Cruising through Croatia

Cruising through Croatia
Originally uploaded by Flightplan.

On Tuesday after a long travel day (2 trains, 1 bus and 1 long hike up hill), we met up with my mother and Ervin. I can't tell you how nice it was to see a familiar face! It was so relaxing to see a loved one. We had a nice dinner on a patio overlooking the gulf of kavarnar in Croatia. It was truly scenic.

We got up in the morning and rented a car and drove down to the Makarska Riveria getting a room in Zivogosce ( you're guess is as good as mine in how to pronounce it). Ashley utilized her crackerjack German skills to secure our lodging, a nice room in a private home with balconies overlooking the Adriatic Sea.......very relaxing. Today we went swimming in the Adriatic, and although it was very rocky (no sand on the beach) and chilly, we truly enjoyed the experience. Our bathing spot was right near the nude beach, so we had some nice views. Tomorrow we go to Dubrovnik.

Musings on Hungary

Musings on Hungary
Originally uploaded by Flightplan.

Both Ashley and I really enjoyed Hungaria (as Ashley and I often mistakenly call it). It was a nice change of pace from the Slavic countries, and felt more like Western Europe than any other place we have visited. From the sights to the architecture to the cosmopolitaness of the people, Hungary is more like Germany or France than Czech Republic or Poland.



We particularly loved Budapest. What a beautiful city. The architecture was amazing, and the sights offered a view into Hungarian life, history and art. Plus, for the most part they were either dirt cheap or free. And while it was tough utilizing the maps offered by our guidebooks to get around, the mass transit system is very efficient and expansive. We also truly enjoyed the food.



The only problems we had in Hungary was the language. Hungarian is quite foreign and we had a difficult time pronouncing and understanding it. We are not quite sure how they make those sounds from the letters. Luckily Ashley speaks some German (which is spoken heavily in every country we have visited) plus many Hungarians speak English. I guess they know Hungarian is too hard for foreigners to learn???



Things that will only interest me

- Music listened to. I did a lot of listening of music in Hungary including Tool, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Wilco, Architecture in Helsinki, and Olivia Tremor Control.

- Books I read. Just finished the biography and am starting on a collection of short stories.

Hévíz

For the last couple of days, we have been in the Lake Balaton region. At first when we were traveling by train to the region, we almost skipped it. The train was packed with a younger crowd and it just did not look like fun. That afternoon, our impressions were deepened as we saw a slightly sleepy little town with not much going on and severely limited food choices. However, we decided to try the thermal lake nearby, its in Hévíz. Suddenly we were quite impressed. Its a rather smallish lake by lake standards, but its thermal. It was about 85 degrees inside the waters. We just laid in the waters all afternoon and relaxed on rented swimming belts (inner tubes). We enjoyed it so much we are going back today.

Again we are staying in a rented room in someone's house. This is our fourth experience with such accommodation, and so far the reviews are mixed. In Krakow we hated it as the owner was snooping. In Poprad we loved it as the owner was very generous, it was cheap, comfortable and convenient. We tried it in Eger, and while the owner could not have been nicer, the accommodation was just ok. We definitely like this one, as the owner does our dishes. Plus it has cable TV, with CNN International, Sport 1, Sport 2 and Eursport. Yesterday we watched Andre Agassi lose. Ok it was in Hungarian but sports and home videos are watchable in a foreign language.

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Saint Right Hand

Saint Right Hand
Originally uploaded by Flightplan.

On Thursday, we headed to the Bazilika, or St. Stephens Church. Its the largest church in Hungary and one of the most impressive we have ever seen. The highlight was seeing St. Stephen's preserved right hand. This is quite a bizarre holy relic. We also checked out the contemporary art museum and the museum on the history of war, which gave us more insight into Hungary's role in WWII.

Lovely Evening in Budapest

Thanks to our new friend Maria, we got the opportunity to spend a lovely evening in beautiful Budapest with Petra and Gábor. They are both Budapest natives and gave us an educational tour of some of Budapest's points of interest.
Starting in Heroes' Square where Gábor gave us a very interesting history lesson on the Hungarian heroes memorialized in the square. After touring a few other spots we had a delightful dinner outside and chatted about life (and football) in Hungary and America.
They are a truly darling couple and very generous to spend their evening with us. We are looking forward to repaying their generosity when they visit the U.S. one day!

The Baths

So we are in Budapest and we decided to go to the baths, since that is a Budapest tradition. The Szechenyi bath was near our hotel, reviewed favorably by our travel guide, and most of all recommended as the best bath in Budapest by Gábor (more on Gabor later by the female corespondent). Well, we read in our book that the baths are nude and segregated. But we decide to bring our swimsuits just in case. Well, I forgot mine and it turned out to be a tragic mistake. You had to have a bathing suit to enter the bath, but luckily they rented some. A vintage 1989 bathing suite laden with lots of bright colors was what I ended up wearing. You should have seen the look on Ashley's face when she saw me, she could not stop laughing at me.....she has a mean streak almost as wide as mine.

Anyway, the baths were awesome. The water was slightly cooler than the baths that we have visited in the states (but warmer than Karlov Vary!). They had several different baths to choose from with different types of water and temperatures, it was very relaxing. They also had this awesome steam room that was extra hot. So hot Ashley had to leave right after entering, but I loved it.

After the baths we visited the Nemzeti Museum and got an excellent overview of Hungarian history. Its always great to learn about the region you are visiting, and this was especially nice as the museum was free (as in beer) and with loads of English.

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The Pantry

So after experiences a couple unpleasant travel days due to hunger and no access to places to eat, we decided to start carting food around to make sure that we eat. We have a gallon ziploc bag that we use for this, and we call it the pantry. We also recently obtained a plastic Tupperware like container we call the cupboard. Right now the contents of the pantry and cupboard include......some terrible tasting crackers, two tomatoes, one loaf of bread, a few peanuts, raisans, and some chocolate crème cookies.

BTW - we are in Budapest now. We had a nice time in Eger, except that everything was closed on Monday. Ashley will write a post about Eger shortly.

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