Went on an excursion with the girls to the Buda Hills. The train ride itself was beautiful. At the top of one of the peaks was the Children's Railway. Cute. It was operated by children (officail age is 10-14 years), and to see them act like adults, running a fully operational train depot was very distrubing to me. This railway originated from the socialist era, the older children were recruited a Pioneers. A tile mural in the ticketing office depicted children dressed in uniform, camping at the train station, very much like a picture of Boy Scout and some kinda uniformed unit camp. There were adults there, one in an office, another driving the train itself. I cannot bring together the moral in this. "Designed to teach a young generation of Communists the value of cooperation, and to give them some experience in one of Hungary's most important industries..." Yes, this is important, but I think the way it is played out here is what bothers me the most. I see kids talking like adults, being serious, working alone, or in pairs (but even then, each is seperately doing his/her own job). I'm sure much effort it taken to ensure the safety of these children, but it's too serious a learning environment for youngsters such as them. I asked one how old he was, and received a grim 13. He looked more like 9. All of them looked well below the the adolecent age, a precious one or two might be no more than 14. The kids were scattered in different stations along the 11 km railroad track. I wonder in all this isolation and preforming rather parrot-like duties, are they robbed of the experiences they ought to have as kids? It was a weekday, and the shifts they take seem day-long. I suppose it was just hard to comprehend this Up-side-down World of Budapest's Children's Railway, a remenant of the Communism and now, a sick tourist attraction.