Hungary, general information
| Note that some of the information (gas prices!) can be outdated since we made this page after visiting the country for the last time! | |
| Official name | Magyar Köztársaság (= Hungarian republic) |
| Area | 93,030 square km. (2 x the Netherlands) |
| Number of inhabitants | 10.1 million (July 2002) |
| Population density | 108 per square kilometer |
| Capital | Budapest |
| Monetary unit | Forint (HUF). 100 HUF is about € 0.35 (Jan 2009); 1 € = about HUF 279. (1 € = $ 1.24; 1 Dollar = € 0.7; Rate in Jan. 2009) |
| Fuel prices | Gas: € 0.95 to € 1.15; Diesel: € 0.85; LPG: € 0.55 |
| License plate of cars | H |
| Telephone country prefix | 36 |
| Internet country code | .hu |
| Time difference | GMT+1; the same as in Holland |
| Road network | Near and towards Budapest are some highways. For 3 of them a toll ticket is obligatory. The roads in the west of the country are better than in the east. The roads are not very busy, except around Lake Balaton. |
| Prices in general | There is a huge difference in prices, depending on where one is. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it, since some very touristic places were also very cheap. It is still cheaper than in Western Europe, but not much. For a cup of coffee and a large pint of beer we paid between HUF 600 and 1500, so € 2,40 to € 6. A hot meal is at least € 10 per person. |
| The best in Magyar Köztársaság (= Hungarian republic) | Personally we liked the national parks (Bükk and Aggtelek) in the northeast of Hungary best. Budapest and the towns Pecs and Sopron are also worth a visit. |
Hungary borders to 7 other countries: Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Hungary consists mainly of mostly flat to rolling plains; there are hills and low mountains on the Slovakian border.
More information at insidecountryinfo.com.
More information at insidecountryinfo.com.
The majority of the people (98.5%) are Hungarians or Magyars. The main minority groups are Germans, Slovakians, Serbs, Croatians, Romanians and about 143,000 gipsies. About 2 million people (10% of the total population) lives in the capital Budapest. Look at 1upinfo.com to find out more about this.
Hungarian is the country's only official language. It is a member of the Finno-Ugric family of languages, unrelated to the Indo-European language family, which contains the major European languages. Within Europe, Hungarian is related to Finnish, Estonian, Komi, and several lesser-known languages spoken in parts of the Ural Mountain region in the Soviet Union. Have a look at 1upinfo.com to learn more about the language.
Hungary has played an important role as part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire under the Habsburgs.
We have decided not to write a detailed history anymore, since we would have to cite other sources that are often on the internet already. Instead a few links with more information about Hungarian history:
We have decided not to write a detailed history anymore, since we would have to cite other sources that are often on the internet already. Instead a few links with more information about Hungarian history:
The climate of Hungary is influenced by two weather systems: the moderate seaclimate coming from the Atlantic Ocean and the drier landclimate coming from Asia. It has cold, cloudy, humid winters and warm summers.
More information can be found at 1upinfo.com.
More information can be found at 1upinfo.com.
Hungary has many national parks. More about Hungarian flora and fauna at compalmanach.hu, although we are looking for a site with more information on this subject.
Budapest
Székesfehérvár
Miskolc
Pecs
© Teije and Elisabeth 2000 - 2012
Travel through Europe and Africa
with Elisabeth and Teije