July in Hungary

Mon. 7/2

We came home today. Its been a great trip - I'm really glad we went. Miklos picked us up and gave us a ride to the train station. Nadia caught the train, but I stayed behind. It would have looked suspicious if we both came home on the same train - we supposedly weren't travelling together anyway. I walked around Bp. till six, and caught that train back. I ran into Adam. It was OK, but he wouldn't stop speaking English. That bugged me. Also, he wants to borrow a bunch of my CD's and copy them. I don't think I can get out of lending them to him, but I don't really want to just hand them over. I'm too nice sometimes.

Thurs. 7/5

Today was cool. I went to Mate's house one last time. We had a great dinner - Hungarian-style noodles and chicken in a typical sauce (another of my favorite meals). We played ping-pong for a while, then played a board game called "Hotel." It stormed a bit while doing that. Then they gave me a ride home in their Trabant. I love those cars - they're so Hungarian.

When I got home I talked to my host father. He said we're not going to Balaton. That is really good, because I had told him earlier that I didn't want to, and he said we'd "talk about it later." So I'm glad. I want to spend as much time as possible here.

Fri. 7/6

This morning I went to Tamas's house, and then went to Hollohaza about noon. I bought some really nice porcelain pieces - vases, etc. - and came back. Then I went back to Tamas's. We biked up to a really nice spot halfway up the Magas Hegy. Coming back down was a lot harder - at one point we were going down a pretty steep set of stone steps, with a big stone wall on one side. I took a spill there, but no damage. We walked in the city for a while after that, and ran into some ethnically Hungarian girls from Romania (there are a lot of these - they're considered Hungarians). We all went to the new cafe and ended up walking around with them till one AM or so.

Sat. 7/7

Today was nice. I had a goodbye lunch with the Majoros family, then just hung out with my host parents for a long time. It was actually very nice. We went to Patak, where there was a small parade. Then we walked around the castle grounds for while, and stopped for a drink at a nearby cafe. When we got back, my host father and I went to the Slager Radio (Classic Rock Radio) party in the park near school. They had a pretty bad performer onstage (I really dislike Slager in general, though). The neat thing they had going was a hot air balloon. It wasn't giving rides, though - actually, all it was doing was advertisting for a sausage company.

We came home and had a fire outside. We roasted a kind of kebab - meat, cheese, onion, etc. - over it, played chess, and just talked until 11.30 - it was really nice!

Mon. 7/9

My last day in Satoraljaujhely. The Rotary has owed me some money for a while, which I was finally able to pick up today. Right after that, we went down to Budapest. We spent the night with some of my host father's relatives. It was nice, I guess.

Tues. 7/10

We woke up early - about 5 - this morning, so I could get to the airport on time. We almost died about 5 minutes from the airport - my host father accidentally ran a red light. That would have been strange. Brian and Megan were there too, but we were separated on the plane. It was so strange, flying out of Budapest. I remembered seeing all the same things, only this time every one was special to me - it meant something now.

Frankfurt was just as boring as I remembered it last time. But on the plane back to Chicago there must have been 20 or 30 "rebounds" (though we all felt strange calling ourselves that). I met a cool girl - Monica - who'd been to Bulgaria. She was funny, because she'd somehow picked up a really thick accent. But she was great to talk to, because we both knew where the other was coming from.

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