Fireworks by the River

Time:  7 am, Place: some hotel in Budapest, Date: 20^th of August. I woke up; still in bed I grabbed my mobile phone, checked the time with one closed eye. I wondered what should be done today in the city. I typed on google: “St. Stephen's Basilica”. A place which was on my to go list. As Google always gets you the newest information first, I noticed there are a couple of links talking about some preparations that were being made there because of Hungary National Day. This day matches the 20^th of August. I checked my calendar and it is actually 20th of August. I thought oh well what should I expect on a country’s national holiday? Celebrations or closed shops? I hoped the day would turn out fine.

I read on the internet that there would be fireworks by the danube river at 8 pm that night. I thought it would be like a 2 minutes quick celebration, nothing fancy but I was keen on watching it anyway so at 7:50 pm that night, I was in one of the side streets with my friend trying to get to the main road by the river. As soon as we reached it, I was shocked by the number of people. There were hundreds of people standing along the river side. You could see people in the Far East, the far west and on the other side of the river. That scene reminded me of the demonstration days in Egypt, except it wasn’t a demonstration; it was just people gathering for the fireworks.

We couldn’t stand in the crowd. We noticed a railway track that is closer to the river and less crowded so I placed myself with my friend on it for a better view and fortunately it wasn’t working at the time.

It is time, 8 PM, Soft music started; you can hear them wherever you were. On each street light pole there was a sound speaker attached to it. It felt like the whole city is in one harmony, one synched beautiful piece of music. It was magic.

It was dark until The Sky lit up with colorful fireworks. You could hear the sound of music, the sound of fireworks’ banging, people cheering. You could see the fireworks along with Cameras’ flashing lights that are capturing every moment of this celebration.
The Fireworks movements are perfectly synced with the music. A low pitch is a short bang. A high pitch is a longer more colorful bang. Fireworks were dancing on the bridge. They were coming out of the river water and they were up high in the sky. They were everywhere around me. I thought this must be magic. This cannot be real. The celebration lasted for a whole of 30 minutes and I could truly say this was one of the happiest 30 minutes in my life.

Here are 2 photos that I had taken back then.

A Peaceful Encounter

Here I am on one of my local vacations, resting on a beautiful beach of the Aqaba gulf. On my side is the city of Taba in Egypt, on the other side you can see the lights of Both Cities of Aqaba in Jordon and Haql in Saudi Arabia. I’m lying on the golden sand alone at 6 AM. It’s a hot summer day yet the early cool air is still wandering about from last night.  The beach is very calm and you can only hear the sounds of birds humming and the sea tides hitting the still rocks. The tide comes in touching my toes and goes back into the sea.

 I take a deep breath of the sea breeze and breathe out all of my thoughts. My mind is blank and I look around to explore the beauty of nature. That is when I find another company sitting 10 feet away. It was just a little different. It was a Camel. This Camel sits calmly on the sand looking peacefully to the blue horizon ahead. He was wearing a colorful mat that is full of Arabic ornament. I wondered where his owner is. I guess this camel is just like me, escaped to the sea.

 I’m not alone after all and there is a camel who I thought it would be nice if I introduced myself to. I hesitated. I was afraid of approaching him. I have never in my life seen a camel before. I took a few steps towards him, I stopped for a while, I watched him carefully and then I came nearer and nearer until I was standing just next to him.

He was still sitting on his knees, he didn’t move a muscle since I started getting closer. I patted his head gently and was that a smile on his face?! I swear I just saw it. It felt like a love from the first smile or first pat you name it. What is important is that I fell in love with that Camel. I took that smile as a yes for our friendship and I took courage to board him. The placed mat was stuffed and comfortable. As soon as I boarded, he began standing up in a slow motion by leaning back a little and then leaning to the extreme front to raise his back legs followed by his front. I almost fell off despite my strong grip of him. We both kept silent and started our journey walking by the shore. We walked for a mile or so.

Suddenly I heard a voice far away calling for us. The man approached us running; he had a dark sparkling skin and wore a white Jellabiya. He told me I should pay money for that ride. I went down to the ground; I paid him and asked if he would be here tomorrow, he said he wouldn’t. I hugged the camel and walked away crying from inside.