'Hungarian Journal'-2

[christabel_daae]

A further entry to my paper diary. Here I had to cut some dull paragraphs, replacing them with '(...)'


Saturday, the 14th of July
10:20 – still Kyiv time

Bus drive through the great Carpathians – what can be as splendid? (…)

In the train I had a good night’s rest. The carriage was shaking violently, but this makes the sleep even better. Woke up at half to five and was awake ever since. A banana, a double sandwich with bacon and cheese and two mugs of tea with cream made my breakfast. Some Edith Piaf – she has such a nice accent when singing in English! Our train was half an hour late, but that mattered probably only for the travel agency guy who was meeting us. He simply checked our names and showed us the place where in an hour (or later – for others, leaving, for example, for a tour to Poland or Czechia) the buses were departing. So, an hour in the ‘Salle d’Attente’ (funny, a song with this title was sung by Edith Piaf in my headphones, as well as ‘La Foule’). And I come out.

I should have waited longer! The bus was forty minutes late! And I was dressed according to the forecasted Hungarian heat, not for Lviv overcast and fogs. So I suffered a little bit. And a terrible rogue girl, a Gypsy, seven years old or something made three (sic!) rounds about the square with buses. A terrible brat! I had to shout at her not to touch me, or my luggage. Only my romantic mood (‘ah, Mina goes to Budapest’) made me regard everything as integral pieces of a decent 19th century novel.

In the bus I received from the travel agency man my visa, some colourful prospects about a hotel in Budapest (a standard 3* - still let me see it) and additional excursions provided during the trip (as if I hadn’t learnt all information about this tour by heart by April!). My place is by the window, in the second row, to the right of the aisle. My neighbour is a young lad of my age from Kharkiv travelling with his parents. *a later addition: we hardly exchanged a couple of phrases during the whole trip, so taciturn he was. On the contrary, his parents, especially his mother, were nice companions and interlocutors to me – so far as my own reserved character allowed that* For three hours already he is reading ‘Dandelion Wine’ (in original, though that’s a Russian edition with comments to tough words and expressions). So I also read for a while. ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent’ – or rather called now ‘The Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories’. Penguin Classics, my Dad’s birthday present. I read the chapter ‘The Royal Poet’. The first time I learn the story of James I of Scotland – and I liked it a lot! What about my ears? I listened to Kamelot, randomized albums ‘Karma’, ‘Epica’ and ‘The Fourth Legacy’. How these songs are right for the severe peaks, thickly covered with fir-trees… The sky used to be overcast, but at this very moment it’s rather shiny (12:20 – still Kyiv time).

We’ve already made our first stop. “Plaj” (Ukrainian for a meadow in the Carpathians), a nice little restaurant in Carpathian style.  I took some photos.

Unfortunately just then the batteries became low, and now I have to wait for the hotel to recharge them (another pair is in the luggage section)
(…)