I've still got another day here and this country is beginning to get to me. There definitely is the communist legacy. There are two hop-on hop-off bus companies. I didn't really choose, but I wouldn't have known which one to choose anyway. I ended up on the Giraffe one. The other Big Bus looks identical to the one I took in London, so I wonder if they're the same company. There are two people working on the bus: one driver and one guide. The guide doesn't really talk. There's a recording in 20 languages with headphones. You select the language. When you're coming to a stop, the guide interrupts the recording to tell you which stop is coming up. The guide just tells you the name and number. She doesn't tell you anything about the stop. Yesterday, I got on a bus and rhe guide was an older woman (my age!). She yelled at people if they stood up or tried to go out the front door instead of the back. She didn't talk to anyone in a nice way and when I tried to ask her which stop to get off for my hotel, all she would say is, this is stop number __. I tried two different times to ask her. Finally I got off at a stop which turned out to be one too soon, but I found my way back to my hotel. That guide really reminded of the way people would describe the Soviet women on Aeroflot and places like that. Later, I took another bus with a young girl who was much nicer. She pointed out that I had an old map and my numbers were wrong. She gave me a new map. However, since then I've always had young girls who are very sweet, but I think they should volunteer more information. Today I got off at the Market Square stop. Don't you think it would have been a good idea for the guide to tell us that the market is closed on Sunday? It turned out okay because ther is a lovely street that runs into it and I walked down there and even got lunch (mozzarella and cheese baguette). This time I am following Gavin's example on journals. I never read his journal but he kept one when we were in India. He said his journal was totally filled with what he ate each day. He said that Jews only care about what they have to eat. I think my other Jewish friends would contradict him and say that it's 20 something guys - of any culture - who are preoccupied with food. And Gavin ate twice as much as anyone else and he's still a thin guy.
Then I took the bus to the Buda Castle. Everyone was lining up to buy a ticket for the funicular, I had to ask someone in line if the funicular goes to the castle. I got an affirmative answer to that but no one could answer anything else - like do you take the funicular up and then walk down. We could see people walking down a path to the bottom of the funicular. In the end, everyone bought a one-way ticket. When we got to the top, I walked around a little but was getting really hot. I bought a coke and asked the girl how to get down the hill. She said she didn't know! I asked several people, but everyone was in the same boat as me. Finally, I saw people walking down a path and followed them. Does it occur to them to put up some signs. And the signs need to be in other languages. No one but the Hungarians can understand Hungarian, which they call Magyar BTW. It's not related to any other common languages so you can't guess at meanings. It's a Finno-Ugric language.
I've changed hotels. I left the Medosz, which I loved, to come to the Cotton House to join my G Adventures group. I only had to walk 5 blocks from one hotel to the other. The girl at the desk - who is very helpful - says that our guide is Bulgarian. I've got a list of the people's names and met two of the other women when I was checking in. We are 12 in the group - 3 or 4 guys and the rest women. We meet in the lobby at 7 and then we'll go to dinner.
Here are a few photos from today.
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