Poland for a Hungarian

“Ale jak  ładnie mówisz po polsku!” They say although I have only said “Cześć!”. OK, I can speak quite well, but after about 100 occasions it is getting boring. It is true that Polish people are very happy when somebody can already say some words in their language. And they are very surprised as well.

Actually Poland is very similar to Hungary. I always say that everything is the same, except the language and that we don’t have sea. Similar prizes, similar blocks, similar trains... I have spent already about 1,5 years in Poland for different reasons. I was a student, a tourist, a volunteer, a trainee here. I have visited several towns and have met several people. Only after a year I started to feel the differences.

Polish people are very positive. Sometimes it seems for me that even too positive. “Wszystko w porządku!” I had colleges, friends that hardly ever told me about their problems, worries. For me it was no real friendship. I told them what’s on my heart, and I got a response that on their side everything is OK. Several times I am fed up with the pessimism at home, but when I was living in Poland, I’ve missed the honesty a bit.

Also I had the impression that because Poland survived much more difficult times in the close history, now they are very satisfied and think nothing worse can happen. That’s why everything is OK.

I was always very much loved in Poland, but I never felt that a Polish man seriously liked me as a women. I felt I am invisible for them. That I am a nice, interesting foreigner, but not a potential girlfriend. I never had this impression in other countries! Here I felt always very different with my skater shoes and colourful striped socks. Most of the girls were dressed very pretty, had nice blond hair and golden accessories. For me it seems that Polish people tend to look very similar. When I look around on the underground in Budapest, I hardly find similar style people around – except if they are a group. There are puncks, rockers, some emos, elegant people, disco people, alternative people, artists, hippies, sportsmen, people with dreads etc. They are all so different! There you can tell a lot about a person only by seeing the shoes! In Hungary we rather tend to be very different. Ironic, that in Poland it was very easy for me and was not always satisfying...

Hungarians and Poles are good friends – says the old saying. It is strange, because actually not many of my Hungarian friends can say the whole sentence - it only sounds familiar for them. Not like in Poland! I have never met any Pole who was not aware of the fact that our nations are great friends! And they not only repeated the sentence and could say at least parts of it in Hungarian, but they also proved that we are friends! Any time when a Pole heard I am from Hungary, he/she turned very friendly immediately. I think I would be never discriminated in this country, only in a positive way.

I love to return here any time. Because I love the language, the country is very beautiful (especially the seaside!) and because I am always being loved here very much!