Miles, Movies n Serendipity

這篇，是2016年2月在布達佩斯時候發生的事情。原本因為非常生氣所以寫了一篇社論之類的文章投稿給布達佩斯當地的報社，但對方經過兩周都沒給我回應，我又試圖找出布達佩斯市長想要跟他請教，究竟為何一家小小的攤費，有高於央行決定匯率多寡的權力。但，一個月過去了，我還是沒有收到回信。現在只好把當初寫的原稿放在自己的部落格上，替自己做個旅遊的回憶與紀錄，也希望之後有機會逛到這裡的朋友，能不會碰上我所遇到的。

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Dear editor,

I am writing this letter to you for two reasons, one, to find out why a snack shop chef had more deciding power on EURO over the CIB bank? Two, to tell future tourists to always have enough HUF in their pocket and don’t count on the shop owners to give you a fair rate when making the payment.

The story goes like this, on 18^th February 2016, I went to the central market hall to get some souvenirs and to get some food for lunch. After I finished buying souvenirs on first floor, I went up to second floor to get a bite. I didn't choose the restaurant; instead, I saw a long queue and decided to try out the langos (but later when I checked, what I had ordered was called the kenter langos, not the traditional langos). After waited for more than 10 minutes, it was my turn to create my own langos. To be honest, neither there were any clear prices on the walls nor mentioned anywhere at the shop. Without any idea what the prices might be, I ended up saying pretty much yes to whatever topping the langos chef is recommending. At the end, when he told me the price (it was HUF5100), not only I was surprised at the price, when I asked him if I can pay with Euro, he told me the price was 20 Euros.  

With earlier experience (arrived in Budapest on 16^th February 2016) of paying with Euros in Budapest, I didn’t really think there was the need to change into Forint (since many places accepts Euro, why worry). Most of the shops I went to, pretty much all gave me a very average rate of 1 Euro to HUF300. Also, few hours earlier on the same day, I just booked a cruise and the ticket price was HUF5500. I did ask for the Euro price, which came to just a bit over 18 Euros. I paid in HUF instead of Euro, which later became the worst decision I had made for this trip and made me really wanted to kick myself for it.

Let’s go back to the snack shop. I knew the kenter langos chef over-charged me, because if the kenter langos was cheaper than my cruise ticket, how can I be charged with more Euros? Well, I think at that time I had three options, one, walked away without saying anything; two, arguing with that man and make a scene while there were many queuing behind me; three, pay the amount and write about this wicked experience.

I chose option three and ended up paying HUF1300 and 15 Euros. Let’s do some calculations here:

If I had paid in full 20 Euros for the kenter langos, the purchasing power of my Euro would  gone down from average 1 Euro to HUF300 to 1 Euro to HUF255.

Instead, I paid 15 Euros and HUF1300, which means the purchasing power of my Euro would  gone down from average 1 Euro to HUF300 to 1 Euro to HUF253.3.

WOW, can anyone imagine that Euro had weakened so much in the last 10 minutes during the waiting period for food?  After I paid and took away the kenter langos, I asked myself, why didn’t I pay the cruise with reasonable Euro rate so I wouldn’t felt like a foolish tourist who just got ripped off by some greedy snack shop chef?

Which lead to next reasonable question, why a snack shop chef had more deciding power on EURO over CIB bank? If every shop owner can make their own rates, what’s the point for CIB to exist?

The hostel where I chose to stay has two “change offices” near it. Every time I passed by, I would check the rate and noticed one of the change office has different rates in a day: the rate is usually 1 Euro to HUF307~309 in the morning and 1 Euro to HUF 280 at night. I am sure those are the rates those chance offices get from the CIB and I understand the exchange rate would be dearer, but what the snack shop chef had asked for was far beyond reasonable, and no doubt, he had took one step too far and triggered my defense system to write down the story.

What if I am not the only one who had been over charged by the snack shop chef when customers asked to pay in Euros?  Wouldn’t that mean the shop is actually earning too much more than what they should be getting? Take my case for example, when he asked me to pay 20 Euros for the kenter langos which was HUF 5100, later when he goes to the change office for Forint, he’d be getting a little bit over HUF6000. If he does that to 5 tourists everyday (except for Sundays), he has a very good chance in making sweet and sweat-less extra income just by trading the Euros he gets at a better rate days.

Of course when people travel, we travel with a bit extra money with us, but that’s for buying especial things we didn’t plan to buy or see, not to be ripped off by some greedy snack shop chef. To top it up, that’s not a way to do business, if you want to do long term business!! Maybe that person think the tourists only come and shop once, so he’d want to make extra quick money by not having a proper list of prices in the shop and by charging ridiculously over the chart exchange rate in Euros.

Sure, that might work, but, when one traveler or tourist decided to write down the experience of being ripped off by a snack shop chef, I am sure the words get around and eventually everyone will know which shop that is in Central Market and they would go elsewhere for proper Hungarian foods.   

Now, if anyone can tell me the reason that my Euro had less purchasing power in the Central Market Hall and the reason a snack shop chef had more deciding power on EURO over the CIB bank, please email me, thank you.

I am writing this not because I didn’t come on holiday without bring enough money to spend on food, I am writing it because, like you, my dear snack shop chef, I also have to bust my ass to work for a fixed salary. When I get paid, I have to carefully plan my monthly budgets and try to save for a nice holiday like coming to Europe. Hence, where do you come off ripping me off like what you had done! Do you not know that you were ripping off people who work as hard as you do? Whatever goes around comes around, I am sure if you don’t have your attitude adjusted soon, someone will get you like you got me.

To travelers, after reading my unpleasant experience at the Central Market Hall when paying with Euros, I hope you would be more prepared when visiting Hungary and won’t ever have to encounter what I had came across in Budapest. It is no doubt that Budapest is a definitely can’t miss out city in Europe, but, I sincerely hope no one has to pay for this kind of unnecessary and expensive lesson during their cheerful holiday in the future.

Cheers,

Eileen H. from Taiwan

(if you have more questions you’d like to ask or confirm, please email me. I am heading back to Taiwan on 21^st February and if you decided to run this story, may I have a copy of the newspaper, thank you)