Number Theory in Budapest: Good Thing We Don't Have To Drive

Upon our arrival to Budapest back in the first week of January, we experienced our first taste of Hungarian driving as our bus dri

ver managed to quickly navigate the streets of Budapest, confidently squeezing the bus in between cars and onto narrow streets. This more aggressive style of driving continued to come to our attention as we rode the tram (or walked) to and from school. Sometimes it almost seems that drivers here speed up when they see a pedestrian crossing the street in front of them!

The traffic signs in Hungary differ from their American counter-parts, which has brought both

confusion and amusement as we try to guess what some of the signs mean. We can only assume that foreigners traveling in America experience a similar situation.

One especially-noteworthy difference with traffic signals is that of the traffic light. While the colors and order are the same as American traffic lights, the traffic lights in Hungary display the yellow light not only to signal a period of yielding before the light turns red, but also to show that a red light will be turning green soon. This is demonstrated by lighting up both the red light and yellow light at the same time for a few seconds before turning green.

While walking around Budapest, it is hard not to notice a lot of graffiti on the ground, walls, traffic signs or anywhere it can fit. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes some graffiti on otherwise pretty statues and buildings, despite the efforts of the “I love Budapest” (Szer

etem Budapestet) initiative. This program is a volunteer program that was put into place in recent years to remove graffiti from public buildings. (To read more about efforts on removing graffiti in Budapest, read an interesting interview at the Budapest Times website)

While some people view all graffiti as purely a form of vandalism, a lot of the graffiti in Budapest is done especially delicately to form a beautiful peace of art. These pieces of art add a lot of character to Budapest.