I am, of course, totally unqualified to answer this question but will try anyway... Before coming to Hungary I had heard the following:
- Hungarian is a very difficult language unrelated to its neighbors
- Hungarian is a mongolian-ish language and the early Magyars were feirce fighting tribesman invading from the east much as Genghis Kahn and Qublah Khan had done in their day.
- Hungarian women were beautiful. I of course imagined that they looked a little like Turkish women (although that is a wide spectrum also).
- Hungary had been much larger in the past and was partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire that ruled the region until the first world war when the killing of their prince Franz Joseph sparked the conflict.
- Hungarians like food a little spicy and use lots of paprika.

Upon arriving in Hungary I found the people to look quite different than I expected. There were lots of blondes, very scandenavian-looking people on the streets, lots of redheads also. Most Hungarians seemed to have fairish hair and many blue eyes. How does this jibe with the Mongolian idea of the language origin? Then I thought back to a book a had read about a an arab explorer and diplomat who left the middle east about the year 900 and journeyed up the Volga river as a prisoner of Vikings who were living all along the volga culminating at the north in the countries we know today as scandenavia. I imagined that at some point these viking people were conquered by raiding mongolians and had their language replaced with a few genes blended in. I did not know if such mixing of cultures took place before or after the Hungarians migrated from the Ural mountain area to present day Hungary. I also considered that perhaps there is some other explanation that finds the Hungarians originating from one of these central Asian blond and blue-eyed peoples like the upper Chitralis in Pakistan’s mountains.

I thought that there were lots of attractive women (many more than in Romania but less than in Buglaria) and they appeared freer than other women I had heretofore seen in eastern Europe. I imagined that although many of the people looked scandinavian there history and position in Eastern europe would add interesting dimensions to their cultural character.

I expected to only be in Budapest for a few days (but stayed ten) on my way from Romania to Vienna. When I arrived in the city at dawn I cruised around the streets on my bike, took in some sites including hero’s square where the seven leaders of the early Magyar migration (from the Ural mountains to the fertile plains of what is today Hungary) are cast in Bronze larger-than-life statues atop magnificent horses decorated and bristling with antlers & weapons: true barbarian hero warlords.

Budapest reminded me of Istambul in its use of the hills and the water in city planning (as well as the numerous Turkish baths actually installed by the Ottoman empire during their short and shaky rule here). The city was tall, grand and although comfortable did not seem over-sophisticated. The Pesht side is the flat area where most of the businesses, offices and flats are and the Buda side of the river is hilly and boasts the large royal buildings, many hot springs, caves and the houses of more upscale residents set in large older gardens and newer, American suburban-looking developments. The prices were evidently a source of frustration for Hungarians as many things cost exactly the same as back in Chicago, USA but the average salary in Hungary for a professional is 250 USD a month (I was told, can anyone give me a better figure? Please email).