This really is class trolling. Bravo!

From the Budapest Tourist Guide website: Family ticket (családi jegy): 2200 HUF: valid on all public transport lines for 1-2 adults and 1-7 children under the age of 14 for 48 hours starting from the time and date indicated on the ticket.

How many of you have travelled with 6 children under the age of 14??? Troll alert!

And, her new name, aprettyamerican... is that a take on the "ugly american"?

Well, I will add my two cents for anyone who is really thinking of going to Budapest, and may be disuaded by this thread. I went for the first time this past summer (after numerous trips to Europe), and Budapest shot to the top of my list of European loves.

I actually got seperated from my family for my first day due to flight cancelations, and I wandered Budapest alone that day. I was hesitant to wander in the beginning as a woman alone; yet, the beautiful weather would not allow me to stay locked up in my hotel. I felt very safe, people were helpful (and downright friendly). I loved Budapest, and it would be shame if anyone skipped it due to a couple of minor negative experiences. I, personally, cannot wait to return.

Oh now. First the 24 hour fester. Now the sock puppet account. Making up new name to support and substantiate post is yet another classic move. We're working straight out of the troll handbook now.

New name gets the focus off the conversation about her formerly stated nationality.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-internet-troll.htm (the playbook)

Joannyc; You are correct, that is the ticket we were issued by the ticketing agent. We did validate it. The control agent did insist on us paying a $60 USD fine on the spot. Please note, that the one of the control agents originally demanded $120 USD, but her associate said that she was incorrect and that it should only be $60. We still do not know why we were fined at all, except that the agent said she had make money because she was working on xmas. I am not "verynaiveirishgirl"; I found her post after searching "Budapest Metro Corruption" to see if anyone had had a similar unfortunate experience. It appeared to e that she ran into the same scam that my family and I had to contend with. Apparently, Budapest Metro has been rife with scams from the highest level of their administration on down to the control agents, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BKV. This particular scam targets tourists and will have a chilling effect on travel to Budapest. It was especially heinous that it occurred on the xmas holiday. The ticketing is confusing and not translated for foreigners, the tickets and the prices were not posted, and there is no way to contest an unfair/unjust fine; a visitor using the Metro is forced to pay whatever the control agent demands immediately, even when the ticket was purchsed in good faith from a metro ticketing officer. Travelers to Budapest should beware.

Oh, right. They asked for payment of the fine in dollars? Try explaining that.

The agent said we could pay in florint or USD. We were only there for the one day and only had dollars. Many of the vendors take dollars and other foreign currency.

Is it on this thread or another thread where someone suggested that if one were asked to pay a fine, then the best thing to do is to ask the police real/fake to go to the police station with you, where you will gladly pay the fine?

aprettyamerican, you omitted blond from your nick :)

Cheers, Alan
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/

I remember fondly the post with the four divas in Italy. That was a riot. Babs?

Well, I don't know what the truth or not of these postings are, but if nothing else, it is fair to say that "The ticketing is confusing and not translated for foreigners"

This is probably true for someone regardless of what foreign transit system one faces for the first time. It's something that anyone can take away as a precautionary tale. Me, coming at the time of our trip from a little town, near a city that itself has no no real public transport, I didn't find the Budapest system, buying or validating, particularly confusing. But some might, I suppose. I've since been on a to of systems I thought were more confusing. But maybe that's in the eye of the beholder.

It is also a good idea, I feel, that if one thinks they're being shaken down by a real or fake authority, to insist on handling the remainder of the dealings in a police station and/or in front of a higher level officer. This comes up more often in the developing world (of which Hungary doesn't even remotely come close) If it's a faker, they'll bolt. They were counting on you wanting to avoid the "trouble" as much as they do. If it's an actual cop, they're aren't doing it officially. Not unless you're touring war time Congo or something. They don't want to explain this to the boss and will likely "let you off" on the spot. Or, you go to the station, find out what you did wrong, pay your fine and learn from it.

I still like the statement that she was traveling with 6 children under the age of 14!

Again, from the Budapest Tourist Guide: Fines are high (if caught travelling without a valid ticket or pass you have to pay 6000 HUF fine on the spot) and it's not worth ruining your stay with constant watching out for the inspectors. If you forgot to buy a ticket or validate it and you're fined the ticket inspector must give you a receipt about the payment.


Let's see a link to your scanned receipt. And, as StCirq, says... paid in USD??? The fine is 6000 HUF.

Were the ticket checkers wearing arm bands?

So long and thanks for playing, aprettyamerican/verynaiveirishgirl!

We have had no problems using the Paris Metro or even the Tokyo Metro and do not speak French or Japanese. No signs were in English in the Tokyo metro, which was fully automated, state of the art, and accessible to all. The Budapest Metro scam that I describe really is corrupt, designed to target tourists, and is carried out under the auspices of the official Budapest Metro authority.
Clfton, we were abused by the actual Metro authority; we had no confidence that local police would be any better, nor did we know where the local police were. We were detained for 45 minutes and were late as it was. We were actually afraid that we would be arrested, even though we had purchased Metro tickets and paid the fine. Sadly, "Beware Budapest" is completely accurate.

This appeared on
http://visitbudapest.travel/budapest...tting-around/:
"Having a ticket doesn't entitle you to ride public transportation. You must validate your ticket at a ticket-punching machine when starting your trip. Transfer tickets must be validated twice. First, when entering the system and also at the point of transfer, using either ends of the ticket. Hungarians may understand the way the ticket system works; however, it's still the source of the majority of complaints received from tourists. They buy their tickets in good faith but forget to validate them and have to pay a substantial fine when caught. It's an awful system by design, as you are able to enter/use all public transport without validating your ticket, until an undercover controller stops you. All forms of public transportation are frequented by controllers, so you are bound to run into one sooner or later, and they are not very pleasant to deal with.

Budapest shouldn't be remembered for such an experience. After filming in the city, Warren Beatty was asked by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show what he had thought of Budapest. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to his mind was being fined on the metro for forgetting to validate his ticket."

joannyc, I do not remember if they were wearing arm bands. They wore some kind of bluish quasi uniform. They did look kind of like bums. They were two older women, one with red streaked hair, the other was stocky with short brown/grey hair; and we saw another control male officer going after other tourists. They targeted tourists, not locals. They did not stop everyone; only tourists.
They did give some kind of orange colored receipt. I can understand fining someone $60 for not having a ticket, but we had purchased a ticket in good faith that was sold to us for our needs by a metro ticketing agent at their window in the metro. We were set up.

We were lucky they accepted USD. Otherwise we might have gone to jail for nonpayment of the fine.

LOL. German tourists validate their tickets and German tourists call 112 on their cellphone if they think they're being scamed. And they don't go to jail for nonpayment but use their debit cards if they don have any forint.
As if anybody would go to jail for this. :D

They must be incredibly smart those German tourists. :-)

How many replys? Waiting for the next one.

I read somewhere else - tripadvisor maybe about the American with the six children. I can totally understand how shocked you were and I just hope you got home safely.

The metro workers did indeed target me. I am convinced of it. When we tried to explain to them that we were staying for a few days at the Kempinski Hotel, a mere 50 yards from the station and that we were returning from Szechenyi bath and that we were tourists and did not not know what to do with our tickets that we had only bought a couple of hours ago on the other side of the train - they were even more insistent on us paying the fine. It did seem that they were very interested in the fact that we were tourists.

It really is a scam. I suppose the metro is run by the government? I really don't know. If it is then it is corruption on a very large scale.

I was absolutely appalled that the controllers were treating us in this way - they looked like beggars and they were very robust, fairly unattractive types. The fact that they said very quickly in the "conversation" that they were calling the police is big time scary. We were immediately made to feel like criminals. After the event when I looked at a policeman on the street all I could think of was that the police are only too willing to scam tourists also. That is not a nice society in my view to be in.

Budapest has St. Stephen's Basilica, The Castle District, the Danube Symphony Orchestra, Szechenyi Bath, etc., etc., and all are beautiful, but they are absolutely useless to tourists when they are unfortunately encased in the corrupt society of Budapest. That is what I remember of Budapest - the event on the tram. If this is what the government wants visitors to remember the city by then so be it. They are driving people away. I will definitely never and i mean NEVER return there. The people who lose here are the people of Budapest because we did actually spend a lot of money while we were there (not scammed by the way but money we wanted to spend), and then you have the idiots who work for the corrupt government/tram company and zone in on us to say we may go to jail. Just lovely.

I will in fact continue to post my experience of Budapest elsewhere also on the net. At the beginning when we returned after Christmas I was still very angry - I have now calmed down and I have come to know how these threads work - no bad language, etc.,

I am not the pretty american I am the very naive irish girl who lives in Ireland

naive, you forgot to mention that the Kempinski is a 5 star hotel.

Aw bless now they're talking to each other. Pass the popcorn. I've used this on another thread but it's apt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsyS0oHLNFA