Scythian
Your comments in your two posts remind me of two things.
First, about 10 years ago I went to the Budapest Operett. If you purchase box seats in the center you get invited back to the parlor at intermission. There, you share a table with an adjacent box for champagne and hors d'oeuvres. On this particular occasion we shared a table with a well dressed Hungarian business man in his late 50's or early 60's and his wife. They asked what we were doing in Budapest and we described how beautiful it was, how kind the people had been, so much so that we bought a home in Budapest. The gentleman argued, like you, that Hungarians were rude and the country was a wreck. He wanted to know, jokingly, if he and I had seen the same Budapest. I was only half surprised because its an attitude that you cant go long without finding in Hungary. Suffering and self loathing are sort of a national badge of honor.
I must stand around looking lost a lot, because on most ever trip some local citizen has offered to help me with one thing or another. I still mark the moment on each trip when i am the subject of a random act of kindness.
The second thing you remind me of is the national anthem. How can you expect to feel happy about your state in life when your national anthem contains lines like these:
Ah, but for our sins
Anger gathered in Your bosom
And You struck with Your lightning
From Your thundering clouds
Now the plundering Mongols' arrows
You swarmed over us
Then the Turks' slave yoke
We took upon our shoulders.
Pity, O Lord, the Hungarians
Who are tossed by waves of danger
Extend over it your guarding arm
On the sea of its misery
Long torn by ill fate
Bring upon it a time of relief
They who have suffered for all sins
Of the past and of the future!
Still, your country, not mine and never would or could be; so it's just an outsider's opinion based on pretty limited, in the big picture of life, contact. There are few places in the world where one can enter, and become one with the ethnic or cultural majority. I am an optimist, but still, I can think of two countries where during my short stays I didn't feel as though the people were particularly polite, so I do have something to compare it against. However, since you refer to yourself as Scythian are you Magyar as well?
Point of fact, in 15 years of travel to and from Hungary the people have been nothing but kind. I have not one instance of rudeness to relate. I wish I did, as one instance would make the whole more believable. After more than 50 flights in or out of the airport I have never lost a bag or a content in that bag. The new terminal in particular is as clean and modern as any in Europe. The check-in lines can be a bit of a bother, but the new kiosks have solved about half of that. As for the cost of everything? Cheaper than some, no more than most anywhere in the world. These guys list it as 90 out of 500, not too shabby. https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2018/
Not once has the trip from Pest, near the opera house, to or from; taken more than 40 minutes by taxi and if you are into buses, the new direct bus to Deak Ferenc ter is nearly as fast as the taxi and only about 2 euro. Where in most cities the taxi from the airport will cost you north of 50 euro the one in Budapest will get you into town for about 25 euro, tip included; to my home near the opera house at least.
