Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Tatras

Finally got the group shots from the Tatras Mountains.
This is definatly the best picture that I never posted.

Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, October 26, 2006

SCANDAL! brought to you by Sorin Antohi

Sorin Antohi was, until last Friday, the founding chair of the history department at CEU. He has a huge legacy here, and is the pet of countless administrators, students, and professors. He is incredibly popular here and regarded in very high faith.

Then, the whole university got this e mail from the University president today:

To: Members of the CEU Community


On Friday, 20 October 2006 a Romanian newspaper published an article indicating that Sorin Antohi does not have a Ph.D. degree, although he mentions in his c.v. that he possesses one. We learned about this article from Sorin Antohi himself who, in an e-mail letter sent on the same day, acknowledged that the article was true and also submitted his resignation from CEU. The resignation was accepted (see acceptance letter attached). We have clarified in two communiqués that students who had Sorin Antohi as their Ph.D. supervisor should not fear negative consequences regarding the validity of their diplomas (the two communiqués are attached).

Yehuda Elkana
And it came with this attachment:

20 October 2006

Attn: Sorin Antohi

Dear Sorin,

Having received your letter dated October 20, 2006, with sadness and

regret, I hereby accept your resignation from all your positions at

CEU as from today.

The termination of your employment contract will be settled

following the standard CEU protocol for resignation.

Based on the fact you disclosed in your letter, CEU does not plan to

take any legal actions against you.

My best personal wishes for the future.

Your Yehuda

CC: Executive Committee



This is the explanation, that keeps getting posted and deleted and posted and deleted from his wikipedia entry. Please don't miss the part about his apparently fabricated publications. Good gravy:

In a 2006 open letter published in the Bucharest-based 22 review, Mr. Antohi admitted to having collaborated with the communist secret intelligence service, the notorious Securitate, during the 1970s and the 1980s. In that capacity, he secretly reported information damaging to the lives of many of his close friends.

+


+
On 20 October 2006, the Romanian press reported that representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Education discovered that Mr. Antohi never defended his doctoral thesis in the country. Antohi's CEU website claims that he got his doctoral degree in 1995 from the Faculty of History, University Al. Ioan Cuza of Iasi. In fact, Mr. Antohi was expelled in 2000 from the doctoral program. The website also lists among his books some titles published by Polirom press. Journalists from the "Ziua de Iasi" daily were unable to locate any of those volumes.


Think it ends here? NEVER!

The wiki continues:
In a 2006 open letter published in the Bucharest-based 22 review, Mr. Antohi admitted to having collaborated with the communist secret intelligence service, the notorious Securitate, during the 1970s and the 1980s. In that capacity, he secretly reported information damaging to the lives of many of his close friends.
Wow.
I mean, just, wow.
Makes me think that missing that deadline for my for my social inquiry paper by a few days isn't such a big deal after all.

Labels: , ,

Another Oct 23 Narrative

Can I just say, that the people at index.hu and the reports that they come up with are mind-blowing. There is no media ANYWHERE in the states that has coverage like this. I am just speechless and filled with joy.

This walk-through was put together by the lovely folks at index.hu. You will recognize some of the pics from the earlier post. There are a few points where their narrative differs from ours. We're sticking to our story, with confidence that most versions of Mondays events are probably equally true.

Thanks to riotsinhungary.blog.hu for making this HTML available.






21:00 - 24:00 Blaha Lujza téri, Ferenciek tere, Erzsébet híd


next »
« previous

There are fewer and fewer people on Blaha Lujza tér. On Ferenciek tere, at the Pest side of the Erzsébet bridge however, protesters build a massive barricade using materials taken from a nearby construction yard.











Labels: , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Interesting...

These are excepts from the CEU network forum tread about Oct 23.


Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My friends and I ended up right in the middle of the crowd by accident...By the time I reached the upper floor of the Deak Ferenc Ter I could see the smoke, it was a tear gas granade, thrown or shot by the police. It went all the way down into the underground territory. People were running around, some stood shocked, some were scared, but most of them were not prepared to be in such a situation. When I rushed out to the street I ended up in a cloud of tear gas, which was shot by the police every 20 to 30 seconds into the crowd. I saw the old Soviet truck being pushed towards the riot police, I saw how the protestants [sic] started the old Soviet tank and tried to guide it through the crowd, but I saw no barricades there. I saw no extremists, skinheads or fascists. As a matter of fact, the more I was moving away from the epicentre the more surprised I was. It almost looked like the crowd wanted to have a regular demonstration and the government didn't want that to happen. People around me were in their 30's and 40's. I saw a large group of old people, in their 60's and 70's. What really surprised me was the riot police...I saw the police officer on horse hitting a woman right in front of me. Her only fault was that she was not fast enough to turn away from a galloping horse. This happened about 150 meters away from the epicentre, where the riot police were standing in line. I saw police officers beating the crap out of anyone they can catch and drag behind their lines. And I was extremely surprised to hear that the police acted professional and legitimate. Throwing tear gas into the subway underground territory is extremely dangerous and unjustifiable. Riding over protestants [sic] with horses is hard to justify as well. But then again, maybe I am just overreacting. After all, I don't know all the truth about the people who were surrounding me in the crowd, except for their age and their appearance (seemed like regular Hungarians to me). After all, maybe the police did act professionally and it's a new European police tactic of breaking up the crowd with rubber bullets, water, gas and horses. After all, maybe right wing extremists are young people, elderly and middle aged regular Hungarian protestants [sic].




Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Strange things are happening...Halfyear ago, in Vladivostok, a police officer hit a woman in front of TV camera and was immediately fired. Until now I didn't hear about any policemen arrested for his actions against innocent people.




Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:04 pm Post subject: Budapest is Politicaly Hot....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a Political Scientist it a very interesting thing to observe. as an American I feel like Hungary has something in common with the United States Independence. May-be there should be somthing the people can better identify with like parades, fireworks, a day off from school and work...I'm very happy for Hungary. Not to long ago Americans were not aloud behind the iron curtain. now here I am that says allot.
...You see, Hungary is a very politicaly opressed country, it has been ruled by so many for the past two thousand years. its a political phenomena we can observe first hand. its a very beutiful thing.


Ok, so I still stand to be convinced that the last guy on the thread is an American (hello syntax), or even a sensible human being. I understand the draw towards witnessing and recording political events like these, but its a little sickly to call police violence and mass rioting a "beautiful thing". I cant recall the last time I say someone get their face ground to a pulp and then commented on the beautiful interpersonal harmony that is forged from violent social behavior control. I dunno. I'm glad these threads are anonymous, cause this guy is just asking for a smack down.

Also, I have to add that I too am surprised that the police violence isn't really being responded to. Even if there is no official response to officers acting out of line, there is usally a public outcry.

Where are the crowds of people shouting "Rodney King!" over and over? Aren't they supposed to be here?

Well, at least teh politicos are still getting each others panties in a wad. This article was posted by Caboodle.hu


Parliament rejects session to discuss Budapest riots
By: HATC
2006-10-25 09:42:00

Parliament's House Committee yesterday dismissed appeals for a special session to discuss the previous day's riots in Budapest.

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány spoke about the events in a speech before the day's main business, though Fidesz and Christian Democrat MPs left the chamber in line with their boycotting policy.

Gyurcsány said: "those who sought to hurt me have taken their revenge on the nation. Demonstration is rightful but we will not tolerate riots and I expect the police to fight against them with all their might," he added. "They do not understand what they are playing with," continued Gyurcsány, turning to the empty Fidesz seats. "This situation was brought about by a politician who does not respect God, nor human and constitutional democracy," he declared.

Parliamentary regulations require debates to be declared 14-28 days in advance. Fidesz and the Christian Democrats dropped their plan to hold a debate on the riots because of these requirements and will instead raise questions at official meetings of the law enforcement, human rights and national security House committees.

"This extraordinary situation arose because a police attack was ordered on the opposition's demonstration," said Fidesz caucus leader Tibor Navracsics.

Free Democrat chairman Gábor Kuncze retorted: "We have reached new heights of political idiocy, hearing that the police provoked peaceful demonstrators, who were equipped with metal balls and molotov cocktails under Árpád flags." The red and white striped Árpád flags were also used by the Hungary's Nazi Arrow Cross movement.

"The original offence was Gyurcsány offending the nation, but Orbán's reckless behaviour is also leading the country to anarchy," said Democratic Forum leader Ibolya Dávid. "Both should resign," she concluded.


For the record, my impression is that the people who were waiving the red and white flags had more to do with the Greater Hungary cause than an anti-semitic one, but I can't really back that up. I mean, I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin...

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

October 23 Riots

- updated 2:00am 25.10.06

I must also refer you to the Riots in Hungary blog and Pestiside.hu, which have fabulous records of tactics and narratives of the event. They are full of great commentary, pics, and videos.

In September, Gyurcsani, the prime minister of Hungary, was caught on audio tape admitting at a socialist dinner event that he had lied extensively, and not just lied, but partook of the made-lots-of-stuff-up-on-the-spot type of lying, to the Hungarian public about the state of the economy in order to win the national elections in April. He also admitted to his administration generally "fucking up" the government and state management for the past 4 years.

The next day, protestors stormed the Hungarian TV station. The crowd wanted to read a call for Gyurcsani's resignation on the air. They were held back by police, and the conflict dissolved into full scale rioting that lasted through the night.

Some very interesting videos have been creeping up concerning the demonstrations against the Gyurcsani administration from September. These are a choice few:





Below is video from the rioting on October 23. The logistics of the protests are explained below, but watch for the following things in these videos:

*Normal People: This all began when the police began teargassing a crowd that consisted of everyday folk, people who brought their kids and dogs, who had gathered for a peaceful march in commemoration of the 1956 revolution. Fueled by police violence and antagonism, many of these average citizens with no political issue began to take up arms against police.

*Police Brutality: So, its pretty hard to miss. But the actions of the police observed first hand at these events include: Firing tear gas canisters full force, horizontally into crowds, firing rubber bullets at close range, throwing cobble stones into the crowd, beating and clubbing unarmed civilians with out provocation, and generally, inciting most of the violence by antagonizing the crowds in an extreme way. The crowd at my university has seen their fair share of protests and everyone agrees that the police were unreasonably brutal, often straight out vicious.

*Hungarian flags with holes in the middle: Before the 56 revolution, the Hungarian flag had a communist star in the center. Hungarians cut this star out of all the flags when the communists were [nominally] expelled.

*Red and white striped flags: This is the flag of the pro-nazi party from 1956. The presence and number of these flags at the riots yesterday are causing many Hungarians to write the whole event off as the work of some scum bag, nazi hooligans. As I have been talking to people, I have found that this is exclusively the opinion of people who were not actually there on the day.

*Fascists and FIDESZ members: Folks carrying those red and white striped flags. They threw a whole lot of rocks and molotov cocktails all night long. They also are responsible for the tank incident, which has been described on other mainstream websites as "the glory moment"

*The crowd screaming "AVH": These are the initials of the Államvédelmi Hatóság, or the Hungarian secret police, under the Soviet regime. They were known to have brutally killed many citizens, and kept political prisoners in concentration camps

Oh, and the tank. So the tank was on display in front of a huge hungarian flag (with a hole in the middle) in downtown Budapest. It is a soviet model from the 50s. A few members of the opposition party (as I said, more explaination below) broke into the tank, and began driving it towards the brigade of riot police. Marko, Stephen and Wyatt were standing on it when it started moving. That video follows the clip of the tank moving through the crowd.

Some of these videos were ripped from TV and news sites. Some, we recorded ourselves.

video collection from index.hu
THIS ONE IS NOT TO BE MISSED!:


At Erszebet Ter. Video taken by Wyatt:


At Nyugati Ter:


At Deak Ferenc Ter, from Index.hu:


From atop the same tank. Video taken by Wyatt:


At Deak Ferenc Ter:


Taken from Pestiside.hu

There is certainly a proto-anarchist movement of some sort at work (I used the term "movement" loosely here) that desires violence, either for political ends, or simple entertainment. This, however, describes only a handful of those opposed to the government, either in the crowd or in Hungary as a whole. At the same time, the Hungarian public's confidence in the police's ability or willingness to maintain order and behave responsibly is in free-fall, and comparisons to the communist-era security forces are becoming more common and louder every day.

Even giving police the benefit of the doubt, what I saw suggests incompetence and poor training; using teargas to drive a small group of violent protestors into the remnants of an official opposition rally certainly does not seem wise. (Employing teargas in a strong headwind is also counter-productive.) Meanwhile, given my experience I can't help but take seriously the disturbing rumors that individuals arrested in the previous round of rioting have been imprisoned without any proof that they were involved in instigating violence.

For sure, in a democracy - and despite the histrionics of some in the opposition, Hungary is a democracy - there is no room for violence of the sort desired by the small number of those who came out yesterday hoping for exactly what happened. But when the state deploys overwhelming force against a crowd that seeks nothing more than to make itself seen and heard, violence becomes inevitable. In particular, there was no legitimate reason for the government to decide that average Hungarians could not be seen and heard within kilometers of their own Parliament, especially as some of these same people had risked their lives or freedom protecting this same building, or working to return it to the function it was designed for.


Narrative:

This account of the riots on Monday are based on personal accounts and other eye witness accounts. Wyatt, Stephen, Jen and Marko were in Deak Ter as the violence began, in different locations, some of us central, some to the east. Marko, Luc, and Jen were with the crowd near the front lines at Astoria and on Blaha Lujza. Stefan was with the crowd locked in at Astoria. Marko also returned to Erszebet Hid late in the night. Heavy television and media coverage was also consulted.




From what we have been able to gather, this is how things went down. On Sunday, several opposition party protestors, FIDESZ, a Christian Democratic nationalist party, who very much want Gyorcsani anywhere but in the PM seat (ideally, they want him on a stick, but out of the government is enough for the moment), had a minor skirmish with police at Kossuth Ter, near the parliament. Because of this, the police closed the square. According to several accounts, opposition protestors tried to enter Kossuth Ter again on Monday, but were pushed south by the police into Deak Ferenc Ter, where another, larger group of nearly 100,000 were gathering for a planned march down Andrassy Utca. The video above that is labeled "Nyugati Ter" was taken only a few blocks east of parliament on the körút, or ring road, that connects to Andrassy to the South East.

The police began to enter Deak Ferenc Ter from the north (above), walking along Bajcsy Zsilinszky Utca from Nyugati, and also from Andrassy Utca, from the east, where the citizens march was supposed to head. This was a peaceful citizens group, who were all surprised by the sudden police presence.

There were several protesters, allegedly pushed back from Kossuth Ter, who were causing problems in Deak Ter. With out warning, the police began shooting paint into the crowd, followed quickly by teargas.


So much tear gas was released, that the fumes were visible and the air was painful to breath nearly 1km away. The crowd started setting up barricades against the police. They drug large letters from a display in the square, and spelled the word "szabadsag", which is Hungarian for "freedom" in the middle of the road, reinforcing it with fencing, wood, and benches from the nearby area.

The police started pushing the crowd south onto Karoly Korut. Part of Deak Ferenc Ter was being repaved. Cobble stones were stacked along one of the metro entrances. Opposition party members began breaking the cobblestones and hurling them at the police. Other people in the crowd started making a massive wreckpile in the middle of the road, in an attempt to prevent the police trucks from moving any further south. I want to emphasize that this was NOT made entirely by opposition protestors.

Then the tank started moving. Opposition party protestors broke in and started the engine. They drove it into the road and turned it north, heading towards the riot police. Most people were incredulous, and could not understand the police's behavior. The video above looks like total mayhem, but from the ground, people were getting out of the way while hollaring and cheering for the tank. People were doubling over laughing on the side walks. Horns and wistles blew in support. The tear gas got thicker.

The police started firing rubber bullets.


Then, the police started pushing the crowd even further south. The crowd got backed up at Astoria, On Karoly Utca and Kossuth Lajos Utca. More barricades were set up against the approaching police. Tear gas continued to be fired on the crowd in massive quantities.


The crowd began moving east towards Blaha Lujza Ter. The police entered from a side road from the north, and separated the two groups of protestors, leaving the largest group at Astoria on the west. The area was fenced, and the protestors on the west continued to receive the unending streams of tear gas fire. We saw the police shooting the tear gas cannisters straight into the crowd, hitting several people. This is where others report seeing the police throwing cobble stones back at the crowd.

The police then turned on high power hoses, and turned these towards the less dense crowd of protestors on the Blaha Lujza side of the divided mass. Several windows of buildings were shattered as the jet of water turned 90 degrees to the left to be directed at the crowd. The police continued to push the largest mass of protestors down Kossuth Lajos towards Erszebet Hid, the bridge just to the south of Lanchid, the chain bridge.

This group began building bigger barricades against the police.

Tear gas kept being fired on the crowd. As the police antagonism kept on unabated people began chunking more cobblestones from behind the barricade. This continued on until very late in the night.

This whole ordeal began at around 4pm.
This is what the crowd pushed on to Erszebet Hid looked like at midnight.

and elsewhere:

To the best of our understanding, the crowd was held back for a very long time. The numbers slowly dissipated as the night progressed into the morning hours. The last of the crowd dispersed as the police rammed the makeshift barricade with a city snow plow.



There are few reports of any violent action at parliament, further up Andrassy, or along the ring road, though thick fumes and tear gas cannisters indicate that riot police used violent crowd control tactics in these areas as well.

It should also be noted that, as the night progressed, many people who we feel comfortable grouping into the "average citizens" category started leaving, while stronger instigators stayed to continue clashing with the police. While the above narrative is meant to paint a picture of the reprehensible antagonism and violence on the part of the Budapest police, a great deal of violent and destructive behavior was seen from an ever growing crowd of opposition protestors, facist groups, and pro-nazi party supporters. Above all, it is important to note both the size and the diversity of the crowd.

Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Happy Birthday Dad!


May your bowties always be this awesome, and your lobsters always this big compared to your head.

Dél-Budaval, and Underwater Gypsies

We went into the Buda hills today: Me, Stephen and Marko.


The whole anthro department was supposed to go, but the trip got postponed till next weekend. We discovered this when I called Agí to confirm directions. We had already left the house and it was a beautiful sunny day, so we went anyway.
We took the tram on the körút around to Moskva Tér, and then from there took another bus to the fogaskerekű vasút, or cog wheel train which went up a valley on the north end of the buda hills. There were tons of kids on mountain bikes waiting to go up the fogaslerekű, and even one moutain unicycler...the first I have seen since I left Oregon. I was hoping that the kids wre going to bomb down the hill (and there is even a zoo up there! Budapest zoo bomb!) but the vast series of trails at the top were hardly a disappointment.


The train pulled up a hill with a slope of about 15% in the residential XIIth district for quite a ways, and dropped us off at the top of Széchenyi Hegy (Setsenyi Hill). There was a woman making old fashioned cotton candy out front. She had a huge bowl in front of her and she was pouring in sugar straight from the grocery store, making gobs and gobs of this sticky white goodness. We paid 300,HUF for a huge bundle the size of a pony keg.

From there, we walked along a small road, past all the gorgeous restaurants and shops in buda, to Gyermekvasút (Children's Railway). This place was crazy.

Its a rail way that is run and operated entirely by children under 14. The kids who worked the cash desk, the conrollers, conductors, even the kid who stamped our ticket, all looked about 10.
It was like being in children of the corn, except they were excited about trains instead of killing Linda Hamilton. Also, it is entirely unclear where they get the kids to do this job. Are they from a school program? Some sort of tourist industries magnet? Is this volunteer? Compulsory? No one knows...

If you dont let me do my job, they're gonna kill my dog...

Ok, so maybe I'm over doing it. But it was totally weird, none the less. We took this train to the top of the hill, and were supposed to take a chair lift (did I mention that Budapest has a ski resort? hehe. yea) down the east side of the hills to see the city, but we got there late and were distracted by a huge frikin castle on the next hill over.


So, we read the sign out front. Our hungarian is getting better, so we were able to determine that Hungary's Queen Elizabeth (Erzsébet Királynő) was coronated here in, I believe, 1867. We hiked up this big hill, and climbed up to the top to get this awesome view of the whole city. It was not a clear day, and we could not see forever, but parliament was visible from where we were. You can kind of see the Danube behind Stephen, though the haze.


After we came back, we scarfed some dinner, and I headed out to meet Brigette, Asa, Gergő, Mariya, Stephan, Luc, and Drago at the Gödör Klub in Erzsébet Tér for the TransitFestival, a but international music event hosted by a slew of NGOs that were raising awareness for several causes in the area. The Gödör Klub is underground in one of the main squares downtown. Its a really gorgeous entrance, with these massive marble steps and fountains leading down to the glass doors. on the roof is a pond, that actually sits about a foot deep at ground level, but it is lined with panes of class, so from the dance floor, you can look up and see the water rippling over head. It's pretty fantastic. There are some really neat pictures on their website.

While there, we saw some fabulous music, including a Hungarian Roma band called Parno Graszt.

Even though I have the worst cold ever known in the history of ever, no one if the club, including me, could stop jumping up and down like mad for these guys. Click here to listen to a short mp3 on the band's website. They rule.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Slovakia, MF

Ok, so in case you didn't read Kasia's comment from last week, a group of us went to Slovakia last weekend. We travelled to Poprod, in the north, and trained into the Tatry mountains for the weekend. It was beyond beautiful. The pictures that I gleamed off the net 2 posts ago do not lie.
Here is a map, so you can orient yourselves. Poprod is just to the right of the marker for the Tatra National Park.

I went with Wyatt, who I live with, Colin, who is in my department, and Peter, who lives down the street. Peter is currently an undergrad at Lewis and Clark here on exchange. His roommate Eli owns a Reed "communism atheism free love" t shirt. Its a small world. We stayed our first night in the nearest, cheapest hotel with vacancy. The four of us crashed in the tiny double room below. It was cozy, and olfactorally familiarizing, to say the least.

Poprad is a nice enough town. Its small, and industrial. This is a view from the hotel balcony, which is right by the train station. This is basically the view that the tourists get:

I have never seen a city with such a "good side of the tracks"/"bad side of the tracks" divide, though. It was amazing. There was an old, rundown commuter rail that ran through the City. To the west, it was sparkly and new. The town square was renovated and freshly spackled. New fountains, stores with hiking gear and fashion jeas, and trashcans on every corner. To the east, the city is much older, communist block buildings are crumbling and there is a significant population of Roma families living in a scattering of shanties. The whole neighrborhood is glittered with laundry drying on fences dividing small earthen lots. Its eerily beautiful.
Our first night in town, we bar hopped through the touristy side of the city. We ate dinner at a restaurant that Wyatt recommended (he had been through Poprod before), and it was absolutely amazing. The whole weekend, we ate so much peroghi and pasta and fried cheese and garlic soup. We made ourselves ill on white flour and dairy fat. We also consumed a ridiculous amount of beer. Ridiculous. Poprod has its own brewery, called Tatran. We didnt realize until half way through the weekend that this stuff is 12%. Oddly, we didnt notice. I think that means we're officially European now. Anyway, this stuff goes for 20 Slovakian Krowns per half liter. That is about 70 cents.

We also hit up a dance club. A small, Slovakian mountain town dance club. Holy Jesus. I havn't been part of a scene this ridiculous since I was at The Electric Cowboy in Muskogee Oklahoma in 2000. The girls were all in heels, jeans, and funky white tanktops. The guys all wore Bball shoes, huge fubu shirts, and bandanas. One guy even had a huge Adidas scarf tied around his head. Seriously, he looked like the karate kid. Nothing was weirder than the dancing though. There were a lot of mirrors in the place, and most of the girls spent the majority of their time dancing with themselves in the mirrors. This girl was particulary fond of herself. She spent hours ignoring everyone and everything except her own hair:

There is also only one dance move if you are a girl. You step from side to side like a jr high valentines dance, and wave your arms around in front of you like a sign interpreter. Its hilarious, and only bested by the way men dance. People have described certain dancing skills before as "epileptic fits". I tell you now, that all of those people are wrong, because it is nothing compared to this:

Ok, so onto the good stuff. We trained into Stary Smokovic from Poprod, and from there, went east into Tatranska Lomnica, which is near Lomnicky Stit, the second highest peak in the Tatrys at 2634m. This is a view from halfway up:

It was gorgeous. We took a lift to the peak, and walked along the ridge. We could see the range from all directions.


This is a pan shot that wyatt took from the top. He took all these pictures actually.

We stayed the second night in Tatranska Lomnica, then went back and spent the last half of Sunday in Poprod. I took a ton of pictures with my little AE-1. Maybe I'll scan some of them and throw em up on Flickr when I get them developed.

Then the shit hit the fan.

Suffice it to say, we were supposed to get on a train to Kosice. Certain members of our party got on the first train that said "Kosice" on the door, not realizing that it was headed in the wrong direction. Before we were able to convince our comerades of hte mix up, the train started moving. We were supposed to be home in Budapest at 8pm. But, where did we end up? On a train to Bratislava. BRATISLAVA! For the love of God. Please, do me a favor, and scroll back up to that map at the top. Find Bratislava. Connect the dots. Poprod-Kosice-Budapest. Now, Poprod-Bratislava. Holy balls. And we were SO far off the beaten path, that we hadn't met anyone all weekend who spoke more than a small handful of english words like "you, cigarette?" "yes" "ticket" and "train...up....you, up." Plus, everyone in Slovakia speaks german as a second language. None of us speak german. I had gotten by with signs and menus because it is relatively similar to Ukranian, but there is NO way we can explain this to a train conductor. You cant play stupid tourist when you cant communicate at all.

So, ok, we pulled into Bratislava at 9:30pm, already an hour and a half after we were supposed to be home in BP. We soon discovered that the next train leaving for Budapest departs at 5am the next morning. So, we were committed to a night in Bratislava. So, we crabbed some zsemlis and a few bottles of coke, threw our packs on, and headed out on foot away from the train station prepared for a long night. We headed into the "historic center" of the city, which is the Disneyland downtown of the city--a place where all the sandwhich boards in front of hte restaurants are in English, if you know what I mean. But it was still incredibly beautiful. They had a bright green laser that started at Michael's Gate and was bounced all through the neighborhood by mirrors until the main strip by the Danube. Very very cool.


We also hiked up to the plateau where stands the Bratislava Castle. The actual castle was closed, but we were able to walk around the retaining wall and see the whole city. These are some views from the castle:
Ah, the lovely Danube.

Bratislava looks awesome. Colin and I have talked about coming back to see it during the day sometime, as well as visiting some of the amazing little towns that we saw on our accidental train ride across the Slovakian coutryside (which totally blows the quite scenic Hungarian country side out of the water. Its beyond words. Imagine the Columbia Gorge, with lakes instead of a river, castles everywhere, deep forest, and small towns with creepy yet beautiful clusters of communist blocks painted up like a Cuban ghetto. My God. You have to see it with your own eyes.)
We headed back to the train station at about 3:30am, after sitting in a coffee shop for a few hours. Look how happy we are to be alive right now:

We made it back to Budapest at 9:30am. I slept for about 30 minutes on the train. Then I had class from 11, straight through till 8pm. It was not my best day. But it was awesome, and almost worth the whole trip, just to get to write this to my masculinities class:

Labels: , , , , , ,