"This is Hungary."

I've been reading a lot of travel books lately and taking in the author's perspective on a particular country's culture, people, and habits. Namely, Bill Bryson's take on Britain in his book, "Notes from a Small Island." As I'm currently residing in Hungary, I can begin to give out my own take of this country's way of life.

 There was an incident at the ticket window at my nearby HEV stop. This is a little green train that goes back and forth along the Danube on the Buda side transporting people to and fro. I needed to renew my 30 day pass and so I waited behind an obvious tourist couple. You can spot the tourists by the way they are put together. In my naive days before much traveling, I always wondered how people could tell I was American without even speaking. Now, I know it's a lot of things put together. The hair, the way people carry themselves, and every little attribute that is "off" from the norm of the country you're in.

Anyway, this couple spoke loudly in English to the woman in the ticket window arguing that the ticket machine wasn't working. The woman just threw up her hands, eyes enlarging and eyebrows rising. The woman beside the tourist man said, "Who is responsible for this?" I just laughed silently to myself. This is just something an American would say...needing to figure out the situation and take control...complaining about inefficiency.

Well, Hungarians on the whole are not extremely efficient and as much as this frustrates me sometimes, I like to remember that this makes Hungarians more relaxed and laid back about getting things done. So, if I'm not feeling particularly efficient one or two or three days at school, then no one is going to bite my nose off. Meanwhile, as the tourist couple shook their heads to each other and just utterly could not believe that a train ticket machine could not work, a man on a bike looked at them and simply said, "this is Hungary."