Gyors translates directly as "fast". So I thought I was being clever when I bought a ticket for the fast train. Apparently, this is the slow train compared to the intercity train, which is probably something completely different in Hungarian. There is a slower train so at least I didn't take that one. I'm not in a big hurry, but I do want to attend the Bahai 19 day Feast which should be tonight. (The Baha'i calender has 19 days and we celebrate at the beginning of each new month.)
It's a compartment train and I chose a compartment which is not crowded. I sat across from a teenage girl who was writing in a journal. Shortly after the train started moving, she slammed it closed and started talking to me, high speed, in Hungarian. The only tidbit I understood was "a boy". I was eventually able to stop her and say I'm not Hungarian. She was pretty embarrassed but switched to rough English and slowly, with great effort explained her boy troubles. I listened patiently, although I was desperately tired, and gave her the best advice I could muster (not to give up, but to fight for him - have I been corrupted by Disney movies?!) We swapped names and said we should friend each other on facebook. Her name is common in Hungary, but I didn't realize how common until my search later came up with 673 Dóra Hórváths.
The Hungarian Puszta countryside is flat and plain and pretty much featureless, yet I really like it. The strange thing is that I've crossed the entire country now, and other than one small herd of sheep, I haven't seen a single cow or pig or barn. How can this be possible for a population who cannot eat a single meat-free meal? In Canada, where we rely far less on meat, I would have seen several thousands of cows by now. A creepy mystery. Soylent green is people?!
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