An interview with Amélie
During the last few years, Budapest has become a popular destination for Erasmus students from all over the world. Let it be because of the culture, because people consider it cheap or else. Among them is Amélie, a 27 years old French student currently doing her internship in the city, living in a students flat around Népliget, and getting interviewed by one of her Spanish roommates.
Here, we will dig a little bit about her experiences and insights, as we sit down with Amélie to discuss her journey, from her first impressions to her recommendations.
Diving into the interview
So, to being with, let’s go with an easy yet hard question. Easy because you should say the first thing that comes into mind, yet hard, because I’m pretty sure a lot of ideas will pop in your head:
Q: What was your first opinion of Budapest when you arrived for your Erasmus program?
Ámelie: Hi hi! First of all, thanks for having me!
But okay: When I first arrived in Budapest, I was really struck by how beautiful the city is. People don’t really talk about it when referring to Budapest, since it’s always all about “how cheap it is” and whatnot, it actually feels refreshing to experience for the first time an eastern country with such… Different architecture from what I’m used to.
Q: And to jump forward in time: How has your opinion changed now that you’ve been here for a while?
Ámelie: I mean, the opinion has evolved, definitely. When I first arrived it was all about visiting places and taking pictures of everything, all for aesthetics and touristic spots. But after a couple months, I’ve come to appreciate the culture more, I guess, the locals and all those places you can go to to meet new people: Let it be bars, parks and else. People are nicer than they seem here, specially the ones of my age.
Q: Onto the next one: What is the thing you like the most about Budapest?
Ámelie: Ah, if I had to choose one…. it would probably be the night life. As I said, I’ve grown to appreciate the people that live here more than anything else, and there’s no better place to meet people my age and to have some fun than the night clubs or bars. The first one I went to, actually, were the “ruin” ones, so they hold a special spot in my heart.
Q: And a more intimate one… What’s your least favorite aspect of Budapest?
Ámelie: Honestly, the thing I dislike the most is probably the language barrier. Hungarian is a very difficult language to learn, and although many people speak English, it can sometimes be challenging to navigate daily life without knowing the local language, specially with older people and while shopping. You have to always have the phone in hand, ready to translate and use the maps. But I think that even when there’s a barrier, nowadays and thanks to the internet, it’s more of a mild inconvenience than a problem itself.
Q: Talking about groceries… how do you find the stock market in Budapest in comparison to France?
Ámelie: Hey, that’s a weird one. And I actually need to do some research to find the fancy words that I want to transmit. ( . . . )
Okay, so, apparently, the Budapest Stock is much smaller compared to the French one. Back in home, the market is more robust and diverse, with many large multinational companies, and I guess that in Budapest, the market is still developing, and there are fewer major “players”. You can’t ask me much about this though, because I had to “ask the audience” for this one.
Q: Okay, lets start to wrap things up, then: How do you find the supermarket stock in Budapest compared to France?
Ámelie: Oh, another of those questions. Thankfully, this one is easier, I think.
I feel like you can still find most items here in Hungary while shopping, but the variety is much more limited than in France. You have to take into account that the local products are.. Well, local, and you can only find them here, so I always crave some of that ‘uniqueness’, even when the general duty of ‘finding the right items to buy’ is about the same as in France, except that we have less variety here.
Q: Finally, what would you recommend doing to newcomers in Budapest?
Ámelie: I would recommend everyone the same as I did: After bathing yourself with the aesthetic side of the city (architecture, tourist places, etc…), just go all in for the culture and its people. Explore the ruin bars, visit the little island, pick up a few basic Hungarian phrases… The ones I’ve used the most, actually, are “Szia, puszi, nem beszélek magyarul” and… Some curses, which I think is the first thing we all learn when abroad.
Having to end the interview…
And we say and write this with a ever so ‘sad’ tone of voice, because it was really great having Ámelie here to give us her point of view. But we have to thank her for giving us the opportunity, and for being so transparent, and for sharing with us her experiences in Budapest.
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