Number one, they also have "singit". Last week at the market, while lining up to pay for a handful of tomatoes I was buying from a vegetable stall, an old lady just inserted herself in front of me. I was either too short (she was burly), or she simply pretended not to notice that I was falling in line. I observed this again in the pharmacy, where again an old lady walked from the door to the front of the rather long queue. My wife says old Hungarian ladies do that all the time.
Number two, the shops often will not give you your exact change. At the supermarket, you don't get back your 20 or 30 forint change. And they don't expect you to ask for it. Its like not getting back your 10 or 15 centavo change from SM supermarket. Apparently, however, this takes place in restaurants as well. We experienced this once when the waiter did not return our change of some 200 forint or so. Maybe he thought we intended him to keep the change by way of a tip? We would have wanted to give a bigger tip, but since our change was not returned, we didn't bother. (Incidentally, I tasted my first goulash in this restaurant. What can I say? It tasted exactly like mechado!)
Souvenir Shop, Hungarian Museum of Agriculture Number three, the shop clerks say "no" or "we don't have it" too easily. Scene one (100 forint shop): "Do you have a match here?" (illustrating by gestures) "Nem." (No.) "Like this." (illustrating again just to make sure) "Nem." Scene two (big supermarket): "I'm looking for goose liver pate, not duck." "We don't have it." (Are you sure? this is a big store!) "Well how about this. Is this goose?" (showing the pate with Hungarian label) "No."
This makes me miss Japanese service so much. The Japanese shop clerks never say "no" or "we don't have it", or at least not right away. They first try and check, and they let you see that they are checking. And when they need to say "no, we don't have it", they make this facial expression which says "so very sorry that we couldn't be of any help to you". But that's Japan.
Or maybe I'm just blogging about these nasty things because this afternoon, in the souvenir shop of the Hungarian Museum of Agriculture (shown on the photo), I picked this nice postcard hologram from this revolving card stand under a label that says 100 forints, and when I handed it to the shop keeper, he said: "That will be 400 forints, sir." Grrr!
