I'm Hungary

A few observations on life in Hungary lately:

1. Attila, as in Attila the Hun, is a common male name here. Does anyone else find this cute?

2. As I've mentioned before, I spend a lot of time here driving. Somewhere in the vicinity of 600+ km per week. So I've noticed a few things about Hungarian roads and drivers. As mentioned previously, drivers flash their hazards when they've screwed up to say sorry. This is nice. They'll also flash their right blinker to let you know it's safe to pass them on a single-lane highway. I also find this nice.
What I don't find so nice is how Hungarian construction crews have a tendency to erect signs (like permanent, staked-into-the-ground road signs) around road work sites and then just leave them up long after they've packed up and gone home. This can result in a bit of confusion.
For example, on one section of road on my drive to practice, the speed limit is posted as follows:

80 km/h
40 km/h
60 km/h
80 km/h
70 km/h

ALL of those changes are posted within a stretch of less than 1 km. If my math serves me correctly (probably not) we're talking a speed-limit change about every 200 m. I know those signs were erected as a result of road work because I had to take this little side road for the first 2 months of training while the road workers finished an overpass. This made the 40 km/h limit semi-useful. I still don't know about the other 4.
On another stretch of the highway, there are a series of those white and red arrows indicating a sharp turn ahead. Except these arrows point in the opposite direction of the way the road curves.
Finally, there is a part of the road just outside our town that is just ridiculous. It's like driving over an open field that was once paved. For anyone that remembers Ace Ventura 2, it's exactly like this:



3. I've noticed Hungarians, and Europeans in general, tend to use exclamation marks much more liberally than most North Americans. All kinds of official notices and placards contain multiple exclamation marks, which makes me sort of feel like I'm either being yelled at or like it's a joke. I've noticed that really serious signs, like the one in our apartment hallway on the voltage box that says 320 V is just a lot less serious sounding when it's 320 V! That comment might seem contradictory but in my eyes exclamation marks lose their potency when used haphazardly all over the place like that.
A while back we got a notice at our apartment saying maintenance men would be coming around in a few days to replace the vent in our bathroom. This contained no less than 9 exclamation marks and read something like: Make sure to be home Nov. 28 !! Your vents must be changed!!! Please! Thank you!!!

I just find this strange.
If you have any European friends on Facebook (preferably under 25), take a look at their wall and notice how many !!!!'s there are and/or :) :) :)'s. I bet you'll notice one of either of those just doesn't seem to do the trick over here. This extends from teenagers on Facebook up to practically the highest levels of Hungarian government. I half expected to see a cool a baker's dozen exclamation marks on my Hungarian visa.


(If you haven't seen that episode watch this one first)

4. In closing, can we just reflect on 260-year old mustard. I've noticed in N. America companies sometimes advertise how long they've been making quality products for. This is usually proclaimed on the front of packages like "Since 1973" or some year in the 20th century. For some reason I'm really amused that products here proclaim, "Since 1705" like it's no big deal. I was eating a sandwich the other day and noticed the mustard I was eating has been around for 260 years. I mean really. You just can't argue with that. That sandwich made me feel like I was eating a piece of history between two slices of rye.