StagInfoBudapest

Last week a sad and rather rare occurance made the headlines in Hungarian papers and on European blog spots. A 25-year-old Englishman was stabbed in the thigh, suffering minor injuries, while roaming the streets during his stag weekend.

The fact that it made the news and has been talked about ever since not only means it is an unpleasent memory to get hold of in Budapest, but also very rare. Some did not hesitate to say that this deplorable event proves that the streets are not safe in Hungary and that visitors are better off avoiding long, wanton walks in a capital ridden by crime. However, reaching premature conclusions like that are not a very clever thing to do. Not only does it hurt – and with no good reason – the image of Hungary, but might prevent some to come see the beautiful town of Budapest, called, by the way, one of the safest cities in Europe by the expat forum, All Hungary News.
Inevitably – in a city of 3 million –, crimes like that do happen. But here they do once in a blue moon. Budapest is receiving millions of tourists every year and in the last 15 of them no serious bodily harm has been done to any of those tourists by criminals. Nor is the city threatening or unwelcoming. Unlike in major English towns of the Nortwest, no bar fights, no hate crimes, no beating up of the pedestrians by youth gangs can be called an everyday occurance. Budapest extends its warm welcome to everyone by its peculiar architecture, beatiful scenery and colorful nightlife. There really is no reason to worry other than you might not want to leave this charming European capital once you tasted its flavours.