“Silly foreigners,” they said to each other through a combination of wry smiles and knowing headshakes. Hungarians are famous for not gesticulating too much, but what gestures they do make are effective and to the point, and in this case very accurate.

The only solution to this dispute was a kind of saturation bombing campaign. I gathered every available coin in my right hand, holding my left under the chute to catch the rejected currency. I took a deep breath, and off I went. Kah-ching, rattle, kah-ching, rattle, kah-ching, rattle, then a transfer of returned coins from left hand to right, and the assault could begin again.

"This was weird. Was she Irish?"

Kah-ching, rattle, kah-ching, rattle, and so on, until finally kah-ching, clunk: I was in. I was a little disappointed that my hard-fought prize looked like a church raffle ticket, but it was my permit to travel and I loved it. I loved it enough to kiss it but the wry smiles of my fellow travelers deterred me from drawing any more attention.

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