Sunday, May 1, 2011

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs

Remember that song by the Five Man Electric Band? I used to love that song. And I've been thinking about it a lot since I've gotten here, since I'm essentially an illiterate. The thing which really brought the point home was that I was at the market right before Easter and there were lots of things marked down. I thought it was just because they were going to be closed for Easter and Easter Monday. But, no-- it's because they were closing. For renovations. Until May. If only I could have read the sign. 


So, I've started taking pictures of the signs I like and then I use Google Translate to try and find out what other critical information I've been missing.  Sometimes now I can even figure out a couple of words, which makes me very happy. 
Here are a couple of my favorites, with rough translations.

Here's the sign at the local milk store, the Tejbolt. 
They sell (in order) goat milk, fresh milk, sweet cheese (kind of like ricotta), sour cream, butter, cottage cheese, and goat cheese. This took me quite a while to figure out. 

This is the butcher shop in town. Google translate says húsarú is "meatware" but somehow I doubt that translation. 

Here's a couple from the Budapest Zoo.

Google translate says "Caressing Only for Children. Please only one child accompanied by an adult."


Google Translate says: "the animals are tame, if slowly, carefully approximation and not chase them does not hurt!".... Or something like that. 

And here is the place to buy the Zoo Food (Csemege) to feed the animals at the petting zoo. 

Here are some others that intrigues me early on.

"Biting Dog". Almost everyone has one of these signs. 

Or this one about area guarded by dogs.

It's really humbling to no be able to read. Especially when there's something you need to know, like that the grocery store is closing.

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