I woke up pretty early in the morning and was dead tired.
Travel, although very wonderful is definitely tiring. I had to decide if I was
going to stay another night in Vienna, or head out to a new destination. I
didn’t really want to pack and go, but I had seeing everything in Vienna and
was a bit bore. I decided at the last minute to head into Budapest with the 3
Scottish guys I met my first night at the Hostel. They were so nice, and we had
such great conversation. Not only that but it only cost me 32 Euros to see
another country, and I had 2 days to kill before heading to Zurich. 32 Euros to see a new country seemed too good
to pass up. No matter how tired I was. So I head out with Kenny (the scot in my
earlier post that runs from the sun), Robert, and Cameron. I figured since I
was going to Hungry, I may as well arm myself with 3 very interesting and
charming men. (Smile)
Kenny has his masters in history and political science and
is now a journalist for Aberdeen’s local newspaper. He is pretty much a walking
Wikipedia and is a GREAT tour guide. While walking around he was giving me the
most interesting history of Hungry and Budapest. He knows all about their wars,
changes of power, and their most recent dark history of the Cold War. He’s got
a great sense of humor followed with a million different facial expressions
that make me laugh so hard my cheeks would cramp up.
Robert is an engineer in Aberdeen with a very monotone
voice. Striking up conversation with him is very easy as he is the most laid
back of the 3. He has traveled Europe the most of the 3 guys and found that we
both really loved Berlin, which was a large topic of our conversation. At in
the end of our journey we spent about 10
minutes quoting Dumb & Dumber. That’s when you definitely know you’re in
good company for sure… it’s a standard given!
Cameron is also an engineer in Aberdeen, and looks the most
athletic of the 3 scots. He has a great sense of witty sarcasm, and would
constantly tease me for my American “huh” and “what “ American comments. He was
also my late night chatting buddy as we seemed to be able to carry on
conversation non-stop and both never wanted to end the night early for the sake
of “getting rest”.
Anyhow with my tour guidebook and my history enthused Scottish
friends toured Budapest together. As always much banter regarding stereotypes
went on. Then we went to the torture museum that had chambers that once held prisoners
against communism during the cold war. It also went over their history during
the Holocaust, and how they had pardoned many of the leaders during these dark
times. It was a very sad but very interesting history. I gave me a much deeper
understanding of why Hungarians are the way they are. For those of you whom
don’t know the Iron curtain was torn down in 1989, and these cold war crimes
continued though the 90’s in Budapest.
Surrounding this museum, it is said that the Hungarians refuse to sit,
eat and even avoid walking past the museum, as it is a harsh reminder of events
that occurred just 12 years ago in some cases. Kenny, as a poli-sci master was able to add onto much of the
museums history. After my tour through Europe I feel that I will have a much
more worldly understanding of immigrants in America. An understanding of their
past, why at times they act as they do,
and most importantly will be more knowledgeable of the potential exposure they may have had
while they were living in there country. This trip so far has been a very happy
trip, full of good times, many laughs and meetings of wonderful people. I think
what I am enjoying the most is my personal growth of understanding people, and
also learning about their history. It took me a few days to write this blog,
when I am on the train I usually eat, and sleep to catch up for the next adventure
– so I have some catching up to do. Right now I am on a train to Munich… again!
I will tell you all about it in my next post. Sorry for making this so long,
but I hope you are enjoying the clips of my journey. I cant wait to tell you
more over drinks or coffee.
Much love!
xx
Ps. I went to an all you can eat/drink Hungarian
restaurant.- the food is GREAT!
Lots of meats
(standard European) with sauces, cheese, stuffed chicken with prunes and
apricots… and of course potatoes!
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