When people move to a new country, they expect the language and the paperwork to be the hard part. But for many foreigners settling in Hungary, the real culture shock hides in the smallest, most ordinary moments — the food on a child's plate, the shape of a morning, the logic of a government office.
Three people who now call Budapest home share the Hungarian custom or dish that completely threw them off at first — and how they eventually came around.
Emily (United Kingdom): "I couldn't believe they give poppy seeds to kids. Back home that would be unthinkable."
Emily has lived in Budapest for two years, and by her own admission Hungarian food won her over fast — with one big exception. Poppy seeds left her baffled for a long time.
"The first time I saw poppy seed pasta was at a nursery. I assumed it was some kind of dessert only adults would eat. Then someone told me it's a completely normal meal for children."
What surprised her wasn't really the taste — it was the sheer quantity.
"Back home, poppy seeds show up in baking, in tiny amounts. Here it's almost treated like a staple. That felt really strange at first."
These days, Emily has not only gotten used to it — she genuinely likes it.
"I eat it now too. But I still have this little 'foreigner reflex' when I see a kid being served it for dinner. I know by now that in this form it has nothing to do with opiates, but somehow that reflex is really hard to switch off."
Marco (Italy): "The world of paperwork is a whole different universe"
"The thing that surprised me most was how administration works. It's not simple in Italy either, but compared to that, Hungary is its own separate universe."
Marco moved to Budapest for university, and he quickly discovered just how differently bureaucracy can be wired from one country to the next.
"Italy has plenty of red tape too, but in Hungary I felt like every single thing needed its own separate document, and everything followed a very precise order."
His first real shock came with something as simple as registering his address.
"I thought it would be quick. Instead it took more steps, more offices and more documents than I'd expected. Maybe my lack of language skills didn't help, but even so, the whole thing felt far more complicated than it needed to be."
For Marco, though, the difficulty itself wasn't the worst part. It was that the process was never transparent to him — he never knew the next step, or when things would actually happen.
"The strangest thing was that everyone treated it as completely normal, while I was trying to work out why anything was happening at all. On top of that, the clerks either didn't speak English or didn't speak it well, which got pretty frustrating."
Today he handles it all far more smoothly.
"Now I roughly know what to expect when I have to go to an office, but at the beginning it was one of my biggest culture shocks."
Sophie (USA): "Breakfast isn't what I expected"
"I assumed every breakfast in Europe would be something light. Then Hungary greeted me with a completely different world."
Sophie has lived in Budapest for a year, and her biggest surprise wasn't a single dish — it was the whole rhythm of eating.
"Back home breakfast is usually sweet: pancakes, cereal, something quick. Here I regularly see breakfasts loaded with salami, peppers and bread."
For her, the difference went beyond flavor.
"It also struck me how seriously people take eating. It's not about 'grabbing something' — you sit down and you actually eat."
Over time, Sophie says, it changed her own habits too.
"Now I take my time with breakfast as well. It's almost like it gives the whole day a bit more room to breathe."
Why do Hungarians eat poppy seeds so often?
In Hungary, poppy seeds are used far more generously than in many other countries — including in everyday meals for children, such as poppy seed pasta. What feels like a dessert ingredient elsewhere is treated almost like a staple here.
Are poppy seed dishes safe for kids?
As Emily points out in the article, in this culinary form poppy seeds have nothing to do with opiates. The "foreigner reflex" of being surprised, she admits, is simply hard to switch off.
Why do foreigners find Hungarian bureaucracy so difficult?
According to Marco, the challenge isn't only the number of documents and offices involved, but the lack of transparency — not knowing the next step or the timeline. Language barriers with clerks can make it even more frustrating.
What is a typical Hungarian breakfast like?
Sophie describes breakfasts loaded with salami, peppers and bread rather than the sweet, quick options she was used to in the US. She also noticed that meals are taken more seriously, with people sitting down to eat rather than grabbing something on the go.
