Oh Hungary, you so cuh-rayzay

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yeah the political subtext is weird, thx for the clarifications.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 October 2006 21:51 (seventeen years ago) link

People set up tables around the protests and sell beer and other alcohol, candy, hot pretzels and warm meals

sweet! i want more hot pretzels at political events!

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 23 October 2006 21:53 (seventeen years ago) link

The funniest thing (I left out the detail as it seemed sort of irrelevant) is that there were really entrepreneurial folks who set out *huge* candy stalls, with scales and everything. At least 300 kinds of candy available by the kilo or by the piece - licorice ropes in about 50 flavors, candy fish, everything made by Haribo including 'classic' Gummi Bears and many flavor variations. Stand beside one for a bit, and you'd see toothless quasi-neo-Nazis in jack boots and leather jackets quake with indecision . . . the mango licorice ropes or the Swedish fish?

After the first day of protests near Parliament, similar burgeoning capitalists set up "beer tables" with a choice of four to six of Hungary's most consumed beers. They were put out of business the next day by cutthroat competition from vendors who, correctly assuming the protests might last for a few weeks, invested in kegs and the works necessary for draft beer available for far fewer forints!

The police shut none of this done - I chuckled at the thought that back in America, there'd be no tolerance for folks drinking alcohol at any sort of demonstration (even a peaceful one), let alone for unlicensed citizens to sell it without license. The only thing the police shut down the whole time (vendor-wise) was a food stall without adequate heating capability under EU guidelines.

The hot pretzels were warm and soft, weighed at least half a pound and were topped with a very nice baked-in cheese. Delicious with a cold draft Dreher or Stella Artois.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 23 October 2006 22:14 (seventeen years ago) link

My Dad was telling me the other day how fucked up 56 felt to him, as a football fan, as somebody who idolised the Puskas team. On the other hand, he's not a big Wikipedia reader.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 01:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I went for a short foreign holiday, and it was a wise decision, I don't think I can stand tear gas.

― zeus (zeus), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link

> b) there were protestors around who knew how to drive it.

Story I heard was the protesters pre-planned it and hired an old tanker to drive it.

― wostyntje (wostyntje), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 00:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Looks like I'll be in Budapest in March.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 01:37 (seventeen years ago) link

sweet. tell us how the pretzels are.

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 01:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Dee, your explanation is really helpful here - it was the kind of insider voice I'd otherwise been unable to find. Thanks!

― paulhw (paulhw), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 04:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Apropos, Dee, what did you do here?

― zeus (zeus), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 08:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Zeus, I take it you're in Hungary? I was learning Hungarian, which I really love.
Where are you in the country?

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Thursday, 26 October 2006 08:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, I'm Hungarian and live in Budapest.

― zeus (zeus), Thursday, 26 October 2006 09:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Forgot to ask: why did you learn Hungarian? It should've been extremely difficult, wasn't it?

― zeus (zeus), Thursday, 26 October 2006 10:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been to hungary

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 26 October 2006 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Hungarian is in the running for the title of 'most difficult language on the planet'

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 26 October 2006 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

26 cases if I'm not mistaken

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 26 October 2006 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

(People set up tables around the protests and sell beer and other alcohol, candy, hot pretzels and warm meals, which is apparently legal to do in Hungary without any sort of license. And if it is illegal, it's completely tolerated.)

now you know!

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 26 October 2006 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm curious to know if there was any marketing behind the snacks considering the circumstances - "Get you anti-establishment pretzels. full of all the essential brick throwing nutrients."

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 26 October 2006 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Hungarian's not easy, but it's pretty logical in terms of grammar, so once you've got that down, you can concentrate on the mind-bending amounts of vocabulary, word order strangeness, idioms and that sort of thing. A challenge, but I liked it - and the language is really beautiful and expressive. The case thing sounds intimidating, but it's pretty easy when you get the hang of it.

As far as the snacks go . . . it was just a way for enterpreneurial Hungarians to make some money with a captive audience, in an area where it's difficult to find food in the evening (government offices and businesses, everything shuts down pretty early.) Pretzels are easy, cheap and relatively filling for the price. No marketing - people just set up tables and sold what they had to sell.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Friday, 27 October 2006 05:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I have been to Hungary a couple of times and all I can remember is "koszonom", which I probably say wrong anyway...

― Mark Co (Markco), Friday, 27 October 2006 07:43 (seventeen years ago) link

seven years pass...

shiiiit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-28/orban-says-he-seeks-to-end-liberal-democracy-in-hungary.html

― goole, Monday, 28 July 2014 22:00 (nine years ago) link

you know what the world is really pining for is more cryptofascism

― Οὖτις, Monday, 28 July 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link

yeah well

― goole, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 13:47 (nine years ago) link

five years pass...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/hungary-prepares-to-end-legal-recognition-of-trans-people

― pomenitul, Sunday, 26 April 2020 16:27 (four years ago) link

you know what the world is really pining for is more cryptofascism

― Οὖτις, Monday, July 28, 2014 3:10 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

― fatuous salad (symsymsym), Tuesday, 28 April 2020 04:39 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

On what seems like the last throw of the dice for Hungary

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/07/viktor-orban-autocracy-hungary-election/619351/

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 7 July 2021 10:30 (two years ago) link

two years pass...

Sorry 😅 pic.twitter.com/efx9kfEryt
— Mariia Kramarenko (@KramarenkoMari3) October 17, 2023

Orban relaxing

― anvil, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 03:06 (six months ago) link

I don't know where that music came from, it wasn't there before. I must have linked the wrong one

― anvil, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 03:08 (six months ago) link

works well

― nashwan, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 08:54 (six months ago) link

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