From California to Budapest
Posted by Ágnes Taraszovics · Mar 3, 2016

People tend to move away from Hungary, but there are counter-examples. Someone, who left the sunny beaches for the Hungarian capital.

Exceptionally, we do a little publicity to the competitor: there is an American writer, blogger and teacher who had a sudden idea 15 years ago and moved to the post-communist Budapest from the sunny California. He launched a blog (An American in Budapest) a few years ago to share his experience, which is an interesting reading for all tourists visiting Budapest and those who desire to move here despite that it hasn’t been updated for a while.

Yes, we know that Phil Done is not the only one who had chosen us. But he’s one among the few who notes his experiences and thoughts about his staying in a blog. Phil Done loves Hungary for a thousand reasons: he is mesmerized by the architecture, food and wine, the Opera House and the sight of Buda Castle. And to make clear that the blog is not a PR action: Phil also wrote about things he had a hard time getting used to: at the beginning he was shocked by the abundance of graffiti when he moved here and the lot of garbage. But as he concludes: the situation is getting better in both things. With time, he fell in love with the city more and more, thus takes our good reputation abroad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wodZVCG7PhI&feature=youtu.be

Talking about his big moving Phil also reveals that he has been teaching in the US for 15 years before arriving to Hungary. But after a while, Phil decided to choose international education instead of public education. In 2000 he participated in a job fair held for teachers in London. Although several other European countries offered positions to him, he chose Hungary, and the rest, as they say is history.

On his blog he writes about his everyday experiences: Hungary's culture and customs. He loves our country’s exotic traditions and in the writings he approaches the Hungarian culture from different perspectives than we do for example. His blog is for both Hungarians and Americans, but he was surprised when he saw that most of his readers are Hungarians. Phil observed many differences between the two nations: Hungarian people are straighter: we tell our opinion face to face, while the Americans love to kindly wrap it. He also thinks that the Hungarians are very hard working and polite.

An American in Budapestis a perfect insight into the lives of local, so we totally advise to check out his blog and if you like his style, his books too on amazon. And we can only hope that this nice guy keep posting his nice reviews of our beloved city soon.

  • budapest
  • california
  • hungary
  • Phil Done
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