Efacis We flew into Prague. Petra, a postgraduate student, met us and took us by tram and metro to the town centre hotel. Justin and Ondrej took us for a lovely meal.
The reading in the Shakespeare bookshop was well attended … there was a very thorough introduction and a reception hosted by the Embassy. Next morning we took the train to Vienna where Werner met us. We attended the Joyce songs and had dinner with Sinead and Darina which was excellent. The reading was more formal in a lecture hall lots of questions, good introduction by Werner, the Ambassador was represented. Next afternoon I did a poetry workshop with 12 students of various backgrounds … they were very eager and Julia organized it well. On Saturday we enjoyed the Austrian festival in the park.
Train to Budapest on Sunday where Borsca met us …. We were very well looked after. Donald and Chilla were great hosts in Debrecen and our reading with interview was well attended. We saw a little of the park with the writers’ statues.
Borsca drove to Pécs on Wednesday; the audience were lovely people mostly women.
Final reading in a large lecture hall at Pázmány Péter University near Budapest. Beautiful campus. Many very erudite questions. I was intrigued by how interested students were in the political aspects of my work.
