Safety on the Streets

I've been in the vicinity of a lot of political protests over the years and have never felt worried about safety the way that I have when the bars let out in Leicester Square or the way the Underground station stairways get noisy when fans are on their way to a sporting event.

While visiting Warsaw in May, about 200,000 farmers decided to have a protest march. It closed off many streets and above ground public transport had to either reroute or stop.

No one was hurt, no one tried to take over government buildings, no one called for killing politicians. After all, that only happens in third world countries. Right?

What's the targeted violence you refer to? The folks with water pistols in Barcelona?

Yes, the reference to Szomjas Hattyú Pub (Thirsty Swan) was both accurate and an unashamed plug for a good bar. Soproni Beer, 1/2L mug, 890 ft. In the US a 350ml can (12oz) will set you back $5 maybe $6 in a bar. Thats 3x the cost. Of course if you go to a high end tourist bar here, the same beer will cost you closer to 2.000 ft, but that is still cheaper than in the US. (sorry OP, off topic).

You're speaking in riddles again. Spit it out man.

I agree that the media does a poor job of giving perspective. But I think that always been true, as they see their job as informing, not educating (remedial) a public that has lost reasoning ability and common sense. I think it's hard to educate adults against their will once they've got an idea in their head.

Thank you Stan. I think its gotten worse. The media use to sell newspapers by making them high quality. Now they sell click by making them irrestiable. But you can imagine people who have traveled little having concerns that seem silly to some of us. They are real to these people so I tried to get them to a comfort level.

The rest of the story was, I told them if they were still around in 30 minutes (after I finished my eye exam) I would guide them to Andrassy ut. I live there so no big issue. After my exam I found them at the Thirsty Swan waiting for me. A couple of beers relaxed them and we got on the tram. On Andrassy I walked them down to the Opera House. Got lucky and ran into a friend on the way and gave them an introduction to real live Hungarian LOL. That relaxed them more. Then I gave them directions for dinner in the Jewish District ..... I suspect they went.

The rest of the story was, I told them if they were still around in 30
minutes (after I finished my eye exam) I would guide them to Andrassy
ut.

You're a good man, Mr E.

Naaaa, I was going home anyway. And I live across the street from the Opera. I've been lost plenty of times and uneasy a few times. So I get it. (read my help request thread for Hallstatt and you will see I am not an expert tourist).

We were in Herkalion, Crete about 30 days ago ran into a political protest in the middle of town on a Friday night. Same for Tirana, Albania about 2 weeks before that. No big deal on either one, just loud. We just walked around them and went on our way..

Interesting post Mr E!

But please note "numbeo" is junk. The index is not based on actual crime statistics. It based on surveys of visitors to their lightly trafficked site. In this case, 741 people over the past 5 years-- of which, oh, I'm gonna guess 740 of which were bots. Anyway, you're right! Budapest was alright by me!!! I hardly ever get robbed there-- like never!

See below:

Contributors: 741

Last update: July 2024

These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the
past 5 years.

If the value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if the
value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high.

Cleaned it up a bit in the edit eh?

Of course I know what you're talking about and it's not Barcelona. I wondered if you'd say it or not.

Let's not forget that protest is a right in a healthy society, not something granted on merit by the government. Even if it's protesting a genocide in a far away land or presenting an opposition to a crypto-fascist government that appears to be heading towards dictatorship.

As far as I'm aware, violence of any kind being illegal, targeted or not, is pretty consistent across the whole of Europe. Not unique to Hungary. I'm interested to know where it's tolerated.

How many RS people have ever reported on walking into a bad situation?

I walked into a squat eviction in progress in Amsterdam once. Lines of 6'6" Dutch cops in riot gear in the street being bombarded from above with water balloons filled with pink paint. It wasn't really a bad situation, more of a situationist situation. Wish I'd got a picture.

I think a protest depends on it being a leftist protest or a ring wing protest. The later being more prone to violence, IMHO.
Maybe some left wing groups are protesting something by chaining themselves to objects or throwing paint, but right wingers may be in groups of young angry men easily pumped up. Perhaps a stereotype, but you can make your own judgement in the moment.
Also, neither left or right, groups of sport fan fanatics bent on mayhem, chanting and advancing wall to wall down a narrow European street. Most likely pretty drunk.

Though I ultimately altered my travel to Barcelona during the 2017 Catalan elections and it's riots, protests and strikes, it was comforting to know that locations were updated in English on the police Twitter page. It is easy enough to reroute one or two blocks to avoid it all, though sometimes other things happen if one is in the wrong place at the wring time.
One year the G Summits were in Ottawa and there were expectations of protests and violence. I was working a conference in the middle of it all, and when you aren't used to it, seeing sharp shooters on roof tops, hundreds of police and military in defense gear, boarded up shops...it's a little daunting. Worse was, when leaving, there was clearly an element of society around that wasn't the normal day to day tourist or local. Raging Grannies were out in force, and you could see others lirking and looking for something to excelerate so they could join in. I know not all protests shut down the entire city core, but it was a very unhealthy feeling and one I don't want to walk into.
I suspect other cities also have PSA systems like the Barcelona Police Twitter option, but these aren't always easy for a tourist to find...nor even think of looking for. I appreciate the Barcelona experts here for putting me onto it prior to travel.
If it isn't a citywide disruption, I'd just avoid a small area, but I sure would like a resource that had a finger on the pulse..that was not media.

The news tends to print the worse, for here and everywhere...

Very true! While I believe in a free and open press, it seems to me that many in the media world have lost their way. It appears that much of the media no longer reports the news, but creates the news by beating so many dead horses that they become "real".

Why is that? Two reasons -- in my opinion, of course. It all began with Ted Turner and CNN. Now there are so many 24 / 7 electronic news outlets that have to fill up all that time, that they must sensationalize everything. Because sensationalism sells no matter if it's crime, sex, drugs, or politics. And the more sensational, the more they can charge for adverts. And the print media is just as bad because they are now used as the basis for much of the "news" on electronic media.

The second reason is that so many news outlets are owned by so few entities. As a result, there isn't vey much independence in the media world anymore. And to paraphrase an old economic law, "Control the supply and demand / do / report what you want."

Just my opinion Mr E. If this takes the thread too sidways, send me a DM and I'll delete it so you don't have to delete the whole thread.

TC, I tried hard to keep the politics out of it. Some people are begging for it to go in. But politics wasnt the point. If you were that couple you dont care why, or whose fault or if its better or worse than this place or that; you just want to know if.... As a tourist "if" is all you need to worry about. And its a tourism forum. But TC, yours is good faith. No problem.

David pointed out that Numbeo is not very accurate. Yup, its not, but its what we got as one tool. Here is another and for the few cities i checked they are more or less in the same order of magnitude as the nuembo site; but the basis for the scoring is evident, you have to resarch another site for that .... https://ceoworld.biz/2024/01/27/revealed-safest-cities-in-the-world-2024/

Here I suspect if we are just talking victimization we are at or maybe a bit abve the mean for the EU and this sort of bears that out, but its by cournty and not by city .. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-europe

Mr. E,

I am overwrought with ambivalence on Numbeo.

My astrologer told me that my psychic was wrong when they said my lucky number was 7.

Also, she said “numbeo” is junk tabloid clickbait non-science based virus infested toxic nonsense and my astrologer is nothing if not occasionally reliable-- so you can see how I both torn and not torn.

Cheers!

Living in our nation’s capital I often get alerts about “first amendment activities.” The alerts serve to let me know what streets might be closed. Usually I get a follow up an hour or two later letting me know that the streets have reopened. It’s all part of life in the city.

Kim, I haven't found the same here yet. All the rallies like to march down Andrassy ut and the police close it for the event. Means to get across the street you must take the metro to one end or the other and come back down the othe side. The "rainbow" parade a few weeks back was so long it made getting to the mall a real challenge.

But so far, the past ten years or so, 99% peaceful, but there always one nut in every crowd. It's fun to watch democracy in action .. from about 30m distant.

I don't think there is anything special here. I am certain there have been no violent or destructive protests anywhere in the EU. (yes, sarcasim, OP forgive me).