Three Weekend Anecdotes

#1

We celebrated Jackie’s last night in Budapest at Corvinteto, a bar atop Corvin department store in Blaha ter. I sat next to Janos, a Hungarian in his mid 40s who grew up in the former Yugoslavia. After the obligatory “how do you like Budapest” chitchat, he asked me about my impressions of Hungarian men. Besides my coworkers, I don’t know too many Hungarian men so didn’t have much to say besides that they really seem to like Ed Hardy.

Janos took the opportunity to explain his Hungarian man theory. According to Janos, Hungarian women lost respect for Hungarian men when they did not resist sufficiently the Russians during the Revolution of 1956 (despite 2,500 Hungarians being killed in the conflict). As a result, Hungarian men have been determined to win back the adulation of their women since the fall of the wall in 1989.

How does one do this? Body building. Janos explained the proliferation of gyms and supplements in Hungary in the 1990s was due to men toughening up to impress the ladies. And when Hungarian women still preferred foreigners over fellow Hungarians, Hungarian men concluded the next logical step in the quest to win the respect of the women was to “look dangerous” with visible tattoos and piercings.

If this doesn’t turn you on, I don’t know what does.


#2

I started business school applications this weekend and actually wrote the following sentence in an essay:

For these reasons, I am confident that I can provide a unique perspective to class discussions while considering and respecting the views of my classmates and professors.

Wow. These essays are gonna be…winners.

#3

Because I get pulled over more frequently than I care to admit, my friends have tried to give me advice about how to deal with Hungarian police officers. However, I have stopped short of keeping a 20,000 forint bill in my glove department because I am not clear on the penalties in the event I accidentally try to bribe the one honest cop in Budapest. I have heard cops demand between 2,000 to 50,000 forints depending on situation.

Apparently this is not always the case. My friend Anita recounted that her friend – let’s call him Csaba – recently was pulled over for a minor offense. The police officer strolled up to Csaba’s window and asked him if he “liked cakes.” Of course Csaba did – who doesn’t like cakes? Just wierdos and people who are lying to themselves on the Atkins diet. The cops then told Csaba that they liked cakes too. And that there was a cake shop down the street.

Csaba escaped a ticket by buying a cake for each of the cops who pulled him over. Question: were these cops idiots for not trying to get more money out of Csaba or are THEY THE SMARTEST COPS EVER?