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Travelogue: Reflections on Hungarian Culture
The instant we arrived in Budapest's airport, two people came up to our group and asked if we needed a cab. They were pretty good salespeople, armed with tons selling points: cabs were cheaper than the airport buses for large groups, cabs were quicker, cabs took you directly to your place, these were especially cheap cabs, you can pay in Euros instead of the Hungarian Forints, etc.
Yet the cab ride proved interesting. Our cab driver, fluent in English, was very honest and open. Though I assumed it was obvious, he asked if we were American, and had a lot to say. He didn't like the globalization of America. He didn't like American films, American politics, American food, or American cars.
"You go to a movie theatre and there are 10 films, and 8 of them are American." He was adamant: Hungary has its own private market, and doesn't need American products.
Throughout all this, he was weaving the cab through traffic like a madmen. European traffic lights seem to flash the yellow light when the light is red to indicate that it's about to turn green, allowing the drivers to prepare to take off at full speed. If he hadn't had us as passengers, he told us, "there is only one rule... no crossing the cars." Or, in other words, no car accidents.
Posted in on November 08, 2005, 11:02 AM | Permalink
