Budapest Day Two
After a long 12-13 hour sleep, Dad and I woke up in Budapest ready to throw ourselves out into the city. My Dad and I have never been on a father son trip before this one, and so I think we were both excited to see what we would learn about each other and see what we were each like when travelling. The first thing to note is that my dad *loves* travelling, I do too, but my dad totally lights up when seeing or about to see new stuff. This was both wonderful, and good to know, as my Dad often will forgo things like breakfast or sticking to any kind of regular schedule for meals. Anyhow off we went to our first attraction a little “Vunicular” that ran up the side of Castle Hill in Buda up to the Castle. To get there we had to walk across the Danube over the “Chain Bridge” to the Buda side of the city. The line for the Vunicular was surprisingly long for 11 am on a Saturday (or maybe not I guess?) and the day was not nearly as warm as Friday. Eventually a little sprinkle of rain came down and a nice German couple in line behind us saved our place so Dad and I could run under the awning of a shwag dealer until the shower past. That challenge surmounted we eventually got into the Vunicular ticket area and found out (in what was turned out to be a series of disappointing moments) that our Budacard did not get us on the Vunicular for free, nor did it grant a discount. Ohh Well! 1,200 Florint’s later we found ourselves in the Vunicular on our way up the hill. The view as we went up was quite nice, and it was a quaint and cute way to start the trip off. (My dad had ridden one in France, and remembered it fondly. In general I’ve only travelled with my father in Europe to France, and this seems to be no coincidence as the first few days tended to include hopes that things would both be like France or to do similar activities to ones he had enjoyable memories of in France.)
After a long 12-13 hour sleep, Dad and I woke up in Budapest ready to throw ourselves out into the city. My Dad and I have never been on a father son trip before this one, and so I think we were both excited to see what we would learn about each other and see what we were each like when travelling. The first thing to note is that my dad *loves* travelling, I do too, but my dad totally lights up when seeing or about to see new stuff. This was both wonderful, and good to know, as my Dad often will forgo things like breakfast or sticking to any kind of regular schedule for meals. Anyhow off we went to our first attraction a little “Vunicular” that ran up the side of Castle Hill in Buda up to the Castle. To get there we had to walk across the Danube over the “Chain Bridge” to the Buda side of the city. The line for the Vunicular was surprisingly long for 11 am on a Saturday (or maybe not I guess?) and the day was not nearly as warm as Friday. Eventually a little sprinkle of rain came down and a nice German couple in line behind us saved our place so Dad and I could run under the awning of a shwag dealer until the shower past. That challenge surmounted we eventually got into the Vunicular ticket area and found out (in what was turned out to be a series of disappointing moments) that our Budacard did not get us on the Vunicular for free, nor did it grant a discount. Ohh Well! 1,200 Florint’s later we found ourselves in the Vunicular on our way up the hill. The view as we went up was quite nice, and it was a quaint and cute way to start the trip off. (My dad had ridden one in France, and remembered it fondly. In general I’ve only travelled with my father in Europe to France, and this seems to be no coincidence as the first few days tended to include hopes that things would both be like France or to do similar activities to ones he had enjoyable memories of in France.)
After making it up the hill, we were right beside the famous, huge, and beautiful Buda Castle. However I was starving at this point and Dad and I made it a priority to first find something to eat. Luckily enough there was a little grocery on the hill that we stumbled into. In what would also become a bit of a running joke, we found that aside from anything easily identifiable as it’s English equivalent Hungarian packaging gave up few hints as to what was inside, what anything was made of, or even what the differences were between a bewildering variety of waters. That is, until you learn the method to their madness. The language itself is unlike anything I’d ever seen and bore no relation to English or French, and in general was just so much jibberish painted or printed on things to me. A helpful store clerk came across my father and staring perplexedly at the water selection and explained to us that the blue capped water had “gasses” and the pink did not. Budapest is famous for it’s medicinal waters, and many of the bottled water brands are selling some variety of this super water. My dad and I opted for carbonated water to go with some unidentifiable but tasty looking breads that we bought, and I bought an apple to try and get some tiny sliver of fresh fruit into my diet. (I also bought a delicious bag of dried mango cubes that I happily munched on later in the day as our meals stretched further and further apart.) We found a nice bench by the edge of the hill and sat and enjoyed a nice repast. My selections turned out to be two little poofs of cheesy bread and a chocolate pinwheel pastry. I gobbled them down with my banana and water while dad enjoyed a pastry filled with a mysterious fruit goo, perhaps plum, and a slightly less chocolatey pinwheel.
After breakfast we wandered over to the Mathius Church. This was one of the most colorful and “Happy” churches I’ve ever seen, a rainbow of colored tiles cover the roof and inside almost every column is decorated with a different pattern and style of paint. The church is not neatly as gloomy, grey, and drafty feeling as most of the churches in Europe I’ve been to, and it is inspiring to people even now. While my dad and I wandered around in the Church a group of male singers suddenly launched into some impromptu songs, the notes of their music bouncing around the wonderful acoustics in the church and adding a dreamy quality to our adventure. (Which was helpful because yet again our Budacard had proved useless at the front gate in providing any sort of discount to the entrance fee.) Along with the beautiful colors and design, the church is home to some interesting artifacts, one of which is the tomb of Bela the III. Apparently Bela was vying for the crown of Byzantium but something didn’t work out with that so he came back to Hungary and became king. His return lead to a long period of stability in the crown, and ended some bickering and infighting within Hungary. In addition he brought the use of written records and methods back from Byzantium with him as well as the Cisterinian Monks, all of which led to great joy in Hungary and a swank tomb for him. (Eventually, and they took away his jewels when they moved him from his original burial site, I’m not sure where they ended up, maybe the National Museum.) They also have one of the oldest columns in any church in central Europe, it potentially escaped destruction by being covered up at some point by a previous architect and then being rediscovered later on. It shows two monks trying to interpret the text in a book. There are also flags from each of the regions of Hungary brought to the capitol in the 1800s that still adorn the central columns in the church.
After we left the church we wandered down to the city walls where a guy was throwing back cans of beer and letting people touch a huge falcon he had in jessups there, we watched a wonderful scene where he let a little blind girl run her hands over the falcon until she touched his talons, which he didn’t like and he had to be removed from the little girl before disaster ensued. Still a nice scene, people wandering, gawking, and enjoying the scene. There was a strange mix of ancient and modern tourism on display with caricature artists next to people in medieval garb, next to guys selling plastic swords. Groups and families milled about and you could hear snippets of German mixed with Italian, Japanese, and Spanish as well as the odd Hungarian word here or there.
After filling up on that scene we marched down to the wine museum, but quite sadly it was closed without any sign telling why. (The posted hours listed our visit as as “should be open” time.) But Mayday weekend may have closed down many of the normal museums, we’re not really sure. Anyhow we consoled ourselves with a walk through Castle Hill. We saw a wedding party at one church, looking not too differently from any wedding in America, and then at the end came to the Military museum (of hand held weaponry) It also looked closed, but it was hard to tell as the main entrance appeared to be on a fairly difficult to reach stretch of road. As we walked back along the Buda facing side of the hill we saw “old Buda” stretched out before us, big wealthy looking houses out on the hills across the valley. Pest is a relative newcomer on the scene and was a small village for much of Budapest’s history. There is also a strange “Hospital in the Rock” museum on that side, old caves that were used as bunkers during ancient times and as a wartime hospital during WWII. It’s now home to a strange and large collection of wax figures permanently administering aid to wax patients. Also on our walk we saw a statue of a nude youth riding a horse wearing what to all purposes looked like a German soldiers helmet. We couldn’t find an explanation of this statue in the guidebook, but it was definitely strange. Also on this walk dad saw two fascinating birds that we don’t see back in the states. ONe looked like a great white woodpecker and the other like a small blue raven. Both had interesting and loud musical songs that filled the trees as we walked along.
After circling the hill we stopped for a brief visit by another statue, this one of an eagle clutching St. Stephen’s sword and then took the carriage path down the hill by Buda Castle back to the riverside. The carriage path is probably beautiful in late summer, as they appeared to be planting a huge number of flowers along it, but they hadn’t come up yet while we were there. At the base of the hill we passed the 0KM marker from which all distances in Hungary are measured. It was an interesting modern affair with an angular oval zero. After that we walked back across the Elizabethian bridge and were subject to some amazing views, as well as a strange street pedlar who was selling various interesting rocks including geodes and fools gold. (In retrospect I should have seen how much he was asking for them, but it was such an odd site I didn’t think to stop at the time.)
After another little break at our hotel we struck out into the city again, we headed out to Hero’s Square and the City park. City Park is a HUGE park in Budapest with a variety of things to do including an incredible public bath house, a zoo, an amusement park, a transportation museum, a history of Hungarian architecture done in real building form, pools, and tens of acres of park land. The day dad and I visited there was some sort of huge political rally going on as well for the “Seyzass” party or something complete with speeches. They must be pretty popular because a couple of thousand people were gathered around listening to the speeches,. Hungarians are a proud people and they love their heritage. This includes their national snacks, just about everywhere we went we found people selling these huge cheesy pretzels and nearly as often these flavored rings of bread with cinnamon or other sweet tastes coating the inner ring. Also Hungarians love their middle eastern food, Shwarma and Fallafel stands being highly prominent. Anyhow about a million of these food stands littered city park and I ended up ordering some shwerma that was pretty good from one of them. Dad and I weren’t sure what all we wanted to see and so we mostly just took in the sights in a wide looping tour. Many of the things closed at five or six, and we ended up missing the transportation museum which had been on our list. Also very strangely there seemed to a temporary gypsy amusement park setup in one of the fields, and while the bumper cars were going to beat the band, none of the other rides were operating and very loud, like concert loud, techno music was being broadcast off of one of the rides out onto a field where various people were lounging about enjoying picnics and hanging out. The whole park had a surreal feel, like being in a woody allen movie about the future. I was sad we didn’t think to bring our swimming suits as the bahts seemed quite incredible, but after a long long walking tour of the park we headed back to Hero’s Square. Hereo’s Square is an incredible concrete island that must be 1/2 a mile or more across with a huge 100′ centerpiece statue in the middle of it depicting the cross being defended by famous Hungarian kings and princes. There were kids skateboarding around, and in another area working on some coordinated modern dance moves. Generally Hungarians seem to love the outdoors and their parks. Hundreds of people from all walks of life were out and about, and all seemed to get along quite well.
What could I say about the national culture of Hungary? Well aside from their love of sweets, they don’t much care for breakfast. Throughout our wanderings I time and time again saw Hungarians drinking beer or having shots at 9am rather than having a coffee. In fact it was a bit of a chore to find anyplace selling coffee in the mornings, and even more so to find it sold in a portable container. Hungarians have also taken to capitalism like a hungry fat man to a buffet. Nearly *everything* costs money, and usually more than you’d expect. From tipping at the bathrooms, to paying for ketchup, to outrageous charges to visit anything of cultural interest, you’ll find a Hungarian waiting to take your money. That being said, they are also incredibly friendly, the cities are sparkling clean aside from cigarette butts which they throw around with wild abandon, and in general they seemed quite pleased not just to take your money but to meet you as well.
Anyhow after our adventure to city park we made our way to a restaurant recommended in the guidebook. It was near the Octogon metro stop, which I’m told is the more hip and up and coming part of Pest compared to the area dad and I were staying in. The particular place we ended up though is not part of that vibe, down a dark little side street and tucked away at the back of a hotel or youth hostel was our restaurant, Feszek Muveszkluv Etterem. The place itself was quite interesting a large gravel courtyard dotted with trees bracketed by two long open corridors, tables were placed both in the courtyard and in the corridors. When we got there only a few other customers manned the tables and throughout the night I think perhaps 20 people ate there. To add to the open air ambiance a live violinist and electric cello player wandered the yard playing brahms and mozart and various other pieces that struck their fancy. Dad and I ordered a bottle of something local and proceeded to have a long slow meal which began with one of the stranger appetizers I’ve ever had. (For the record dad was opposed to ordering it, probably rightly so, but I could not be disuaded.) It consisted of Fried Camenbert cheese (like deep fried) on a lage patty of rice with blue berry sauce on the side that one presumably dribbled over the cheese and rice. My dad was a bit appalled, but I gamely tried it. It tastes like you can imagine, or maybe you can’t? In any event I can safely say that you aren’t missing out either way. =)
For the main course dad ordered veil paprikish, veil in a paprika and creme sauce served over spetzl, which he enjoyed. “Good but not great, but with very nice Spetzl” was his direct quote on the subject. =) I had roasted duck in red wine sauce with braised potatoes. The portion of duck was immense, I almost didn’t want to finish it, but I felt guilty leaving duck behind. We ate slowly while the violinist wandered about serenading the various couples, hawking his cd, and occasionally taking requests. (And breaks.) After a while, a group of four French people showed up and sat behind us, Dad was very happy and bemused that he could understand everything they were saying. He says that it brings him great comfort that he can understand another language as well as English. I think he has a special place in his heart for France, though he seems somewhat loath to admit it.
After dinner, dad and I made our way back to our hotel, having stayed up till nearly midnight, and prepared for bed, our first full day in Budapest having come to a close. After a long 12-13 hour sleep, Dad and I woke up in Budapest ready to throw ourselves out into the city. My Dad and I have never been on a father son trip before this one, and so I think we were both excited to see what we would learn about each other and see what we were each like when travelling. The first thing to note is that my dad *loves* travelling, I do too, but my dad totally lights up when seeing or about to see new stuff. This was both wonderful, and good to know, as my Dad often will forgo things like breakfast or sticking to any kind of regular schedule for meals. Anyhow off we went to our first attraction a little “Vunicular” that ran up the side of Castle Hill in Buda up to the Castle. To get there we had to walk across the Danube over the “Chain Bridge” to the Buda side of the city. The line for the Vunicular was surprisingly long for 11 am on a Saturday (or maybe not I guess?) and the day was not nearly as warm as Friday. Eventually a little sprinkle of rain came down and a nice German couple in line behind us saved our place so Dad and I could run under the awning of a shwag dealer until the shower past. That challenge surmounted we eventually got into the Vunicular ticket area and found out (in what was turned out to be a series of disappointing moments) that our Budacard did not get us on the Vunicular for free, nor did it grant a discount. Ohh Well! 1,200 Florint’s later we found ourselves in the Vunicular on our way up the hill. The view as we went up was quite nice, and it was a quaint and cute way to start the trip off. (My dad had ridden one in France, and remembered it fondly. In general I’ve only travelled with my father in Europe to France, and this seems to be no coincidence as the first few days tended to include hopes that things would both be like France or to do similar activities to ones he had enjoyable memories of in France.)
After making it up the hill, we were right beside the famous, huge, and beautiful Buda Castle. However I was starving at this point and Dad and I made it a priority to first find something to eat. Luckily enough there was a little grocery on the hill that we stumbled into. In what would also become a bit of a running joke, we found that aside from anything easily identifiable as it’s English equivalent Hungarian packaging gave up few hints as to what was inside, what anything was made of, or even what the differences were between a bewildering variety of waters. That is, until you learn the method to their madness. The language itself is unlike anything I’d ever seen and bore no relation to English or French, and in general was just so much jibberish painted or printed on things to me. A helpful store clerk came across my father and staring perplexedly at the water selection and explained to us that the blue capped water had “gasses” and the pink did not. Budapest is famous for it’s medicinal waters, and many of the bottled water brands are selling some variety of this super water. My dad and I opted for carbonated water to go with some unidentifiable but tasty looking breads that we bought, and I bought an apple to try and get some tiny sliver of fresh fruit into my diet. (I also bought a delicious bag of dried mango cubes that I happily munched on later in the day as our meals stretched further and further apart.) We found a nice bench by the edge of the hill and sat and enjoyed a nice repast. My selections turned out to be two little poofs of cheesy bread and a chocolate pinwheel pastry. I gobbled them down with my banana and water while dad enjoyed a pastry filled with a mysterious fruit goo, perhaps plum, and a slightly less chocolatey pinwheel.
After breakfast we wandered over to the Mathius Church. This was one of the most colorful and “Happy” churches I’ve ever seen, a rainbow of colored tiles cover the roof and inside almost every column is decorated with a different pattern and style of paint. The church is not neatly as gloomy, grey, and drafty feeling as most of the churches in Europe I’ve been to, and it is inspiring to people even now. While my dad and I wandered around in the Church a group of male singers suddenly launched into some impromptu songs, the notes of their music bouncing around the wonderful acoustics in the church and adding a dreamy quality to our adventure. (Which was helpful because yet again our Budacard had proved useless at the front gate in providing any sort of discount to the entrance fee.) Along with the beautiful colors and design, the church is home to some interesting artifacts, one of which is the tomb of Bela the III. Apparently Bela was vying for the crown of Byzantium but something didn’t work out with that so he came back to Hungary and became king. His return lead to a long period of stability in the crown, and ended some bickering and infighting within Hungary. In addition he brought the use of written records and methods back from Byzantium with him as well as the Cisterinian Monks, all of which led to great joy in Hungary and a swank tomb for him. (Eventually, and they took away his jewels when they moved him from his original burial site, I’m not sure where they ended up, maybe the National Museum.) They also have one of the oldest columns in any church in central Europe, it potentially escaped destruction by being covered up at some point by a previous architect and then being rediscovered later on. It shows two monks trying to interpret the text in a book. There are also flags from each of the regions of Hungary brought to the capitol in the 1800s that still adorn the central columns in the church.
After we left the church we wandered down to the city walls where a guy was throwing back cans of beer and letting people touch a huge falcon he had in jessups there, we watched a wonderful scene where he let a little blind girl run her hands over the falcon until she touched his talons, which he didn’t like and he had to be removed from the little girl before disaster ensued. Still a nice scene, people wandering, gawking, and enjoying the scene. There was a strange mix of ancient and modern tourism on display with caricature artists next to people in medieval garb, next to guys selling plastic swords. Groups and families milled about and you could hear snippets of German mixed with Italian, Japanese, and Spanish as well as the odd Hungarian word here or there.
After filling up on that scene we marched down to the wine museum, but quite sadly it was closed without any sign telling why. (The posted hours listed our visit as as “should be open” time.) But Mayday weekend may have closed down many of the normal museums, we’re not really sure. Anyhow we consoled ourselves with a walk through Castle Hill. We saw a wedding party at one church, looking not too differently from any wedding in America, and then at the end came to the Military museum (of hand held weaponry) It also looked closed, but it was hard to tell as the main entrance appeared to be on a fairly difficult to reach stretch of road. As we walked back along the Buda facing side of the hill we saw “old Buda” stretched out before us, big wealthy looking houses out on the hills across the valley. Pest is a relative newcomer on the scene and was a small village for much of Budapest’s history. There is also a strange “Hospital in the Rock” museum on that side, old caves that were used as bunkers during ancient times and as a wartime hospital during WWII. It’s now home to a strange and large collection of wax figures permanently administering aid to wax patients. Also on our walk we saw a statue of a nude youth riding a horse wearing what to all purposes looked like a German soldiers helmet. We couldn’t find an explanation of this statue in the guidebook, but it was definitely strange. Also on this walk dad saw two fascinating birds that we don’t see back in the states. ONe looked like a great white woodpecker and the other like a small blue raven. Both had interesting and loud musical songs that filled the trees as we walked along.
After circling the hill we stopped for a brief visit by another statue, this one of an eagle clutching St. Stephen’s sword and then took the carriage path down the hill by Buda Castle back to the riverside. The carriage path is probably beautiful in late summer, as they appeared to be planting a huge number of flowers along it, but they hadn’t come up yet while we were there. At the base of the hill we passed the 0KM marker from which all distances in Hungary are measured. It was an interesting modern affair with an angular oval zero. After that we walked back across the Elizabethian bridge and were subject to some amazing views, as well as a strange street pedlar who was selling various interesting rocks including geodes and fools gold. (In retrospect I should have seen how much he was asking for them, but it was such an odd site I didn’t think to stop at the time.)
After another little break at our hotel we struck out into the city again, we headed out to Hero’s Square and the City park. City Park is a HUGE park in Budapest with a variety of things to do including an incredible public bath house, a zoo, an amusement park, a transportation museum, a history of Hungarian architecture done in real building form, pools, and tens of acres of park land. The day dad and I visited there was some sort of huge political rally going on as well for the “Seyzass” party or something complete with speeches. They must be pretty popular because a couple of thousand people were gathered around listening to the speeches,. Hungarians are a proud people and they love their heritage. This includes their national snacks, just about everywhere we went we found people selling these huge cheesy pretzels and nearly as often these flavored rings of bread with cinnamon or other sweet tastes coating the inner ring. Also Hungarians love their middle eastern food, Shwarma and Fallafel stands being highly prominent. Anyhow about a million of these food stands littered city park and I ended up ordering some shwerma that was pretty good from one of them. Dad and I weren’t sure what all we wanted to see and so we mostly just took in the sights in a wide looping tour. Many of the things closed at five or six, and we ended up missing the transportation museum which had been on our list. Also very strangely there seemed to a temporary gypsy amusement park setup in one of the fields, and while the bumper cars were going to beat the band, none of the other rides were operating and very loud, like concert loud, techno music was being broadcast off of one of the rides out onto a field where various people were lounging about enjoying picnics and hanging out. The whole park had a surreal feel, like being in a woody allen movie about the future. I was sad we didn’t think to bring our swimming suits as the bahts seemed quite incredible, but after a long long walking tour of the park we headed back to Hero’s Square. Hereo’s Square is an incredible concrete island that must be 1/2 a mile or more across with a huge 100′ centerpiece statue in the middle of it depicting the cross being defended by famous Hungarian kings and princes. There were kids skateboarding around, and in another area working on some coordinated modern dance moves. Generally Hungarians seem to love the outdoors and their parks. Hundreds of people from all walks of life were out and about, and all seemed to get along quite well.
What could I say about the national culture of Hungary? Well aside from their love of sweets, they don’t much care for breakfast. Throughout our wanderings I time and time again saw Hungarians drinking beer or having shots at 9am rather than having a coffee. In fact it was a bit of a chore to find anyplace selling coffee in the mornings, and even more so to find it sold in a portable container. Hungarians have also taken to capitalism like a hungry fat man to a buffet. Nearly *everything* costs money, and usually more than you’d expect. From tipping at the bathrooms, to paying for ketchup, to outrageous charges to visit anything of cultural interest, you’ll find a Hungarian waiting to take your money. That being said, they are also incredibly friendly, the cities are sparkling clean aside from cigarette butts which they throw around with wild abandon, and in general they seemed quite pleased not just to take your money but to meet you as well.
Anyhow after our adventure to city park we made our way to a restaurant recommended in the guidebook. It was near the Octogon metro stop, which I’m told is the more hip and up and coming part of Pest compared to the area dad and I were staying in. The particular place we ended up though is not part of that vibe, down a dark little side street and tucked away at the back of a hotel or youth hostel was our restaurant, Feszek Muveszkluv Etterem. The place itself was quite interesting a large gravel courtyard dotted with trees bracketed by two long open corridors, tables were placed both in the courtyard and in the corridors. When we got there only a few other customers manned the tables and throughout the night I think perhaps 20 people ate there. To add to the open air ambiance a live violinist and electric cello player wandered the yard playing brahms and mozart and various other pieces that struck their fancy. Dad and I ordered a bottle of something local and proceeded to have a long slow meal which began with one of the stranger appetizers I’ve ever had. (For the record dad was opposed to ordering it, probably rightly so, but I could not be disuaded.) It consisted of Fried Camenbert cheese (like deep fried) on a lage patty of rice with blue berry sauce on the side that one presumably dribbled over the cheese and rice. My dad was a bit appalled, but I gamely tried it. It tastes like you can imagine, or maybe you can’t? In any event I can safely say that you aren’t missing out either way. =)
For the main course dad ordered veil paprikish, veil in a paprika and creme sauce served over spetzl, which he enjoyed. “Good but not great, but with very nice Spetzl” was his direct quote on the subject. =) I had roasted duck in red wine sauce with braised potatoes. The portion of duck was immense, I almost didn’t want to finish it, but I felt guilty leaving duck behind. We ate slowly while the violinist wandered about serenading the various couples, hawking his cd, and occasionally taking requests. (And breaks.) After a while, a group of four French people showed up and sat behind us, Dad was very happy and bemused that he could understand everything they were saying. He says that it brings him great comfort that he can understand another language as well as English. I think he has a special place in his heart for France, though he seems somewhat loath to admit it.
After dinner, dad and I made our way back to our hotel, having stayed up till nearly midnight, and prepared for bed, our first full day in Budapest having come to a close.
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Nice travelogue.
I really wonder why you mention the problem with coffee drinking. In fact there are hundreds of cafés in the downtown. Some american style cafés are offering coffe to go. Please see some more about Budapest cafés here:
http://www.budapestinfo.org/cafes.html
To the topic 'Hungarians are ready to take your money'. Well, unfortunately poverty increased in the last couple of years. At least 5 people asks money from me every day till I get to work, however I'm a local. I hope this will change, once the country's economy improves.