east west

i once asked dave to tell me about the austro-hungarian empire. i would never call it a mistake, but i think one must be fully prepared for a lengthy answer when asking such a question -- to a hungarian, nonetheless. the sparrows were feasting upon bugs that were calling the mighty danube home. its banks were breached and the large amounts of rain received thus far didnt help. evidently, in austria, a soviet tank was washed out of the danube due to the heavy rains and flooding. i sat perched on an ancient stone wall and looked over the danube to slovakia. following the bridge that lead from hungary i noticed the small, telephone booth like houses that once made up the boundary between these nations. letting my gaze wander i noticed the communist-block flats, they look retro now (in different shades of lime green!) but still carried the reminder of a not-too-distant past. "thats funny" i remarked "to think those small, empty booths are all that make up the border now." we stood looking out over the river, david broke the silence, "jay, let me remind you that 50 years ago that was our land." i didnt reply, how could i? a few short hours ago we wandered the streets of some small slovkian town. i played the tourist, listening to a language vastly different from hungarian and admiring yet another culture... but david saw something else entirely -- he even remarked that all the street names were hungarian. from our look-out we watched the sun set. the sky changed and quickly became a dark crimson that bled into an inky black... we watched as the sun closed the gap on the horizon and set on both slovakia and hungary and, farther afield, a western world that seemed quite far away. earlier that day we hiked some 6km to a hill top castle in esztergom. it started to drizzle as we reached the ancient structure that was slowly seeing some sort of reconstruction. david scurried up a exposed section of the walls outside the main entrance and spread his arms to the view of danube and the sprawling hungarian country-side -- his land. "david, does this make you proud to be hungarian?" i asked, bracing myself for a response similar to that he delivered when asked about the austro-hungarian empire, i was surprised and moved when he replied -- "yes jay, quite fucking much."