For a long time, it was not entirely clear how the stay abroad would go, whether the lectures would only take place online and how much I would get out of my stay abroad. Nevertheless, I planned everything, took out the necessary insurance policies such as international health insurance, looked for accommodation and booked flights. As one of my courses at the FHDW in Budapest could not be mapped, I completed it in parallel during my internship semester at the FHDW, which was no problem thanks to the online lectures taking place at the time. Fortunately, everything worked out and my flight to Budapest left at the beginning of September!

I chose a room in the university dormitory. At the CEU Residence Center, I had a single room with my own bathroom. For a one-off surcharge, I also had my own fridge delivered to my room. I can highly recommend this, as otherwise only the fridges from the communal kitchens are available. For me, the dormitory had the great advantage that there were some people there who were also attending METU, so I was able to get to know fellow students there before my first day at university. But there were also residents from other universities, so it was easy to make contacts outside the university.

Although the hall of residence is a little outside the city center, there are great bus and train connections, so the center was also easy to reach. It was also only a five-minute drive to the university itself.

In general, public transportation in Budapest is a positive feature. Both buses and trains run every few minutes and a monthly ticket for students costs less than €10. The cost of living in Budapest is somewhat cheaper than in Germany, so you can also treat yourself to food specialties such as lángos (savory flatbreads) or kakaos csigas (cocoa snails) or the occasional excursion. The only difficulty at the beginning of my stay in Budapest was the Hungarian currency, the forint. However, within a few days I was able to quickly convert the prices into euros.

My lectures during the semester were hybrid. All courses with less than 100 people took place in presence in the lecture rooms of the university, with more than 100 participants the course took place online via Zoom. I was happy to take part in some courses at the university so that I could see the beautiful campus and my fellow students. I actually only had lectures three days a week, which left me a lot of free time.

My university planned several excursions and city trips throughout Hungary, including to Eger and Lake Balaton, which I took part in (and which I can only recommend). Unfortunately, the corona situation worsened and all lectures were switched to Zoom for the last two weeks, but I was still able to attend ten weeks!

Budapest is a beautiful city that you should definitely visit once in your life, regardless of whether it’s a semester abroad or a city trip. The weather was great most of the time, so you could see all the sights such as the Fishermen’s Bastion, the Parliament (my favorite!), the Castle Palace or Heroes’ Square in the sunshine. Thanks to the good weather, it was also possible to have an iced coffee in an outdoor café, go shopping or simply stroll along the Danube. A visit to one of the city’s many thermal baths is a highlight at any time of year. And a visit to the Christmas markets at Christmas time.