Cultural, sports, others

cdw057 ViP

Member since 01 November 2017

cdw057ViP18 March 2019 12:09:16

2001

Apologies, already my third post today.

Many of us will have a hobby, mine happens to be chess. Whereas I am not too active, I thought socializing with locals could be good for me. I was a bit reluctant at first, but I have to say the local chess club was more then welcoming even if less then 20% is able to speak German and or English. I am pretty sure it is not my personality (I am shy and not too much into close social contacts), but you can really feel that they were happy for me to join (perhaps because they can present them as an international club now (but that is probably too cynical)).
The club goes extremely far (in my view) to make you feel comfortable (free-lance translators at meetings, club outings, (very) small presents, pats on the back, handshakes (men), kisses (women), …).

Perhaps some of the readers are shy or have other reasons not to pursue their hobbies in a local set up, my experiences however so far are VERY positive. (useful contacts can arise as a side effect, but that should in my view not be the main purpose).

Marilyn Tassy ViP

Member since 12 January 2014

Marilyn TassyViP18 March 2019 15:22:18

6899

Sounds fun for you.
I used to attend different gyms in Erd and Budapest.
Made a couple of lady friends from there who were Hungarian.
They both were single and many years my jr.
Nothing wrong with that but my HU husband thought it was "weird".
Too many non spoken social rules here for me to figure out.
I'm not shy at all under most circumstances but also don't enjoy being the center of attention all the time either.
My husband used to play a HU card game once a week with one of his old buddies from his teen years but sadly the guy died on us.
I did enjoy going to the gym, it was full of non English speakers except for a few people. All the classes were held in Hungarian and I enjoyed that part.
Was easy to figure out what was going on and what steps were next in class.
The gym closed down after we returned from holiday and was changed for a few years into a very pricy yoga studio.
Now it is back to being a normal women only gym.
I've just moved on from going to classes.
I think it's great that you are out there and meeting Hungarians and having a good time doing your hobby.