Theft and Extortion in Budapest, Hungary
It was an eight hour bus ride from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Budapest, Hungary. We were bleary-eyed and our wits were dull. The ticket machine for the city’s subway system was proving cumbersome and our backpacks made us targets. A disheveled woman in a hot pink sweatshirt swooped in between us and the machine and began “helping” us. We told her no, no, no several times. Then she held out dirty hands, palms up, begging for money. We shoo’d her away, trying to focus on the task at hand. Just as we had finally figured out which tickets to purchase, a man wandered over, performing the same routine… punching buttons, then begging for money. I got angry and shouted at him to get away. He shuffled a few feet away into the shadows.
Bill change spews into the air from the slot on the right, while tickets and coins are deposited into a covered compartment
Our one-way single-ride tickets cost just a few Hungarian forints. The machine accepted euros, but we had only big bills. The light flickered, indicating where to insert bills. The second Caffrey inserted the 50 euro banknote, the woman in the hot pink sweater shoved her way in between us and the machine, once again holding out one hand and giving us her best pitiful expression. It was a diversion. We knew it, but there was nothing we could do about it. With one practiced hand behind her back, she stole the bills dispensing from the machine and handed them to her partner, who had re-emerged from the shadows. He deftly palmed the money and disappeared as we continued to argue with the woman and attempt to regain access to the machine. Once her man-friend was safely gone, she finally backed away from the machine and ran off.
We retrieved the tickets. Of course, our 45 euros in change was gone. We had watched the theft happen right in front of us but were powerless to stop it. They were professionals and we had been suckered. Welcome to Budapest.
The highlights of the city can be covered in two days of walking. We did a six mile urban hiking loop centered around the walking paths along the Danube River. We started at the Petöfi Bridge on the Pest side of the city, walked north along the Danube and then crossed to the Buda side at Liberty Bridge. We climbed the small hill to the Citadel, stopping by the church in the cave to have a peek inside and then continued to the top. The Citadel is the highest point in Budapest and provides terrific views of the city.
Budapest view from the Citadel
We continued north to Budapest Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion, then back down to the river. We followed the river walkway to Margaret Island, which is a lovely oasis in this busy city. Loads of walking and biking trails, flower gardens, petting zoo and a joyful musical fountain.
We followed the river walkway south along the Pest side of the Danube back to our starting point. The Shoes Along the Danube outdoor art exhibit is incredibly moving. It memorializes the victims shot in the back of their heads by the fascists; their dead or dying bodies dropping into the river.
Day two began with a trip to the Great Market Hall in the morning. The largest indoor market in Budapest was constructed at Fővám Square in 1897. The multi-storied building is packed with colorful stalls piled high with fresh fruits and vegetables, meat vendors with a wide variety of cuts, parts, and sausages, confectionaries, herbal shops, and more.
Then we walked to the Dohány Street Synagogue, which is the largest synagogue in the Europe. We did not tour the inside because the entry fee of 4,000 HUF (nearly USD $15) was steep. Instead, we spent the remainder of the day at the House of Terror Museum located in the building used by the Arrow Cross Party during Hungary’s fascist and communist era. The museum is a memorial to the victims detained and terrorized by these brutal regimes. Gloomy, but necessary to keep the lessons learned from the past alive.
We spent a total of five days in Budapest, but we spent much of the time in our AirBnB, trying to avoid crappy restaurant food and bad service, scam artists, thieves, and the metro extortion agents. In addition to the theft that occurred at the subway ticket machine, we had another awful experience when we failed to properly “validate” our purchased subway tickets. Apparently, after purchasing a ticket, riders are supposed to insert the ticket into a validation machine before they get on a train. This is such a ridiculously stupid and unconventional system. We were fined $54 (16,000 HUF) on the spot when we were exiting the metro. Although we still had our purchased tickets and the receipts for them, the agents (complete assholes, by the way, who spoke English only when it suited their purpose), had zero sympathy. Indeed, it seemed they gleaned enormous pleasure from yelling at us, threatening to call the police, and intimidating us into handing over our credit cards to collect the fine on the spot. It was such a crappy experience that it completely ruined our impression of the city and made us loathe to use their public extortion system again. Allan Wilson at Live Less Ordinary has an excellent write-up of their experience in Budapest’s metro system. Check out their description of events on their blog post titled “Budapest Underground: The World’s Shittiest Metro System” (I agree with the title). It mirrored our encounter with the “ticket gestapo”.
