Film February - Budapest .... at least I thought it was, need to check my negs, it could be I mixed up my scans and this is actually Prague (oops)
In February 2005 when I was working in Belgrade some colleagues and I drove up to Budapest for the weekend. It was so novel for me to be able to drive to another country, drive all day in Australia and I may get to another state, need a boat or plane to get to another country.
The drive up the highway from Belgrade to the Hungarian border was a pretty scary trip, the driving pretty insane. We called the road "The Chicken Road", as you felt you were constantly playing chicken with the other road users, the road had an extra half lane on one side and other motorists expected you to move onto the shoulder so they could overtake you or if they were heading in the opposite direction and they were overtaking the car coming towards you. The road was shared with slow moving tractors, farm carts and trucks so I also played chicken with the traffic.
@kimmiesue@tigerdreamer@sunnygreenwood thanks, I should have added that I got a tremendous sense of accomplishment from doing the drive, the chicken aspect and the novelty (for me) driving across an international border
Hi Megan! This is great! Love all the height and straight lines, upward lines, and then how the bridge softens the scene. B&W is fantastic; it makes it timeless, like it could have been taken 50 yrs ago, or more! And what a memorable experience. :-D Take good care, Les x
(Sorry, but i'm STILL behind on my viewing.)
Wow, you were the one driving? What a frightening trip! I would have been too scared to make a drive like that myself haha. What a great photo, the B&W makes it feel like a vintage print.
What an atmospheric shot.. looks very old and mysterious! Living on an island (much smaller than Australia) I felt it was so bizarre to walk across a border from France into Switzerland when I was staying there.... they got me to put my passport deep in my pocket so the nosy border guards wouldn't stop us to look. Felt so odd!!
@lbmcshutter - perfect speed for the highway then! I have a photo of a road in Lae, with 5 cars abreast on a two lane road, including footpath. If you look at the cars from left to right it kinda goes 2 cars facing away, pothole, one car oncoming, next car going away, another pothole and finally right hand car coming towards on the footpath.
I know I'm biased but Europe is beautiful. Such variety in such a small are of land, even within Hungary or Serbia there's different peoples, Romany, Albanians, Bosnians, Croats, Germans, Muslims, where in the world can you go and get such developed cultural traditions so close together. I bet when you drove to Ankara you saw such great views. I'd like to do Cyprus, Jerusalem and Egypt in one trip, but I don't know if I should go to Israel, I have some views on Israeli politics and I don't think I'd enjoy it. Travelling FTW.
Oh and fav because this is such a classic scene, get the film-challenge2012 tag on these because there's not many of us and the diversity on the challenge will be welcome.
@chewyteeth I heartily agree, I loved Europe and had an amazing time there. I met so many interesting people. On the drive to Turkey it was quite amazing crossing the border form Bulgaria into Turkey, the transition from Eastern Europe to Turkey was very marked, it all felt very exotic.
(Sorry, but i'm STILL behind on my viewing.)