My guests often have quite a few questions about me.
- What have I studied?
- Where did I learn foreign languages?
- How did I come up with the idea of becoming a tour guide?
- Do tour guides work full-time? Who are they employed by?
Here you will find some answers to these questions and some more information about me…
I was born in Pécs, southern Hungary, in 1980. I moved to Budapest with my family when I was a small child, and I grew up in the capital. So I feel absolutely Budapester, although of course I’m always happy when sometimes I have a tour to my city of birth .
After elementary school, I attended the Budapest Lutheran High School, where I graduated in 1999. While still at high school I was able to spend a school year in Germany, in Bielefeld. After graduating from high school, I decided to go to the ELTE University in Budapest and studied German.
As soon as I started studying German, I became more and more interested in the tourism industry. Parallel to my studies, I trained as a tourist guide in 1999/2000. From that time on, I got more and more involved with tourism. And my German studies? Well, I neglected that a bit. After four semesters it was clear to me that I had to make a decision, and so I finally ended up in tourism.
After leaving my German studies, I switched to the College of Commerce, Gastronomy and Tourism. So in 2001 I had four more years of study ahead of me. In addition to my studies, I have already worked as a tour guide. In 2003 I got to know the world of the hotel industry a little better for a year as part of an internship abroad. After two six-month stays in two Bavarian hotels, I returned to Budapest and returned to my profession: tour guide.
Then, in June 2005, the time had come: after passing my final exam and having my college degree in hand, I decided to continue working as a full-time, self-employed tour guide. I practically continued full-time what I had already done part-time during college. In April 2006 I also passed the tour guide exam in English, so since then I have been working in these two languages, German and English.
During this time I lived in several districts of Budapest, so I got to know both Buda and Pest as my place of residence. As a child and teenager on the Pest side, then about 10 years came which I spent in Buda. The time in the elegant district 12 was very nice, but I preferred to move back to the Pest side near my original place of residence and have first found my home in district 15 and now – and probably for the longer term – in district 13. By the way, did you know that in Budapest it is very common that people sooner or later return to the side of the Danube where they originally grew up? You’re either somebody from Pest or from Buda, that’s the way it is. And that despite the many moves, people here live in their own apartments and not in rented ones? Well, if you do a city tour with me, I can also explain such topics to you in more detail.
Professionally, there have also been one or the other change during this long period of time. For example, I tried some legal forms of self-employment, but in the end I stayed with the simplest legal form and have been working as a private entrepreneur since 2013. This is easy and, above all, free of bureaucracy. Incidentally, for micro-enterprises in Hungary, the annual tax return could actually fit on a beer mat. I probably don’t have to mention that during a tour I am also happy to give you information about topics such as tax law in Hungary. You will be surprised why numerous luxury cars drive around Budapest with German license plates… If you are interested in the background of this phenomenon, you can also learn more during a guided tour.
2013 brought a big step in my professional activity. This step at that time has fundamentally shaped my professional life ever since. Since the demand for private programs was increasing and I personally like to be on a private tour with only 1-3 people, I decided to take also the transportation service into my own hands. With my – at that time – new Passat we fought our way through the complicated bureaucracy of acquiring a license for commercial passenger transport and since then such private city tours and excursions have practically become my main activity. Time flies quickly, since then I have already taken over the third Passat in the order in 2020. The equipment of the new car is really specially adapted to the – perhaps a bit special – expectations of my job. This Passat has for examle a large panoramic roof, which opens up a whole new perspective on city tours in the narrow streets.
Of course, a lot happened also in my private life in these years. 2014 was a year that brought very significant changes in my life. I got married that year and my first daughter was born. She’s going to school now, but quite early on she was interested in my work. As you can see on the photo on Heroes’ Square, she became acquainted with the statues on Heroes’ Square very early on.
In 2021 my younger daughter was born. One advantage of the pandemic is that I can spend significantly more time with her in the current situation than I did in 2014/15. Nevertheless, of course we hope that the pandemic will slowly be over and that we will get back to our old life and, for example, live without travel restrictions and constantly changing regulations.
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