Szolnok... My Second Week

It takes me quite a while to get used to new surroundings, and my first weeks in Europe were spend solely in Szolnok. My hotel, the hotel Sohaz, borders the Tisza river, and it nearby the Mayfly pedestrian bridge that Szolnok touts on its Wikipedia page:

The Mayfly Bridge In Winter

Some mornings I wake up to go jogging, usually on the cobblstoned border of the Tisza. It's after one such jog that I notice my unintentionally jingoistic ensemble, a bright red hoodie proclaiming that the Phillies are the champions of the world, and a knit cap bragging about Yuengling, America's oldest brewery:

That's right Hungary. World Champions. You guys didn't even place in 2008. 

America's oldest brewery is basically Hungary's youngest brewery. Bragging about our beer here is the equivalent of me whipping it out in an NBA locker room. And world champions? It's not like we crushed the Szolnok mud hens. I decided that I'd have to modify my jogging outfit to fly more humbly under the radar:

Ahh...gray and Canadian. Nothing offensive at all.  This is what happens when you watch Argo at midnight. You grow very aware of your  intrusive American presence.

I spend most of my days and nights working. I did catch a show at Szolnok's local theatre. I got there late and was shown a chair by the wall. Yes it was all in Hungarian, but it was musical comedy so I caught many of the jokes:

"One Crazy Man Makes A Hundred"

During the weekends I explore Szolnok. They have public fountains connected to hot springs, its water purported to contain healing properties:

On weekdays a fountain spouting healing mineral water, on weekends a portal to the magical land of Narnia.

They also have some pretty intimidating water towers:

Daytime View v. Nighttime View

The bridge also features a lock wall:

It has become a very popular tradition in Asia and Europe for couples to put a lock on a bridge, and throw the key into water, declaring their unending love for each other (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_padlocks). Most of the time people put locks on the bridge structure itself, which can lead to huge clusters of locks, necessitating the building of a structure like a lock wall, which is a designated space for these locks. I kind of like lock walls because usually structures have to account for the uncaring, slovenly, or destructive parts of human nature, like iron bars or seat belt extensions. But with lock walls an engineer actually had to acknowledge that people like to declare how much in love they are with each other. Also it leads to badass locks like this one:

Saved as "most_badass_lock.jpg".

It was warm when I got here, but now it's snowy and cold, as if Hungary had heard that a big important American were coming to visit so it put on a warm and welcoming face, but then it saw that the American was me, so it went back to business as usual.