I Hochschule Ludwigshafen am Rhein Fachbereich I -Management, Controlling, HealthCare- -International Management Eastern Europe- Report Budapest, Hungary 2015/16 Óbuda University
II Table of Contents 1. Preparation... 1 2. First impressions of Budapest... 2 3. Living and Traveling in Budapest... 2 4. Studying at the Óbuda University... 4 5. Conclusion... 5
III List of Figures Figure 1: Margareten Island... 2 Figure 2: Thermal Bath Széchenyi... 3 Figure 3: Keleti Faculty... 4
Preparation 1 1. Preparation Before I started my semester abroad I had to figure out which country is the right for me. Since I am studying International Management Eastern Europe, it was clear that I have to choose a country in that region. I wasn t sure in which country I want to do my semester abroad. The only thing I was sure about was that it should be Budapest in Hungary or Tomsk in Russia. For an easier decision I did some research about the host universities, the culture and many other important things about both countries. Beside that I also talked to some of my friends and family and a lot of them told me that Budapest is a beautiful city and I should definitely be there once in a lifetime. After this whole procedure I was sure that Budapest is the place I want to do my semester abroad. To make sure that everything will be alright when I arrive there I started to prepare myself several months before. Things like booking the flight to Budapest were pretty easy. I flew with Wizz Air from Frankfurt-Hahn directly to Budapest. It s a Hungarian airline and the price for one flight is between 30 and 80 Euros, depends on the season. The next thing on my agenda was to make sure I have a place to live there. At the beginning I thought I will get an offer for a dormitory from the host university but it turned out that they don t even offer such things like dormitories. Instead they told me that it would be the best for me to search for a room in a flat. On the SRS-Budapest website they offer flats for a fair price which you can share with other people or even get ah whole flat for yourself. To be honest I had no doubt about that I want to live with at least three people in a flat. The reason for this was that I wanted to get some new experiences, meet some students from other countries and get to know their culture. Beside that I had the thought that I will go to an international city so why on earth shouldn t I want to live with international people. I mean, it is one of the reasons why I am doing this semester abroad. To rent a flat, you just had to sign up at their website, choose a room in a flat you like, write them an email and they will send you all the documents you need. It was pretty uncomplicated and easy to find a proper room for me. Nevertheless the preparation process took me several weeks but after that I was on the safe side that there won t be any problems and I can fully enjoy my time in Budapest.
First impressions of Budapest 2 2. First impressions of Budapest I arrived at the beginning of September at the Liszt Ferenc Airport in Budapest. It is not a big airport but I was still glad that I booked the taxi service from the SRS website. Otherwise I would be already lost at the beginning of my journey. During the ride to my flat, we passed the suburbs of Budapest and I was wondering about the view I had. There were a lot of damaged buildings and many graffiti on them. For me it was a little irritating because I am not used to an environment like this. But it all disappeared with the arrival at the central city. I was fascinating about everything. It felt like I was on vacation. There were little stores, shops and restaurants everywhere. After about 25 minutes we finally arrived at my flat in the seventh district of Budapest. 3. Living and Traveling in Budapest One of the most important things you need to know about the city is that it s divided in two parts by the Danube, the Buda and the Pest part. I lived on the seventh district of the Pest side. The Pest side is the bigger part of Budapest. There you can find a lot of old and beautiful buildings like the parliament building and the famous hero square. Budapest is known for its many bridges which connects the Buda with the Pest side. One of those bridges is called Margareten Bridge. In the center of it you can enter the Margareten Island. This island is perfect for activities like going for a walk, swimming, jogging or just enjoying the weather. Figure 1: Margareten Island Source: http://bebudapest.hu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/margitsziget_01.jpg
Living and Traveling in Budapest 3 For traveling around the city I would suggest to use the public transportation like bus, metro or tram. It s very cheap and you can reach everything in within a few minutes. If you are a young student in a beautiful city like Budapest and you feel like you want to have some fun, you can be sure that this city got it all. There are countless possibilities to go out, meet new people, talk to them, drink with them and make new friendships. If you are hungry, or thirsty than there are many pubs or restaurants which are waiting for you. The prices for a good meal in a restaurant are really cheap if you compare it to Germany. If you are tired of the city life, than you can travel to some places outside of Budapest, like the small village called Pilis. There you can go for a hiking tour and enjoy the wonderful view. The special thing about living in Budapest is that you can travel to other big cities like Vienna in Austria or Bratislava in Slovakia. They are just a few hours far away and you can easily reach them by bus for a very small price. Budapest is also known for its thermal baths. One of them is the Szechenyi bath. It has a lot of different pools with different types of water in it. The best thing about this thermal bath is the hot water pool outside. I was there in December when it was very cold outside, but when you get into the hot water you don t feel anything of the low temperature. You just feel relaxed and comfortable. Figure 2: Thermal Bath Széchenyi Source: http://www.spar-mit.com/ungarn_inc/thermalbadszechenyi3.jpg
Studying at the Óbuda University 4 4. Studying at the Óbuda University The main reason why I did this semester abroad was the chance to study in a foreign university. I studied at the Óbuda University, which has several faculties for different courses. My faculty was called the Keleti Faculty of Business and Management and it was just ten minutes away from my flat. I remember the welcome day at the university. We were around 150 Erasmus students from different parts of the world but about fifty percent of them were students from Germany. To get my semester abroad acknowledged I had to get 30 credits, which means that I had to visit about nine different lectures. At the beginning it was a little bit strange to be in university where the main language is Hungarian or in my case English, but after a while I got used to it. The teachers were really friendly and tried to help us with every question we had. Sometimes it was hard to follow the lecture because the English language of some professors wasn t that good. But in general everything was satisfactory. A thing that I really appreciated was the fact that every Erasmus student had a buddy. I could ask them every time for help if something was unclear or if I had a problem with anything which even didn t have anything to do with the university. Besides studding, there were also different events on the campus. One of them was the international dinner. It was an evening were every Erasmus student made a typical meal from his country. I can remember that at this night everybody was so drunk, that nobody cared about where the meal was from. Nevertheless it was still one of the best events because on that night I had a lot of fun, met new people and found some new friends. And I think that s what the semester abroad is all about. Figure 3: Keleti Faculty Source: https://www.uni-obuda.hu/files/imagecache/org/org/42/keleti-karoly-gazdasagi-kar.jpg
Conclusion 5 5. Conclusion I am very glad that I did my semester abroad in one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Budapest taught me a lot of things and gave me many different points of views I didn t have had before I traveled there. I loved it to wake up every day in a city where people actually really live. It s not like I have a bad life here in Germany but I think the time in Hungary changed me. I know now what I actually expect from my life. Which things I really should do, and which things aren t that important. Of course it was nice to be back again in Germany and in my normal life but sometimes I am missing the time back then in Budapest. There are probably many reasons for that, like the new friendships I made there. Another thing I really miss is the international feeling. In Budapest were thousands of students from all over the world and everybody had his own culture. It was very interesting and exciting to get to know those cultures and the person behind it. I already mentioned it at the beginning that people told me to go there once in a lifetime. Now I really understand why they said this. It was the best choice I made and I enjoyed every second there. I can truly say now it was the time of my life and I will never forget it.