10 july 2005

Somehow I am in Budapest.

It was a long train ride from Brno, the southern Czech town where I stopped mostly to see the abbey where Gregor Mendel did his genetics experiments with peas. During communist rule the legacy of Mendel was swept under the rug because he was religious - which didn't go over well with the communists - and his genetic theories did not explicitly support the communist ideals, as those of Soviet scientists did. Now, however, there is a fabulous little museum dedicated to his work and the future of genetics.

In the train I sat across from a sweet Slovakian girl named Bogci. We chatted and I accepted a cigarette she offered, not because I like smoking in the middle of the day but because it felt so illicit to smoke in a train car. I tried to ask about Slovakian politics but it didn't go well.

At eight we pulled into Budapest and all the ATMs were broken and the bus ticket machine wouldn't take bills and I couldn't find the bus and when I found the bus and got off I couldn't find the hostel. But then I got a clean bed in a clean room and took the best shower ever.

I walked around Budapest, through the closed-up shopping streets and by the river, and I crossed the bridge and it was beautiful, castles and palaces and cathedrals all lit up on the banks of the Danube. I found an outdoor cafe and asked the one other person sitting alone if he would join me for a beer. His name was Colim, he's an electrical engineer of course, and he spoke in Dubliner speech so long and quick that it was like Trainspotting on fastforward.

Budapest.