>>Hungary is a special case, perhaps only Poland and perhaps the Estonia/Lithuania/Letonia are in a similar position, in that they have been through wholesale robbery of whatever existed before (aka transition) and then became EU members, got the initial packet of subsidies and investment, which then petered out and left them with huge amassed debt, unemployment etc. So they got the taste of the carrot, and now IMF is wielding a stick and pretty much dictating, through their central bank and/or ECB. There's bound to be a significant percentage of people who've seen the robbery of their country take place, no heads rolling, so they follow the example on their own. So above, so below.
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>We went back to Budapest last spring with friends and loved it, but talking to people there, we definitely could see the impact of a long history of oppression. We spent half a day with fantastic guide who was a retired history professor and had some pretty strong opinions about the current government and the various political movements. (FWIW, he reminded me somewhat of you.)

Haven't been to Hungary almost three years now, and then twelve years before that. Just like most other countries of ex-Comecon, it's heavily centralized, and probably one tenth of the people and one quarter of the money is in Budapest. So whatever you saw there may be much better than elsewhere in the country.

Serbia is not too different - perhaps only the percentage of the money which never leaves Belgrade may be higher.

(and, ow... how many years since that last encounter... better not to count :)