Mob Mentality

It appears that I have out-stayed most of the conference participants, and now I am here in Budapest relatively alone. Starting from where I left you last, the closing party on Thursday night included entertainment by a Tom Waits cover band. Men, women and dogs took the mike and sang about all that dope they used to take and being hung over. It was awesome. While I was kidding about the dogs, the female vocalist was totally amazing. We weren't sure if her voice was naturally like that or if it was cultivated, but we suspected that it was natural.

As usual, the company was excellent, and people danced. We drank beer.

Friday was the annual general meeting (AGM) and while I planned to attend it all, they wore me out after the first half, and I spent the afternoon sleeping 2.5 hours. They use a consensus process. Groups form to discuss specific issues and then report back to the entire group with their recommendations. I participated in the Charter and Statute group, and the issues we wrestled with included whether the staff member of the steering committee gets a full vote (they do, but changed how they are appointed to make the process more democratic), that motorcycles should be included with cars in the Charter (they should, but we left re-writing the charter to the steering committee bc it has to sound beautiful), whether the steering committee should have a point person/press representative (this was the most unclear -- we said that they should and they said that they had just decided that the press representative should be a staff member) and so on. It was both interesting to learn about how the organization functions and unbelievably boring in process and details. I think the other groups may have had more fun prioritizing projects and the like.

That night there were several groups doing things, but the 2 I knew about were 1) Hungarian folk dancing or 2) drinking beer at a squat. While the company would have been more reliable (Brian and Jason from SF), I couldn't pass up the folk dancing. I missed the first wave over, but Steve knew where it was so I headed over there later with him. We got lost twice on our way, and when we found it, it was a small, brightly-lit community center room crowded with people. We opted not to spend the 500 fl (about 2.50 dollars) but instead to stand outside and watch the dancers thru the window. This quickly changed to talking to the dancers thru the window and then to dancing while looking thru the window. The windows were large, open and covered with bars, and the floor the same level inside and out. We bought drinks at a nearby cafe and we consumed them from our outside(rs)-post. Soon our group of 2 became larger as others realised our spot was better.

We accidentally missed the last tram but walking back along the Danube only took about an hour.

Saturday morning was the conference evaluation which was fine and uneventful. The afternoon excursion was cancelled due to rain (which of course went away as soon as that decision was made). Instead a few of us (Marta, Arie, Steve, Silke and myself) went to the baths. I think others slept or went to the open market. I don't know. We went to a different bath this time (Gellert) -- it was equally lovely but much smaller and we paid extra for the thermal baths with the swimming pool. There were 3 temperatures of sauna, a steam room, lots of showers, 2 warm baths and a cold bath. The indoor pool (with retractable roof) was pretty small, but had lots of little fountains, etc. and I liked it a lot. There was an outdoor pool too, and it appeared to be intended for children as most of it was very shallow. The main thing that's better about these baths compared to the others is that they are much closers to our hostel. (I might go again in a few minutes.) However, it is expensive (like 15 dollars to go for a swim), but I guess its worth it cuz it's so pretty.

That night about 17 of us headed out to find a vegetarian restaurant. Of course, the first one we went to was closed, but instead we found a music festival occupying one of the city's bridges. About half of us decided to eat there (including myself) and half of us wanted to keep looking for a vegetarian restaurant. I had greek salad, a large sausage and a large beer, and apparently I chose well be others were not happy with their food. Again we splintered, some of us sitting on the grass in a nearby park/median and others finding a table as part of the festival seating. I am not sure what was good about the seating, other than that it involved seats, but on the grass we were treated to a lite acrobatic performance.

After dinner, we took a short stroll across the bridge and back, noticed some belly dancers on an alternate stage, and headed to another neighborhood where we planned to meet the others for drinks. We later learned that it took them another 2 tries and 1.5 hours to find a vegetarian restaurant, but when they did it was excellent. The group continued to disperse, as we lost a few more member to fatigue or something. We never met up with the vegetarians again that night despite ceaseless texting towards that end. Steve, Markus and I had a quiet beer or 3, just the 3 of us, in a pedestrianized area on the Pest side of the river.

I think I'll tell you the rest in another post....