Quick Trip to Vienna

Our friend Margie from CA had arranged to take a river cruise ending in Vienna. She suggested we meet up if possible. Thinking that Margie was leaving on Monday morning, we made arrangements to train up to Vienna on Friday, the 12th and come home Saturday evening. Our other friend Kat, who is living in Budapest, had never been to Vienna so she came along. We booked the 7:10 am train going and the 7:48 pm train returning so as to maximize Kat’s time seeing the city.

It was more than fortunate that we had seat reservations. There were mobs of people standing in the aisles the entire trip. Strangely, the Railjet, a nicer train cost us about 2,600 Huf for the reservations for the 3 of us, but the lesser older train cost us over 4,500 Huf for our return journey.

Margie met us at the train station. We stopped at our hotel to leave our things, but at 10 am it was too early to check in. From there we toured around, visiting Christmas markets, a major disappointment still after all the years we have visited here. Hawking more junk than Christmas related products, it was a letdown yet again. Christmas related items for sale are so commonplace; there is no reason to pay these inflated prices. Those vendors who are really making a killing are at the food booths. Lines are ten deep to fill up on grease, sugar, and salt. Interestingly, I have eliminated all sugars and grains from my diet. Though I had some fears that the temptation would be too great, but as it turned out, watching grossly overweight people pigging out made it extremely bearable.

Ron tried to show everyone a good time and valiantly attempted to find the tram we remembered as circling the city. Either they discontinued this route, changed it for the season, or something was posted we could not read, but it never happened according to plan. Regardless, Kat and Margie did see parts of the city they would not normally get to view in such a short time.

As it turned out, Margie was leaving very early Saturday morning, so we basically had the entire day for the three of us. I like Vienna, but it leaves me cold. Others have said this as well. Perhaps it is the ultra-white buildings, but it was fine to go, but not a thrilling experience.

Joining Kat, we went to the Schönbrunn Palace where we did the Imperial Tour for €11.50 each. They would not discount me with the press card and there were no concessions for Ron. Ron received an audio guide that had to be replaced twice; it malfunctioned. Rococo to me is gaudy, not attractive, but of course this was the style of the time.

We managed to fill our day, but closer to the train time we were all running out of steam. We left our things at the hotel at 9:30 and did not return until an hour before the train. I was more than ready to return home.

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Migrating Social Skills

The beginning of this week has been the highlight of our social calendar. Our friend Kat, who is also from the US, has a kitchen the size of a truncated Hobbit Hole. This has enticed her to come to our place every Sunday for the last few months to cook dinner.

She plans her menu, shops for the ingredients, and then invites a couple of others over for dinner. One regular is our mutual friend Dan and the other is our new Dutch tenant Arnold. Ron makes a huge salad each week basically because everyone craves his homemade dressing. If it weren’t for the salad, they would be willing to drink it from glasses.

On Monday, we had a former Fulbrighter here for the night as a B & B guest. Years ago, he was a Fulbrighter in Pécs working with their hospice program. John has an MBA as well as a Masters in Nursing. He spent one night with us last week before heading to Pécs for a hospice conference. He was scheduled to return home on Tuesday.

Most of Monday, we continued our journey down memory lane with stories we had not had time for the day he arrived. John and his partner, Mike married in Washington, DC in September, 2014 on their 25th anniversary as a couple. We had the opportunity to meet Mike multiple times in the past. He is as wonderful as John is, making a delightful couple. We had to do the wedding pictures both ways. We looked at his; he in turn looked at ours. Of course, I had to credit our friend Jennifer Norcross with the idea for the Iowa capitol tour. It would not have occurred to me, but for which I am still grateful.

Monday evening, John took us out to dinner. We trolled the Gozsdu Udvar checking out the restaurants. There are numerous choices now, but we settled on Café Vian. István provided excellent service.

Tuesday was a bit different. For months now, a woman from Los Angeles had been trying to do a home exchange with us. When I firmly stated I was not interested in LA, she tried negotiating a triangular deal where we would go to London or Florence where she had banked time with other exchangers. As tempting as London sounded, the timing was not good. With each request, I had to decline.

Being tenacious, she continued to write me for Budapest material. I was happy to comply and send numerous e-mails like stuffed envelopes with tourism information. She finally found an exchange on Castle Hill on the Buda side. She suggested that when they arrive, she and her travel companion take Ron and me out for dinner as a thank you gesture. I have to say that many have offered this form of thanks after pummeling me for the nitty-gritty details of the city and then after they are set to arrive, I never hear from them again.

Tuesday night, Elyse and Leslie came over for a glass of wine and then the 4 of us went out for dinner. We tried the newish restaurant on our street, Mazel Tov. It opened in July of this year. Both ladies were so delightful, we will meet up with them again when they return from Eger.

With all of this social activity, we are having a difficult time returning to the stove. Adding insult to injury, Kat is going back to the US for 2 ½ weeks, so there may not be any Sunday dinners for a couple of weeks. Since we have done our share of cooking and hosting, we have tried to coerce Dan and Arnold to step-up. We will see.

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Beautiful Cádiz

We traveled on Brussels Air from Budapest to Brussels to Seville July 31st. Our three-hour plus waiting in Brussels was smoothed over by access to the Diners Club lounge. We offered Kat guest membership, but she said she would be fine going it alone out with the masses. Guilt did gnaw at me for a short time, but I got over it once I relaxed with a Belgium beer on tap. The flights were uneventful, but the seating was spacious; more so on the first leg than the second, but still comfortable.
 
Once we landed, the bus to the train station was efficient. I think it cost us 4 Euros each. It was super crowded, so we stood the entire ride, missed our stop and found ourselves at the end of the line without realizing it. As it turned out, we were not alone, so there were more than the three of us taking the ride back. The driver just shook his head, but did not require more money.
 
Once at Seville, we had to wait forever for train tickets. There was only one person selling them and the line was extensive. The overhead sign said there was a labor strike going on. We caught the train 3 minutes after getting our tickets; perfect timing. Once in Cádiz, we found our home away from home by walking. It took us about 20 minutes, but we were all too cheap to spring for a taxi. Teresa, our exchange partner had a friend, Esperanza, waiting for us. She had her grown daughter with her to explain everything. They were sweet.
 
Teresa had left me a USB Wi-Fi connection. I could not get the damn thing to work at all. It connected, but would not show the connection window to add the password. We went to the store that Teresa told me about if there were a problem, but Francisco, the person I was to ask for, was not there. The woman I spoke with wanted me to bring the computer in. We were going to do that in the evening, but then I tried using a different USB port and it worked fine. Now, my mouse doesn't work, because it only works in one port. Oh well.

Our first night we went to Quilla restaurant, thanks to Esperanza. We were too late to grocery shop, so this was our splurge. Great food, wonderful views of the ocean. This morning we shopped across the street and cooked breakfast here.

Cádiz is nothing like I expected, not that I did any research ahead of time. I leave that to Ron. What I was expecting was fabulous beaches with clean sand, gloriously blue water, and tons of people having fun, but not much more. Well, let me tell you, it is all that and more. There is SO much more, it is rather shocking. There are four historic walking tours marked on the sidewalk color-coded. Each stop on each tour has a well-illustrated sign in Spanish and English. We have yet to do a full walking tour, because we have been busy exploring on our own. We keep saying we will get to it, but we are really staying busy.

No, we have not been spending hours at the beach, though it is tempting. They are free and glorious, but in reality we only went down from 6 to 8pm one evening; we have yet to return. There is so much to do and see. Due to living in an apartment through our home exchange, we have been shopping and cooking dinner each night. An extensive grocery store across the street makes is ultra-convenient. The food prices are incredibly low. We bought a kilo (2.2 lbs.) of delicious tomatoes for 89 Euro cents.

At lunchtime, we are generally too far from home to run back to fix a meal, so we snack out. Ron and I have kept well below our budget of 100 Euros a day for the two of us for all expenses. The apartment we exchanged with is in a perfect location. The beach is just three blocks in one direction and everything else we could need is only a few blocks or more in the other direction.

My only complaint is there is no Internet access in the apartment. I have yet to see an Internet café in the city. With the USB Internet connector the service is limited and it will only work in one of my two USB ports. With the limitations of Internet, I most likely will not write much while we are away. Ignore the mistakes if any, I will not have time to make corrections or even to blush over them.
 
Love the city!!! We are ready to buy property here. : ) 

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