It is often thought the Hungarians are a completely ‘alien’ people in Europe. Alone, surrounded by Slavs and Germans, they would have to go to Finland or Estonia to find their brothers. Linguistically, Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, which leads to the false assumption that Finns and Hungarians should be able to understand each other and be somehow ‘similar’. In the eyes of many Finnish and Hungarians this is a folly. The Finno-Ugric relation is almost exclusively linguistic and only distinguishable for academics. Finland is more orientated towards the Nordic countries and to Russia (and recently to the Baltic states and the EU). Hungary stood alone or was allied to or part of the Austrian empire. However, many Hungarians might tell you there is an alternative for the Finno-Ugric relation: Poland.