Day 7 - Are You Kidding? We're Going Sightseeing!?

Yep, today was a very busy sightseeing day, with very little shopping, but not entirely shopping-free.

We got a pretty early start on the day today as no one came to visit us in the morning to plan the day's activities or to chat. Up until today, either Zora or Erzsi has come over, and we usually didn't get out of the flat until about 11:30. And once we left the flat, the first thing we would usually do is go have lunch! So that was more wasted time. However, today was different. I believe we actually left the flat at about 8:30am, and headed directly for the Buda side of the river. But first, there was the traditional strudel, tea, and palinka for breakfast. The only reason we decided to have the strudel for breakfast was because - it was there! The small refrigerator in our even smaller apartment is kinda overflowing with strudel, so if we wanted to add something to our diet, you know, something nutritious like a vegetable, something else would have to go to make room. And it was the poor strudel that we selected to go first. Then the palinka. 

The train let us out at Moskva ter. If you recall, that's where we got off the train yesterday and shopped until we dropped and never made it to sightseeing - unless you call going up and down and up and down and in and out and in and out of stores over 4 levels in 2 different buildings in the shopping malls, sightseeing? There were sights, but not much worth seeing - with the exception of the local, um, structural attractions. But I digress. However, I was afraid, very afraid, that Diane would want to go back to the mall. She said no, she had enough of THAT mall. Oy.

It was a bit challenging trying to figure out which way to go, as this was a giant intersection of 3 major roads, smaller streets and hills, with several different buses and street cars running in every direction, and more up on a rise in front of us. Where we wanted to go was to castle hill, but even with the map it was challenging to figure out which way to turn. Although it was against my better judgment as a man, I took it upon myself to ask someone for directions. I looked for a fairly younger male thinking that he might know more English than an older one, and wouldn't yet realize that our common manhood was at stake. So I found one and asked, and he appeared to be very happy to try out his English to help me with directions. I'm not sure why, but it was a pleasant experience - and my manliness appeared to still be intact.

Diane wanted to walk from where we were up to castle hill because Erzsi had told her that there were shops along the way - but not to buy anything because the prices were higher than on the Buda side. Ok, I can handle that. The young fellow pointed us in the right direction and we began walking. Fortunately, it wasn't too far, maybe a quarter mile. But it was all uphill. Several buses had passed us by, and at times I was wishing one would stop. But none did. Diane was very disappointed though that there were no shops on this street, just houses.

So finally we made it. I couldn't believe my luck! We were sightseeing and there were no shops - yet. When we arrived at the gate, the houses along the narrow street were stunning. At first, there was an ornate church, and then an old Jewish prayer house, and then the houses lining the narrow road. It's not that the houses were ornate, they weren't - not like in Pest. It was more of how simple they were, the colors that they were painted, the decorations around the windows, the doors, and the flow down the cobblestone streets.

We walked around for a bit, ooohing and aaahhing at all the fantastic architecture (and no shops.) As mentioned, one of the most striking thing about these houses were the windows, doorways, and the wrought iron gates as you'll see below in some of these examples.

We continued to walk towards the castle and found a restaurant for lunch. The sign outside was offering gulyas (goulash - a soup), chicken paprikas, and dessert for 3000 HUF, about $15 per person. When Diane and I first met Zora several months ago at her home in New Jersey, she cooked us a dinner of chicken paprikas (pronounced "paprikash) and gave us the recipe. Actually, Diane helped Zora cook it so that she would know how it's done. And believe me, we've eaten it almost every week since then. So we got seated.

The waiter brought us bread and a jar of something that looked like a paste or spread. The info on the jar was in Hungarian, and my book didn't have the words for the ingredients, except for paprika, so I smeared a bit on my bread and tasted it. It had a great taste, but was very spicy. After leaving my ego behind once again, I asked the waiter what it was, and he said it's for the soup. Ok. So when the soup came, Diane and I tried it first without the mix, very good, and then with it. Well, we both ended up adding a bit too much, but being the man that I am, I finished both. I'm still here so it couldn't have been that hot. However, it did blow away my tastebuds for the chicken dish. So I guzzled down a few glasses of water to cleanse my palate, and hit the chicken. It was good, but I must say that both Zora and Diane make it much better. The cake came after we were done, and was drizzled with chocolate syrup, like at McDonalds, and it tasted just as crappy.

After lunch we hiked further up the road, and finally reached the castle. The views of the Pest side of the river were fantastic, and the architecture of the castle itself was incredible. Even Diane was marveling, and not complaining about not shopping.

All of the columns in this part of the castle are different in some manner. And there are hundreds of different designs.

We especially like the statues.

Nice view.

We looked around a bit, took a few pictures, and eventually went into the castle which now has several separate functions and buildings: 1) art museum 2) history museum 3) library. The library has 2 books that my gg-grandfather, Ede Zeisler, wrote back in 1862 and 1866, but I am scheduled to visit there on Tuesday so not today. We decided to go into the art museum and look around. It was free so that was very nice.

The paintings were primarily Hungarian, which I guess one would expect to see in a Hungarian national art museum, and so many of the people in the paintings were unknown to me. From my family research over the past 10 years, I have read up on much of Hungary's history, so some of the people were familiar. Nevertheless, they were all gorgeous. Most of them were from the 18th and 19th centuries. I was hoping for a portrait of one of my family members, but it was not to be. Maybe if they had paintings of prison cells, one or more of them would be in there. But that's another story for another day.  

We finished walking around, and so we went downstairs to the main level to consider our next move, and to organize our stuff. Diane was sick and tired of all of the sightseeing and wanted to go shopping!

The woman at the information desk spoke English pretty well, so we went over to her and asked. She appeared to be in her early 50s or so, and was very friendly. However, when Diane asked her where we could find the local shopping district, she went into a well-mannered tizzy - something about how she wouldn't go near an Americanized shopping mall. That was beneath her. When she was growing up, she shopped at real stores, not the chain stores like in those "American" type malls. And then she threw some numbers at us about how many malls there were per person in Hungary vs the US. Of course there were many more malls in Hungary per person than in the US. Why should it be any different? She's gotta have a story to tell, and she's going to tell it right - with numbers to prove it. Hrumpf! Basically, she just told us in a very nice way to go f..k off. So after giving us a bit more info that was totally useless, we left.

We were looking around the outside of the castle or palace, when we came upon a fantastic water fountain, with no water. Diane wanted me to take a picture of it, so I did. After the photo, a young woman asked me to take a photo of her, with her camera, by the fountain, which I did. I snapped off a few shots, she thanked me, and departed.

The water fountain

After that, we took the bus down the hill because our feet were killing us, and we were too far away from that Thai foot massage parlor from yesterday where I could have paid a little more for something a bit "extra."

When we got down to the bottom, we were right at the beautiful Széchenyi Chain Bridge that opened in 1849. We got off the bus and began walking across the bridge when we bumped into the photo girl again while she was taking pictures. We asked her if she wanted me to take another picture of her on the bridge, but she declined.  So we continued to walk across the bridge. Now you have to understand that this was the first time that I had walked across such a large bridge. You would think that having grown up in Brooklyn, I would have taken the time to cross the famed Brooklyn Bridge at least once in my life, but I'm sorry to say that I haven't. Always wanted to, but never have. So this occasion was actually pretty nice. I was impressed.

Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest

Once we got across the bridge, we hightailed it to the nearest H&M clothing store to pick up some necessities. I mentioned in a previous post that the flat we're in doesn't have a washing machine or dryer, and there are no laundromats around here. We need 2 days worth of some extra stuff like underwear, socks and tee-shirts, so we bought what we needed, but they didn't have everything.

We walked around a bit more, and ran into the same girl for a third time! I was beginning to think that there was a message here, and considered for a moment asking her to join us for dinner. But I didn't think that Diane would appreciate it, so I quickly crossed it off my list.

We had been talking for days about taking a boat ride down the Danube. It was about 4pm, and dusk was just starting to settle in nicely, and we had the time, so we purchased tickets and headed for the boat that was due to depart at 4:45. We were the first to board about 30 minutes early, but we also got the best seats right up at the bow. The boat has outdoor and indoor seating, but the weather was really nice, and so we decided to stay outside.

We had some tea while waiting, and just before we set sail, while the sky was darkening nicely, and the engines had just started to rev in anticipation of the trip, all in one moment, Chain Bridge, the castle, the big church a bit further down, and the huge parliament building on the Pest side were lit. Wow! Right in front of us was a very different city than just a few moment before.

Chain Bride and Buda just lit up

 The ride was an hour long, nice and slow, but towards the end it got a bit too chilly for us and so we went below. Once the ride ended, we disembarked and wanted to head back to the flat, but first we needed some food.

We decided to hit one of the grocery stores if we could find one. Don't forget that this is Sunday night - in Budapest. We found out that it doesn't matter. The stores are open late on Sunday. The problem was that we didn't know where to go to find a grocery store. So we decided to head back to the flat to see if we could find something in the neighborhood.

We walked around a bit and found a train station. The Metro stations are all underground in this area, so we went downstairs. However, the train maps for this station are horrible, and we got a bit turned around. We wanted the M1 line, but we were at a M2 station. I saw a sign for the M1 that pointed back up to the street, so we followed it thinking that we might have to walk a block or two to get to the M1 line. But as we exited the station, right at the top was the "Match" grocery store! It's a chain here in Budapest that has some decent foodstuff. So we got most of what we wanted; some Russian made pickled herring (ok, that wasn't on our list, but it sure looked good,) hummus, sun dried tomatoes in oil, salt to replace what we had used to wash out the coffee pot (don't ask,) sugar, salami, black olives with feta cheese, lettuce, and napkins. We already had some bread back at the apartment.

Right now, you might be asking yourself "What the heck are they going to make with THAT stuff?"  And if I were you, I'd be asking the same thing. Well, we were hungry, and just bought whatever looked good, and whatever was on our list - although the list was much smaller than what we bought.

Grocery stores in Hungary are pretty funny when you try to check out. They don't provide any bags to pack your stuff - at all. None. Not even for a charge. Not only that, there's no one to help you pack them even IF you have your own bags. AND the counters, at least in this store, are really short. So the checkout clerk rings you up, and either you scramble like crazy to pack your bags while she rings up each item - if you were smart enough to bring enough bags, or you have to take your items off the counter and place them on another nearby counter so that you don't hog the first counter. Get it? I didn't. I would have just let the stuff pile up on the first counter until they fell on the floor, but don't forget that I have a woman with me who protects me from doing stupid things like that. She knew right away to use the second counter to stash the stuff while I paid the bill and the next person stepped up. Weird.

We were I was fortunate that I didn't have to take off my jacket in order to carry the groceries (no bags, remember?), because, once again, I am protected by a woman who also has this gift of knowing what to bring along for the ride. She had brought along her big carry bag that we've been using throughout the days to carry things like extra maps, notebooks, pens, clothing, other shopping goodies, etc. And now groceries. What a woman!

We finally get back to the flat and unpack the stuff. Diane loved the pickled herring, best she's ever had, but I thought it was a bit flat. Tasted the same as what we get back home, but not as strong, and the fish were small and had a weird texture. Go figure.

So Diane opens the refrigerator and takes out the rest of the stuff we've squirreled away, such as the potato and sauerkraut strudel, and gives it to me to heat up in the microwave. Now the microwave buttons are all in Hungarian, and there's no way to know what they say. There are 14 different buttons on the thing, but being the technical guru that I am, I begin pressing every one to see what happens. Eventually, I hit some buttons that get the thing going (I still have no idea what I did) and heated up the strudel.

So on the table now are the following items: potato and sauerkraut strudel (no mustard), salami, hummus, black olives and feta cheese mixed in oil, lettuce, herring, sun dried tomatoes, bread, and seltzer. Diane focused on the potato strudel, herring, some lettuce and tomatoes and a piece of bread, while I had a bit of everything except for the herring, of which I had a bite not long before. Diane decided that she didn't want the sauerkraut strudel, so I ate that too. And to top it off, I had a shot of palinka. Diane passed on the palinka.

And finally, since we weren't able to purchase all of the clothing items we needed, Diane broke down and washed some items by hand. Fortunately, we have one of the heated towel racks, so we placed the wet stuff on that to dry. What a pain. Should have done some more shopping.

And that was our day. 

Tomorrow is party time!

Jó éjt, jó szerencse. (Good night and good luck.)

Day 6 - A Long Day and a Winding Road...and Shopping

It's been a very long day. Not sure how long I'll last writing this tonight as I'm first starting at 10pm, and it's been taking me about 2-3 hours to write each of the previous posts. Diane is already asleep, so it's not a problem - other than for me dragging in the morning.

Got up at about 7:30, had breakfast of leftover strudel (could it have been anything else?), and waited for my cousin Erzsebet to come by. Erzsi is Zora's sister - both are decendents of my cousins, the baron and baroness, whom I mentioned in an earlier posting, and the primary reason for us coming to Budapest.  We had met Zora in the US as she lives in New Jersey, but Erzsi lives here in Budapest.

Erzsi arrived at 9:30am and was nice enough to bring us a breakfast - of pálinka. For those of you who haven't heard of pálinka, it's home-made booze, and in this case, it was kerítésszaggató pálinka, or literally in English "fence-ripper" pálinka. It's a tradition here in Hungary to have a shot or two in the morning for breakfast. And we did partake. Whoooooeeeee! That stuff is strong! 52% strong. And illegal too. I can tell because Diane said so. And believe me, when Diane says something is strong, it's strong, and therefore probably illegal. Many years ago, Diane brought home a gift of White Lightning - a wonderful, home-made brew closely related to lighter fluid that's made in the deep south that will make your eyes spin and shoot out of their sockets - just like in the cartoons. I couldn't believe that she drank the stuff, while I took one sniff and burned the hairs in my nostrils! This particular pálinka was made from plums so it had a really nice taste. So we were all feeling wide awake by the time we downed 2 shots, and got down to business as to what we should do today.

So we made our plans to walk around the Pest side of the Duna for a bit, and then head over to the Buda side. But first, we wanted to check out the giant farmer's market on Vámház körút, one of many streets in Budapest where my g-grandparents lived for a bit. But we would be on our own. 

Yesterday, while I was in Gyongyos trudging though the thickets of brambles taking pictures of dead people headstones, Zora and Diane were going to the spa to get a facial and their hair done. On the way, Zora twisted her ankle pretty badly, so she is now out of commission for the duration. So Diane and I would be on our own - which is not really a bad thing. There are times when you need some time away from the family, and this was as good a time as any. So after Erzsi, Diane, and I decided on a plan of action for the day, Erzsi headed home. She hurt her back last week and can't walk for too long. Quite a pair of sisters, eh?

Diane and I took the train a few stops and got off at Kálvin tér which is a block or two from the market. The place is huge! The bottom level is dedicated to food, and the top to general market stuff like clothing and furniture. The place was absolutely packed with people. It's Saturday at about noon, and everyone wants to eat - including us. So we dodged people left and right, turned this way and that way, bumped a lot of people, took a few pictures when I could, but eventually we got to the prepared food aisle.

 Market on Vámház körút

 

Inside of market. It's so big it could have been a train station or an airplane hanger!

 Prepared food vendor aisle.

 Food

 
We looked for a vendor that had lots of people on line, but it was too crazy for that as there was almost no way to tell who was on line for what, so we settled for the first opening we saw, and one where we noted some English was being spoken.

Although I have no problem pointing to something that looks reasonable to eat but not really sure of what it is, it was much better for Diane to know what she was eating. So I did the dance with the mob of people scooting back and forth while Diane grabbed a place to sit and eat. I was looking at what others were eating, chatting a bit with some other English-speaking people who had some of the same concerns as Diane as to what was what, and chose a bunch of stuff from the pans of food. Hey, if it wasn't any good, we'd just toss it. It's not like we're at a fancy restaurant or something where we need to have some level of manners and eat everything on our plate. And it was also very convenient that Diane was sitting right next to the trash can.

But it really wasn't necessary. I chose some sausage wrapped in bread - similar to what we have in the States called pigs in a blanket, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage, and rice. Most of it was reasonably decent peasant fast food. But I was a little peeved that I had to pay 150 forint, about 60 cents, for mustard. Sheesh.

So after stuffing our faces, we walked around a bit and was just about to leave when we saw a stand with...say it with me now....strudel!  Believe me, I am definitely going to be strudel'd out by the time I leave Hungary. We purchased another 6 pieces including potato and sauerkraut. Strange, but true. Sauerkraut strudel. I tasted the potato strudel and it was something akin to a kanish, but with less onion and salt. It will be great with some mustard. Hey, don't laugh. That's what we did growing up in Brooklyn. Ok, not with the strudel though. That we had with ketchup (ugh, just kidding.)

The next place we went began just across the street, and that was Vaci utca, a really nice.....shopping street. Here we go again. I bet you girls are so jealous of me getting to do all of this shopping with a professional! 

However, I need to take a moment to describe why Diane likes to shop when she's somewhere other than home, and she has a pretty good reason. Seeing what's in the stores is a good indication of how the people live in the area; what kinds of clothes they wear, food they eat, prices they pay, etc. In this way, she gets a better understanding of the local culture. I do it with food, and she does it with what's on the shelves. Also, I have to clear up something I wrote a few posts ago while we were in Vienna - akin to Truth in Advertising. I had suggested that Diane spent a lot of money while we were shopping, shopping, shopping. But that wasn't really true. I got caught up in the moment and went with the flow. The truth, however, shall set you free - and is weirder than what I wrote. The only things we actually purchased after all of that shopping, and going in and out of all of those stores were 1) a shot-glass for my daughter, 2) a tee-shirt for me, and 3) a boars-hair toothbrush for Diane. True.

Now on with the rest of the story.

So we're walking down Vaci utca (pronounced vatsi oot-sah) going in and out of the shops, when I noticed a sign for a Thai foot massage. Now Diane loves having her feet massaged, so here's a nice opportunity to be a good husband. We went in. Initially, I didn't want it for myself, but Diane wanted me to do it with her, so I relented. We selected the 30 minute massage for about 4000 ft each (about $36 total.) They give us some slippers and a pair of thin, white, cotton shorts to put on in place of our pants. It was almost as bad as a hospital gown because it had a front opening that, well, was open and wouldn't stay closed. It was minor and didn't matter because I was wearing my skivvies anyway (and the massage therapist was pretty good looking too.) They sat us on a pair of very nice leather chairs with foot stools, and began the massage.

Here I am, paying good money for a massage, with nice Thai comforting music in the background, trying to meditate on the massage, while the 2 massage girls were chatting away incessantly. Ever try to relax and meditate and get a foot massage with 2 people chatting away, laughing and giggling, back and forth non-stop, and on top of it all, in another language? Not so relaxing. But my massager had a good set of hands and was doing a nice job on my feet and legs. And I know that Diane was loving it.

At one point, my girl asked me to bend my leg at the knee so that she could get to the calf. She rubbed and slapped and massaged, and at one point she leaned over and hit my calf in a such a way that I thought that she wanted me to put my foot back down. I was wrong. My foot ended up square in her left boob. She looked up at me, our eyes met, and without nearly any time to think she said with a grin "If you want that, you pay more." Now if I was single or alone, or if my wife of 30 years wasn't sitting right next to me, I might have been able to come up with a really smart retort. But in the moment, I was considerably dumbfounded, and was only meekly able to reply "uh, um, no, no, that's ok." Sheesh. What a missed opportunity. Diane hadn't really noticed what had happened, but after we left (yes, I gave my girl a very good tip) I told her the story and we laughed pretty hard.

We spent the next hour or two walking around the shopping district, and then back through the Jewish quarter, up several streets, just walking around getting lost. We do that sometimes just to see what we stumble upon. We do that frequently when driving in a new place, but not usually when walking. After a bit, we came out on a major street called Rákóczi utca, and walked a few blocks to a lotto store. Diane wanted to buy some lottery tickets, but no one in the store could speak English to tell us how the games worked, so we left without a purchase.


Agnes, my contact from Gyongyos, was coming into Budapest today, and wanted to meet me again so that she could give me a CD with the pictures that she had taken in the cemetery of the headstones. I had no idea where she wanted to meet. Could have been anywhere in Budapest. But I was up for it. While we were in the lotto store, I received a text from Agnes telling me where we should meet. It was at the McDonald's (ugh) in a place called "Blaha Lujza." I had never heard of it before, so I scanned the map. It took a bit of time to find, but I found it eventually. It was 2 blocks away from where we were. See, getting lost has it's perks. However, we were there and she was still 30 minutes away. So Diane and I walked around the area a bit, and then went into McDonalds. This was one that had a McCafe, so we had a cappuccino.

Diane and I are not big McDonald's fans. As a matter of fact, we swore it off years ago when Samantha, our daughter, was a baby. Hate the food. But in this case, we didn't have much of a choice. Seeing as all we were having were a few cups of coffee, how bad could it be? In reality, the only thing I can complain about is that they used chocolate syrup on the foam topping. That we could have done without. But overall, we were satisfied. 

We were sitting in a booth by the window with Diane facing inward and me facing the window. At some point while chatting, Diane says "Is that Agnes?" I turned around and sure enough there she was walking past us inside the store, behind me. Now Diane had never met or seen a picture of Agnes, so I was flabbergasted that she was able to pick her out of the crowd (ok, so there wasn't a crowd, but still...) Agnes only stayed for a few minutes, and after she left I asked Diane how she knew it was Agnes? All she could say is that her antenna popped up when the woman walked by. I don't know how she does it, but I will leverage that power in the future!

It's now 12:21am as I write this, so I'm going to truncate the story a bit, of which I am sure you'll be thankful.

After leaving McDonald's we hopped on the train to Buda. This is the opposite side of the river from Pest where we were staying, and the area that has the castle and an old church and some really, really neat old houses. Lots of good sightseeing stuff.

Earlier this morning, Erzsi had spent about half an hour describing where we should go and what we should see and which street to walk down and which street to not walk down and which train to take and which bus to take and what places to see and what places not to see - etc. Never happened. We got off the train at Moskva ter to begin sightseeing....and went shopping for the rest of the day. Never got to see anything but the inside of a giant mall for the next 3 hours or so. It was waaaayyyy dark when we finally left, and we were too tired to do anything else. And what did we purchase? A pair of eyeglass frames for me, some necessities for the flat, some skivvies for me, and a travel guide to Hungary. Now that was well worth the time, eh? I especially was impressed with the travel guide as we will be here for only 3 more days, and it's pretty much fully planned - or not. Not sure if the travel guide has information on all of the shopping malls in Hungary or not?

We finally got back to the flat and dumped our stuff and said goodnight to each other when Diane was ready for bed.

My turn for bed. It's been a long day, a winding road, and I'm going to have to talk to that wife of mine about the shopping. But first, I think I'll have some apple strudel.

Minden jót. (Have a nice day.)

Day 5 - A Long Way For Nothing

No, the title doesn't say it all, I did get something out of today's trip to the cemetery in Gyongyos, but not exactly what I had hoped for.

Got up at about 6:15 to the beautiful tune of my cell phone, ugh. Diane got up with me and cooked a wonderful breakfast of... apple and cheese strudels. Oh, guess I forgot to mention the cheeeeeeeese strudel yesterday (no, not Hogan's Heros - it's from Wallace and Gromet.) and tea. Ok, so she didn't cook the strudel, but still, she was nice enough to get up and put it together for me. Love that woman.

7am came too soon, and so I ran downstairs and caught a taxi back to the same train station as yesterday. This is getting monotonous - but still enjoying it. One of the fun things about the Keleti train station in Budapest is that the trains are outdoors, and the indoor section is huge, but it's open to the outside on the rear of the station where the trains are so there's no heating. I arrived a bit earlier than I thought, about an hour too early.  And it was pretty chilly. So what you find are people squirreled away in a far corner of the station by the ticket counter where it's enclosed to avoid the draft and wind, but no heat. So that's where I sat for about the next 30 minutes until the train was ready to board. But first, I wanted to check that I was in the right place and going to get on the right train.

A funny thing about the electronic information board in the station that that it gives you the end station, but not the stops in-between. Although I saw a train scheduled to leave at the appointed time of my train, it wasn't exactly clear if it was mine. The end stop was Sátoraljaújhely (please don't ask me to pronounce it - because I can't,) but I wasn't certain if Gyongyos was along the way, and didn't want to end up in Auschwitz by accident. It has happened before, you know. 

I sauntered over to the information counter, noted by the pleasing letter "i". After the cleaning lady and the woman behind the Plexiglas finished their conversation lasting several minutes, I asked the bejeweled, and obviously very well-maintained middle-aged woman behind the Plexiglas if she could confirm which train is for Gyongyos. So she turned to her trusty computer and started typing - well, more like hunt n pecking with 1 finger - slowly - very slowly. She typed pecked. And then she typed pecked some more. And then some more. And then some more. And then a bit more (you getting the point here?) This was getting painful. I was getting worried that I was going to miss the train (this could be a good thing if it was going to Ausch... oh never mind.) So I just blerted out "Is it the train on track 13?" And after a few more seconds, she said "yes." And then she printed out a paper that gave me the same information that was on the electronic information board. Sheesh! I have no idea how long I would have been waiting if I hadn't TOLD HER the track number. With expertise like that, I haven't a clue how she can afford to keep up her appearance. Oh, right, this is Hungary and she works for the government. How could I forget? I guess the old days are still with us to some extent.

So I found the train and hopped aboard. Now my cousin Zora, who is a really, really nice lady, had purchased the tickets for me a few days prior for second class seats. First class would have cost only 300 forints more - about $6 additional each way. I guess she was looking out for my best interests. But it was ok as I was only going for an hour's ride. My problem was that I had no idea which cars were first class and which were second. So I made a left turn and entered one of the cars. Other than the trip to Vienna, and a previous train ride from Hannover, Germany to the airport in Frankfurt back in 2001, I had never been on a train in Europe. This one had enclosed compartments that seated several people. Never been on one of these before, but have seen them in countless movies from the 1940s. I looked in the compartment which was empty, and simply noticed that the headrest had a cloth covering. Since I wasn't sure about which car, I decided to check out the next car, and this one did not have the headrest covering, so I made the assumption that this was second class. I was to find out later that I chose wisely.  Chalk one up for Zora for saving me $12 for not having a cloth covering on the headrest.

The ride to Gyongyos was pretty boring, unless you like to look at tall weeds along the way and decrepit houses for an hour. Actually the train was going to Vamosgyork, and I was supposed to change trains there for Gyongyos, but the person meeting me decided to pick me up at Vamosgyork, about 10 minutes from Gyongyos. That was a very nice gesture, and a heck of a tongue-twister as well.

Surprisingly, the train arrived on time at Vamosgyork (pronounced something like vamosh-djork, with the accent on the first syllable.)  However, my contact was going to be 10 minutes late, as I saw in her text message. So I went to the WC for some relief. As I walked into the WC, I only noticed toilets, no urinals, so I assumed it was bi a common facility. After finishing, I opened the door, and was greeted  by a small woman in a red coat entering the WC, simultaneously thinking that I had just made a very interesting faux paux, while at the same time she looked at me and said "Jerry?" Now I must say, it isn't often that I exit a bathroom, probably the wrong bathroom at that, and am confronted by a woman calling my name. Actually, it's never happened in my entire life before this moment! I couldn't see it, but my face must have been a priceless contortion of ohmygodwhatdidIjustdo? and the color red. After a brief hug with my contact (of course it HAD to be HER that caught me, and not someone from, well, Vamosgyork,) she went into the WC, and I just had to confirm my thinking. So I nervously looked back at where I had been, and what I had missed, Of course I had used the woman's WC. Hey, I don't know the words for Men and Women when it comes to Hungarian bathrooms, and there were no international stick figures to help! This is waaaayyyy out in the boonies where they don't speak English, and some still carry a hammer and sickle. So when she came out, we had a good laugh at my expense. And of course, she had to tell her male companion who didn't speak a lick of English. And he laughed too. Good way to break the ice I guess.

So we went into town to get the key to the cemetery from a man who owned a dress shop, first making a short stop for some tea. Well, I found out that nothing takes a short time out here. Took a bit to get going, and to get the check. But once done, we walked about 3 more stores down the street and entered the dress shop. The owner, Mr. Waldner, is an older fellow who belongs to the only Jewish family in town. Gyongyos was once a prominent and very wealthy Jewish community in this part of Hungary. We all know how and when that ended.

While Agnes, (my contact) and her companion Joska, were talking to the man about the key, a woman, who appeared to be his daughter, and a younger man, who was probably his grandson, began speaking to me in English! I was impressed. Not only did they speak English pretty well for being out in the boonies, but the woman mentioned that she was related to the same family name that I am looking for in the cemetery. Now in truth, the only given names I know are those of my ggg-grandparents from the 1850s, so it would be a stretch to say that they were my cousins. But you never know. We had a nice chat, and they took my email address should something interesting show up, like a nice dress for my wife, or maybe a fully completed family tree? Now that would be nice (and a lot less expensive)!

So after a walk around town a bit with a stop at the old synagogue that is now a second-hand clothing and furniture store (remember there's only 1 Jewish family in town these days, many of the rest are neo-Nazis and communists - really), we went to the cemetery.

Now the last time I was here was 9 years ago, and the grass was tall, and the brambles and weeds were hell. As we drove up I could already see the weeds growing over the 8 foot high brick wall. Uh oh. Here we go again. The cemetery was at least as bad, if not worse, than it was 9 years ago. I would have thought that by this time, someone would have done something about it. Well, I earned the first part of the "assume" parable.

So we go into the cemetery and I just start snapping away with my camera. I had enough capacity in memory for about 1200 shots. The camera battery and my energy would probably run out before the memory.

My goals here were twofold; to try to find potential relatives/ancestors, and to take pictures of as many headstones as I could for the Jewish organization I support called JewishGen. I did my best, really. The thickets were thick, the brambles were brambly, and the stickers were, ouch, stickly. This was a labor of love, to say the least. It had to be in order for me to be willing to spill my blood, sweat and tears as I did earlier today. I had taken about 200 pictures, was absolutely drenched from head to toe in sweat, with a little blood on the side, and had no idea if any of the pictures would even come out well enough for anyone to transcribe. The sun was on the wrong side of the headstones as well (behind.) And to top it all off, I found nothing of interest for my personal family research. Came a long way for nothing.

After two hours of back-breaking and blood-letting, Agnes said the men had had enough. She said they were hungry. They weren't hungry - they were bored. The two men sat in the car for 2 hours while Agnes and I worked our butts off taking pictures in the cemetery that one of those two men is supposed to maintain. But I had had enough as well, and there was no more I could do anyway. Out of about 1000 headstones, I captured nearly 200. The rest are either too far gone from decay and acid rain, or they were just too deep in the forest of nature's reclamation process to get to.

So after dropping off the man from the shop, we went to lunch in town. We sat down and opened our menus. In many restaurants in Budapest the menus have some English. Not out here. Hungarian. So Agnes, being as nice as she is, tries to determine what I wanted to eat. She gave me a few items to choose from, including chicken and Ostrich. Not having tried the Ostrich here in Hungary previously, I chose the chicken, and some soup. I must say, I had no idea what the green in the soup was, but it was really good. And the chicken was pretty good as well.

Lunch was coming along, and it was a real shame that I wasn't able to have a discussion with Agnes' friend Joska. So Agnes flipped back and forth, having discussions with each of us for a few minutes at a time. She's good.

This was the end of the day for me here in Gyongyos, and Joska and Agnes drove me to the train station. On the way, chatting with Agnes, I had mentioned that I had hit a brick wall, both here and in Eger, the nearby town where my great-grandfather was born, and where my gg-grandfather was a teacher, and where he got married to the woman from Gyongyos. I mentioned to her that the Jewish records stop in 1850, and that I needed to go back one more generation to connect some missing connections. She turned to me and said "No they don't." During her research (she's a Ph.D. and an award-winning Jewish history researcher) she found earlier records in the university of Eger, and promised to review them for me soon. Wow! That could be great for my research. At that, we parted.

The trip back to Budapest was quiet and uneventful, as this was becoming old-hat now.

I think the important lesson of the day is - learn the difference between the Hungarian words "Men" and "Women!"

Touring more of Budapest tomorrow.

Jó éjt (good night)

Days 3 and 4 - Hallo aus dem Hinterland

Grüße! (greetings)


Getting up at 5am to catch a 7am train to Vienna was ok. Going to bed after midnight after not sleeping well the previous 2 days due to jetlag and too much caffeine in the tea, was not. However, Diane and I slogged through our sleepiness, caught a taxi to the train station, and hopped on the train to Wien. Caught a few zzzz's on the train, very few. Too much eye candy train shaking to sleep.  

Our goals in Vienna were very simple; see some great architecture, and give Diane some time to do womanly stuff - such as check out the shopping. Nothing more. Since we only had about 24 hours, we didn't have time for anything more anyway. However, I do believe that we accomplished both - and got in some sleepy time too. We had already maxed-out Diane's patience with so much family history talk and eating that she was ready to barf - not from the eating but from the family history talk, so I really did have to give her time to get shopping out of her system. She's fine now, thanks for asking. It's now me that's getting sick. I'm sure I'll begin to feel better some months after the bills come due.  

With that said, Vienna is a beautiful city. After getting off the train from Budapest, we wanted to first get to the hotel to dump off our stuff, and then figure out where to go and what to do. We hadn't really planned for this side trip as it was kind of a last minute thing, so we needed some time to figure it all out. I had noted the train station nearest the hotel, so it wasn't that difficult to figure out which trains to use. After changing trains at the Volkstheater bahnhof, it was only a few more stations until our stop.  

One thing about going to some unknown place on the train, is that you never know which end of the station to exit, nor which street you'll come out on. And it's never the one you want. The station signs and maps don't usually help much either. The website for the hotel said that the train station was only .1 miles from the hotel, so it shouldn't be to bad. And wouldn't you know it, it wasn't (thought I was going to take you through a long, drawn-out journey with a bunch of twists and turns, didn't you? Sorry.) We took about 5 steps out of the station and Diane saw the hotel. Wow, now that's different! I was impressed. Not only because the hotel was so close, but that Diane was awake enough and not too wobbly to notice it in the first place.  

Nice hotel. We were staying at the Marriott Courtyard Messe because I had points so it was free, and we didn't want to stay at the fancier Marriott because we weren't going to be in the room that much anyway. And because I'm cheap - ok, not always. From my perspective, this particular Courtyard was better than the US Courtyards which I stay at plenty for business.  

So we dumped our stuff, as tired as we were, went down to the receptionist and got some ideas where to go. Ok, it wasn't that hard to decide where to go. We went to the shopping district. Duh. It happens to be in the central part of the city called Stephensplatz. 

When we got off the train at our stop, the sights were unbelievable. The architecture was fantastic even though I hadn't a clue as to where we were. We were back to the old problem of - which side of the train station did we come out on? After turning the map upside down and sideways, turning around a few times, and dancing a jig, we took our first few pictures of a fantastic somethingorother building, walked across the street, and figured out where we were. We finally made it to Kärntner Straße - the high-end shopping district. Diane was awake now and feeling much, much better thank you. So, we went shopping.

Actually, the plaza is really nice. Lots of very cool architecture for me to look at (as well as other things - things that are structurally sound so to speak,) and lots of stores for Diane to look at (as well as other things, like more stores.)

 Caption: Diane mesmerized by all of the stores and not knowing which way to turn.

Stephensplatz is the geographical center of Vienna, and Kärntner Straße is the home of Stephensdom, one of the tallest churches in the world. The spires are...inspiring. It's partially under maintenance, so that's the stuff you see on the left of the photo and below the spire.

For lunch, one of the guide books recommended a deli called Meinl. It's more of a multi-floor, giant grocery store than a deli as we know it, but it had a restaurant on the second floor so we rode the elevator and got seated. The food was very decent (I had the Wiener-Schnitzel.) Ok all you old folks, let's hearken back to a time in the 1960s for a moment. Think now, of that large, happy fellow named Sergeant Shultz from Hogan's Heros. And picture him when he was thinking about his wife's cooking, especially Weiner-Schnitzel - "ahhhhhhh" (pat stomach, roll eyes and smack lips several times) "Weinerrrrrr-Schnitellll" (wipe mouth with sleeve after drooling.) Well, that's pretty much what I did! It was really, really good. I have had it only 1 time before, and it was dry and tough. This was exactly the opposite - moist and melt-in-your-mouth goodness. "Wienerrrrrr-Schnitzellllll. Ahhhhhhhh" (roll eyes and wipe mouth with sleeve.)

We saved some room for dessert, because there was no way I wasn't going to have something sweet here in Vienna - the very capital of the world for desserts. However, before we left I had to pay the bill. After waiting an eternity, I received the bill and noticed an extra charge so I questioned it. Now I believe that I am a fairly sophisticated traveler, but I haven't been in Europe for a while. I can't honestly say that I ever recall seeing a $7.50 charge for the silverware and tablecloth! Now others who have had more time on the continent may have seen it, but I was nary amused by it all.

After leaving the restaurant, we walked down the platz and found a really great looking pastry shop called Gerstner - been around for a few centuries or so. We were very fortunate to find a table in the back of the crowded store and sat down. In fairly short order the waitress brought us our tea and (ok you Hogan's Hero's fans) appppplllllleee struuudelllll (cue the rolling of the eyes and lip smacking.) Ohmygosh, it was incredible!

So we had our fill and continued to walk around and get accosted by several sales goons in costume trying to pawn Mozart opera tickets for "the final night of the performance with center section seating on the isle at the premier opera house in Vienna." We listened politely, and then passed. I've heard it all before. Apparently, every seat in every theater is center section isle seating.

So we walked and we shopped and we walked and we shopped, hit the antique stores, and hit the clothing stores, and after some unknown time, we finally had had it. Got on the train and went back to the hotel. It was about 6:30pm. We went to bed at about 8:00pm (I can hear you saying "Are you joking? You're in Vienna for a lousy day and a half and you went to sleep at 8pm? What are you, nuts?) and woke at about ..... 8:00am. I guess we must have been tired?  We had already been at maximum over the past 3 days, our flat in Budapest can be noisy at times as it's in the city, and the hotel room was so quiet, and the bed so soft, and it was really dark. Couldn't pass it up. It worked out well though. We needed the rest. And I didn't need any more shopping.

Thursday, October 28
Now what to do today? After careful consideration, and some minor arm twisting, we decided to check out of the hotel and go to the Fine Arts Museum. But first, we had some breakfast at the expense of Re-Max, the real estate company. They were having a gathering in the hotel lobby with danish, etc., so we partook just enough to satisfy ourselves and left. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was for Re-Max people only. Oh well. Too late. Can't give it back.

We got off the train at the museum quarter, but we never got to where we were going. Guess where we ended up? Yep, we went shopping! Yeah! In the same area as yesterday no less - seems that the museum quarter is within, um, walking distance of Stephensplatz.

While performing my husbandly duties in making sure my wife was getting a good shopping fix, we ran across a nice set of antique jade phallics in their erect state from India - no, not used for youknowwhat, but as a good luck gift for being fertile. Very amusing. Then to another antique dealer where the wife almost spent a fortune on a small bronze, 20 point buck (deer) to hang on the wall somewhere in the house - somewhere she had yet to determine - with money she had yet to determine. After a carefully thought out discussion (ahem) and with some pretty hard arm twisting by the dealer, she finally saw the err of her ways and passed on the deer (no additional comment from the peanut gallery needed here.)

After a decent pizza lunch (hey, I can't say that I've ever had pizza anywhere but the US.  Nope, never been to Italy) we decided to head back to Budapest.


Did the train thing and got to the Westbahnhof train station with about 45 minutes to spare. However, um, "Where are the train tickets" I asked Diane? She scratched around and scratched around - got red in the face, scratched around some more. Dug deep into the bowels of her purse, the goodie bags, back into her purse, my bags. Gone. Doh! Arrrrrgh. Well that's another fine mess you've gotten us into!

This wasn't a problem that more money couldn't solve, as there was no way we were going to go back to either the antique dealer (no second chance to buy the bronze) or the pastry shop (ok, I could have gone back there.) After giving the ticket agent about 75 euros ($105) for 2 MORE tickets, all was well again with the world. But just a bit lighter in the wallet.

The trip home was, fortunately, uneventful, and so here we are. At the end of another day.

Tomorrow, Diane goes to the spa with my cousin while I go it alone to Gyongyos (pronounced something like djun-djoesh) to do some family research at the local cemetery.

Mmmmmmm, apppple-strudddelll........roll eyes, smack lips.

Gute Nacht. Jó éjszakát.

Day 2 of our Trip to Budapest - Walking and Walking and Walking ...

The morning of day 2 of our trip was spent chatting about our common ancestors with my newly-met cousin, Erzsebet (Erzsi), while Diane and Zora went out for a long walk and coffee  - primarily, and thankfully, because Diane has heard all of it before, several times over, and is bored silly when I begin family discussions anew.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to make this entry brief because we've decided to take an excursion to Vienna for 2 days, and have to wake up at 5am to catch the 7am train - and it's already 11:40pm here - and I got little sleep last night - and I could probably write for hours - but I would bore you and I know that many of you have to go to work tomorrow and wouldn't be able to read all of my stuff (ok, you can take a breath now.) So here's what we did today in a nutshell:
We walked, we walked, we talked, we walked, we ate, we walked, and we saw some interesting things.  Then we walked some more, got on a train, a bus, another train, purchased tickets for Vienna, got on a bus, got off the bus, and walked the 10 blocks back to the flat. Then I walked around the flat a bit (just to stretch my legs from all that walking - although it's no more than 7 paces from one end of the flat to the other) and now I'm writing this.

Brief enough? Well, ok, here are some details of what happened after our family chat - that ended at about 1pm! Erzsi is obviously very interested in the family - while Zora is - well, not so interested. But she's still a great cook so I want to keep her happy.

We went to the largest synagogue in Europe here in Budapest, Doheny utca, where my great-grandparents and the baron and baroness were married. It's huge, fully restored from the drubbing it took during WW2, and it's really beautiful. In the synagogue is a museum where many  relics of Hungarian Jewish history reside. I had to explain many of the items to Zora and Erzsi as the family had converted to a variety of non-Jewish faiths back around the turn of the 20th century to avoid the rampant antisemitism, and therefore, my cousins were fairly unfamiliar with the traditional Jewish accoutrements.

After that, we, um, walked to where my great-grandparents lived on Sip utca, only about 2 blocks from the synagogue. The original building is no longer there, but there are a few examples that have survived from that era on either side of the new structure, of what it might have looked like from around 1880-1884.

Then we, um, walked to another street and found a building I didn't expect to exist, where the parents of the baroness lived, and where I believe my great-grandparents shared the apartment with them for a while immediately after they married. Remember that my g-grandmother and the mother of the baroness were sisters, so it makes sense that they would have lived together for a while. Zora and Erzsi didn't know about that building and were extraordinarily excited to see it. The time frame is from 1879. Just love the architecture. Corner building.

We spent some time looking for the site where my great-grandparents and my g-uncles owned a stationary store on one of the main streets, but the addresses have changed. We went to the library to look up the old addresses and found where it might now be located, but it was too late to return to the hunt. So I know where to look next week when I have time to return for another look.

It was getting dark and Erzsi had to return home, but Zora took us down to the Duna river (the Danube for those of you unfamiliar with Hungarian :-)). So we, um, walked around and saw the sites across the river on the Buda side - Castle Hill - where the gov't buildings are located, as well as a real castle to its right in the distance as you look at the picture below.

Afterwards, we stopped at a fantastic coffee shop on the plaza for tea and some great Hungarian desserts, and then, um, took a train to a bus and to the flat.

And for my friends from Brooklyn, especially Lee, I got a taste of home while waiting for the librarian to locate the addresses for the stationary store. There on the walls, in beautiful red, orange, yellow and blue, was a fantastic poster of ..... Luna Park. Ok, it was the one in Budapest, but still....

I won't be taking my laptop to Vienna so I won't be posting tomorrow. Look for the next installment on Thursday.

Goodnight.

Day 1 of our Trip to Budapest - the Flight and Siteseeing

As you can imagine, this has been a long day, but an exciting and eventful one, with a small unexpected little twist for me.

Seven hours of flight time from Dulles to Frankfurt, an hour and a half layover, and then another hour and a half flight into Budapest. Neither Diane nor I slept a wink. I was kind of surprised to find that there's no immigration when entering Budapest - no one checking passports. It sure speeds your trip into the city!

Before I go any further, let me take a few moments to provide some background for those of you just joining the discussion, about why we are here in the first place. The Zeisler side of the family hails from Budapest and some of the surrounding towns from at least the late 18th century, until they arrived in the US in several waves beginning in 1881.

Along with our direct ancestors, during our research, we also uncovered information about a Jewish baron and baroness Groedel being part of the family. After years of research (you can read some of it on my family website at www.zeislerfamily.com, and on http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/pse-groedel.htm) we found that the baroness was a first cousin to my grandfather and his siblings. She was the daughter of Regina Lowy Weiner, my great-grandmother's sister.

There's quite an interesting history of the baron and baroness that I won't get into here, but they visited the US and their cousins in New York in 1910 - unfortunately, 3 years after their aunt had died. But the family in Budapest was very well-off, and owned a very large and successful, international lumber business.

Anyway, a little more than a year ago, I was contacted by one of the baroness' descendants after he found a family posting of mine - and we've been sharing family information ever since. One of the descendants, Zora, lives in New Jersey, and so a few months ago Diane and I went to visit and got along famously (and by the way, Zora makes a great chicken paprikas.)  Zora just happened to be heading to Budapest for a few weeks, and invited Diane and I to stay at her flat, which is where we are now.

So after we arrived earlier today, we took a taxi from the airport to the flat in district 7, about 5500 forints ($28). As I recalled from my first trip here 9 years ago, there wasn't much to look at along the way until we entered into the city. No change there. It's still kind of ugly. But when you enter into the city limits, everything changes and the grand architecture hits you. Love it! Great 19th century buildings with lots of architectural features such as gargoyles and other faces, soldier's helmets, kings, verandas and the like. Very ornate.

The apartment we're at is a small, 2 bedroom, but very livable for 2 or 3 people visiting for a few weeks at a time, but it is limited in that there is no washing machine or dryer. So it's either hand wash and line dry - or buy new clothes! Guess which Diane wants to do? - and it isn't hand washing clothes while we're on vacation.

After we arrived, we slept for about 3 hours and then Zora came by to show us around and give a bit of a tour. When the Groedel family was here, they owned a large house just a few blocks away - within walking distance. I had seen a few pictures of it from the outside, but geez its HUGE, 3 stories plus a lower level - you know, the kind of house that has servents, horses, the works. However, over time it's been converted into several apartments, and the family still owns some of it. So that's where Zora is staying while Diane and I are here.

Zora gave us a tour of what's left of the mansion that the family owns. This place must have been incredible in its time. It's been in the family since about 1902 or so. And what's really cool, is that Hermann Groedel's 2 brothers, Bernhard and Albert, owned the 2 houses next door. From the back windows, you could have a decent conversation across the courtyard. As Zora mentioned, this was the classy section of the Jewish neighborhood - my great-grandparents also lived within walking distance, just not in the upper crust neighborhood. Many of the original family items still exist, although not in perfect condition, including silk wallpaper and great old chandeliers. As Zora says, "It's more of a museum than a living space." It was very interesting to to see more about how the family lived a century ago.

As a side note, all during the day I kept thinking back to my first trip to Budapest in 2001 and the places I visited. Not knowing anything about Budapest at the time, the first night I had no idea where I was in the city. I had been introduced earlier to a man named Peter who was associated with the Jewish Genealogical Society, JewishgGen, who would be my tour guide during my stay. My first night here he took me to cheap bar to have a drink and talk. I recalled the bar's entrance as a dark and narrow, steep downward set of steps where I had to lower my head so it didn't hit the ceiling above. The place was dingy and filled with cigarette smoke, where the waitress tossed us a basket of reasonably stale bread, and where Peter ordered 2 glasses of the absolute worst swill I ever drank.  I downed it quickly so I could get it over with, but that was a faux paux (hmm, wonder how you say "faux paux"in Hungarian?) Because as soon as I finished, Peter, of course, poured a second glass because you are not supposed to drink alone or have an empty glass. Doh! I knew I should have taken a class in International Drinking. And for some reason, during the entire day today, I just kept thinking of that place because 1) I, fortunately, had no idea where it was, and 2) I couldn't forget it because it had the worst wine ever. It's just one of those places that sticks with you, even when you don't want it to. But I digress.

After we toured the apartment/museum, Zora took us for a walk in the area. Nearby is one of many  spas in Budapest that is above a natural mineral spring that, in this case, I had visited in 2001. And just across the street is Hosok tere, a park with the statues of Hungarian kings considered heroes. It was in front of the park, where in 1956, Russian tanks drove into Budapest to stop the uprising. Zora was living in the Groedel house at the time, and remembers in the early morning feeling the rumbling of the tanks as they drove by, and later going outside to see them. She recalls that they weren't neatly lined up as they usually were during the parades, but were moving more slowly, and in a bit of disarray. She tells a story where Russians tank units who were living in Budapest at the time, were firing on their Russian brethren, and the military brass had to relieve the local units and bring in all foreign troops. Pretty interesting history lesson.

What bothers me about all of this is that ... I WAS RIGHT HERE ON THIS SPOT 9 YEARS AGO, but didn't know at the time that the family was actively living right across the street!!! What a golden, but missed opportunity!@$@!

After leaving the park, we went back to the Groedel apartment where Zora gave us a small bowl of soup, and then afterward, just as dusk was setting in, we all walked back to the flat a different way than we came. Once again the architecture was impressive. Walking down one of the streets, we noticed that low to the ground were apartment windows with really cool-looking iron bars protecting against intrusion. But as we continued to walk further, I had a sense, just a twinkling, that I had been here before and knew this street. So I looked around, and just a few steps further, no more than five, was that steep set of steps to that dingy little bar I had been thinking about all day. It too was right here. Synchronicity.

More tomorrow.

Getting Ready to Travel

So it's the Wednesday night before our big trip on Sunday to visit my cousins in Budapest and do a little family research. My daughter's wedding was earlier today - yes - Wednesday (20/10/1020). She liked the number so she picked today.

Anyway, I thought I'd start this blog in order to document my trip as best I can. When I first visited Budapest back in May, 2001, before I knew that any family members were living in Budapest, almost every night of the 7 nights I was there, I sat down and wrote out the day's events in an email to interested parties back home. Looking back, they were quite interesting, humerus, and reasonably detailed. I hope to do the same this time, but use this blog posting instead of email. Looking forward to sharing the info and to see what comments I receive - if any.

Lot's of things to think about to take on the trip besides the usual suspects; which camera to shlep, which family material to bring, books, laptop, iPod, power supplies, cables, etc? It's crazy.

Some of my goals, besides meeting with everyone, is to share a few recipes, see the sites in and around Budapest, travel to Gyongyos, Eger and Miskolc for some family research, and hopefully, have some time to visit Vienna for a day. That would be icing on the cake. I had considered a side trip to Romania to visit the old family villa in Maramarosszighet, but that doesn't look realistic this time.

So the trip begins Sunday with an arrival on Monday. Looking forward to meeting everyone and enjoying the trip - and blogging some.