BUDAPEST!!!
You know, the first time I visited the famous Budapest Zoo, which btw is on the Pest side of the river, (pronounced Pesht) I was 15 years of age. The year was 1970, my aunt (Mom's sister) was dying of a hideous cancer. This was my first exposure in my young life to the death of another human and to the ravages that this particular disease brings.
Somewhere along the way during that time, I was fortunate enough to be hooked up with a delivery driver for my Uncle Julius' state collective. Whisked thru the countryside, dropping off/picking up parts in a small van, allowed me to do something I don't get much of, that is... being a passenger.
That little van had a small three cylinder air cooled engine of two cycle design. IN those days, two strokes were very common especially in Eastern Block countries. Pulling up to a gas pump, you dialed in the correct oil and gas mixture and the pump dispensed mixed gas directly into the fuel tank.
On this particular trip, we had a mechanical failure. A seized piston slowed us from normal turtle, to snails pace in the underpowered little box. Somewhere in the suburbs of Budapest (Boo da pesht) next to a curbside, the two of us dismantled the engine using hand tools, the driver lifted the damaged cylinder and leaving me with the vehicle, he left with parts in hand to get them repaired/replaced. Some hours later we had the motor put back together, and went on our way... a haze of blue smoke pouring from the exhaust something akin to being backstage at a 60's Jimmy Hendricks concert...
... or a scene from that 70's show!
Try doing that to any car or truck today! Not a chance buddy... that's one thing about those countries in those days. You could actually fix your Lada yourself with hand tools and some mechanical know how.
Anyway... I digress. At some point I got to see the Budapest zoo, and a very sad visit it was indeed. Like most things in communist Europe at that time, it was at least twenty something years in the past. Be it cars and gasoline pumps, to medical procedures and hospitals.
The zoo had those tiny 10X10 cages where animals pawed at the mesh, or wandered aimlessly around the perimeter. I remember the same tiny little cubicles the first time I visited the Calgary zoo.
This time around with travelling companion/then girlfriend Barb, was a much improved and very modern, international standard facility. Given the small location, the city like the entire country, is pretty compacted... they have done a fabulous job of utilizing the limited space.
We saw animals unique to the general area like wild boar, to storks, a fine aquarium, waterfowl, reindeer, rhino's and giraffes.
After a long cool day, both of us were quite exhausted, and may have even dozed on the subway ride back to the burbs.
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