Today is Whit Monday and a holiday in Hungary. I feel very much like it is a holiday and it's strange to have a holiday that most others are not celebrating. The US is plugging along and my Warsaw News arrived just like always because this is not a holiday in Poland.
I've been editing photos from the past few days and so here are some random thoughts.
First, the above is a photo from Transylvania from the airplane. It is truly a beautiful area.
Upon my return to Budapest I spent the afternoon with Richard and Wendy. They had dinner plans with friends, so I took off riding the Metro to see where I ended up. One end of the Blue Line took me out into a suburban area.
I came upon a book sale. This seemed like a great contrast to what I've been learning about the huge value of books in the very old libraries that I have visited this month. The sign says one book is $2.50. Quite a contrast from what was done in the late 18th century to get books to start or expand university offerings in Central Europe.
On Friday evening we Fulbrighters were treated to a Danube Cruise. The weather was very cooperative. This is one view of the buffet. You can see we were treated very well. The Fulbright Commission had invited the Hungarian grantees going to the US to come on the cruise so they could talk with Americans. We enjoyed having a grantee going to Chicago join our table. As it turns out he is from the University of Pecs and so I gave him my card. He said he had many questions about going to the US.
I realized I had never shown what a tram looked like from the inside. Notice there is a visual display announcing the next station. There is also an audio announcement of the stations -- a good way to learn how to pronounce Hungarian. These trains are used by thousands every day. Note how clean the train is. It is a bit empty in this photo because I took it on the middle of a Saturday afternoon. Monday morning would find the train much more crowded!
And the final random thought. I boarded the train back to Pecs quite early and found I had a seat with a tray table. While I was waiting a woman came along and put two turtles down on the table along with a business card. The card explained she was deaf and was trying to earn a living. The turtles were so cute and I was very glad to pay $2.50 for one of them.
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