Fun on the train...

It is shortly after noon local time May 27 and I am sitting on a local train in the Eger station, leaving in a few minutes for Budapest and then transferring to an Intercity express for Bratislava.  Buying the ticket was another interesting experience in the art of gesture.  (pause here to shut the compartment door to keep the clouds of cigarette smoke out--smoking is still a very common thing in Hungary, and is permitted on trains)
Anyway, our gestured conversation--punctuated by my very rusty German--went something like this:
Me:  Ticket to Bratislava?
Agent:  Tomorrow?
Me:  No, no--today!
Agent:  (looking through printed schedule book--no computers are in sight anywhere in the ticket office) Departing 16:34 arriving 22:40?
Me:  No, no .  Earlier (I had looked up the times online)
Agent: Writes down a list of times, none of which include the next train which would save 4 hours.
Me: Point to my laptop, write down the departure and arrival times I had seen online.
Agent:  Ponders her book for a moment and then writes down almost identical numbers--most importantly the train change in Budapest is the same.
Me:  Nod vigorously!
Agent:  Holds up 1 finger and says "eine moment".  10 minutes later she returns bearing a paper ticket but says "Problemma."
Me:  Look of grave concern.  I don't know what language she is saying it in but fortunately (or unfortunately) it seems to mean the same thing.
Agent:  Points at various parts of the ticket, says "No reservatione" (with a long 'o') and then "No problemma".  Repeats the cycle of "Problemma"--point--"no reservatione", pause, "no problemma" about 3 times.
Me:  Having traveled on European Intercity trains before, I knew they strongly recommended that you pay an extra fee for a reserved seat.  But you need a computer to make a reservation... what she was saying was that she could not make one—but that would not be a problem.  So I started interjecting "OK" into her continuing repetitions.  Eventually she beamed and wrote out the ticket.  And then gave me a smaller ticket for the local train.  It turns out that in this part of Europe, almost no one buys a first class ticket, even though it is not much more by American standards (the total for both segments plus a return ticket to Budapest next week was less than $50).  So even though I did not have a reservation, I had a compartment of 6 seats to myself on both trains.
  The upshot is, I arrived safely in Bratislava tonight and was met by Dr. Daniel Nagaj, a 2008 Theoretical Physics graduate of MIT, and he and his wife are my hosts for the next few days.
  The European Leadership Forum was an intense experience—I thought InterVarsity conferences like Urbana had packed schedules!—but a good one.  More powerful than the content was the making of many new friendships, several of which will be reinforced in July in England and Scotland.  I hope to ruminate more on the content and share some thoughts in posts over the next few days.  Daniel is also a very good person to discuss apologetics with and has very sharp insights in a broad variety of fields.  Occasionally I even understand bits of what he is saying when he talks physics...

Pictures are first from the last full day in Eger--during one of the short breaks I hurried into the old part of town and climbed the 400 year-old Turkish minaret which is one of the signatures of the town.  It's about 100 feet high, and the stairs are incredibly narrow and tight.  Each step is about 15 inches wide, and since it is a spiral staircase only the outer part is big enough for your foot.  I'm about 25 inches wide through my chest and elbows, so I had to climb the 96 steps sideways!  No one can pass (except children and contortionists) so only a few people can be in and on it at the same time.  The view was incredible though... 1 picture from the bottom, one inside, one from the top.  The fourth picture is 4 UCCF staff walking down an Eger St.  UCCF is the name that British InterVarsity changed to a while back, so it is our sister movement.  All of these guys are big, but on the left is Hamish, who is really big (and an ardent rugby player).  I hope to visit him at Durham in July.  Right now he is taking the 8 week Oxford apologetics course...  The final picture is from the train... it is the great castle of Viseburg that guards the big bend the Danube takes through here... want to see it better?  Here are the google map coordinates:  http://maps.google.sk/maps?client=firefox-a&hl=sk&ie=UTF8&ll=47.793726,18.98283&spn=0.007063,0.024977&t=h&z=16