At Sea

Today we are at sea with plenty of time to blog. However, no possibility of resizing photos or even making new folders for my new photos. I really feel adrift at sea without my toys. It may be that I will find someone who has brought their computer and allows me to use it, but so far, I don't know anyone who has brought their computer well enough to ask them.

We did have a good excursion yesterday. Seems that the humungous Carnival boat and several other smaller boats (like ours) were in port at the same time, so those people who went into town, or took an excursion in the morning found themselves competing with the masses for space and view and even shopping. Since our excursion was in the afternoon, and the massive Carnival was moving out early, we had our little excursion restaurant to ourselves.

Our excursion was a panaramic tour of the coast, followed by a turn inland past farmlands and vineyards to a little restaurant with a water powered mill. Our bus driver was a cautious sort-a character trait we appreciated as the road wound high above the rocky coastline. The views were fantastic. The water color is particularly spectacular-more green than blue near the shore. There was a little walled city, lovely sail boats, and lots of little plots of gardens and orchards along the way. In addition to the usual potatos, beans, and zuccini, we saw lots of olive trees and fruit trees. There is no snow here, and where the rocks are moved back, there appears to be quite fertile soil.

Our restaurant staff greeted us with trays of three kinds of brandies. There was a sweet kind, and in smaller glasses-maybe half the size of a shot glass, there were more alcohol potent brandies-one sweet, and one that tasted very potent and was herbed (green color). All were quite good. Marcia declared the herb green one to be like schnapps (and I never saw it again).

After brandy sampling and mill viewing, we moved on to an open air pavilion with rattan tables just outside in a little seating area. There we were served homemade everything-bread, sheeps cheese, cured thin sliced ham, olives, sweet pickles and wine. These are clearly busy people.

One of the Olivia jokes is that you should pack an apple when going on an excursion as there will be no food on that 15 feet it takes to get off the ship. We had been considerably more than 15 feet, and the little snack was welcome.

On the way home, we noticed that there are still some bunkers left from the war. Dubrovnik was not as affected as the outlying areas. The person who is selling building materials here will surely be able to afford one of the finer houses in Dubrovnik. Perhaps one in Oprah's new neighborhood. She recently bought a very small house for a million USD. Apparently Dubrovnik has become a place to get away from it all. It has always been the pearl of the Adriatic.

As we made our way back to the ship, it started to rain. Not bad timing.

We met our new friends, Lori and Cheryl for dinner. We have declaired the quality of the food higher than our last HAL cruise, and we are sticking to it. During dinner, that hunking Carnival had to get out of port, so our ship slowly moved around to make room. It was a bit like being in a revolving restaurant.

To my joy, Lori and Cheryl have a mini-bar and will chill our wine. Actually, I have to go find them-their movie should be over and they might just have a moment to get the wine in the fridge.

KG

Shipboard

We have just sailed into the Dubrovnick harbor, and will soon be on a tender going ashore for a panoramic view of the area. Lunch first, however.

Yesterday's sail away was quite memorable. I will have to show you photos later, because there is not photo software on the ships computers, so no way to resize my poster size images. I can just tell you that the views of Venice from deck 11 on the ship were breathtaking. Venice seems to work visually from almost any angle, but top down is quite good.

The sail away party just added to the excitement and festive spirit. It is always wonderful to pull up to the ship-often Holland America, and see the rainbow flag and the Olivia flag (feel free) in flight. Our cabin is quite comfortable. We have one window about 1 square yard (or meter) right over the bed. It is enough. We may have friends with a balcony-will check with them tonight when we have dinner together. I'm also hoping they have a frig to chill the wines, as we do not. Guess we are slumming it on this two for one deal.

Karen Williams was so funny at last night's show that we had tears in our eyes most of the time. This morning's lecture on the situation of women in ancient times in the Adriatic/Mediterranean area was enlightening.

The espresso machine is right next to the internet cafe. These people must have read my suggestions from previous cruises.

It only took a few trys to figure out how the shower hot water works-perhaps a shortened learning curve from previous cruises. We have plenty of hot water and towells, and laundry is $12 for a bag about 1 ft X 2 ft.

The food is quite good. I managed to not eat all of my chocolate, chocolate, double chocolate, ganache cake with chocolate drizzled on it, thus avoiding a night of pain. Other dishes were tasty and had reasonable portions. The lunch menu for today looks dazzling.

In short, we are happy sailors.

KG

Will we ever get on the gondola????

It is departure day, and our bags are left outside our hotel room so somebody else has to deal with them. This is a little dicey for some of us. One couple's luggage was lost by the airlines, so they spent a couple of days without their clothes. Going shopping in this upscale neighborhood was a bit pricey-they managed to outfit themselves for around €300 each, and got cropped pants and basic shirts and shoes. However, Olivia has been wonderful so far, and we trust them more than the airlines.

We are well rested and all batteries recharged. There has been much camera fiddling on my part, and all the mysteries are not solved, but I am not shooting in blue today.

We are told that the gondola ride is a go for this morning. The sun is out and everything looks beautiful. Knock wood.

We are meeting RVing women. There is a big network, so we are finding out more. Last night we met women who live in an all women's community in Arizona.

There are also women who spend alot of time with Olivia. One woman is on her 17th cruise. Another has just been crusing for 2 years and has logged in about 7 cruises.

We are meeting lots of fine women and having a great time. The hot chocolate is pretty fine here too.
KG

More tours and rain

Today is, oh heck, what day is it? Today was the day to visit the Murano glass factory. Some people were pretty excited about buying glass, but since cleaning out Mame's stuff from travels, I have not even been tempted to buy the inexpensive stuff. We did enjoy watching the master glass blowers. Pulling a horse out of hot glass in several seconds with a pair of tongs is pretty fascinating.

Actually, just riding to the glass factory is pretty fun. Everything is on as island and we go by boat, so you get to see the city from many different angles. Murano is one of the islands that make up Venice-there are actually quite a few. Our guide happened to live on Murano, so as we waited for our tour of the glass blowing, he took us to see the church a short walk away. This church is lovely from the outside, a restoration. Inside the church are the original floors-a moasic of stone, granite, marble, maybe other things too. Very lovely.

I'll try to get some photos attached to this blog. A terrible thing happened while I was sleeping last night. Camera batteries did not get recharged. Consequently, all my photos are in blue. Worse, I was not able to recharge all day, so the tour of the grand canal found me without camera capability. Perhaps it is just as well that a storm came up again today and our gondola tour was once again cancelled. They hope to do it tomorrow in the day, and I hope to get both batteries up to speed.

So, our boat trip back to the hotel was pretty exciting. Some women with working cameras were able to get in the front open area of the boat and snap away until it started to rain in ernest. One woman persevered through some pretty turbulant chop and rain. We made it back to the hotel, but there were no more boats allowed on the water for the rest of the day.

Rainy days in Venice

Did I mention that the weather in Venice is much like Florida? That includes afternoon thunderstorms, lightning and turbulant water.

Sunday morning the wine tour took off with me, but Marcia decided to stay home. We had a lovely tour bus ride through the countryside near Venice, and eventually came to a wine producing region complete with castle and modern winery. There were many Italian families enjoying the day with us. The winery had set up several pens of spring born animals with their mothers, so the kids were entertained as the parents sampled wine. There were also wagon rides for the kids and a pig roast. We are not sure who got the pig-we didn't. We did get a nice tour and samples to taste.

Though I have never had a particular attraction to spumante, it was the featured wine of this winery. Tasting at the vineyard is quite the different thing than after the bottle travels to our neighborhood. I ended up buying two bottles-one of the spumante-the brutte, and one of the Manzoni Bianco. Anyway, the two bottles cost €10-together, about €5 each. Will someone check the prices on Collalto in your neighborhood. Do please add this to the blog, or send me an email so I can cost compare. http://www.vino.com/wineries/italy/tour.asp?winery_ID=3327&cr_ID=97

Though we were scheduled for a Gondola tour in the evening, there was thunderstorm and we were relieved that it was cancelled. After having a 3 pm lunch, I retired to the room and slept from 4:30 pm to 5 am. Guess I needed the rest.

KG

The Most Serene--Venice

You may see lots of photos of Venice during our days here but I thought I would fill in some of the history of this beautiful city and their 6000 year old lagoon. Like Budapest, the Venetians were involved in multiple invasion over the centuries. Attila and the Huns attacked several times between 452-726 and the Venetians often evacuated to the islands in the lagoon during these invasions. During the 800's they moved to the islands and eventually built a floating causeway made of boats and wood planks to allow a more permanent access to the islands plus when invaders arrived by land they could easily dismantle the "bridge" to cut off the invaders.

The Venetian Republic reached the height of their power around 1453 and basically controlled the commerce of the Adriatic and the Mediteranean eastward towards Turkey. The sea became their lake of capitalism until the discovery of the new world. The Turks certainly resented the continued expansion and made several attempts to attack Venice without much success. Many Turkish and other ships lie at the bottom of the Adriatic as the lagoon was not passable to large ships. The swift, maneuverable Venetian ships were hard to fight off. Eventually, the Mediteranean became less and less of a economic focus as the ability to sail around the world was not a focus of their commercial activity.



Most interesting is the fact that they had an unbroken line of cooperation for business as a city headed by the Doge for more than a thousand years. They elected the first Doge in 697 and continued to do so until the end of the Venetian Republic in 1797 when Napoleon's army took the city and associated lands. It wasn't and easy transition as the Venetians tried for months to negotiate with Napoleon so that they could mantain their autonomy, but Napoleon spoke the words that were soon to echo in the heart of every Venetian: ‘Io sarò un Attila per lo stato veneto’–‘I shall be an Attila to the state of Venice.’" and he sent his armies to Venice. Venice surrendered and the leaders left their all-too-distinctive robes of office behind them, the remaining legislators of the Venetian Republic slipped discreetly out of the palace by the secret side entrances. The Serenissima- Venice ceased to exist.

Shortly after the surrender the Treaty of Campo Formio gave Venice to the Austrian Empire who controlled the Venetian held lands including parts of Dalmatia and several Greek islands. Their economic power diluted, their struggle for political autonomy was their focus for 70 years. They eventually fought for their freedom from the Austrian Empire and eventually joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. Their wealth is now in tourism and petroleum refiningfound on the mainland.

From the inauguration of the first Doge to the resignation of the last in 1797, the Venetian Republic had lasted 1,071 years–only half a century less than the Byzantine Empire. For much of that time Venice had been the acknowledged mistress of the Mediterranean-- politically, constitutionally, commercially, artistically and architecturally a wonder of the world. It would be much more pleasant to record a less ignominious end, with her people showing-- as their Republic began to crumble-- some spark of that endurance and courage that they had shown often enough in defending their colonies against the Huns, Turks–or that their own grandchildren were to show against the Austrians half a century later.

We sail soon and will gladly return over a week later to "Serenissima" the beautiful Venice.

On learning language and communicating

I woke up the other day thinking of JFK in Berlin. Maybe you remember the famous speach in which he wished to express solidarity with the people of Berlin, but instead said, "I am a jelly doughnut." I try to remember this as I funble away at several languages, and mostly, as I speak English to those who must struggle to understand me and make themselves understood in my language. In short, we must all adapt a worldview as citizens of the world. Those Berliners with citizens of the world attitude recognized the meaning of his faulty German and cheered.

I hear people saying hello instead of good-by in English and Chinese, and I know I have heard myself say just as twisted things in German, Magyar, and now, Italian. I don't even try to correct. It just seems too rude when someone is trying.

On the tourist bus tour the other day, our guide was pointing out an emblem on the steeple top of St. Mathias Church. "This is an enema," she said, "of the royal family." I only smiled.

If it's Saturday, It's Lido Venice

We have arrived by water taxi. Almost all of our needs have been met. We got some sleep on the train, had a little egg ham and pickle sandwich and package of oj, were met by a congenial guy who hearded us along to our water taxi. This ride was magnificant. Even though it is quite hot and humid-feels just like Fla in the summer, we were bedazzled by Venice all the way up the grand canal.



I seems as though our rooms won't be ready till 2pm or later, so we have plenty of time to type. Our one need that has not been met is showers. Maybe we have bad water karma or something. There is water all around us wherever we go, but shower access is limited. I'm sure that by later this afternoon we will have all the shower we need.



Yesterday, Friday, we had a pretty easy time of it getting all our belongings together, putting Kristine's flat back in order, and catching our train. Communication with Mrs. Dobos about calling a taxi was not exactly perfect, so we waited what we thought was a good enough amount of time, and got the receptionist at the little hotel on the corner, The Cotton Club, to call us a cab. The front desk person there had helped me earlier in the day when I needed to call the hotel in Venice on Kristina's cell phone. Knowledge is power! This woman simply said, "First dial 00." and of course I was speaking to the DesBains hotel in Venice. I had tried to email them for two days with no luck. As it turned out, they were able to meet our needs for a greeter and private water taxi to our hotel.

We arrived at Keleti train station in Budapest with about an hour and a half to spare. They hadn't even listed our train on the big board. So, we leisurely sat in the cafe and had beers. There, we were entertained by a confrontation between waiters which may have been about us. They caught my attention when the larger one had the smaller man who waited on us in a wrestlers grip with intention to strangle him. Luckily the cool headed bartender stepped in, and soon our two waiters were out seperate doors having cigarettes.

Checking our watches, we noted that we had 10 min to departure, but our sleeper was the last on the train, making it the first to reach for boarding. We had just gotten comfortably settled in and I had just snapped a few last photos of the station when we began moving. Though all was quite well, it made me nervous to cut it that close. I am more accustomed to waiting for the plane.



The train sleeper cabin was adequate and comfortable as these things go. We did not have to haul our luggage, but we had to live with it surrounding us-making foot rests. At least everything was within easy reach. I happily snapped photos, some quite good I think, but who will know until this summer. Now I am thinking that it may take the rest of my life to sort through them all.



Our cabin steward advised waiting till after the first passport check at the Croatian border to put our beds down. We were very sleepy, but saw the wisdom of his choice. There were actually 6 passport checks along the way. Hungary wanted to see us out, Croatia wanted us greeted both ways, Slovenia, and finally, Italy greeted us about 4:30 am. Some stamped, some didn't.

We were most excited to travel the southern shore of Lake Balaton in Hungary. Marcia has been saying she would like to explore around there, and Julia's daughter is getting married there today. It is quite the beautiful lake, but very shallow. We saw what looked like park benches on stilts way out in the lake, and I am sure you could walk there and have a sit. We would like to, actually. It takes quite some time to get around Lake Balaton, so we had plenty of time to enjoy a lovely sun set on the lake. It was often elusive, as lots of people want their houses on the shore, but occasionally I could get a shot in.

KG

Traveling with Istvan Orkeny

As we were moving through our last days in Budapest our friend Julia presented us with a book of One Minute Stories by Istvan Orkeny- Hungarian playwrite and author. I devoured the book with laughter, confusion and some improved understanding of the Hungarian spirit. Kay and I have been mulling about the post communist mind set but Orkeny helped me understand what they have experienced as well.

Kay found the second book of One Minute Stories so I can inhale some more Istvan. One passage in the introduction captures some of his character.

"He (Orkeny) would have seen ancient hatreds and enemies persisting despite the repeated declarations of a brave new world, and he would have realized (again, with his fellow Hungarians) that the powerful, the determined and the brutal had an uncanny ability to preserve their privileges. The remainder of the population had to survive as best they could: by evolving a tongue-in-cheek cynical scepticism and an ability to find a way around "Keep Out" signs, by learning constant vigilance, trusting few and confiding in none, and above all, by constantly reminding themselves that all political creeds of all kinds are essentially absurd."

Orkeny takes on the task of identifying the absurdities of his time with an irreverent pen and often oblique viewpoint that made me think about how really absurd things are at times. Kay and I experienced some of these absurdities alive and well today in Budapest (read blog entry "Getting Credentialled") and learned to leave early, plan for disruptions and be patient. Orkeny's books certainly explain some of the origins and provided laughter as a garnish.

Check out some samples at http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/cherrypit.html or http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/cherrypit.html

mdt

Thursday tourist bus

Yesterday, after running most of the errands we needed to complete, I headed for Deak ter to catch the tourist bus. I was there 1.5 hrs. before departure and bought my ticket from the guy in the square. It made me a little nervous that he took me into the Museum of Evangalism to do the transaction and made clear that my ticket included a tour. As I used up my 1.5 hrs walking around, I kept thinking that we might be spiritually asaulted all along the route.

My walking tour took me most places I had been the day before, but there seem to always me more things to see. I was particularly enamored with this little water fountain. Not only was it beautiful, but the water was cold and refreshing. There are springs under the city, and this one was cold. I am told that the coldest ones are 20C-about 68F.

I came across a bookstore in the tourist area. It promoted itself as selling foreign language books, so I took a look. Every since Marcia got ahold of Stephen Orkeny's One Minute Stories, she has been laughing and wanting more. Sure enough, two of his One Minute Stories have been published and the bookstore had the one we don't. Thanks go to Julia for introducing us to this Hungarian author. The humor is really quirky, and, understanding the context is essential. We love his work. http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/magyar/orkenyi.htm

On to the tour. Our guide meets us and we do start at the Museum of Evangalism. However, the highlight of the museum's very small collection, is the original Last Will an Testament of Martin Luther. It was hidden here from Hitler during the war (guess the Solviets were not interested in it). I was not aware that Martin left all his worldly good to his wife-quite radical at the time as everything generally went to the eldest son. He reasoned that she had been with him through some very hard times, and she could do with the money as she pleased. This, and the fact that the Calvinists took in their neighbors for the local synagogue during flood and war, lifted my spirits. There was no evangalizing on this tour, thank God.

Though I had seen much of the stuff, there is still wonder and delight in seeing these buildings. Not that most of it is old-most of it is rennovated, but so is the sistine chapel (now in brilliant cartoon colors we are told). So, I still enjoyed it.

As we passed Parliament, I noticed a Hungarian flag over a small marble monument. The flag had a hole cut in the middle. Later, the guide told me that it is a monument to the 1956 uprising. The Solviets had "imposed" their symbol on the Hungarian flag, and in protest, the dissidents cut it out. I also learned that those statues I was looking for in Statue Park are not there because they were so torn apart that most of the pieces are missing. Lenin's right hand was found in somebody's back yard. Hummm. There seems to be a severed hand theme going on here.

The other irony is that the only Solviet era statue that remains in it's original place in town is directly across from the US Embasy. We did not get to see it. But, I know that since W has looked into Putin's eyes and seen his soul, nobody minds looking at that statue.

On this tour, I was the only American. However, there were two young Romanians who are expecting to immigrate to Canada as soon as their paperwork is processed. They were very excited. Since their receptive English was better than their German (the other tourists on the bus), we toured together. The guy was very funny and particularly with political humor about the Solviet occupation.

The advantage of being on the tour bus is that you get into Fishermans Bastion. Besides another fantastic view of Pest(providing many more photographs to work on this summer), there was St Mathias church and other great old houses-very charming neighborhood and quite pricey.

On to the statue. I'm sorry about the sun. It just wouldn't be in the right place for me. I also tried to get this lady at night, but those photos were even worse.

"Here", our guide explains, "is a Solviet statue representing slaying of the evil dragon. " " Which one is the Solviet?" asks my new Romanian friend. We all laugh. The Germans are sitting on the left in this photo. The monument, as you may remember, was a gift of the Solviets for losses Hungary suffered at the hand of the Nazis. Actually, Hungary joined with the Nazis, then tried to get out of it. Perhaps this made Hitler nervous, so he sent more troops. It has been just one dragon after another here.

So, enough blogging for today. There are pastries to buy for our trip and luggage to be hauled to the train station. Our next blog will either be from Venice or the boat.

KG

Walking around town-Tuesday afternoon

After my trip to Statue Park, I was going to try once again for the tourist bus. However, there just kept being wonderful buildings on my way to the bus, and eventually I gave up the idea of the tourist bus. When it started to thunder and I felt a few drops, I opted for the metro back to the Octagon where I found Marcia in the internet cafe. Just enough time to transfer my photos to the hard drive, check email, and make my way to Menza to have our last dinner with Julia.

Menza was quite good, and I will be having my crispy duck breast in mango and strawberry sauce for leftovers, maybe tonight.

So, here are some of my photos. The first of of Szt. Istivan's Bascillica taken from the Buda hills.

I hope this enlarges when you click it. The green and yellow roofed building is a very large synagogue. Perhaps second largest in the world (if you can trust my memory and the guide).

I visited St Stephen's Bascillica in 1990. They have gussied that place up quite a bit. I did get to view St. Stephen's hand again, though there were lots of tourists in front of me being told the facts about the hand in French. One English speaking teen just walked away in disgust. Perhaps many of us find the hand a little unusual. The Pope lends it the Popemobile whenever it decides to travel.

Here is a view of Parliament-back view from Szt. Istivan's, and next is one of the towers of Szt Istivan. If it looks a bit off ballance, you know how I was feeling.

I decided to take the lift(s) to the observation deck. This is a great place to see the lay of the land and take photos. However, as I age, I find that I don't do well in high places. Even the Sunshine Skyway Bridge gives me the willies these days. So, I put my telephoto lens on and stayed close to the wall thinking such thoughts as, "I wonder if they renovated this part of the building...to code...whose code????" I could see newspaper headlines about tourists toppling down from St Istivan's-what a pity!!!

I met up with a group of guys from the UK-probably footballers on holiday. They had a guideperson and were learning all sorts of things about the city. They passed me in a rather small space as I was "up against the wall". Just as I was thinking that I would feel much more comfortable inside the dome, one of the guys announced that he had gone his limit as well. I did get some photos though.

I loved this majolica holy water fountain. The reason it is tilted is that I wasn't supposed to use flash, tried to turn off the flash, but, alas, it flashed, so I was making a hasty exit. I'm glad I got most of it though, and I may be able to fix it later this summer.

KG

Transportation stuff

When I see things, I often think of people who need to see them (in my estimation).

This one is for Holly and Bob. Marcia and I were walking down the street just after a visit to the internet cafe, and she was telling me that Holly and Bob spent the weekend at the tow truck convention. For those of you who don't know how those semi's that topple over the edge on the interstate get uprighted and on their way again, we are here to tell you that Bob is responsible. So, just minutes after Marcia has told me about Holly and Bob going to the tow truck convention, we see this conveyance going by. It had to stop for the traffic light, so I had time to snap it.

Today, I saw my second Beemer Bike. The first was in Vienna. As we age, those slick Harley's may not always suit our needs. The Beemer Bike offers the prestige of the BMW and a roof over one's head.

Since last summer, when we saw them in Canada, we have fallen in love with the Smart Cars. Here are two we admired. It is tempting to rent (or even test drive one) until you see the traffic around here. We often have to catch our breaths for a motorcyclists who zips between cars or busses and misses being smashed by inches.

Who knows what this Sinus model is about??? Probably about right for me.

KG

Monday

Monday morning I managed a trip, via metro, to IKEA (pronounced E-K-ah, here). It was a fun little shopping tour. Wish we had one in our neighborhood.

The transit cops were out in full force today, so I got to show off my transit pass and photo. They were all quite congenial, but I noticed that one of them wore a billy club, so there is incentive to behave nicely and always have one's ticket or transit pass. Many were women. They wear regular street clothes, but have armbands and badges-much like our hospice photo badges-laminated.

When I got home, I convinced Marcia, perhaps against her better judgement, to do the tourist bus with me. Though I asked at the tourist office about where to get on, we did not find the right place, and besides, no bus came for forever. Luckily, I had decided to pack along the baths bag, so we hopped the regular bus and metro to the Szechenyi and had a nice afternoon swim and soak.

I heard from a British guy that admission to the baths just a few months ago was about 1200Ft less than these days. We were thinking they raise the prices in warmer more touristy months.

Would you believe what I saw on a car on the street?

Another sign of summer is the "house car". We have seen several. One of these was parked across the street from the restaurant where we had dinner.

Our very fine dinner was at the Bagolyvar restaurant. Lonely Planet brought it to our attention by saying "It's staffed entirely by women-in the kitchen, at tables, and in the front of the house. (We don't know either.)" I think we can safely assure Lonely Planet that we know, and they are not. However, there is one waiter at the Menza that most surely is. Both restaurants have very fine food.

My dinner at Bagolyvar was a cold sour cherry soup followed by a chicken paprikash pancake (ground chicken and spices rolled up in a regular wheat flour pancake and sitting in a puddle of paprika gravy looking for all the world like burritos). We tried one of the Tokai wines and liked it very much. It had more character that St Istivan. Something between a Chard and Sauvignon Blanc.

The diners next to us-a couple of guys (though we can't say for sure they are a couple) brought along a little Scottish Terrier. He was not perfectly behaved, but the restaurant was not very full, so he trotted around inspecting the place, finding the kitchen and being shooed away, and eventually established himself as fly catcher.

There was a musician playing a traditional Hungarian instrument called a cimbalom. It is like a hammered dulcimer with a pedal and makes a lovely sound. Our particular cimbalom player had an instrument that was even more attractive than the one in this photo-very ornate carving.

Yesterday, Tuesday

Having had it with Monday's "adventures", Marcia decided to give her knees a rest Tuesday. After being the barista, I gathered my things and headed for Deak terrace and the bus to Statue Park.

The metro was easy, but the tourist stuff is still tricky. One is never sure why, but things are not well marked, and certainly none of the printed material gives you all the details. So, I had my trusty tourist brochure that told me to go to Deak ter. and I would find the tourist bus to Scoborpark. I decided to check in at the big fancy hotel for specific information about where the bus stops. On Monday Marcia and I tried to find the stop for the red double decker tourist bus and spend a lot of time standing on the street-not her knees' favorite passtime.

The staff at these hotels go out of their way to be helpful. Perhaps because I look like an American tourist, albiet a sweaty bedragled one. So, they showed me where the bus stops (and didn't stop me from using their toilet), and, sure enough there was a British man at the bus stop reading a small sign that indicated that this was the bus to Scoborpark. Neither of us had tickets, and we were discussing that the brochure said to buy tickets at the desk. However, there was no desk in sight and no indication of where to find such a desk. Eventually, an American mom and daughter pair arrived with tickets in hand. They directed us to the tourist office, where we easily bought tickets. It seemed that some people bought their tickets once they got to the park. Who knew??? Anyway, that seems to be the way things are done, or not done. We have learned to do our research first and still arrive an hour ahead of time to leave room for further exploration of details. Perhaps guests at the hotel get all the information, or maybe somebody buys the tickets for them.

So, off I go on the bus to see the statues. The Hungarians moved the old Communist era statues out of town when the Solviets left. They pretty much had the feeling of "Thank God and Greyhound you're gone. Some of the less durable pieces showed signs of being kicked in the teeth or anointed with something rather permanent, but the majority of pieces where cast, and nothing less than dynamite could harm them. Apparently the Hungarians were not in possesion of dynamite to spare, or we are not seeing all of them. There is wonderful film footage of statues being chopped down in the 1950's, and I really expected to see them, but, aside from the boots, everyone was intact and respectfully displayed. (Things did not go well for those choppers either. The last Solviet troops left after my last visit in 1990, so there was plenty of time to deal with dissidents.)


The feeling of the park was respectful, as though this is a part of Hungarian history whether or not you like it, so it needs to be remembered. Very sensible, as we know what happens when we forget history. However, the ticket stand gift shop was a scream. I only bought a post card with aeral overview of the park and a pair of red and black Che socks-made in China for a Hungarian company. Maybe I will wear them in Puerto Rico next winter. I hope you can read the posters and T-shirts in my photos. I've tried to put them all on the left of our blogpage. I know they prefer to be there. I didn't get a photo of my favorite cup. It has Marx and Lenin and maybe Engles in the South Park style, but it says, East Park.

KG

If Today is Wednesday, must be the baths

We are just back from a good soak in the baths and a big Chinese lunch. Today we made it to the Kiraly, built by the Turks in 1570. I came here in 1990, and, though memory plays tricks, today's trip was just as memorable. I remembered it as bigger. It has been renovated, but the pool arrangement is the same. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday it is open to women only and swimsuit optional. Being European now, we chose to leave the suits in the bag.

This image was taken with all the lights on. There were few, if any lights on today. The walls that the lights make look gold, are really more like concrete. The floors and some areas are probably marble or granite, but the overall look is ancient. I remember there being more of the original coke bottle green glass in the holes in the ceiling. There were a few of these in the little dome over one of the cold pools.

There are several pools. The big one under the big dome which has little holes that let light in, is the main feature and has water temps about 36C. Before you get to the big pool, there is a little pool, 'bout as big as the bapistry at First Baptist Church in Ocala (before it burned down). This pool features 28C water. It was a great way to start, as it is hot as blue blazes outside and humid to beat. It has been trying to rain, but no luck.

To the right of the big pool is a really hot tub, 38-40C (again, the size of the baptistry). Behind the big pool is another little pool with 26C water-just like jumping in the Rainbow river. There is also a sauna room, but the steam from the pools were quite enough for us. The sauna room goes to 58-60C. We dunked back and forth amongst the pools to our hearts' (and other muscles') content.

When we had had enough, we got lovely showers, redonned our street clothes, and headed out for lunch. Another 3 pm lunch. There was a Chinese restaurant just down the block, so we had a great Chinese meal. They too have wonderful fresh bamboo shoots, and chiles enough to remind me of Sezchuan. It was pretty easy to get a cab back to our neighborhood internet cafe, so here we are, hygiene, hunger and cyber needs all met. It is a good day.

Back in the saddle rather than the WC

My troubles with the "Grippe" are mostly over and we are getting out and about to Budapest places of interest. Still I have to be careful of what I eat and take care to not over do since my energy level is prone to drop fast, with little warning. It has not affected Kay's appetite to say the least and much to my chargrin.

This is our last week in Hungary and we are begining to think of packing up and tending to laundry and such. Friday will be here before we know it and we will be off on the overnight sleeper train to Venice where we will explore the town for three days before the ship leaves for Croatia, Greece and ports beyond. We are looking forward to being cooked for and pampered on this special culinary cruise. We are really looking forward to it.

Tonight we will have dinner with a friend and I really hope I can allow my stomach to indulge in the Hungarian feasting we have had here. Much to tell about our recent faves in a future blog but now we must be off to the restauant!

mdt

Interesting Places

When we first arrived in Budapest things seemed flat... like Kansas maybe, but off in the distance one day I saw some hills. They were almost Blue Ridge-like and old looking-- geologically speaking. I wondered about them a lot since we were being mainly city dwellers and what lands were out there seemed very far away sometimes. Then there was the Danube...

People have been using this river for many things not least by any means, as a way to travel somewhere else. The trip to Vienna was just the ticket for me to see those places we had just hints of. Off we went to discover that those hills were very interesting indeed. Many places by the river were stations where rock from the sides of the mountains were crushed and cut for building material for cities up and down the river. For every color of brick on the Budapest buildings we had noted, there was a river-side loading plant for the rock. The hills provided several places where the rock was being harvested. Loads of coal were floating down river as well. No so much for persoanl use but for the powerplants that were also by this important river.





Also, the river is an important source of recreation and beauty. Castles have been on many of the hils for centuries and now over look lowlands that are often flooded by the Danube. Yes, I do mean floods-- of the Mississippi variety. Things get cleaned off of the banks along the river... but it makes great flat RV sites as well.











Vienna was a beautifully manicured place-- at least downtown in the circle where all the palaces, churches, museums and goverment buildings are. The streets are small and each corner brought something else unusual or startlingly beautiful.














Our transportation was quite impressive on the way back from Vienna. This was a first class version with TV observation of the bow of the ship. GPS short and long range maps were interesting to watch on the screen since we could see each island carved by the river flow and the places were the two sets of long locks guide the river course to different levels. But mostly for me it was about having some answers about this land of many people, many cultures that are sprayed about like the water off of our fast hydrofoil.

They were thrown about in many directions and no wonder many of the faces I see tend to look familar. We are from many poeple of the same ancestry. I may have met a cousin somewhere on the street and never even knew it.

mdt