Journal p5

 

                                                               Ginny's Journal, page 5 

 

The money here is a lot different here than in Polandl. Polish money was 

along the ratio of 4 of their “zlotzy” to one of our dollars. Here in 

Hungary the ratio is 279 of theirs to 1 of our dollars. A little harder 

to figure out in your head. 

Well, we have another meal, dinner is at 7:30pm (I’m not hungry, so I hope 

it isn’t much) I’ve eaten enough today to last me for a week! Okay, we had 

crepes filled with chicken and stuffing with a sauce made with paprika on 

top. It was pretty good! The desert was a Jello custard and though it was 

not too sweet, it was wonderful.

DAY 10 NOV 11TH,2001

Got up at 7:30am today, had a breakfast buffet and then a church service 

at 9am. Greg did the preaching. Fred was all set to lead worship with his 

steel Guitar, but when he plugged in his amp w/o a converter it blew the 

fuse. Priscilla ended up leading worship acappella.

At 10am we boarded a bus for the bus tour. It was great! Took a lot of 

pictures! I found out that we would be getting off the bus a couple of 

times to see different things. Well, I only had the sweater that I was 

wearing and it was pretty cold out. I ended up freezing most of the 

morning! We had lunch at a Greek restaurant(Annette wants to make sure 

we get lots of culture I guess) It was good, a lot of fried foods and a 

Greek salad with feta cheese.

After lunch we boarded the Metro and went to the mall - what an experience 

that was! The mall was 4 stories high! A lot of nice stuff like clothes 

and shoes but nothing I couldn’t live without! I did end up getting a 

t-shirt with Hungary on it. Tomorrow we go to the outside market square 

and that’s where we’ll find the more authentic Hungarian handmade things.

After the mall we boarded the metro again for the trip to the hotel. We 

had an hour before dinner, so I took a nap ( I was exhausted!) Dinner was 

rice and chicken in a sauce. It was kind of spicy. Probably my least 

favorite meal of the trip. The restaurant made a mistake and gave us fresh

fruit instead of what Annette ordered (which was fruit soup). I’m so glad 

they messed up on that one! We had chocolate cake, (kind of dry) but still 

yummy. My diet is in remission till I return to the states! I had some tea 

then went to bed.

DAY 11 NOV 12TH, 2001

Slept in today till almost 8am. Then had breakfast and boarded the bus for 

the bible college. That was one of the Women’s Ministries annual project 

done in 1992. They gave about 60,000 dollars towards it. Also the government 

of Hungary gave about 125,000 to it too. Hungary is unique in that it’s 

government helps subsidize all colleges whether private or public!

Also, it is against the law in Hungary to charge tuition for students. In 

fact it’s similar to Poland. They will have whole lot more educated people 

for higher learning than the USA will ever have. The difference is that 

they have to pass a series of tests in order to be accepted to the 

University. If they fail, they can try for the technical school. I’m not 

sure if they have to pass a test for that or if they get it by default. 

It’s quite different than the way the USA works.

The Pentecostal Theological Bible School is run by Paul and Jolene Gazza. 

They are the only English staff! They teach in Hungarian and most of the 

students range in age to the early 20’s, although we did meet one student

who was 36, that is not the norm. The country pays for their 1st degree, 

but if they want a second major they have to pay for that themselves. 

There was a German student and two Transylvanian students. They also had 

Hungarian as their mother tongue. 

The college is beautiful! It has white walls with wooden floors. They just 

had a maps team come over and add on another story. We had a most wonderful

Hungarian tea! It was a peach flavor and sweet, Annette got the recipe for

me. We had a great little snack that tasted like graham crackers with 

cinnamon. I found them later in a store and bought a bag. 

The students sang a few songs for us, then we left the college and went to

a Cuban restaurant. We had the original Hungarian goulash soup. It has quite 

a bit of paprika in it, so it was a little spicy, but good!

We got to the “walking street” to do some shopping. They had a lot of 

traditional folklore stuff so I ended up getting my shopping done for gifts 

for friends and family. We shopped for 2½ hrs. I never sat down once and 

never felt any back pain. I think the shopping was so wonderful  that I 

didn’t pay any attention to the aches and pains. We went by bus to see the 

lights of Budapest. It was very beautiful. Every time we drove by the river 

Priscilla had to sing the waltz about the blue Danube.  I got a lot of 

pictures, sure hope they turn out okay. 

Came back to the hotel at 6:15pm and had dinner. It was turkey cordon bleu 

and it was wonderful. Desert was Ice cream in the shape of a cake. It was 

Awesome. We then had a “debriefing” and communion and got to bed around 

10:30pm cause I had to pack. 

DAY 12 NOV 13TH,2001 

Okay, it was certainly early this morning! Carol got up at 3am then went 

back to bed, but I never went back to sleep after that! Finally,I got up 

about 4am, got ready and went down to the lobby at 4:50am. Wrote in my 

journal for all of yesterday. We got to the airport early and so they put 

us on an earlier flight, which was great except it meant that I didn’t get

coffee for another 2 hours. The flight from Budapest to Munich was the 

bumpiest with the most turbulence out of any flight! Last night we heard 

about the plane crash in New York and they weren’t sure if it was an 

accident or terrorists! The security in Munich was amazing! Everyone was 

patted down, carry-ons were gone thru and x-rayed and if you had a camera 

with you they made you take a picture so that they knew for sure it was a 

camera and not a weapon! 

They made us take off our jackets and empty our pockets. Fortunately,I was 

wearing my running pants and didn’t have anything in them. Well, I was the 

first one through the gate, so everyone was watching me get the special 

treatment of being patted down and laughing. I of course got the last laugh, 

because by the time they got through all the security issues. I was sitting 

in the café having a cup of coffee.

We had an extra hour at that airport so I did a little more shopping. On the

transcontinental flight back I traded places with Carol Hickman so she could 

sit next to her grandson, and I could get some sleep. I slept a few hours and 

watched the same movies as they played on the way over. It was an uneventful

flight. 

I got off first and promptly messed up! I took my luggage through customs, 

but I didn’t put it back on the conveyor belt before I left the exit door. 

Then of course they wouldn’t let me go back 5 feet to put my luggage back on. 

So I got to carry it around with me for the next 45 minutes. Carol Boch had 

pity on me and helped me out. What a great roomie! Anyway, we next hopped 

the last plane to Sacramento and made our way home. Reid was there to greet 

me and we talked (or I should say that I talked)all the way home. It took me 

about a week before my internal clock changed time, and I stopped waking up 

at 3am.  [End]

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