Budapest - European ER Summit

I wasnt quite happy when i arrived to Budapest. Why? Well, i just like traveling by trains, and i didnt want to unglue my butt from the train seat. And the second reason why i didnt want to get off is that i really liked the hungarian sunset. Maybe in Slovenia the proper sunset is always covered by the Alpes, but Hungary is quite a flat land which made the hungarian sunset one was the most beautiful i have ever seen.

My first experience with Hungary was a nostalgic one. They have all prices in Slovenian tolars, except that they call them Forints. They are worth about as much as a slovenian tolar was against an euro. Oh, how am i going to get used to euros again when i get back home?

Zsofi, the Hungarian AIESECer picked me up and hosted me for the past week while ive been to Budapest. Thanks, Zsofi, you are fantastic! My trip was completley sposored either by AIESEC or by Zsofi. So you will not believe that i actually did spend 60 euros here. I didnt buy any souvenir, they are just as expansive as in Ljubljana. Ok, i spent about 20 euros on metro tickets. Well, but the largest part of the money i spent here was Sushi :) Not because i am insane, but i am addiced. I went to Japan some months ago, and from that time on, i would spend any money to taste Sushi from time to time. Well, in Slovenia they only serve it in one restaurant, it is not a very good one, and it is very expansive. But in bigger cities its a bit different. There are some more sushi bars in Budapest, but not on every corner. And they are not cheap, but cheaper than in Slovenia. Dont worry, i didnt only eat sushi, i also tried some typical hungarian food :)

But prices in general are not much cheaper than in Slovenia, just a little bit maybe. Public transport in Budapest is quite expansive, but most of the people dont seem to buy tickets at all. Well, i did not want to risk getting caught for most of the times.

The first 3 days in Budapest i spent on an European External Relations Summit, and i just travelled around Budapest for the next 2 days. Again, it was interesting to meet all vice presidents for external relations. I have met some of them twice on other ocasions or some ive met even 3 times in the various corners of this world! Its so interesting to build friendships like that. On bigger conferences i usually tend to build friendships with people that are as different as me as possible, for example Asians or Africans. But in Budapest, i had no choice, because it was a European Summit, so the Asians and Africans were not present :) Which was good in a way, because sometimes its useful to know Europeans as well. And it was interesting to notice, that not only Africans and Asians are different, but Europeans can be different as well. It was the fist time that i noticed, how different are the problems that AIESEC faces in each european country. Mostly for the western countries, the SWOT analysis was completley different from central and east european countries. But even though AIESEC in Slovenia officially belongs to the Central and East European growth network (region), i could associate Slovenia with the SWOT analysis of west european countries rather than central and east european ones.

It is interesting how the democracy works in AIESEC. Everyone can contribute his part to the regional and global direction of AIESEC. And this is also one of the things we do on those meetings, and one of the things that attracts people to AIESEC - the fact that you as an individual can make a change in the development of our global organization. And then you really start believing, that you can also make a change in the world as an individual.

It is interesting, how little Slovenians and Hungarians know about each other, even though we are two neighbroughing countries. But now i know a lot more than before. If you want to make a positive change, you have to first be aware of your surroundings! Hungary is a cool country and a really cheap one to travel to. Especially if you are an AIESECer :)