Speedos, communism and EKGs

Today was pretty amazing. I went to a little local outdoor market, it was literally just farmers selling their produce. I bought a little piece of cheese, a tomato and a bag of cherries. I relaxed on a bench in a near by park and journaled while littering the ground with cherry pits.

A little old man walked up to me and leaned his cane against the bench and started speaking to me quickly in Hungarian. I shook my head and said "English." So he pulls a sheet of paper out of his pocket and shows me. It is a whole bunch of lines, like from a heart monitor. He starts tapping his heart, still speaking in Hungarian and makes the universal sign for strong with his arm. He is grinning like a school boy at this point and says "EKG EKG" again doing the strong motion. So apparently he had a heart test, it went really well and he was just so excited to tell someone that he busted down the language barrier.

I started smiling and saying "good good!" and he took my hand and kissed it. I gave him a huge handful of cherries from my bag and he grinned at me, kissed his index finger and waved goodbye to me with it, popping a cherry in his mouth as he went.

After that I found a second hand english bookstore that my hostel suggested (I brought 5 books, but I ran out yesterday). I bought a book and then went to a museum called the House of Terror. It was absolutely intense. The whole museum is incredibly well done. It is devoted to the communist occupation of Hungary over that past century. I don't have time to rehash everything I learned, but learning about the Hungarian people and how their country was destroyed and they lived under a regime of fear and persecution was informative, disturbing and heartbreaking all at once.

After that I walked up a famous beautiful, tree-lined boulevard in town to the Szechenzyi Thermal Baths where I spent hours moving from one giant warm swimming pool/hot tub to another and then getting a massage. The pools were filled with old, old, old men in speedos. There are few things in life more disturbing than that, but even so the baths were awesome. The exchange rate here is great for us. So the whole day at the baths and the massage ended up costing about 25 dollars. Awesome. It was the most relaxing experience of my life.

I followed that with a luxurious dinner (that cost about 8 US dollars) at a local spot. Asperagus, bacon wrapped chicken and potatoes, so good. I have gotten in the habit of eating whatever free breakfast the hostels provide, then munching trail mix or an apple around lunch time so I can afford to eat dinner out some where. It makes for some wonderful meals.

Anyway, one of the best days ever. Tomorrow I meet up with everyone for the forum and the work begins. This was the perfect way to end my traveling before the forum. I don't know what the internet situation will be like at the forum, but I will write as soon as I get the chance. Love to all.