Happy Birthday Hungary, and Mike!

August 20 is St. Steven's Day here in Hungary. There are huge celebrations in honor of the founding of Hungary in AD 1000 by King Steven. August 20 also happens to be Mike's birthday, so we celebrated by taking the day off work--not hard since hardly anyone else was working either!
We watched part of the huge Flower Carnival parade here in Debrecen. The traditional floats, all covered with flowers, are fun to see including this one of Süsü, a favorite children's character. We learned about Süsü in our last language classes when we watched (and tried to understand) a short video clip featuring the dragon.

The parade included lots of bands and dancers from near and far. These little girls were so cute, and very talented, too.

One reason the parade lasts two or three hours is that there are long gaps between entries. The crowd sometimes wanders into the street to wait for the next float. We were a little too impatient, though, and went home to watch the rest of the parade on TV!
We then went back to join the crowds at the Great Woods Park and downtown.

Mike decided that for his birthday dinner he wanted an American hot dog. The hot dogs we got from this stand really did taste like American hot dogs!
Happy birthday, Mike! And happy birthday Hungary!