Hunglish.orgWith tons of alcohol and disproportionately little regard for moderation, Hungary has quite the interpersonal relationship with ethanol...
Written by Scott Savoie
Like in most of Europe and North America, alcohol plays a big role in social events and gatherings in Hungary. Házi palinka, Unicum and Tokay aszu commemorate special events, while beer, wine, and more palinka celebrate everything else.
There is no word for „moderation” in Hungarian. OK, so there might be some like „mérséklet,” but Hungarians don’t know what it means; things tend to be taken to extremes in Magyarország and this can lead to problems, both long-term and short-term. Recent studies have indicated that nearly 10% of the population may be alcoholic.
You can see construction workers drinking out of little airplane-sized palinka bottles before work – celebrating, perhaps, another day driving a forklift or crane. Eventually, the whole work thing starts to interfere with the drinking and they’re forced to quit. Working, that is.
Short-term problems may include episodes of horrible dancing and singing.
So if you are coming to Hungary for a short visit, you should bring your drinking hat; and if you plan to stay long term, you may want to start saving up for that liver transplant you will need down the road.