Budapest!

Hm....where to begin? The trip was excellent. I saw everything and did everything! We toured the Parliament building, swam in the thermal baths, visited the beautiful old churches, saw a professional Hungarian folk dance show, enjoyed the Christmas markets, explored the castle district, crossed bridges over the Danube (cue the music...), and many more things I'm sure I'm leaving out. I ate nothing but (excellently cooked) traditional Hungarian food, learned tons about the history of the Hungarian people, and even learned a few words along the way!

Yes those were all the events from Budapest, but what stands out most in my mind is the wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling that resulted from being in the company of a good friend while doing all these fun things. Even simple activities like walking down the street or riding the bus were much more enjoyable when I had someone familiar with me. Actually having conversation over lunch (and breakfast, and dinner) was a rare pleasure. I felt so privileged to be able to experience Budapest like a "local," and so lucky to have a friend who made sure everything was perfect. (Anna I know you read this blog, but it's all true and I'd write it even if you didn't read it!)

This weekend was also probably the most culturally enlightening time of my stay in Europe. Anna was born and raised in Budapest but lived in the U.S. for two years (which is how we met), so she knows and understands both my home world and the world I live in now. We had great conversations all weekend comparing European and American culture, because we both have lived both sides. We covered the gamut from fashion to food to taxis to burglaries to universities to houses to hygiene to jobs to construction to restaurant service, and much more serious topics like how Europeans and Americans approach things like relationships and the physical body. I concluded that America is an overly cautious society that takes too many preventative measures because it is afraid people will do something stupid and blame the other guy, whereas Anna concluded that America does everything much simpler, not necessarily more cautious.

For example:
-Europeans don't individually label/identify the patients' names for their prescriptions, and there are no warning labels either
-There is no double yellow line on two way streets - just solid or dotted white lines
-They don't block off construction sites - people just walk right on through
-There are no "caution wet floor" signs, or anything of the sort
-Healthcare isn't as expensive because they don't have such outrageous malpractice insurance

And I don't remember what else we came up with. There's always the infamous McDonalds coffee lawsuit.

We also concluded that America is a much more prude society and oftentimes much more judgmental toward each other (i.e. when we were at the thermal baths, old men wore speedos and women walked around in just their bathing suits, whereas in America the women would all have coverups and the men wouldn't be caught dead in speedos, because they are too cautious and afraid of their appearances). But Europeans in general are much more fashion-conscious than Americans. Interesting.

I won't ramble any more about that topic; I could write pages about the comparisons between the two cultures. Maybe eventually I will, because I guess that's part of the purpose of this blog - to share these differences with you. I may sound slightly critical, but that is not my intention. It is merely a comparison as I experience another option of how things are done.