The Couch Surfing Project - How to meet cool people

If you’ve ever travelled, I’m sure you’ve met cool people on the road.  Well, if you’d want to meet them again, but at home too - both yours and theirs - then Couch Surfing may well be the place for you.

Couch Surfing was set up with the idea to bring like minded people together and offer a means for them to share.  It came about at after the early successes of rival site Hospitality Club, and as the name suggests, it was based around offering and receiving hospitality.  With Couch Surfing, you offer your couch, a spare bed, mattress, or even just the floor to travellers, show them around, feed them, take them somewhere, any combination of the above, or anything else you can think of fun!  In return, they offer you their, hopefully enlightening, company and anything else they feel they’d like to share.

I was introduced to Couch Surfing quite recently, but I have to say it has proved really, really good fun.  We’ve met really cool people every step of the way, from the UK to New Zealand, Turkey to Thailand, and every step of the way, home and abroad.  You offer what you can, and what you get in return can  surprise you every time.  We’ve had a private performance from a singer songwriter, been cooked for by a professional chef, helped to make our own beer and shared a cake as our hosts 100th and 101st guests!  And that is what Couch Surfing is all about.

Some people are, of course, worried about the possibilities of meeting unscrupulous or dangerous people through Couch Surfing, but through my experiences and the people I have met too, this is very rare.  From all of them, there have been about 2 cases of unscrupulous people, neither involving myself.  I may have met a couple of people I wouldn’t usually choose to spend time with, but even then they were good company.  If you just use your common sense, you can stay out of any trouble, just like in the rest of life.

Why choose couch surfing, though, when there are other hospitality exchanges available?  Simply, it comes down to numbers, and ease of use.  While Hospitality Club can claim to be the first, set up in June 2000,  it has a fraction of the members.  Couch Surfing can boast almost 3.5 million members, while Hospitality Club can claim under half a million.  There are of course others, but the largest of these, GlobalFreeLoaders, has attracted just over 50,000 members since 2005.  The other benefit Couch Surfing gives is the comprehensive search function - allowing you to select hosts exactly to your preference.

There are, of course, problems and criticisms.  The founder has set Couch Surfing on its way to becoming a for profit corporation - a long way from the original aims of the project - while the changes to the website have made it more personal.  Yet this should not effect your Couch Surfing experience.  So long as you don’t spend any unnecessary money on the site, you will still get the means to find cool, likeminded people to share hospitality with.  In much the same way people have always done.  If your only aim is to meet cool people, then Couch Surfing is a great way to do that.  So, enjoy the ride!

CouchSurfing  |  The Hospitality Club

EU Double Standards

Rossz időket érünk,
Rossz csillagok járnak:
Isten ója nagy csapástól
Mi Magyar hazánkat!


We are living in hard times,
Above us bad stars stand:
God save us from disaster
Our Hungarian land!

On 14 March, the day before the celebration of the 1848 Hungarian revolution, the EU announced that it had suspended funding for Hungary over it’s high budget deficit.  The EU has given a target of a 3% deficit to member states, and while Spain will receive continued funding with a deficit of 5.3%, and the Netherlands too, with a deficit of 4.5%, Hungary will have to reduce it’s deficit without EU support, despite running a deficit on the 3% target.

The official reason for these funding cuts is the ‘high’ budget deficit, with Hungary’s 2013 deficit expected to rise to 3.6%,, mainly due to lower tax receipts and high interest payments on rollover debt.  The lower tax receipts are expected due to lower growth expectations, while the EU has suggested that the decision would be revisited in 3 months, if Hungary passes more budget cuts.

Yet the reason for this predicted worsening of Hungary's budget deficit can be blamed, at least partly, on the lack of the IMF standby loan leaving investors with a lack of faith in the Forint.  Orbán's government received criticism for the passing of a law meaning homeless people could be fined if found on the streets of Budapest.  Yet it seems the EU are following this same stupid law on a much larger scale.

Hungary is being beaten into submission over its refusal to make more budget cuts.  And they are right to do so, as many public sector workers couldn't live on any less, with some already earning just 78,000 Ft, or €265 per month.

It seems that the EU is being influenced from elsewhere.  Austerity measures lead to one thing only: more profits for big corporations.  With government cuts making some services unfundable, corporate business will take over the reigns.  The EU is revealing its true face with it's treatment of Hungary.  Other central European countries have come out on Hungary's side recently, with many Poles at the celebrations yesterday, while Austria has publicly accused the EU of double standards over its treatment of Hungary.

As Arany János said, "Above us bad stars stand".  He may have been talking about 1848, but it has as much relevance now as it did then.

Jobs for expats

While I may have always dreamed of visiting Budapest, it was visiting the city that made my mind up about living here.  Yet I didn’t go about it the best way, in hindsight.  Today, I will give some tips for expats looking for work here in Budapest.

First things first, misconceptions.  Speaking English, without any other language, will NOT get you a job in Budapest anymore.  There is still a school of thought that any English expat travelling to a non-English speaking country will easily be able to find work if not for a company, then teaching English.  Here in Budapest, there are a lot of English schools, and if you either have the qualifications, or prove your aptitude in teaching your native language, they will give you work.  But not much of it.  Your hours could be inconsistent, and they are not known for paying a lot.  My thoughts were that I would only become an English teacher if I had no other choice, and as such, I am yet to become one.

There are a few areas that will get you a job in Budapest speaking just English.  If you have qualifications and experience in finance and human resources, or if you are a computer programmer - especially C and its variants as well as Java, then you will probably have your pick of jobs.  As a lot of companies streamlined their business,  the idea of the Shared Service Centre (SSC) was born, and Budapest provided a good balance of regulations, workforce and location to attract global companies such as IBM, BP and GE to set up their International SSC’s in the city.  At most of these SSC’s, the workforce deals with finance and HR only, and in some cases it also deals with IT and customer support.  But know that jobs at these companies will be very popular, so the number of applicants will be huge, and it will take an age to get a response.

So, how about the rest of us?  One thing always available are telesales jobs.  I did this, and it can be soul destroying for very little income, yet it can also provide a decent income if you show aptitude.  But I’m sure that it isn’t most people’s top job, and if I had the choice again, I would probably avoid it.  There are a few jobs that can be found by just surfing the internet repeatedly.  Try looking for individual company websites, SSC’s based in Budapest, job sites such as cvonline, profession.hu or monster, other sites such as LinkedIn or just talking to people.  Yet the number of jobs for expats who only speak English is not high.  The best way to find a job in Budapest may well be if you can speak multiple languages.

Introduction to The Budapest Brit

So, here we are.  A blog.

And here I am, in this amazing city:  Budapest has to be one of the most alive places in the world.  And now you're going to read my thoughts on life here in the capital of Hungary - the seat of it's parliamentary democracy.

Budapest Parliament from the Budai Vár

Anyway, here is where I'm going to tell you about the secret hidden treasures of the city, the difficulties of finding work, going out and general life in the city as we emerge from a freezing winter into a thawing, life giving spring.

For starters, let me give you a tip.  Come to Budapest.  If you've not been before, just visit for a holiday - just a weekend if you can spare no more.  The city will capture you in it's spell.  From the neo-gothic splendour of the parliament to the peace and beauty of the Margaret Island, Budapest can enchant you in many ways.  Come and explore the Terror House and learn the truths about the occupation of Hungary by the Nazis and the Soviets.  Then refresh yourself with a coffee in one of the myriad of coffee shops and bars along Andrássy út.

This city is vibrant and colourful, and you may learn about what life in Hungary really is like.