As promised, here’s part deuce of an unknown number of get your culture on posts. During my flight back, I made up a list of things I wish I had known. Hopefully this will help a bit in your travels (if you happen to travel to the same places I did).

Budapest Subway Scam

While this is probably the most localized thing and won’t affect you unless you patron Budapest’s superb metro system, it was the most ‘piss me off’ thing that happened. I guess technically it’s not a scam, since the perps are a group of budapest’s finest (they’re cops).

Here’s the setup - you go to the metro much like in any other city, and you buy tickets to where you want to go. Fine. Then you proceed down the esclators to the subway platforms to await your ride. Super. You get on, ride for about 5 minutes, and you get off at your stop. Ok.. Here’s where the fun starts.

You get off the metro and onto the platform, and you are welcomed by a gang of thugs in blue. They ask for your ticket (which you purchased because you are such the upstanding citizen), and then tell you that you are in violation and are being fined. WTF??, you ask. It seems that before you went down the esclators (flashback to going down escalator in desaturated colors and blur), there was a small ticket stamper tucked away on the side of the area! But since there are no signs or turnstyles to stop you, there is no way you would know about this (unless you read fine publications such as this).

So at this point, they’re demanding that you pay about $50 in fines for a ticket that cost less than $3. Even shadier is that when you take out your wallet to look for cash, they reach in and ‘help you’ with your money. This has got to be the most ridiculous public service I’ve ever heard of. So if you ever end up in budapest, STAMP YOUR TICKET.

This ran much longer than I had pictured in my head, so I’m saving the rest for future parts. Till next time, keep your tickets stamped and your ass away from the budapest subway system.