full physical exams. This was not covered by my Hungarian health insurance or Ron's stateside insurance. The jury is still out on how things will go next year when they join the EU. Although our Visa was renewed in June, ours expires the beginning of May due to the EU. No one seems to know yet if this will be more complicated or less. We do not know of any ex-pats who are living here without working for that almighty Work Permit, which is needed for the Visa. That is not true, there are some, but they are of Hungarian origin- children of Hungarian emigrants and the rules are different since they qualify for a Hungarian passport. Yesterday, I read in the Budapest Sun (www.budapestsun.com) that the law currently is that if you leave the country for 90 days, your Visa becomes invalid and then you must start the whole process again. The exception is if you have to travel for business and can prove that you needed to be out of the country for legitimate business reasons. This still has to be approved by the Ministry of Immigration. Now on to your specific questions: Are there any social groups for retirees? Although we have not looked, we do monitor the social events in the Budapest Sun weekly. There have not been any listed. I doubt that there would be a sufficient number of ex-pat retirees to make up a group. Being a gay couple, unless you speak Hungarian fluently, your gay options will be limited also. We do not have a gay network other than three friends who speak English. We are isolated from much/most of their social functions since we cannot communicate with the crowd and it is a burden on them to continually translate when they want to socialize. The gay scene is almost exclusively Hungarian speaking. There is one bar owned by an American (U.S.), but he speaks Hungarian. It is a drag bar, not exclusively gay, and definitely not our cup of tea. We rarely go to the bars. We did have an older friend who had been here for 4 years, he worked for the U.S. Embassy. He went to the bars all of the time and never had a good thing to say about them. He continued out of loneliness, but claimed that he never met one person there. We have built a community of friends, but mostly non-gays, non-Hungarian, or U.S. people here on Fulbright Scholarships, but they are all short-termers. Hungarians are very family oriented. It is difficult to get to know them well since they spend all of their free time with family. Even the gays are similar. Many gay men do not leave home until their late 20’s to early 30’s since they cannot afford to live on their own. Sharing an apt. or flat is not as common as in the States. We are interested in information about medical plans available in Budapest. The American Clinic offers a medical plan that costs currently 60,000 HUF a year (current exchange is 230 HUF to the $). This covers doctor visits, labs, and I think x-rays, but not for routine physicals. It does not include hospitalization. I know that you could buy Hungarian health insurance through the State, but I do not know the cost currently. It was around $150.00 a month. Doctors and nurse here are highly underpaid and you do not want to be hospitalized here unless you have someone to give “tips” to the doctors, nurses, aides, P/T, etc. If you don’t, you will sit in the bed and rot. I have heard this from a number of my students as well as Hungarian friends who have had experience. We have not, but we don’t discount the information. I have an Israeli friend who has insurance from London and pays 172 euros a month for the whole package. I am not sure what her coverage is, but do know that it covers hospitals. I think she has to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed with all services. Suggestions on good areas in which to rent with various services available, i.e., shopping, food, restaurants, etc. which one could walk to and from? If you like the Buda side, you are asking the wrong people. We are down to earth people and our experience is that the Buda side attracts mainly for corporate employees, embassy folks, and others with money to burn. The rents and cost of buying on that side are highly inflated and they get is since most ex-pats are being cared for by their companies and not paying out of pocket. If you are interested in the Pest side, we can discuss this further. As far as services go, we have 4 grocery stores within 2-3 blocks, a dozen restaurants, a post office, a department store, camera shops, bakeries, and an Indian clothing/food store. Within our one block, there are 3 convenience grocery stores, an Internet place, a dog groomer, a Spanish, Hungarian, and a Chinese restaurant., plus other assorted little shops. Businesses here come one day and are gone the next. The economy is not that stable for the Hungarians with the average salary about $400. U.S. a month. Within our block they are building a new apt. complex. www.center-homes.hu They are supposed to be finished in 2005. It is in Hungarian, but on the left, click on Akacfa and you will see the proposed project. We have a flat that is 114 square meters and was unoccupied for six months. Hungarians do not rent more than 70 sq. m. due to cost. If you are thinking of renting part of the year, you will need to think in terms of can you afford to have it vacant when you are not here. For foreigners to buy, at the moment, you have to have a corporation and the corporation has to do the purchase. This still has to have approval from some ministry or the other. We are buying our flat, but do not intend to rent it out for some time. There are no mortgages for foreigners, so if you buy, you have to do so outright. When they find out you are from the U.S., the price inflates, so it is best to have a Hungarian do the negotiating for you for renting or for buying. What would the average or range be for monthly living expenses in Budapest assuming we owned our own flat/condo? ADSL, satellite TV, cellphones service, gas, water, electricity, and other basic expenses. ADSL, IDSN, or Cable Internet connections are not available in all areas at this time. I have ADSL, but the only provider for this area was the phone company. I would have preferred Cable through the cable company since it would be cheaper. I pay about $50.00 a month depending on exchange rates, but the “business” pays it so it is a write off on Hungarian taxes. Mobile phone (cell phones is so American ; ) ) run us about $25.00 a month with a regular contract. To get a regular contract, you need a Visa or a corporation. The other alternative is a pay-as-you-go mobile. You buy the phone (you need a Hungarian to actually purchase it) and then you buy cards that give you talk time. It is now possible to do this through ATM machines. Gas has gone up twice in the last six months. It now runs us about $25.00 a month in the summer and more in the winter. We have radiators that are gas heated. Electric is about $30.00 a month. In our building, water is not metered, so we do not have a separate water bill. Every flat, whether you rent or own pays a “homeowners” fee to the building. In our building this covers water and building maintenance for the elevator, cleaning the halls, etc. We pay 10,000 HUF a month, but we understand that currently, it is 25,000 since they needed to do some work on the roof. In order to have a satellite dish, you have to have permission from your fellow building dwellers. No one in our building has one and we survive with BBC and CNN International and a few hours of Animal Planet in English. TCM is on at 9:00 pm every night in English. This is different depending on neighborhoods and cable companies. The company is pre-determined by the neighborhood. Our cable bill for our basic services runs about $9.00 a month. Phone bill is about $20.00 a month. You are charged the minute that you place a call and they answer, even for wrong numbers. There are no packages like the States. Most people hardly ever use their home phone and use mobiles instead. It is cheaper. Also, most people use SMS messaging on their phones since it is cheaper than a call on the mobile. Oh, I forgot the HYPERMARKETS. These are Au Chan, Tesco, and Cora. All of them need a car to get to, so we don’t get there often without a car. They are similar to Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. with the exception that they make the largest of these look like small potatoes. I have never seen such large stores in my life. The prices are supposedly cheaper, but you still need to comparatively shop around. Food prices have escalated in the time we have been here. It was normal to spend $10.00 for about 3 days worth of groceries. Now, $10.00 will cover maybe two days. After the E.U. I have my fears that prices will soar. Projections are that property values will too! This should give you some food for thought, but I am more than happy to continue a dialogue with you. One more thing…Ron’s monthly retirement income is more than most Hungarians earn in six months, but that was not considered when he applied for the Visa. I know in some countries if you can show self-sufficient income, it is easier. Here is was not. What happens next year is anyone’s guess. Regards, Ryan

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More Questions About Our Move

We are asked questions about our move all of the time. We are happy to assist others. I am glad that Jean had the forethought to refer you to us. We will be more than willing to give you our take on things here in this grand city. Just for some info, we moved here in Dec. 2001. We had been here once before for less than a week at that time, while also traveling to the Czech Republic, Poland, Vienna, and Berlin. We left CA in August of 2001 with the intention of traveling for a year or so, then settling down on the Northeast coast in the Boston area. That was the hope at the time. Now let me preface all of the rest of this with the fact that Hungary will be joining the EU in May of 2004. All rules and laws will be different by then, but until then and most likely after that they will continue to change daily. When we arrived and still after the EU, U.S. citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a Visa. E.U. regulations are such now that U.S. citizens can only stay in the E.U. as an entity for 90 days every six months. That means after 90 days in any E.U. country/countries, we must leave for 6 months before re-entering. They are beefing up their inter-country passport control computers systems to make this much more of a hassle than it has in the past, Hungary included. When we came, we just crossed a border to have our passport stamped. This was not a problem at the time as we had U.S. friends living in Slovakia and Croatia, so we could take mini-vacations. Investigating things with other Americans and a lawyer, we were told that if we started a corporation here, we could be managing directors and not need Visas to stay. We found an attorney and did do this. The cost was $300.00 (at the exchange rate then, which was 280 Huf to the $). The day we had our last Notary stamp put on the papers, the attorney received a call from his office. His researcher told him that a law had just passed stating that we as corporation owners would still need Visas for staying in Hungary. Going from inflated to deflated in minutes, we then checked out that process, something the attorney said he did not do. We found an agency called Business Umbrella (since has gone out of business). They for a hefty fee, arranged Work Permits, which was necessary first and then our temporary Visas. At the time, they were the best deal cost wise around. We were constantly running around getting paperwork for them to submit our papers. The clincher was that the new law made it impossible to get your Visa without returning to the States. This was a cost that we did not want to deal with, but there was no choice. Up to January 1, 2002, you could go to any other country, go to the Hungarian Embassy and have your Visa issued. This right was taken away from Hungarian Ambassadors with a change in government. The law is now that you must apply in your country of citizenship for part of the process. Ron was newly retired in the States, giving us the time to travel, so he had to get a work permit to get a Visa. To get a work permit, you have to be accepted for employment from a Hungarian company. He found a language school to hire him as did I, but we both shortly thereafter, found university teaching positions. We flew back to NYC to the Hungarian consulate and submitted our applications. They were less than helpful and did not know the rules and laws that we were assured of from the agencies here. As public employees of universities, we did not have to pay the $50.00 fee for applying. We left with such bad feelings, that I was sure we would be denied and I was sick about it for weeks. Finally, they sent a letter to our NJ address that our Visa was ready. We had to UPS our passports to our friends in NJ who had to send them with a certified check to the consulate as if it were us doing it. The check was to cover certified mail to send our passports back to NJ. We were then in Hungary illegally during this time and without passports. Our friend then had to Fed Ex our passports back to us here. Unfortunately, the Visa was for less than a year due to some crazy system of how they calculate. Business Umbrella had since gone under during this time, but we followed our worker to the Ex-Pat Relocation Center (www.erc.hu) to finish the job. These darlings charged us $75.00 each just to register us with the local police, which is a legal requirement. If we had realized this ahead of time, we could have paid a Hungarian $20.00 to do it for both of us, but we were dumb in the ways of the land. We got along fine until this year when we had to renew it. ERC is just about the only game in town and the small others charged just about the same fees, so we bit the bullet and continued with them since they had all of our files anyway. We just got our bill and it was $1,700.00 for both of us. That was about 700. more than anticipated, but too late now. During the first year, we needed a physical for the Work Permit. Very simple, in and out. For the Visa renewal, we had to have a chest X-Ray for TB, HIV test, stool sample, Salmonella test, full physical exams. This was not covered by my Hungarian health insurance or Ron's stateside insurance. The jury is still out on how things will go next year when they join the EU. Although our Visa was renewed in June, ours expires the beginning of May due to the EU. No one seems to know yet if this will be more complicated or less. We do not know of any ex-pats who are living here without working for that almighty Work Permit, which is needed for the Visa. That is not true, there are some, but they are of Hungarian origin- children of Hungarian emigrants and the rules are different since they qualify for a Hungarian passport. Yesterday, I read in the Budapest Sun (www.budapestsun.com) that the law currently is that if you leave the country for 90 days, your Visa becomes invalid and then you must start the whole process again. The exception is if you have to travel for business and can prove that you needed to be out of the country for legitimate business reasons. This still has to be approved by the Ministry of Immigration. Now on to your specific questions: Are there any social groups for retirees? Although we have not looked, we do monitor the social events in the Budapest Sun weekly. There have not been any listed. I doubt that there would be a sufficient number of ex-pat retirees to make up a group. Being a gay couple, unless you speak Hungarian fluently, your gay options will be limited also. We do not have a gay network other than three friends who speak English. We are isolated from much/most of their social functions since we cannot communicate with the crowd and it is a burden on them to continually translate when they want to socialize. The gay scene is almost exclusively Hungarian speaking. There is one bar owned by an American (U.S.), but he speaks Hungarian. It is a drag bar, not exclusively gay, and definitely not our cup of tea. We rarely go to the bars. We did have an older friend who had been here for 4 years, he worked for the U.S. Embassy. He went to the bars all of the time and never had a good thing to say about them. He continued out of loneliness, but claimed that he never met one person there. We have built a community of friends, but mostly non-gays, non-Hungarian, or U.S. people here on Fulbright Scholarships, but they are all short-termers. Hungarians are very family oriented. It is difficult to get to know them well since they spend all of their free time with family. Even the gays are similar. Many gay men do not leave home until their late 20’s to early 30’s since they cannot afford to live on their own. Sharing an apt. or flat is not as common as in the States. We are interested in information about medical plans available in Budapest. The American Clinic offers a medical plan that costs currently 60,000 HUF a year (current exchange is 230 HUF to the $). This covers doctor visits, labs, and I think x-rays, but not for routine physicals. It does not include hospitalization. I know that you could buy Hungarian health insurance through the State, but I do not know the cost currently. It was around $150.00 a month. Doctors and nurse here are highly underpaid and you do not want to be hospitalized here unless you have someone to give “tips” to the doctors, nurses, aides, P/T, etc. If you don’t, you will sit in the bed and rot. I have heard this from a number of my students as well as Hungarian friends who have had experience. We have not, but we don’t discount the information. I have an Israeli friend who has insurance from London and pays 172 euros a month for the whole package. I am not sure what her coverage is, but do know that it covers hospitals. I think she has to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed with all services. Suggestions on good areas in which to rent with various services available, i.e., shopping, food, restaurants, etc. which one could walk to and from? If you like the Buda side, you are asking the wrong people. We are down to earth people and our experience is that the Buda side attracts mainly for corporate employees, embassy folks, and others with money to burn. The rents and cost of buying on that side are highly inflated and they get is since most ex-pats are being cared for by their companies and not paying out of pocket. If you are interested in the Pest side, we can discuss this further. As far as services go, we have 4 grocery stores within 2-3 blocks, a dozen restaurants, a post office, a department store, camera shops, bakeries, and an Indian clothing/food store. Within our one block, there are 3 convenience grocery stores, an Internet place, a dog groomer, a Spanish, Hungarian, and a Chinese restaurant., plus other assorted little shops. Businesses here come one day and are gone the next. The economy is not that stable for the Hungarians with the average salary about $400. U.S. a month. Within our block they are building a new apt. complex. www.center-homes.hu They are supposed to be finished in 2005. It is in Hungarian, but on the left, click on Akacfa and you will see the proposed project. We have a flat that is 114 square meters and was unoccupied for six months. Hungarians do not rent more than 70 sq. m. due to cost. If you are thinking of renting part of the year, you will need to think in terms of can you afford to have it vacant when you are not here. For foreigners to buy, at the moment, you have to have a corporation and the corporation has to do the purchase. This still has to have approval from some ministry or the other. We are buying our flat, but do not intend to rent it out for some time. There are no mortgages for foreigners, so if you buy, you have to do so outright. When they find out you are from the U.S., the price inflates, so it is best to have a Hungarian do the negotiating for you for renting or for buying. What would the average or range be for monthly living expenses in Budapest assuming we owned our own flat/condo? ADSL, satellite TV, cellphones service, gas, water, electricity, and other basic expenses. ADSL, IDSN, or Cable Internet connections are not available in all areas at this time. I have ADSL, but the only provider for this area was the phone company. I would have preferred Cable through the cable company since it would be cheaper. I pay about $50.00 a month depending on exchange rates, but the “business” pays it so it is a write off on Hungarian taxes. Mobile phone (cell phones is so American ; ) ) run us about $25.00 a month with a regular contract. To get a regular contract, you need a Visa or a corporation. The other alternative is a pay-as-you-go mobile. You buy the phone (you need a Hungarian to actually purchase it) and then you buy cards that give you talk time. It is now possible to do this through ATM machines. Gas has gone up twice in the last six months. It now runs us about $25.00 a month in the summer and more in the winter. We have radiators that are gas heated. Electric is about $30.00 a month. In our building, water is not metered, so we do not have a separate water bill. Every flat, whether you rent or own pays a “homeowners” fee to the building. In our building this covers water and building maintenance for the elevator, cleaning the halls, etc. We pay 10,000 HUF a month, but we understand that currently, it is 25,000 since they needed to do some work on the roof. In order to have a satellite dish, you have to have permission from your fellow building dwellers. No one in our building has one and we survive with BBC and CNN International and a few hours of Animal Planet in English. TCM is on at 9:00 pm every night in English. This is different depending on neighborhoods and cable companies. The company is pre-determined by the neighborhood. Our cable bill for our basic services runs about $9.00 a month. Phone bill is about $20.00 a month. You are charged the minute that you place a call and they answer, even for wrong numbers. There are no packages like the States. Most people hardly ever use their home phone and use mobiles instead. It is cheaper. Also, most people use SMS messaging on their phones since it is cheaper than a call on the mobile. Oh, I forgot the HYPERMARKETS. These are Au Chan, Tesco, and Cora. All of them need a car to get to, so we don’t get there often without a car. They are similar to Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. with the exception that they make the largest of these look like small potatoes. I have never seen such large stores in my life. The prices are supposedly cheaper, but you still need to comparatively shop around. Food prices have escalated in the time we have been here. It was normal to spend $10.00 for about 3 days worth of groceries. Now, $10.00 will cover maybe two days. After the E.U. I have my fears that prices will soar. Projections are that property values will too! This should give you some food for thought, but I am more than happy to continue a dialogue with you. One more thing…Ron’s monthly retirement income is more than most Hungarians earn in six months, but that was not considered when he applied for the Visa. I know in some countries if you can show self-sufficient income, it is easier. Here is was not. What happens next year is anyone’s guess. Regards, Ryan

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Frequently Asked Questions about our Move

We are asked questions about our move all of the time. We are happy to assist others. I am glad that Jean had the forethought to refer you to us. We will be more than willing to give you our take on things here in this grand city. Just for some info, we moved here in Dec. 2001. We had been here once before for less than a week at that time, while also traveling to the Czech Republic, Poland, Vienna, and Berlin. We left CA in August of 2001 with the intention of traveling for a year or so, then settling down on the Northeast coast in the Boston area. That was the hope at the time. Now let me preface all of the rest of this with the fact that Hungary will be joining the EU in May of 2004. All rules and laws will be different by then, but until then and most likely after that they will continue to change daily. When we arrived and still after the EU, U.S. citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a Visa. E.U. regulations are such now that U.S. citizens can only stay in the E.U. as an entity for 90 days every six months. That means after 90 days in any E.U. country/countries, we must leave for 6 months before re-entering. They are beefing up their inter-country passport control computers systems to make this much more of a hassle than it has in the past, Hungary included. When we came, we just crossed a border to have our passport stamped. This was not a problem at the time as we had U.S. friends living in Slovakia and Croatia, so we could take mini-vacations. Investigating things with other Americans and a lawyer, we were told that if we started a corporation here, we could be managing directors and not need Visas to stay. We found an attorney and did do this. The cost was $300.00 (at the exchange rate then, which was 280 Huf to the $). The day we had our last Notary stamp put on the papers, the attorney received a call from his office. His researcher told him that a law had just passed stating that we as corporation owners would still need Visas for staying in Hungary. Going from inflated to deflated in minutes, we then checked out that process, something the attorney said he did not do. We found an agency called Business Umbrella (since has gone out of business). They for a hefty fee, arranged Work Permits, which was necessary first and then our temporary Visas. At the time, they were the best deal cost wise around. We were constantly running around getting paperwork for them to submit our papers. The clincher was that the new law made it impossible to get your Visa without returning to the States. This was a cost that we did not want to deal with, but there was no choice. Up to January 1, 2002, you could go to any other country, go to the Hungarian Embassy and have your Visa issued. This right was taken away from Hungarian Ambassadors with a change in government. The law is now that you must apply in your country of citizenship for part of the process. Ron was newly retired in the States, giving us the time to travel, so he had to get a work permit to get a Visa. To get a work permit, you have to be accepted for employment from a Hungarian company. He found a language school to hire him as did I, but we both shortly thereafter, found university teaching positions. We flew back to NYC to the Hungarian consulate and submitted our applications. They were less than helpful and did not know the rules and laws that we were assured of from the agencies here. As public employees of universities, we did not have to pay the $50.00 fee for applying. We left with such bad feelings, that I was sure we would be denied and I was sick about it for weeks. Finally, they sent a letter to our NJ address that our Visa was ready. We had to UPS our passports to our friends in NJ who had to send them with a certified check to the consulate as if it were us doing it. The check was to cover certified mail to send our passports back to NJ. We were then in Hungary illegally during this time and without passports. Our friend then had to Fed Ex our passports back to us here. Unfortunately, the Visa was for less than a year due to some crazy system of how they calculate. Business Umbrella had since gone under during this time, but we followed our worker to the Ex-Pat Relocation Center (www.erc.hu) to finish the job. These darlings charged us $75.00 each just to register us with the local police, which is a legal requirement. If we had realized this ahead of time, we could have paid a Hungarian $20.00 to do it for both of us, but we were dumb in the ways of the land. We got along fine until this year when we had to renew it. ERC is just about the only game in town and the small others charged just about the same fees, so we bit the bullet and continued with them since they had all of our files anyway. We just got our bill and it was $1,700.00 for both of us. That was about 700. more than anticipated, but too late now. During the first year, we needed a physical for the Work Permit. Very simple, in and out. For the Visa renewal, we had to have a chest X-Ray for TB, HIV test, stool sample, Salmonella test, full physical exams. This was not covered by my Hungarian health insurance or Ron's stateside insurance. The jury is still out on how things will go next year when they join the EU. Although our Visa was renewed in June, ours expires the beginning of May due to the EU. No one seems to know yet if this will be more complicated or less. We do not know of any ex-pats who are living here without working for that almighty Work Permit, which is needed for the Visa. That is not true, there are some, but they are of Hungarian origin- children of Hungarian emigrants and the rules are different since they qualify for a Hungarian passport. Yesterday, I read in the Budapest Sun (www.budapestsun.com) that the law currently is that if you leave the country for 90 days, your Visa becomes invalid and then you must start the whole process again. The exception is if you have to travel for business and can prove that you needed to be out of the country for legitimate business reasons. This still has to be approved by the Ministry of Immigration. Now on to your specific questions: Are there any social groups for retirees? Although we have not looked, we do monitor the social events in the Budapest Sun weekly. There have not been any listed. I doubt that there would be a sufficient number of ex-pat retirees to make up a group. Being a gay couple, unless you speak Hungarian fluently, your gay options will be limited also. We do not have a gay network other than three friends who speak English. We are isolated from much/most of their social functions since we cannot communicate with the crowd and it is a burden on them to continually translate when they want to socialize. The gay scene is almost exclusively Hungarian speaking. There is one bar owned by an American (U.S.), but he speaks Hungarian. It is a drag bar, not exclusively gay, and definitely not our cup of tea. We rarely go to the bars. We did have an older friend who had been here for 4 years, he worked for the U.S. Embassy. He went to the bars all of the time and never had a good thing to say about them. He continued out of loneliness, but claimed that he never met one person there. We have built a community of friends, but mostly non-gays, non-Hungarian, or U.S. people here on Fulbright Scholarships, but they are all short-termers. Hungarians are very family oriented. It is difficult to get to know them well since they spend all of their free time with family. Even the gays are similar. Many gay men do not leave home until their late 20’s to early 30’s since they cannot afford to live on their own. Sharing an apt. or flat is not as common as in the States. We are interested in information about medical plans available in Budapest. The American Clinic offers a medical plan that costs currently 60,000 HUF a year (current exchange is 230 HUF to the $). This covers doctor visits, labs, and I think x-rays, but not for routine physicals. It does not include hospitalization. I know that you could buy Hungarian health insurance through the State, but I do not know the cost currently. It was around $150.00 a month. Doctors and nurse here are highly underpaid and you do not want to be hospitalized here unless you have someone to give “tips” to the doctors, nurses, aides, P/T, etc. If you don’t, you will sit in the bed and rot. I have heard this from a number of my students as well as Hungarian friends who have had experience. We have not, but we don’t discount the information. I have an Israeli friend who has insurance from London and pays 172 euros a month for the whole package. I am not sure what her coverage is, but do know that it covers hospitals. I think she has to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed with all services. Suggestions on good areas in which to rent with various services available, i.e., shopping, food, restaurants, etc. which one could walk to and from? If you like the Buda side, you are asking the wrong people. We are down to earth people and our experience is that the Buda side attracts mainly for corporate employees, embassy folks, and others with money to burn. The rents and cost of buying on that side are highly inflated and they get is since most ex-pats are being cared for by their companies and not paying out of pocket. If you are interested in the Pest side, we can discuss this further. As far as services go, we have 4 grocery stores within 2-3 blocks, a dozen restaurants, a post office, a department store, camera shops, bakeries, and an Indian clothing/food store. Within our one block, there are 3 convenience grocery stores, an Internet place, a dog groomer, a Spanish, Hungarian, and a Chinese restaurant., plus other assorted little shops. Businesses here come one day and are gone the next. The economy is not that stable for the Hungarians with the average salary about $400. U.S. a month. Within our block they are building a new apt. complex. www.center-homes.hu They are supposed to be finished in 2005. It is in Hungarian, but on the left, click on Akacfa and you will see the proposed project. We have a flat that is 114 square meters and was unoccupied for six months. Hungarians do not rent more than 70 sq. m. due to cost. If you are thinking of renting part of the year, you will need to think in terms of can you afford to have it vacant when you are not here. For foreigners to buy, at the moment, you have to have a corporation and the corporation has to do the purchase. This still has to have approval from some ministry or the other. We are buying our flat, but do not intend to rent it out for some time. There are no mortgages for foreigners, so if you buy, you have to do so outright. When they find out you are from the U.S., the price inflates, so it is best to have a Hungarian do the negotiating for you for renting or for buying. What would the average or range be for monthly living expenses in Budapest assuming we owned our own flat/condo? ADSL, satellite TV, cellphones service, gas, water, electricity, and other basic expenses. ADSL, IDSN, or Cable Internet connections are not available in all areas at this time. I have ADSL, but the only provider for this area was the phone company. I would have preferred Cable through the cable company since it would be cheaper. I pay about $50.00 a month depending on exchange rates, but the “business” pays it so it is a write off on Hungarian taxes. Mobile phone (cell phones is so American ; ) ) run us about $25.00 a month with a regular contract. To get a regular contract, you need a Visa or a corporation. The other alternative is a pay-as-you-go mobile. You buy the phone (you need a Hungarian to actually purchase it) and then you buy cards that give you talk time. It is now possible to do this through ATM machines. Gas has gone up twice in the last six months. It now runs us about $25.00 a month in the summer and more in the winter. We have radiators that are gas heated. Electric is about $30.00 a month. In our building, water is not metered, so we do not have a separate water bill. Every flat, whether you rent or own pays a “homeowners” fee to the building. In our building this covers water and building maintenance for the elevator, cleaning the halls, etc. We pay 10,000 HUF a month, but we understand that currently, it is 25,000 since they needed to do some work on the roof. In order to have a satellite dish, you have to have permission from your fellow building dwellers. No one in our building has one and we survive with BBC and CNN International and a few hours of Animal Planet in English. TCM is on at 9:00 pm every night in English. This is different depending on neighborhoods and cable companies. The company is pre-determined by the neighborhood. Our cable bill for our basic services runs about $9.00 a month. Phone bill is about $20.00 a month. You are charged the minute that you place a call and they answer, even for wrong numbers. There are no packages like the States. Most people hardly ever use their home phone and use mobiles instead. It is cheaper. Also, most people use SMS messaging on their phones since it is cheaper than a call on the mobile. Oh, I forgot the HYPERMARKETS. These are Au Chan, Tesco, and Cora. All of them need a car to get to, so we don’t get there often without a car. They are similar to Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. with the exception that they make the largest of these look like small potatoes. I have never seen such large stores in my life. The prices are supposedly cheaper, but you still need to comparatively shop around. Food prices have escalated in the time we have been here. It was normal to spend $10.00 for about 3 days worth of groceries. Now, $10.00 will cover maybe two days. After the E.U. I have my fears that prices will soar. Projections are that property values will too! This should give you some food for thought, but I am more than happy to continue a dialogue with you. One more thing…Ron’s monthly retirement income is more than most Hungarians earn in six months, but that was not considered when he applied for the Visa. I know in some countries if you can show self-sufficient income, it is easier. Here is was not. What happens next year is anyone’s guess. Regards, Ryan

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