Budapest, 4:50

It was good to see everyone together last night at our meeting. We shared ideas for the interesting things to see and arranged to meet again as a group Friday morning. We settled on a curfew and discussed again rules for the trip.

On the list to see were the traditional baths, museums, Heroes Square. I don't think many were planning to be out early today. There was some serious need for a good night's sleep. We are all getting used to the street names, public transportation, and the conversion rate. (Twenty American dollars equals approximately twenty-seven hundred forint.)

I went to the National Museum of Hungary this morning. I looked and looked for our Unitarian King (John Sigismund), but he didn't make the cut. (Each room covered about 150 years.) The history of the Transylvanians was prominent enough, though. It was wonderful putting a little piece of our religious history in a larger context. Learned of one King, 1458, who was influenced by the Italian Renaissance and welcomed the humanist scholars to his court. I have to believe this was a little piece of what made it a hospitable place for the liberal reformers of the following century. (I will look that up.)

Tonight some of us are meeting at a historic church for an organ concert. We have one more full day here and then we leave early Saturday morning for Szentgerice.