Joe wants me to write about our experiences in Hungary. To be fair we were only in Budapest (grand capital) and Pecs (a smaller city further south), however I did get some impressions. First of all, Budapest (which is actually made up of two parts: Buda and Pest - who knew?) is full of tourists. The line to buy metro tickets from the train station to the hotel had about 20 people in it... no kidding! A one way fair (without changing trains) is around 2 USD. A far cry from the 10 cents we used to pay to ride the metro with unlimited train changes around Kyiv! Anyhow, we found our hostel which seemed clean and well-located. However, it was very expensive - in fact all things in Budapest, and Hungary in general, seemed very high priced.
Once settled, we ventured out on a huge city full of huge buildings. The architecture is incredible and most of the buildings are in pretty good if not fully renovated condition. After a while we found ourselves exhausted after walking and walking through the streets of looming buildings. Finally, we arrived at the top of a hill where the grand palace is located. The payoff was not only the buildings atop the hill, but the panoramic views of the city below. We could see all the big churches, the parliament house, and other buildings as parts of a greater picture. For a moment, we were the masters of all we surveyed. But, alas the feeling of being something other than a tourist quickly dissipated when we found that it cost 1 USD to use the public toilet. It was clean, but a patch of foliage would have done the trick almost as well. However, in order not to be too avant guarde, we obeyed and paid. Which is what I felt we did a lot of in Budapest.
After decided to leave after 2 nights, we headed for a smalled town called Pecs, pronounced PAYCH. It was more reasonable there with less tourist fanfare and ripoff feel. I caught a few great photos while milling around the streets looking for a pension to stay in. One of a group of girls in period attire waiting for their cue for a local movie that was being made about a famous Hungarian. The McCafe was good (a McDonalds sponsored cappucino joint) - I know I know - tacky! But the prices were good and all travelers know the bathrooms are great! We stayed in a private room which an elderly lady rented out nightly. Her name was Judith (YU-DIT), and she enjoyed engaging Joe in conversations which included a smattering of English, German, and Hungarian. Hungarian, by the way, is related only to Finnish in some distant way, not to Slavic or Romance languages at all! So it is really tough to communicate with those who spoke no English. Just for starters: Egan means yes; Nem means no; Kersernerm means thank you. Anything seem familiar?
So after a night, we left Judith and headed by train to Sarajevo. To make a long story short, we were victims of the old train Okey-doke. Due to an "accident" with the regular express international airconditioned train, we were shuffled onto an old Soviet-style train in 100 degree heat with windows that barely cracked open. The Hungarian guys, 20-somethings off on their summer vacation, who ended up in our compartment told us it looked like a train that had originally been designed for Air-conditioning (being that the windows barely opened), but the AC unit was missing. Did someone re-distribute it in a bureaucrats office somewhere? Who knows, but all were sweltering in the train for over 9 long hours. The conductor felt sorry for a few of us with limited water supplies and escorted us to a small shop to buy bottled water at the Croatian border!
Then there were the episodes of stopping in small station after small station in Bosnia picking up the milk-run passengers, many of whom decided to smoke in our non-smoking car with windows that barely opened. Yes, Joe had some intercultural communications with a few folks. None of which resulted in the smokers moving to the other end of the car. In fact, one woman said, "I will not only have one cigarette here, but I will have two, or three!" Luckily, most folks here in Bosnia are not like her . . . . and I have more news to tell about Sarajevo. Coming soon . . .
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