Experience report
ANR: 974009
Name: Barbara Ruijs
E-mail: b.s.ruijs@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester: spring semester
Academic year: 3
Host University: Eotvos Lorand (ELTE university)
Country: Hungary
Admission, arrival, housing
I rented my room by SRS (student rent solutions) and they picked me up from the airport so
that they could let me into the room and give me the keys. They have a website with pictures
of all their rooms so you can choose a room from the pictures. I liked it that I knew for sure
that I had a room and that I didn’t have to stay in a hostel and search for a room there. The
only thing was that you don’t know before which people are in the others rooms, but I was
lucky and lived with two nice girls.
The University has also dorms where you can stay, but they are on the Buda side of the city,
far away from the ‘city center’. You can reach the dorms all night so it isn’t that big of a
problem but it takes a long time to come there if you want to party on the Pest side.
Location of university/city
Budapest is divided in two parts, the buda side and the pest side. In the middle there is the
river the Danube. The buda side has more nature and is nice for some sightseeing because
there are two hills from where you have a really nice view over both sides. The pest side is
better to live (cheaper) and is the side where all the party places are. I liked specially
Szimpla, Instant, Hello Baby and Fogas haz.
My university was also on the pest side, but every faculty has its own building at random
places in the city. Even some of the buildings where on the buda side.
A big difference with Tilburg is that there is always something going on in Budapest. It really
doesn’t matter which day you want to party or want to shop or whatever, there are always
people who are with you and places are always open.
Academics
I attended five courses: political game theory, international criminal law, human rights in
private law, labour rights as human rights and white collar crime. The courses didn’t really
add something to my tax law bachelor, but they were mostly interesting. The level of the
courses was a bit lower than at Tilburg University and mostly you could gain extra point by
doing presentations so it was easy to pass the courses. I would recommend political game
theory and labour rights as human rights. The teachers were nice and their English was
good and I really learned interesting things. The attending was compulsory, so you had to
sign a list every week.
Social life
I became a member of ESN in the first week of the semester. They organized a lot of nice
events where you could meet other exchange students. Of course, most of the students
came alone to Budapest so everyone was really open to make to new friends. I met a lot of
nice people in the first weeks. I met a few Hungarian students, but mostly because they were
ESN mentors. I had also a few classes with Hungarians but they weren’t really open to new
people.
It was so nice to meet all these people from different countries. I learned a lot about different
cultures and we visited together a lot of the eastern European countries. Budapest is really
central so you could easily visit other countries by train or by bus. I have been in 11 different
countries is these five months!
Living costs
Budapest is really cheap compared to the Netherlands. You can easily go out for diner and
spend not more than 6 euros on a main course, dessert and a drink. Also the drinks at pubs
and clubs are way cheaper than in the Netherlands.
But in the end I spend a lot more money because we went out for dinner very often and
travelled a lot. I topped up my rent from duo to do this, but I would definitely advice you to
travel as much as you can. Even if you spend a lot of money, it is way cheaper to do it from
Budapest than to do it from the Netherlands so now is your change!
Besides the fun things, the housing was not that cheap. My monthly rent was lower than in
Tilburg, but they counted the extra costs every month and that made it more expensive.
Culture
I didn’t experienced a really big culture shock. I was warned before that Hungarian people
can be really grumpy, especially to foreigners, but that wasn’t true at all. Most of them could
not speak English very well, but they tried to understand you and to make a conversation.
Further I haven’t seen a lot of Hungary so I can only speak about the culture in Budapest
itself. Budapest is what I think is a typically big city that never sleeps. There are always
people on the streets and some shops are open 24/7. I wasn’t used to that from Tilburg, but
it was easily to adapt to.
I travelled a lot to the countries around Hungary, also to the Balkans. There the people
where really glad to see tourist and they all loved to promote their country or city. That was
different in Budapest. I guess that Budapest is popular enough so they don’t have to
promote the city that much.
Personal development
I met a lot of new people from a lot of different countries and cultures. I learned a lot about
their culture and habits. For example the university systems and the laws, but also things like
how they dress when they go out or what is most common to drink. It was really nice to learn
all these things. I especially like the fact that I value my own culture more now. In the
Netherlands everything is regulated so much that it can be really annoying, but it’s so much
better than that it is not regulated at all.
The best experience I had during my exchange was to learn that I can be truly by myself. I
lived in Tilburg apart from my parents for four years already, but still you know that they are
close and I could always ask them for help. Now I was really by myself and it was good to
notice that that was totally fine.
Tips for future students
I would definitely recommend everybody to join IESN in the first week that you arrive. They
organize a lot of nice activities where you can meet other exchange students. I was also a
member of a facebook group for exchange people in Budapest before I left, and that was
also nice to already talk to some people. This way I had the first day already someone to
have dinner with.
Further there is not a lot of special preparation necessary for Budapest. Of course you need
the local money but you can change it there (don’t do this at the airport, that is really
expensive). Also you need to sign in at the registration office within 90 days after your
arrival, but the university will help you with that so you don’t have to anything before you
leave.