A "tldr" in bold I really need people to see even if they skip over everything else: I'm in Budapest for just under 90 days, have a ticket out to London(leaving the EU) as condition of entry(I think this is NZ enforced). I have just over NZD$600 saved all in all. I plan to try to get a work visa, the consulate said it's easy to if I can find work with the language barrier. I really need help with: money(food/accommodation), work, visas(and also friends/company/local experience). I'm planning to learn Hungarian. I can live pretty badly for now(materially), I'm determined to do what it takes. If I need financial assistance I'm hoping I can get help here somehow. I'm promising to pay you back, with interest. If you choose not to trust me(totally understandable), I have north of $300-400 in a few items of possessions that I'm willing to sell or put up as collateral(along with many kilos of clothes). I also really want to reach out to anyone living here. I don't know RVFers being in NZ and no one really lives there so I want to meet you guys for real. Also any general travel tips/advice is very appreciated.
I've been here for a nearly a day, recovering from jet lag/the flights. Staying in a hostel and trying to save as much money as I can to make this work.
First impressions of Budapest/traveling(compared to say Auckland/NZ):
Airport was tiny, bare, shops almost non-existent relatively. I thought NZ was dysfunctional and had bad/boring airports but NZ airports I been to looked modern. It seems Hungary does not need good airports as such and NZ does but I'll admit it was a scary sign that the rest of the city sucks. I haven't been here too long to know for certain but it doesn't seem true.
People seem relatively happy, fulfilled, and well-adjusted with no obesity or other SJW or other degeneracy. Very comforting/relaxing. In NZ there are a lot of people who seem almost psychotic(significant minority- but also everyone else who treats it as normal), which to me was horrifying and depressing.
I realised Kiwis drive on the wrong side on the road, but still seeing this reversed in person is a mindfuck. I don't know where to stand/walk on sidewalks/escalators.
Underestimated how brutal the long flights would be. Barely any legroom, cramped, difficult to move/sleep. I had a runny nose and dry lips and the dry lips persist to now. I always wondered why people on the internet kept complaining about dry lips and swore by chapstick. To be honest I thought why not just deal with your "dry" lips, you don't need moisture on it all the time. Just never had actual dry lips in high humidity.
I notice others don't carry a pillow on their flights. I did and it was a dream. You lose a little legroom but you get so much comfort back. I am short at 177 cm though. At my height or below a pillow is definitely worth it, I'd still do it if I was about 183 cm but then it becomes more of a tradeoff.
Emirates is a spectacular airline, relative to others I've used. I want to make a post about this in particular but there's so many important things I have to do. Without the entertainment I would've felt so crazy on the brutal flights.
Underestimated how difficult it would be pushing around 40+kg of baggage.
Overestimated how different the environment/material things would be. Roads, houses, cars, graffiti, pavements, billboards, buildings, parks all look very similar to what I'm used to in NZ. I think I just assumed the countries would be different than they were. A lot of what I thought of were NZ features like how pavements etc looked now seem more universal.
Overestimated how white it would be. From my POV Budapest seems like a multicultural city. I thought Hungary was white nationalist. If so, white nationalism seems dead in the water/a pipe dream. So many non whites(I notice other Asians- less than NZ but still a significant amount to me) and they don't seem super integrated culturally. Might just be a foreign part of town though with the hostels and all. As a non-white this might be better for me but I do think in the abstract there are a lot of benefits to WN so it's sort of sad as well.
Underestimated the language barrier. I thought it might be easy enough to know what things say from context. But I couldn't. It's brutal not being able to understand things.
Overestimated how easy it is to find things you need. I would've assumed you could just walk a few streets and find things. In NZ every 20-30 stores was a pharmacy and I just couldn't find one here by walking. Neither could I find an internet cafe. Also assumed I could just easily buy an adapter(for my lightbox).
Assumed places would just have a USB phone charger. In NZ buses, cafes, public places etc all have them. This hostel doesn't- I don't know if that's a hostel thing.
With the difficulties, I can understand why everyone I knew was screaming at how terrible a decision I'd made is. I underestimated the difficulties. That being said, I still believe leaving NZ is definitely a no brainer of a decision it's just a case of how to do it. And I'm willing to do what it takes to survive here. No regrets so far but I'm still open to the possibility that others might be right and I was wrong, depending on how bad it is trying to grind it out here.
Gypsies are trippy to see in person.
Couple of decent looking girls in the hostel and more WNBs were pretty friendly and semi-flirty with me. I'm not that super good looking chad and I'm probably not normie enough to be alpha but I feel comforted realising I was right all along(that I'm not an unattractive loser, it's just Kiwis who don't like me). In NZ girls don't do this and had always thought Kiwis in particular just didn't like me but I was scared to subscribe to this completely because I didn't want to get delusional/gamma. I'm looking forward to game but right now I have way more pressing issues on my hands than frivolous things like girls.
The moment my flight left, I felt more confident NZ sucked yet less of a need to actually think negative things about it. I could choose to just not think about all the bad aspects of it and most of what came to mind were the few good, positive memories. I still would not recommend coming to NZ though but I don't feel the need to go on and on about it. Living in NZ the dysfunction is just so in-your-face though. Leaving is just so freeing mentally.
I've been here for a nearly a day, recovering from jet lag/the flights. Staying in a hostel and trying to save as much money as I can to make this work.
First impressions of Budapest/traveling(compared to say Auckland/NZ):
Airport was tiny, bare, shops almost non-existent relatively. I thought NZ was dysfunctional and had bad/boring airports but NZ airports I been to looked modern. It seems Hungary does not need good airports as such and NZ does but I'll admit it was a scary sign that the rest of the city sucks. I haven't been here too long to know for certain but it doesn't seem true.
People seem relatively happy, fulfilled, and well-adjusted with no obesity or other SJW or other degeneracy. Very comforting/relaxing. In NZ there are a lot of people who seem almost psychotic(significant minority- but also everyone else who treats it as normal), which to me was horrifying and depressing.
I realised Kiwis drive on the wrong side on the road, but still seeing this reversed in person is a mindfuck. I don't know where to stand/walk on sidewalks/escalators.
Underestimated how brutal the long flights would be. Barely any legroom, cramped, difficult to move/sleep. I had a runny nose and dry lips and the dry lips persist to now. I always wondered why people on the internet kept complaining about dry lips and swore by chapstick. To be honest I thought why not just deal with your "dry" lips, you don't need moisture on it all the time. Just never had actual dry lips in high humidity.
I notice others don't carry a pillow on their flights. I did and it was a dream. You lose a little legroom but you get so much comfort back. I am short at 177 cm though. At my height or below a pillow is definitely worth it, I'd still do it if I was about 183 cm but then it becomes more of a tradeoff.
Emirates is a spectacular airline, relative to others I've used. I want to make a post about this in particular but there's so many important things I have to do. Without the entertainment I would've felt so crazy on the brutal flights.
Underestimated how difficult it would be pushing around 40+kg of baggage.
Overestimated how different the environment/material things would be. Roads, houses, cars, graffiti, pavements, billboards, buildings, parks all look very similar to what I'm used to in NZ. I think I just assumed the countries would be different than they were. A lot of what I thought of were NZ features like how pavements etc looked now seem more universal.
Overestimated how white it would be. From my POV Budapest seems like a multicultural city. I thought Hungary was white nationalist. If so, white nationalism seems dead in the water/a pipe dream. So many non whites(I notice other Asians- less than NZ but still a significant amount to me) and they don't seem super integrated culturally. Might just be a foreign part of town though with the hostels and all. As a non-white this might be better for me but I do think in the abstract there are a lot of benefits to WN so it's sort of sad as well.
Underestimated the language barrier. I thought it might be easy enough to know what things say from context. But I couldn't. It's brutal not being able to understand things.
Overestimated how easy it is to find things you need. I would've assumed you could just walk a few streets and find things. In NZ every 20-30 stores was a pharmacy and I just couldn't find one here by walking. Neither could I find an internet cafe. Also assumed I could just easily buy an adapter(for my lightbox).
Assumed places would just have a USB phone charger. In NZ buses, cafes, public places etc all have them. This hostel doesn't- I don't know if that's a hostel thing.
With the difficulties, I can understand why everyone I knew was screaming at how terrible a decision I'd made is. I underestimated the difficulties. That being said, I still believe leaving NZ is definitely a no brainer of a decision it's just a case of how to do it. And I'm willing to do what it takes to survive here. No regrets so far but I'm still open to the possibility that others might be right and I was wrong, depending on how bad it is trying to grind it out here.
Gypsies are trippy to see in person.
Couple of decent looking girls in the hostel and more WNBs were pretty friendly and semi-flirty with me. I'm not that super good looking chad and I'm probably not normie enough to be alpha but I feel comforted realising I was right all along(that I'm not an unattractive loser, it's just Kiwis who don't like me). In NZ girls don't do this and had always thought Kiwis in particular just didn't like me but I was scared to subscribe to this completely because I didn't want to get delusional/gamma. I'm looking forward to game but right now I have way more pressing issues on my hands than frivolous things like girls.
The moment my flight left, I felt more confident NZ sucked yet less of a need to actually think negative things about it. I could choose to just not think about all the bad aspects of it and most of what came to mind were the few good, positive memories. I still would not recommend coming to NZ though but I don't feel the need to go on and on about it. Living in NZ the dysfunction is just so in-your-face though. Leaving is just so freeing mentally.