I lived in Pecs, Hungary for 2 years then I moved to and live in Budapest. I am a Japanese and studying medicine in Hungary.

Szeceny Square, Pecs.

0. 1st things Good to know
1. Foods and Drinks: Try Gulyas soup and Palinka(strong alcohol). These are very traditional Hungarian food and drink. Also try Pizza and Gylos(Kebab). They are with really good prices generally.

   Gulyas: Hungarian Soup

   Palinka: Hungarian alcohol

2. Foreign Currency Exchange to Hungarian Forint in Budapest: Here is one of the best agents I found compared to dozen of agnets.
3. Summer TimeWe have summer time in Hungary; 1 hour difference between Summer and Winter.
4. Floor countWe count the number of floors from 0(Ground) and then 1, 2,.... and so on. There is 0(Ground) floor in Japan.
5. EarthquakeThere is no earthquake in Hungary, which is good!
1. General(Pecs and Budapest).
   • Hungarian Language
   People say the language is a peculiar and different from any other European Lanugages. To me, it is one of European Languages; they use alphabet and their grammar has many commons with other EU languages. Hungarian Language's speciality is adding many suffixes. I have learned French, German, Spanish but they don't have this speciality. You will see if you come here. You have to learn medical Hungarian(subjects for first 2 years).
   • Hello and goodbye (Sept 2013)
   They say hello when they want to say good-bye too; they use the same word for Hello and good-bye. This practice confused me first, but it is not now any more. Some people say this practice happens in some other countries, too.
   • Palinka(May 2014, Pecs)
   Palinka is an traditional Hungarian alcohol. It is very strong with 40% alcohol. My first try was very sweet one, but later I had dry one as well and I was surprised with the difference.
   • Cuisines(May 2014, Pecs)
   Golyas soup is great! I love it. You should try it. I have tried Golyas many places. I was once invited to a international house party. That home-made Golyas was the best! I asked for another cup! But some people do not like Papulika, which is very common in Hungarian dishes; some have a stomach problems when they ate it.
   • Foods are salty here?(May 2014)
   I started to feel Hungarian foods are generally a bit salty. Maybe it depends on restaurants. When I mentioned this, some people agree with me. I like salty foods but it felts salty even by such a person. Salty food has highly assosiated with high blood pressure and stomach cancer. I am now curious and wondering these incidences are higher in Hungary or not. If it is truly high, then it would support the idea.
   • Winter
   Winter finally arrvived. It is cold. I have just bought a knit-cap because it is really cold outside for even 10 minutes bike-ride to school. It starts getting dark at 16:00 and it gets dark at 17:00. I need more sun. It was light until 21:00 in summer on the contrary.
   
   -10 degree. Dec 31, 2014.
   • Hungarian Strategy of International Medical Educatoin for Foregin Currency
   Summary: I think that this international medical education is a good strategy for Hungary to earn foreign currency.
   • Payment with round numbers
   They have one forint coins but they don't use it. When you buy something at a shop, the number of the sum of prices are rounded; for examle, 602 will be rounded to 600ft, 606 will be 605, 608 will be 610. As if the smallest coin is five fts.
2. Budapest(2015 Sept - Present)
   • Foreign Currency Exchange to Hungarian Forint in Budapest: Here is one of the best agents I found compared to dozen of agnets.
   • Budapest is a convenient city with metro and tram.
   • There are many restaurants which open for a long time enough. Why do I need to say this? Because there are not so many restaurants in Pecs and they usually close very early with few exceptions.
   • Living expenses are reasonable, although it is 30% more expensive than in Pecs, especially apartment rent.
   • Drive to Pecs
   That was a nice drive. I rent a car and drove to Pecs. Driving in Budapest was not easy, but once you get into express way it is a really easy drive. Quite wide roads and you can drive 110km/h or so.
   • My bike stoken (Dec 29, 2015)
   I had my bike stolen at Semmelweis university today. :( Luckily the bike parking has been under security camera monitoring. The security at University and I called the police and made a case.
3. Pecs(2013 July - 2015 June)
   • World Heritage
   Pecs has a world heritage(by UNESCO). But I doubt it as a world heritage. It is the worst world heritage I have ever seen. Note: My second passion is travelling the world and I have seen many World heritages.
   • Pecs Festival on September 21st
   The biggest Festival by the city of Pecs. Rock Band contest, Dance shows take place and many stalls come to the city. At the night the city center is full of people.
   • Shops close often and Night comes very early.
   Basically all shops are closed at 17:00 or 18:00. Arkad(the biggest shopping center in Pecs) is closed at 20:00. Shops are closed on Sunday and sometimes Saturday as well. They don't have convenience stores which open 24 hours on 365 days. These feel very inconvinient at the first time; you will and have to get used to it. Only Bars and night clubs are open till very late night like 5:00am.
   • They close when they close on certain national holidays.
   All shops are closed, Even Arkad and Tesco, on certaion national holidays, such as Christmas. Be warned that You can not buy anything. This is actually very incovenient.
   • My AC/DC Adapter of Lovely NotePC "Let's Note" is broken...
   Summary: Electronics things are a bit more expensive than in Japan. Media Market gave the cheapest solution in this case. Laptop Szalon details the source of problem. Check InterSpur just in case whether they have an alternative solution or not and the price of it if any.

• Summer Time
We have summer time systems here in Hungary; in 2013 Summer Time ended on Sunday Octber 27th. When I got up, my iPhone says it is 8:30, while my wrist watch says it is 9:30. My iPhone adjusted the time automatically. When summer time ends, the time will be set one hour earlier... We don't have such system in Japan, so I felt a bit strange. (I have two iPhones and both adjust the time automatically.)
• The count of floors
They count floors in British way from 0(Ground Floor) then 1, 2, 3... So when they say 1st floor, it means 2nd floor for us...
• Earthquakes
There is no Earthquake. This is really good. I now found how many earthquakes there are in Japan and frequent earthquakes don't happen here. That is good for economy too; say almost all houses in Japan are earthquake resistant, here almost no houses are.
• Blue pens vs Pencils in written exams (June 2014)
People use pens here, usually blue pens when they write written-exams, while people use pencils and erasers in Japan. It is a strict rule here and pencils are not allowed. On the contrary Nobody use pens for exams in Japan because we can not erase or re-write answers when we made mistakes. I asked several people from EU coutries and I found it is common in EU. An Australian friend told me the same. They can not think about using pencils in exams as we can not imagine using pens in exams. One of my south-korean friends used a pencil because she did not read the instruction written in the 1st page carefully, she failed only because of that. Thus I think using pencils are common in Asia. It is clearly written sometimes, not other times.
• Rains (May 2014)
Here it sometimes rains, but it stops in an hour or so. It is quite unusual to rain for a day or two, which is usual in Japan. Now it is beginning of May and it showers for a day; I think it is the first time for a year long stay here. The weather begins unstable from the end of April; Lightning and thundering for a couple of consecutive days. Maybe it is hungarian rany season.
• Comparisons of Prices
Summary: Almost everything is reasonable compared to Japan.
• They drive on the right. We drive on the left in Japan.