StewieinHungary: St Stephen's Day

So 2 weekends ago was St. Stephen's Day, basically their independence day almost. St. Istvan or Stephen was the first ruler who brought Christianity to the country, and laid the foundation for the country. He converted the pagan and nomad people to Christianity. It's interesting that in a country where Christianity was at the root, most of the population is Atheist.

Well to celebrate the holiday a group of single teachers went down to meet up with another group of their friends who are with other various organizations and are single, and about 4pm we walked to the pest side of Budapest and staked out a space to watch the fireworks. We all brought picnic food and some brought food to share. We enjoyed and afternoon of fellowship, and people watching as the crowd grew as the evening got later. I got a kick out of watching the fire department hose down the hill with their version of statue of liberty, b/c they shoot off fireworks from the top of the hill, which is covered in trees. I was told that they started at like 8am. That is a lot of water! But the fireworks were worth the wait! They were shot off in 2 places, mainly the famous white chain bridge, but also on the hill like I said above. It lasted about 30 minutes, and at times they had fireworks synchronized between both locations. It was great to celebrate the Hungarian independence day, because this summer I was at PFO in NY over the 4th, and since we were out in the middle of nowhere we didn't go see fireworks.