Why lookout towers are the new bus stops in this Hungarian village

A poor village in Hungary had to be at its creative best to get a bus stop built.

Locals in Nyugotszenterzsébet, located in south-west Hungary, say the community didn’t have the €1,500 needed to buy a government licence for the bus stop.

So the village instead applied for funding to build a small lookout tower—which didn’t require a licence—and has doubled up as a bus shelter.

The village built the "tower" for 450,000 Hungarian Forints (€1,450), less than the cost of the licence for the bus stop even before the construction and material costs.

A village representative told RTL Klub, a Hungarian broadcaster, that before the lookout-tower-cum-bus stop was installed, children would often get soaking wet walking to the nearest stop, further down the street.