320 forint (US$1.45) is extremely expensive for transport when you consider two things:
1–You can’t transfer on a regular ticket. Budapest doesn’t have a system like most (all?) major cities in Europe where one ticket will get you to your destination. This is hard on poorer people on the outskirts who have to take 2 or 3 modes of transport to get downtown to their jobs, though most regular commuters do have monthly passes.
2–Relative to per capita income, this is a crusher. A ticket on the Paris metro is about US$1.95—including any transfers, of course—and incomes are certainly more than 25% higher than here.
My first time in Budapest, a metro ticket was 2 forint. I come so often to Hungary I notice the price creep for everything, but alcohol in every form and cigarettes are always cheap. A Hungarian emigre friend theorizes this is done on purpose to keep the masses in a numb state.
I am thankful to have the opportunity to play tennis with friends on the weekends, but I don’t get how anyone can play on clay courts. As a Hungarian might say, it’s a clown surface. The ball doesn’t bounce true on the lines, I slide around too much and can’t plant my foot well enough to swing.
That’s my rant for the day. Thank you.
Very good observations, Kent.
A lot of people are furious about ticket costs in Budapest but nothing changes. A monthly pass is USD 45.- which is also expensive and is only worth buying if you use the public transport almost every day.
Those of us who usually use our car to go to work are in a different situation. E.g. if I want to go downtown for a dinner with my wife (obviously, we don’t want to drive as a glass of wine or two with the dinner feels all right) we both have to buy 3 tickets each way for the 9 km ride. That’s 12 tickets altogether for the 2 of us. USD 17.40.- What is funny, it’s almost enough money to take a taxi instead.
Alcohol is really cheap in the supermarkets but not in a fashionable downtown pub. In the latter, they sometimes charge USD 3.- for an ordinary pint of beer. Not THAT expensive but certainly not cheap.
Cigarettes – at USD 3.- a pack of 19, they certainly are expensive for an average Hungarian. Not UK or US prices but 3 times as much as in the neighboring Ukraine. Therefore, more and more smokers buy smuggled Ukranian cigarettes (black market cost: half the Hungarian price).
FYI: at the time when metro tickets were 2 forints (in the middle of 1980’s), a pack of average Hungarian brand cigarettes (Sopianae) was 12 forints. In the last 25 years, prices of metro tickets grew 160folds, cigarettes “only” about 50folds. Wages? Don’t even ask…
BTW: In which university cafeteria did buy buy that lunch? Very good value, even for a local guy.
Thanks for your comments, Robert. It is great to read. You are right about the cigarettes. I had come from Germany before here, so I wasn’t making the best comparison. I am thankful I don’t smoke! That menza is on Rakoczi near Astoria towards Blaha on the right side of the street, maybe 100 meters from Astoria.