Scoutmaster Europe Journal 2002
Report # 9
8/2/2002
Hi Everyone,
I'm back in Munich anxious to fly to London tomorrow to meet more than two dozen scouts and adult leaders for the next phase of the European adventure. Before leaving, however, let me say how great a trip this has been so far. The national personalities of Hungary, Romania, and Austria where I've spent most of my time for the past several weeks, have left their impression.
Hungary has gotten more expensive, and considerably more western since I was there three years ago. It's still not as expensive as back home. A good cup of coffee can cost more than a $1.00 in a bigger city, and around $1.00 elsewhere. There are now American style shopping malls near all the bigger towns. The radio plays rock and western music, and it's almost impossible to pick up local music. The people are still very friendly and helpful, however, and the food is excellent. Most of the country is flat farm land. Anyone from Indiana would feel right at home. Hungary is also a place for culture, like music and art, both of which are much less expensive than back home. People still smoke too much, but air pollution from smoke belching vehicles is coming under control.
Romania was the biggest surprise. It's an incredibly beautiful country. That's true both for the cities and especially for the mountains of Transylvania. Prices are very low by American or western European standards. I couldn't use my visa card to even purchase gasoline, it's strictly a cash economy. A cup of coffee costs $0.15 to $0.25, but I found most people drank sweet tea. A really good meal could cost $2.00. Almost everyone smokes, the secondary roads need work, and the air pollution due to vehicle emissions is terrible. However, the people are delightful, by far the friendliest and most helpful of anywhere I have ever been. Music and art are not on the scale they are in the other countries, but there is some. Perhaps some day I will return to see Bucharest and the Black Sea.
Although I have visited Vienna and Salzburg before, on this trip I got to see some of the more out of the way places. In fact, I found not a single internet cafe in any of the small Austrian towns I visited. In Romania and Hungary, internet access is everywhere! Austrians strike me as friendlier than Germans, but they don't come even close to the folks in Romania. Also, Austria is expensive; perhaps more expensive than back home. A cup of coffee can cost $4.00! I was amazed to find a restaurant with a non-smoking section in a small village. Of course, Austria is in a class by itself for music and art, but you have to go to Vienna and Salzburg to get it. I didn't come across any Egon Schiele paintings that were so prominent in Vienna, and almost non-existent in America.
One thing all the countries in Europe have in common is a love of flowers. Three years ago I traveled in more northern countries, and flowers didn't seem to impress me as much as they did on this trip. Flowers are everywhere, but they are not the same everywhere. In Germany and in Austria, people have flower boxes in front of their
windows. The houses look like faces with colorful handle bar mustaches. Austrians and Germans also have orderly gardens with lots of flowers in front of their houses, like beards, to continue the analogy. In Hungary they plant flowers and vegetable gardens. It's common to see paprika vines growing on the side of houses, and it's also common to
see small vegetable and fruit tables on the road sides in front of houses. Fresh flowers are always seen in Hungarian restaurants and cafes, and flower shops are in even the smallest towns. The word for flower in Hungarian has a nice sound, it is virag (vee-rahg). In Romania, the flowers drip from houses and flow like wild streams into the streets. Every spare patch of public ground has a blaze of color. I think the parks in Timisuara would put most of our American parks to shame. Even Munich's English Garden looks more like New York's Central Park. There are almost no flowers, and certainly nothing that would remind anyone of an English boxwood garden.
Philip Sternberg