19 septembrie 2011

From Corfu to Wien: Eastern Europe by car. 5th part: Hungary

Well, I have no intention to give very many details on how to drive from Corfu Island to Vienna, crossing Northern Greece from West to East, Bulgaria from South to North, Romania from South to West, and Hungary from East to West. However, I feel that it might be interesting to underline some peculiar features of driving this way, which shows common Eastern features, and might be useful particularly for Western European travelers. Also, Greek, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians may see what they have in common and what makes the little, but important differences. In the end of the series, I will underline a couple of nice Eastern futures, which provide to be better off than in the West.


Please note that the following include only my personal, non-systematic observations, and should be treated as such, not as a scientific truth. At their best, the beneath comments are an “educated guess”. (Remember that I am a sociologist :)!)

Part 5: Hungary

This is the shortest part of this series. Hungary is already different. You have escaped from the Romanian dust, you speed up on highways, and unlike Romania you may also find road signs directing to Vienna or Bratislava. Since you head mostly on highways, there are no prostitutes, and the toilets in the gas stations are decent enough. They still have some strange ways to signal (or rather not to signal) detours and road works on the highways, but this is much better than what you have experienced before.

If deciding to get out the highway, prepare the passport as I explain that you have to do it in Bulgaria: there are several impossible speed limitation (like 30 km/h, in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes the policeman that stops you naively explains that this is why they imposed the speed limit: to get money from drivers).

Their particular road sign shows a truck on a slope and a car hitting the back of the truck. I would say that it means “be careful to trucks slowing down when going uphill”?

Previous post in the series: Romania. Next one: Better that in the West!
The whole series (6 posts) is available here.

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