Budapest, and Lovin' it.

Before I get into my travels, I thought I'd pass along something I got from my High School friend, Dick Krueger. Sounds like a downer to start, but it gets better.

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

And now to Budapest:

When last I wrote (if that's what we do on a computer) it was Monday morning here. After the update, I tried to take a walking tour of the city. Read the fine print, Dick. That tour only runs from May thru September. Oh Well. I walked out to the city's Art museum area. The first thing I did was get lunch at a hamburger stand. Local hamburger stands are always much better than the Chains, right? Wrong, at least in this case.

But all wasn't lost. Two fellows sitting at the table with me spoke a language I understand, so we started to talk. Turns out they are Dr.s interning in Berlin, and are from Tasmania, AU. The one place I missed, darn it. We had a nice conversation. I've decided that nearly everyone from AU is about as open and friendly as anyone can be. I've met 10 or more on this trip to bear that out. And the Brits are about as hard to get talking as a statue. Sorry, Brits, but that's been my experience trying to converse with your country folk.

From there I explored what I thought were the grounds of an ancient castle. Very nice, even had a moat filled with water. Turns out, I find out, that it was built in the late 1800's as the winning entry in an architectural competition. And it includes a multitude of different styles. So much for my architectural knowledge.

On to the rest of the Museums. Wrong. Again, read the fine print. They close on Mondays. Oh well, it was a nice walk. On to the river area. The river doesn't close, only the tour boats.
So I washed more clothes, ate at Mickie D's, and looked around for some desert to cheer me up. And I found one. If ever in Budapest, don't miss the "Sisi Torte" at the Cafe Mozart! It has 14763 grams of fat, but none of that is saturated. In addition, it has 16764 grams of carbohydrates, all of the above from chocolate and sugar. Sisi, by the was was the wife, Elizabeth, of Franz Josef, if I remember correctly.

Tuesday was another sunny day, good for walking. Went to the two art museums I tried on Monday, open this time. The first was abstract art. Some of it I actually liked, and wouldn't mind having in my home. Others, though, looked like they might have been hung upside down, vert. instead of horiz., etc.

Then on the to museum with the old masters. Some marble sculptures form Greco/Roman days. I learned not to touch. These Hungarian docents can really wave a mean finger at you when you do bad things. Then paintings by 14th thru 16th century or so masters. Most of them were religious in content, and I though all used very dark tones. Maybe the lighting in the museum, but they weren't too enjoyable.

They did have an exhibit on Egyptian gods, primarily Ra, the sun god. My ticket wasn't supposed to give me entrance to that section, but I've perfected the role of the befuddled, confused, apologetic American, so the docent let me in anyway. That part was pretty interesting.

Then on to the train station to make reservations for the next several legs. Strange how things can seem humorous after the fact, but very unsettling as they occur. My train experience in Bratislava, and the following speak to that.

I got schedules for all my needs thru Istanbul, looked them over (not many choices) and decided when and what time I wanted to go. Went to the reservation window, and wrote down all the destinations, dates and times, and gave it to the clerk. She nodded, pushed a few buttons, printed a few things out, asked for money, gave me the reservations, and pulled down the shade on her window before I could look at them.

You guessed it, she got them wrong. I pounded on the window, and fortunately she hadn't left on her break yet, so she looked to see what kind of fool was out there. Finally got it straightened out, at least I'm on the trains I want to be on. I still may try to change the seating between Bucharest and Istanbul, but I didn't want to mess with it any more then.
Went to TGI Friday's for supper. I have to admit, although ethnic food doesn't seem to upset me, I find I just enjoy what I'm used to. I try the local stuff in each area, but after the new wears off, I look for Americanized food.

I watched a sports special while eating. It was on Rugby, which I became addicted to in NZ and AU last year. Seems it's becoming more and more popular around the world, from what I could tell. They showed teams from India, Pakistan, and China in training. It seemed somewhat sacrilegious to be teaching the NZ All Black's Haka to a Chinese team. Like naming a junior high football team "The Fighting Irish".

So on to today, Wednesday. I finally got to the start of the tour at the time it started, and on the day it started. Nice tour, and I learned some things I hadn't been able to find out by myself. The highlight was the tour of the Parliament house, which I hadn't been to. That's a really beautiful building, well worth the time spent waiting to get in. Just too bad we couldn't spend more time there.

Then I went to the castle area, where I'd not spent much time. There are several museums there, but I need a respite from museums every now and then, so I just wandered around the outside. Then walked thru old Buda, and had dinner at the Sisi Cafe. She's really popular here. Had Spaghetti Sisi, which turned out to be pretty good.

Several comments on the countries I've visited so far. They haven't caught on to the free refill for either coffee or soft drinks. With the exception of McD and BK here in Budapest, there is no ice in the soft drinks. De-cafe in unheard of. Graffiti is alive and thriving. All the homeless I've seen so far seem to be here in Budapest. I can't remember any on previous stops. The non-smoking section is usually the table you are at, and nothing more.

And that seems to be about it for tonite. Tomorrow I head for Sighisoara, Romania, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes. No, not someone from NJ I had breakfast with. The original Count Dracula. Two nites there, then on the Bucharest for 4 days, then Istanbul.

I'm going to miss this Internet Cafe. American keyboard and screen. Yippee.