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The Babel About Budapest (I): Is the Hungarian Capital Really the Cheapest in Europe?

Posting has recently been light, in part because we’ve felt a little too poor to go out. But maybe we shouldn’t be! According to this recent post on cafebabel.com – which bills itself as “The European Magazine” – a night out in Budapest came out cheapest among 12 cities visited by 12 “cafebabel.com local teams,” each of which enjoyed a movie, a dinner, a drink and a ride home on public transport:

[The] Babelcity in which you get the most for your money is Budapest. Éva, Judit and Veronika spend a night in the heart of the town at the ridiculously low sum of 7.34 euros per person.

The article did not say where Éva, Judit and Veronika had dinner. Which is unfortunate, because given the math indicated by their team’s “victory,” it must have been some kind of crazy bargain indeed. Just consider that €7.34 equals something just under Ft 2,000, and that pretty much the cheapest movie ticket in Budapest is Ft 600. Subtract at least Ft 200 each for that ride home on public transport and the drink, and you are left with at most Ft 1,000 for dinner – in the “heart” of Budapest, no less. So mark us down as dubious. Or perhaps “McDubious”…

  1. Wilbur Mercer says:

    It helps when they use the 1e=2.75ft.

    Here is what they did:
    http://budapest.cafebabel.com/en/post/2008/10/25/Cost-of-Life-Day-in-Budapest

  2. Erik says:

    Aha – so a kebab. Color me unimpressed!

  3. Andrea says:

    Every suggestions for a good restaurant for New Years Eve are highly welcome !!!!!! we have only few days to decide ….

  4. Anonymous says:

    to eat frozen, chewy milky scallops i rather stay at home…

  5. Gladio says:

    Anonymous, try to look around and for sure you will find some unexpected place where you don’t find chewy milky scallops, but something much better, just search…

    Andrea, the limit between a suggestion and a free advert in this forum is very thin, just take the list “Top 33″, close the eyes, point one of the names with a finger and, if you are lucky, you will catch one of the five or six (no more)which are “European Standard”… perhaps…
    Take care for the bill as well, the last trendy thing is to add the tip in the bottom, so you risk to pay the 2 times for the service even if it’s bad. Good luck

  6. Andrea says:

    Mr. Gladio,
    where you will spend your New Years Eve ????

  7. Anonymous says:

    go on gladio, give us some names, lets see what u got

  8. Gladio says:

    Well, I will spend my New Year’s Eve at home with my wife and my children, honestly I cannot give you any specific name, just take a chance with the “top 33″ (6), or wait for some suggestion from the other bloggers in this forum. Cheers

  9. Anonymous says:

    top 33 list?!?!? you must be joking mate… or do you really think that places like baraka, kor, iguana, klassz, matamoro, ocean, olympia, pampas and so on are the top places in the city?!

  10. Gladio says:

    I agree with you in fact I wrote 6 in the brakets and perhaps you can give an alternatve suggestion to Andrea as well.

  11. Mokus says:

    Does anybody else remember the time when people who actually cared about food commented on this site? (sigh)

  12. Gladio says:

    If you have the title to do it, please, give us the chance to learn something and eventually to discuss after.

  13. Anonymous says:

    exactly…

  14. andrea says:

    … for lunch I will go to try a new one !!!!

  15. Anonymous says:

    go on then andrea and let us know the outcome will ya?

 
 
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