Also, only better: How I moved to Budapest and live by whom I lived
Stories of moving to another country usually begin with the fact that a person wanted to change something radically in his life. This story is not one of them. I don’t even like the word эми emigration ’precisely because of the hysterical and hysterical connotation that it acquired as a result of dramatic twentieth-century fractures. On emigration you need to decide, in emigration you need to suffer from bouts of nostalgia and think about the meaning of life. That is why I prefer the everyday word "relocation".
Moving to Budapest was the thirteenth in my life (unless, of course, I have not forgotten something when calculating). Before that, however, I moved only within Russia. Of course, like any dreamy girl, every point on the planet I visited, I tried to try on myself like a dress - “would you like to live here?” - And many times she answered herself this question: "Yes, it would be great." However, it always remained just a hypothetical reflection - I never thought about living really abroad.
Moreover, one day I decided that it was necessary to gradually tie up with moving and buy my own apartment. I just became a mother, going over this issue to the restless bread of a freelancer, for the first time in my life I became terribly afraid of instability and started to save money in a panic for a down payment on a mortgage. I began to read “CIAN” with interest in the mornings and ask my acquaintances which of the sleeping districts of Moscow is nicer than their fellows. Golyanovo or Koptevo? "Perovo" or "Printers"? Platform Moose or Platform Mark? One opportunity is more tempting than another!
This continued until I wondered: why should I finally finally settle down in Moscow? After all, I am now a freelancer, so what the hell? Here, for example, Peter ... After a while, spent studying the real estate market of St. Petersburg, the thought went even further - and why, actually, I limit myself to Russia? After all, the proletariat, as K. Marx and F. Engels said, has nothing to lose, except for its chains — it will gain the whole world.
It did not take long to think about where to move — well, of course, to Prague. She was on my list of “here-to-me-lived” cities, the procedure for moving to the Czech Republic was generally known to me, a whole bunch of my friends and acquaintances already lived there. I switched to Czech realtor websites and signed up for an online Czech language course at Charles University. Changed all the random link in the Facebook feed to the article "Posters". Completely unfamiliar people told me about their experience of moving to Budapest. I might have forgotten this article in five minutes, but it mentioned apartment prices (about the size of my planned first mortgage payment) and there was a link to the Hungarian counterpart of “CIAN” (it's time to admit that realtor sites are my RedTube).
The long-term rental market in Budapest is about as wild as the Moscow one, except that prices are two times lower.
About a couple of days later, I, a person who had never been to Hungary and did not know anyone who lives in Hungary, decided to move not just anywhere, but to Budapest. Six months later, for the first time in my life, I flew to Budapest, fell in love with him (not at first sight, I admit, but the third day), three months later I became the owner of my own apartment, and six months later I moved into this apartment along with daughter and three hundred kilograms of luggage (240 of them accounted for books). Since then, a year and a half has passed. I am friends with the guys who wrote the article.
The process of buying an apartment in Budapest is quite simple. An agent is not required for this, but you will need a lawyer. First, you follow the proposals on the very local analogue of "CIAN", choose those that you like, record for viewing. If everything suits, then negotiate with the seller and with the mediation of a lawyer pay the deposit - 10% of the amount. After registration of the pledge, the lawyer sends your papers to the municipality - he must give permission to buy a particular apartment to a foreigner. When permission is obtained (usually this happens after a month), the date of the transaction is assigned.
Prices for apartments in Budapest have recently been ridiculously low, but recently they have noticeably grown - thanks to Airbnb boom. Now in the central part of the city, it seems, there is not a single house in which there would be at least one apartment surrendering to Airbnb, and in areas like the Jewish Quarter, the permanent residents are quite often in the minority among tourists. As for the long-term rental market, it is about the same wild in Budapest as the Moscow one, except that prices are two times lower.
Budapest houses are, as a rule, very beautiful and often very neglected externally: communications are followed very carefully, but the money for facade repair is being sought last. The falling off plaster and potholes from the bullets left on the walls since 1956, or even from 1944, are little things on which the look is not even fixed. However, it must be admitted that every year in the city there are more and more facades neatly tidied.
In order for something to be demolished here, the house must have finally turned into ruins, otherwise it will be kept to the last. My apartment is located in a house built in 1873. He was already inhabited when the first trams appeared in Budapest, the first generation of children had grown up in it, when the first metro line on the European continent was stretched nearby, and it is still alive and feeling great. And this is not some kind of architectural monument, but a completely ordinary apartment house. In Moscow, I really lacked such an attitude towards antiquity.
As I have already said, in general, my life after moving is not much different from life before moving. Unless it became easier to work, because my daughter went to kindergarten. Attending kindergartens in Hungary is mandatory from the age of three. In Budapest, there is one private Russian-language kindergarten and a whole bunch of English or bilingual Anglo-Hungarian kindergartens. The problem is that 95% of them are in Buda - this is where family expats prefer to settle, leaving Pest to careless bachelors. We live in the central part of Pest, and, having estimated various options, I decided to try the usual Hungarian kindergarten. They are free (including for foreigners), you only need to pay for food, at the current rate - about two thousand rubles a month.
Signing up for the new school year in the garden is necessary at the beginning of May, but in the kindergarten to which your house is “assigned”, you should be accepted even if you come later. Hungarian kindergartens are in many ways similar to the Russians (about which I, however, judge only from the stories of friends), but more friendly to both children and parents. In our kindergarten there are mixed groups for children from three to six years old, and this, it turns out, is very healthy: the older children take care of the younger ones, and the younger ones reach out for the older ones. At first, I thought it was a general Hungarian practice, but local residents explained that this was an experimental area, and in most kindergartens they are still ordinary groups for children of different ages.
People over the age of 35 taught Russian at school, but in Soviet Hungary he was taught in much the same way as English in Soviet schools
As you know, psychologists distinguish four stages of the adaptation process of emigrants: euphoria, disappointment, depression and acceptance. I didn’t notice any of them for myself - it turned out that psychologically, it’s really not more difficult for me to move to another country than from Sukharevskaya to Tishinka. Of course, such a soft adaptation contributed not only to the fact that I did not change my lifestyle and work, but also to the choice of a country: it’s impossible not to admit that Hungary is in many ways similar to Russia - as in a bad sense (corruption, dog lovers who don’t clean up with their pets, and the sixteen-storied panel buildings inherited from the Soviet government, giving some districts of Budapest a frightening resemblance to the conventional Altufyev), and in good (love of pickles, sour cream and curd cheese).
The Hungarian language could have greatly complicated the case, but modern Budapest is a very cosmopolitan city, and almost everywhere in it can be explained in English. People over 35 years old taught Russian in school, but in Soviet Hungary they were taught in much the same way as English in Soviet schools, so rarely does anyone have vocabulary beyond the words "hello", "goodbye", "thank you" and " absent in class no. "
Rumors about the incredible complexity of the Hungarian language are spread mainly by English-speaking expats. That is, of course, it’s not the easiest, but for a Russian-speaking person to master his grammar and phonetics is much easier than for a person who speaks English, my Hungarian teacher confirms this. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I was diligently engaged, so in a year and a half I mastered the language only to level A2: I really can't read a newspaper article, for example, I can not yet, but I can already understand what it is about.
Many people are very worried when moving because of the deprivation of their usual social circle. I was lucky with this: I am the same person for whom chatter in chatika is not fundamentally different from a personal meeting over a cup of coffee. And personally, in one and a half years in Hungary I spent with my old friends almost more time than in the last two years in Russia, because everyone, as it suddenly turned out, literally constantly travels to Budapest: to rest, then to the conference, then on a business trip. Gradually, new acquaintances and even friends started up - for the time being mostly foreigners like me, but there are also Hungarians from mixed families. In general, I am at home.
Photo: taweepat - stock.adobe.com, Arndale - stock.adobe.com
