(written in shorthand)
BISTRITZ, 3 MAY
FINALLY I ARRIVED HERE AFTER A SPEEDY JOURNEY ACROSS Europe by express train. Left Munich at 8:30 p.m. on the 1st of May, arrived in Vienna the next morning. From there to Budapest, a strange city, although I only saw a little of it. There it felt as though I were saying goodbye to the West and Western civilization, as Eastern culture came to the fore. I spent the night in Klausenburg; got there yesterday evening after dark and continued with the mail coach to the Borgo Pass this morning.27 Today I have gone over hilly country, very different from the plains of Hungary. Here and there I could see a village or a castle on the hilltops, and, occasionally, the road crossed gushing rivers. At the coach stops I saw many rural people gathering, clad in all sorts of attire—I wish that I could have drawn some sketches of life here around me. Oddest of all do the Slovaks seem to me. They wear wide trousers with shirts overtop, and belts around the middle. Their hair falls to the shoulders and their eyes are black and fiery, which makes them look like bandits. Other than that, however, they seem harmless.