Budapest

Crossing the boarder into Hungary was surprisingly easy. David explained that it's become much easier since 1990, they have even removed the watch towers and stop points and in January '08, they stopped looking at passports, except randomly. Crossing European boarders now is so easy, sometimes you don't even know you've crossed.
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We drove through farmland and the land of castles. It's quite humbling to drive through this land, so weighted with history, listening to Hayden & Mozart, music thick with emotion by unrivaled composers -- the land, the music -- timeless. And me? A miniscule fleck passing through. The land, music and castles were all passionately created to endure, to nourish, protect, entertain, inspire. how I wish I had a passion to create on that level!!

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I have always had an ugly tendency to categorize people as producers or consumers. Now I am thinking of countries in that vein and am shamefully thinking of America as a consumer. I think we've evolved into a consuming nation, gluttonous and lazy, and future generations will suffer for it.

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Trying to trace Budapest's history is like trying to trace a spaghetti noodle on a full plate. Romans, Turks, Hapsburgs.... 1867 - World War I seems to be their time to shine.

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In 1896, the city was flooded and rebuilt.. . . Wind around the spaghetti noodle some more . . . German Occupation, Russian Occupation, Goulash Communism... '89 somehow moving from communism to a free-market economy... becoming a part of NATO and joining the EU in '04. They are very pleased about this. Now they are freebirds. Quirky, maybe a little gun-shy, but free.

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Enter: us. Ahhhh... Budapest.

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We had one hour free time to exchange money and get lunch. We shopped, got some gifts for the kids, and had only enough time to quickly grab some... ugh... Burger King. We were forced into it due to a lack of time. Europeans don't do fast food, they don't do drive throughs, they don't eat while walking or driving. They have a few fast food places for us Americans in case of dire emergency, such as this. We hauled our food back to the tour bus and began a drive around Budapest to see the sights.
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As Prague reminds me of New York City, so Budapest reminds me of Atlanta.