Europe.

comelately said:

If so, what kind of thing do you want to know?

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Price and availability of drugs, especially poppers.

I can't really say much about that tbh, I take a toke if it's going but I don't really go looking for it.

In the Jewish Quarter, there's a 'cereal cafe' which claims to be the only cereal cafe in Budapest. There is, however, another one up the street.

The food is really good generally though - £2.50-£3.00 soup + main places are obviously going to be fairly canteeny but they can be alright. Upping your budget a wee bit certainly helps. I've eaten lunch at a 'Modern Hungarian' Michelin Guide place a couple of times, they have a 3 course menu which is sort of under a tenner (I say sort of because all but one option on each course involves supplements) - really good stuff. Venison was an extra £6.50, but I dread to think what you might pay in an equivalent establishment in London for what was a pretty big portion.

There are lots of vegetarian and vegan joints, but it's largely an apartheid affair outside the more touristique establishments.

The ruin bars are pretty fun. I believe one is closing next week and being moved to Hackney (District 3). I haven't quite got my finger on the pulse, I will probably check out techno club Aether at some point.

In terms of home drinking, wine is super cheap. £2.50 got me a drinkable Tesco Finest Tempranillo from Spain, and you can get a bottle of Sparking Chardonnay for the same price in Lidl. Spirits aren't *all* that cheap from what I can tell; I got some friends driving up from Sofia though so they can get what I need. Most of the beer is bilge compared to what's available in Slovakia next door - there is lots of craft beer available obviously but I haven't partaken. One of the macros does an 'APA' which is clumsy af in it's flavour profile but nonetheless pushes the appropriate taste buttons.

I live in a ridiculously central area, I didn't have a lot of time for a few reasons and just decided to get a swanky place. I've been at a friends a couple of miles away, where rent would have been a bit cheaper - and it's homelier but larger than a lot of London places for sure.

Taxis aren't that cheap (Uber got moved on), but there is a decent enough night bus/trolley/tram service. That marks it out from places like Bucharest/Sofia where taking cabs is a non-brainer if there's two of you.

They have Gyros rather than Doner - it's all much a much for the most part (I had one that I am told was very authentic, never been to Greece so I don't know but there was a lot of yoghurt).

I'm in London sorting through possessions trying to get over...I think flu tbh. So my thoughts are far from composed lol.

The nationalist populist right party is now the biggest in Sweden. Not looking great.

Sorry Rich, that question was for me?

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Yes it was - but I only just saw this response I'm afraid - tell me anything and everything really, I've been to Budapest a couple of times but I'd love to hear from someone finding their way around it. Also interesting to me cos I've just moved abroad (well more than a year ago now) and I'd be interested to hear about the same experience in other places. Gotta rush now but might think of some proper questions, cheers.

what is your story then idlerich? forgive me if someone asked this before. how did you come about moving to portugal? what do you like about it, what don't you like about it? what difficulties did you have?

Basically went there with my girlfriend to visit a friend, loved Lisbon. Went to Algarve later, enjoyed that too. Realised that Lisbon is cheap as fuck and that if I sold my flat and did things smartly we could live there with minimal "normal" work - and as a result could concentrate on doing things I'd always wanted to do eg starting a record label, maybe writing a novel (kinda on the back-burner but not ruled out) and so on. Taken us a while to get settled (of course) and we're only just starting to properly study Portuguese (it was hard to book ourselves on a course cos we kept having to go to Russia, UK etc) but we have met a LOT of people, we seem to be getting lots of opportunities to do the above and the weather is mainly nice so all good...

I like; getting up in the afternoon (freedom in general), good quality food, nice people, nice flat in a village, good weather (for longer), partying any day until whenever, spotting different birds, kindness of people, beautiful houses and buildings and countryside etc
Don't like; lack of variety in food, lack of music scene (also an opportunity though), just small town vibe in general, conservatism of people and lack of interest in politics and art and stuff, casual racism, rudeness/shyness of random people, patriotism, pointless exaggeration
Probably loads more in both categories but that's off the top of my head.

IdleRich said:

pointless exaggeration

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This is worse than child abuse and people who do it should be tortured for a million years.

Just annoys me when they say "This guy is a michelin starred chef" or "He plays for Benfica" or whatever and you can just look it up and it's bollocks... seems to happen a lot. Like weirdly a lot.

Yeah they're not big on humility or self-irony, are they? I like arrogant people, but more the Zlatan kind than the Cristiano kind.

This football racism in Italy reminds me of something I noticed when I lived in Rome. I can't say if there is more or less racism there than in Denmark, but it's externalized in very different ways. In Denmark, there is less overt racism, but also less real social integration. People might be casually racist in private, but rarely in public. The dominant attitude is "it's alright that they here, we have nothing against them, but we don't really wanna get to know them", when expressed, always with self-justification.

In Italy, where there is racism, it manifests clearly and openly. A lot of things are uttered publically that you'd never hear in Denmark. Like the recent examples from football. On the other hand, Italians actually wanna get to know the immigrants in their country. Less cordial distance. It's more humane, but also more contentious.

don't denmark have one of the most racist policies and laws of all of europe? https://www.thelocal.dk/20180226/da...nishments-for-crimes-in-underprivileged-areas

i think they are similar to holland in that respect that they have build a perfect image of itself and marketed it to the rest of the world.

Things I've heard here, from an estate agent when looking for a flat "You don't want to live there, lots of black people", from a taxi driver on the way to the beach "Don't go to a beach near a train station cos you will get loads of blacks". Worst one was when walking back from somewhere with a friend who is from Kuwait, some guy in the street (a black guy) said something to her, I didn't catch it but one of our group got annoyed and I reckon what he said revealed a lot about this kind of hierarchy that he has in his head "How can a nigger have a go at a musilm?"

IdleRich said:

Just annoys me when they say "This guy is a michelin starred chef" or "He plays for Benfica" or whatever and you can just look it up and it's bollocks... seems to happen a lot. Like weirdly a lot.

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i like it actually when people are like this. communication becomes theatre and play.

yyaldrin said:

don't denmark have one of the most racist policies and laws of all of europe? https://www.thelocal.dk/20180226/da...nishments-for-crimes-in-underprivileged-areas

i think they are similar to holland in that respect that they have build a perfect image of itself and marketed it to the rest of the world.

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That one in particular is quite weird. There is racism built into it, but mostly in the sense that you would have to be racist to not see how it's racist. The motivation behind it wasn't overtly racist, though.

But the largest evidence of racism in Danish politics is the discourse about how asylum seekers should be treated. Some gross, inhumane stuff there.

I mean, there was also this politician who went around areas of Copenhagen with highest muslim concentration and threw around the Koran and said horrific stuff. He ran for parliament this summer and was the big topic. I really thought he was going to get the 2% needed for a seat in parliament but he got 1.8%. That's about the level of overt fascist racism in the country.

Yeah they're not big on humility or self-irony, are they? I like arrogant people, but more the Zlatan kind than the Cristiano kind.

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I'm not sure it's that to be honest. It's something that I've often noticed that people from smaller countries are more patriotic and more inclined to say things like "our food/music/weather is the best" than people from, I dunno, the US, who just assume on some level that people already think that.
In fairness I think that the Portuguese I know are all fairly modest, even when they do make one of those overstated claims of the kind I just mentioned they are always to make someone else look good. Which makes it a lot easier to take in fact.

There is just generally more cultural solipsism in Southern Europe. Very little patriotism up here, what there is of it is mostly veiled nationalism. Young culture in Copenhagen slips in and out of english words, phrases, idioms constantly. You hear teenagers on the bus, born and raised here, switch back and forth between danish and english, sometimes speaking whole sentences in English. That's not an exaggeration, it's actually a thing, very funny to overhear sometimes.

Yeah they're not big on humility or self-irony, are they? I like arrogant people, but more the Zlatan kind than the Cristiano kind.

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Actually I think the Portuguese are fairly modest personally. When I hear them exaggerate like above it's normally to big up someone else so that makes it a lot better intentioned and easier to put with I suppose.

...switch back and forth between danish and english, sometimes speaking whole sentences in English. That's not an exaggeration, it's actually a thing, very funny to overhear sometimes.

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You get that a lot in London with kids literally beginning a sentence in Urdu or Turkish or whatever and finishing it in English. My friend is a professor of languages and he told me that often, in one sense at least, the kids kinda don't know where one language begins and the other ends. Or at least they would need to think about it.

IdleRich said:

You get that a lot in London with kids literally beginning a sentence in Urdu or Turkish or whatever and finishing it in English. My friend is a professor of languages and he told me that often, in one sense at least, the kids kinda don't know where one language begins and the other ends. Or at least they would need to think about it.

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My friend Abooda - you know him, right? - is like this with Arabic and English when he's talking to other Arabs who've had a comparable upbringing (moved around a lot as kids, gone to an American school in the Middle East).