Hungary

Gloucester High School writers: Jackson Chen, Ryan Mohammad, Serene Cheaito; editor: Catherine Lamb

General:

Hungary is a country located in the continent of Europe, with its capital in Budapest! The size of Hungary is about 93,028 sq km, while Canada is about 9, 984, 670 sq km. Ironic how Canada has bigger land, but Hungary has many more attractions. It’s also much more densely populated. Per square kilometre, Hungary has at least 104 people, and Canada has about 4 people.  It sounds a little bit crowded! Just like Canada, Hungary has a prime minister, who right now is Victor Orkban, who also used to be an actor! Talk about hidden talents! Their government system is a parliamentary democracy government. In Hungary, they speak Hungarian. If you don’t have the time to learn the new language, have no fear! English is very common in the cities, but you may experience a language barrier if you come across some folks in the countryside. Either way, Hungarians are known to be very welcoming and very helpful! The currency in Hungary is the Hungarian Forint. For perspective, 1000 Hungarian Forints is 47 Canadian dollars. The main industry in Hungarian is the mining of ores and precious jewels. Our travellers would have many opportunities to pick up a little gift for someone special back home.

Travel:

Okay so, since there is a race occurring in this country, we would hope that the journey would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The roads in Hungary are currently under heavy construction! That means there is tons of traffic on the highways. The major highways there are called M1 and M85. The speed limits on those highways are very fast. For urban highways, the limit is 90 km/h, for rural highways it’s 110km/h, and for expressways it’s 130 km/h. At those speeds, are these highways or Mario-Kart tracks? Unfortunately, accidents happen a lot. There are at least 262,000 accidents that happen every year in Hungary. Hungary is also known to be somewhat dangerous so be careful. Common dangers in Hungary include petty crimes and scams, but as long as our travellers don’t get on anybody’s nerves, they should be fine.