Wednesday, August 30th, Budapest, Hungary

Greetings!

I'm amazed at how much I am learning about the countries we are visiting.  It's not that my American schooling didn't provide me with a sense of the places, language, and general history.  It's hard not to be aware of each country's highlights at least since the beginning of WWII.  With all of the movies made, you pick up some of the dramas.  

But being here, and listening to resident tour guides and home family members tell their stories, and those of their grandparents brings a deeper insight into the year-by-year experiences and transformations.  The major lesson being reinforced on each day, at each stop, is that people in these countries have never stopped fighting to determine who they are, and what freedoms they have.  While my life in America has been challenged by my father's participation in a war before I was born, and I had my own challenges in Vietnam, I don't think I ever felt like the ground I walked on was being seriously threatened.  Europeans have for a thousand years, and continue to feel so.

All around us, in every town, on every street, are evidence of the history which played itself out here.  Of families who shaped lives, and cultures which were shaped.  The space that it takes up dominates everything, there is hardly anywhere for today's visions to be presented.  We talk much about the future of the millennials we see walking around us looking into their cell phones.  I see a very different Budapest in their dress, and in their acceptance of scooters, bikes, and small cars.  I hope that the remnants of their lives tells a more stable and prosperous story.

The Danube is clearly the main character of this epic story.  From its support of the Roman fleet in 200 AD, to the most important transportation lifeline for the commerce of a continent, the fluid of these waters have given sustenance to fifty generations.  Players come and go, but they all have to find a way to accommodate its mighty force.  Religions and mighty families, and civilizations have tried to carve out their successes around the limits of what the river would allow.  We view the results, and are amazed at what we get to see.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Wednesday, August 30th, Budapest, Hungary.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday, Sep 19th, Bucharest, Romania

Image
Greetings! When the revolution came to Romania in 1989, one of the most shocking news that emerged to the rest of the world was the number of children that were living in orphanages in complete squalor.  In order to fulfill Ceausescu's grand plan to build Romania into a super-power, he encouraged (required) mothers to increase the number of children they bore to absurd numbers.  All families were to have seven children, and bonus were given for every child beyond that.   Abortions were illegal, and housing was distributed to large families.  At the time of the revolution, over 100,000 children were living in 1700 orphanages at a subsistence level barely sustainable.  This morning, we met Ionut, a 36-year old who told us about that history as a result of his research after attending school with some of the children of the orphanages. Most of our group went to see Ceausescu's house this afternoon, while Pat and I went to the Museum of Geology.  We took ...
Read more

Thursday, Sep 14th, Sibiu, Romania

Image
Greetings! Today was a transit day from Sighisoara to Sibiu.  On the way, our guide (Joe) took us to his home in Targu Mures.  The family homestead his grandparents built, it is a continually-remodeled and expanded one-story structure containing many stories.  Joe and his brother own it now, and he proudly revealed all of its secrets of his childhood.  Pat commented that it was much more liveable than her grandfather's home house in Italy.  I took the opportunity to photograph family member photos displayed in the living room to use in an Ancestry.com family tree I'm playing with for Joe's family. Next, we went to the Salina Turda Salt Mine.   Like something out of a science fiction movie, this enormous hole in a dried salt lake is a must to see.  Not only is the mine itself a spectacular work of man, but so is the adaptation of its insides to accommodate the thousands of visitors who descend sixteen floors via impressively-lighted and speedy elevators...
Read more

Saturday, Oct 22nd, Mackay

Image
Greetings! Well, it seems we're taking you all on an internet travel.  On Thursday, in Arlie Beach, we joined about twenty-five holiday snorkelers out on the Great Barrier Reef.  RedCatAdventures provided us with an 8-hour double-dive, and lots of very speedy, DJ-enhanced, very wet racing around and between the WhitSunday Islands.  We don't know when we've ever been as wet and wind-blown out of the water. But the very important lesson learned was to make every effort beforehand to waterproof your cell phone.  Nothing in the boat avoided getting soaked.  Not in the tightest wrapping, in the most secure hole, did the backpack holding the cell phone survive.  So a week after finding the best computer geeks in Cairn to try to fix our precious and essential Apple MacAir (and eventually buying a new MacAir from JB High-FI ), we found the best computer geeks in Mackay (who were again unsuccessful in repairing what seawater will do), and eventually bought a new G...
Read more