Originally Posted by Uncle Lars
Thanks for your advice! We spent several lovely days (well, except for the heat wave, but those seem to be all too common now) in Vienna the previous summer, and thus simply want to wander on a different routing this time.
Sorry about the Slav/Magyar mixup in my post - I am acutely aware that the Hungarian culture and language are very different [I expect I will be able to get by minimally with my native Czech language in all countries excepting Hungary, where I'll no doubt need a phrasebook]
Mluvite česky? I'm jealous. But I'm always jealous of native speakers because, well, they make it look so easy.
No worries at all re: Magyars. I was only making sure the distinction was clear, because for a lot of people, it's not. As for the language, if there's one language it's really helpful to practice before busting out the phrasebook, it's that one. Pronunciation is everything, because the accent is always on the first syllable, and it's tricky as hell.
As a native English speaker, I found Czech difficult, but reasonable. German was easy to pick up, but Magyar was downright humbling. I managed to learn to clearly say "nem beselek Magyarul" (I don't speak Hungarian") and, well that was about it.
Thankfully for my sorry American ..., most young people in Hungary speak English and most older people speak German. I suppose speaking fluent Czech will at least mark you as different from the usual German-, English-, and French-speaking tourists in Budapest.
Have a blast. Make sure to visit the monuments to 1956 near Parliament and the House of Terror museum.
TD