Esztergom

In the name of research, only for the book, we went to Esztergom yesterday. Really, there was not a spark of desire to return there. Afterall, we had been there once seven years ago in the dead of winter, how much different could it be now? Michael Gans and his latest 'friend' joined us for the 1 1/2 hour train ride. How could I have forgotten the train took so long? On a positive note, the train was new and beautiful. From the station we took the bus to the cathedral, the highlight of the town and really the only reason for going. This is the seat of Hungarian Catholicism. As I gathered the data I needed, the others played tourist. It worked well. Strangely, Michael repeatedly stated how poor he was and how he could not afford a thing, but yet he was able to pay the way of his friend the entire trip. So it really worked my nerves when we went to a restaurant that Michael suggested, but when the bill came, I had already tallied our items on my phone's calculator using the menu for guidance. When the bill came, I gave it to Michael, along with our portion and told him how much additional I had included for a tip. He still perused the bill like an etomologist who just discovered a new variety of a pesky insect and wanted to know why his portion was so expensive. Well, it is because you gave your friend free reign to order whatever he wanted and you, dear had two diet cokes. After he did the math, he was still a bit disgruntled, but it passed. I cannot say the town is lovely. There are pockets that are, but for the most part, the cathedral is the draw. If you are not interested in this, then it is not worth the time/energy to go at all. Later, we decided to stop at the main square. They happened to be having their own wine festival, but we were wearing down and opted for a coffee instead. Again, we went through the same tired routine when the bill came. When he complained that he was too broke to pay our bill, I retorted that I understood that unless he were dating us, we would not get a thing from him. He is leaving on Tuesday, eventually to go to Victoria, Canada to pursue his fourth Masters degree. In some ways I will miss his company, but it will be a relief to my blood pressure. After almost twelve months, we still have not been invited to his place. Reciprocity does not seem to be in his vocabulary. Now that I let out that loud "MEOW", I feel much better.

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Choo Charlie at it Again

Ron and I were going to train down to Szeged, far south in the Hungarian plains so I could do some current research for my next book. The Divineless Mr. M decided he wanted to go with. He came to meet me and after an errand he needed to run on the way, we went to the MAV office, the Hungarian train official office. As it happen, it was raining yet again, our seventh or eighth day of rain. I cannot be sure, my calendar is too soggy to read the exact number of days. Mr. M still has not bought an umbrella, though he has been here since August. Not tempted to share mine as it is only a one man size, when we passed a brolley dealer, I pointed out to Mr. M the divine color arrangements, sharing which would complement his complexion while keeping his shaved dome dry. He was all atwitter for a whole two minutes until he asked the price. The poor dear who spends her day out in all elements trying to make a living wage, whips out her calculator and punches in 800. From the reaction of my walking mate, one overhearing his reaction would have thought she asked for his first born. "Four dollars for an umbrella?", he shouts "I could get it in NY for three." Yes, I say, but the trip to NY would certainly detract from the savings of $1.00 and certainly your NY days are well in the past. You have not lived there for years now. Umbrellas there are most likely up to $6.00 or $7.00 at least. Regardless of my persuasive skills, he chose to ignore a practical purchase and I continued to justify my lack of sharing my mini-brella with him. This from a man who has a degree in Social Work, decries the flood of illegal immigrants into the US, yet would support child labor from third world countries to save himself a buck. Somewhere in my karma I must have been tagged with a sign that shows "Befriend me, I need to have my values perpetually clarified by your warped thinking and words." I cannot comprehend how I do attract people in my life like this. It is a burden. Mr. M had the plan to wander off to Szeged with us, only to continue on to Serbia for the day to have his passport stamped. His Visa was running out and needed to leave and reenter the country to gain another 90 day stay. However, since the world is out to persecute him, the Hungarian train system was out to get him too. There are no trains from Szeged to Serbia even if it is only inches away on a map. If he were to follow this plan, it would mean an overnight train there and one back again, just to collect a stamp. Instead, he second choice was to go to Zagreb in Croatia, which ruled out Szeged. His final solution was to travel seven hours to Zagreb, tour the city for two to three hours and climb aboard yet again to spend a relaxing seven hours to return to Budapest. The weather report showed that there was an eight-six percent chance of rain tomorrow regardless of destinations. I wonder if he will find a cheaper umbrella in Croatia.

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Eger Busted

Michael and I were at the train station in plenty of time to catch the train to Eger; I had bought the tickets the day before with Balazs's aid. When we looked at the departure board, there was no train to Eger listed, including the sub-stations that the train would travel to. I saw the town Fuzesabonyleaving from track 3 and since it was on our ticket along with Eger, we went to track three. Now at Keleti station, there are guards who only allow ticketed passengers through. No problem, we had tickets. When I confirmed with her that Eger was track three, she said no, track eight. Okay, we went to track eight, but first I looked at the departure and arrival sheets that are behind thick plastic making them as readable as a newspaper in a sand storm. Eger 8. She was correct, but I checked again with the ticket inspector on this side, who pointed to the train on track eight and waved us through. Nestled into our seats, the train left on the minute it was scheduled. Impressive indeed. Fifteen minutes into the ride, Michael gets up to go to the bathroom, runs into the conductor who wants to see his ticket causing Michael to make an immediate about face. We are on the train to Romania. What the f(&*? We are told to get off at Szolnok, a town I had never heard of and had no desire to learn about. It took over an hour to get there, but that did not end the trials and tribulations. We had options to return to Budapest and then go to Eger again or we could go to Hatvan, change trains, go to Fuzesabony and then on to Eger. The latter choice would get us there at 3:30 pm, while the other would land us in at 5:32 pm. It turned out that additional tickets would cost us 1,220 Huf each with my teacher discount and with his student discount. I paid mine, received my ticket, looked to Michael who was not reaching for any money only to be floored when he said "I am sorry, but I am not putting out any more money for tickets." IF I had thought fast enough, I should have said, "You are right, good-bye", but I did not want a scene after this hassle and paid it. Though I have to say I fumed for hours, which he did not notice or at least respond to. The train station is about a mile from the center. What were they thinking? We rushed through the city, the TourInform was long closed, but I did manage to find three nice hotels in the center for the book. We found two restaurants and the city is much lovelier than I had remembered. We were running late to get back to the train station for the 7:34 train, which if we missed it, we would have to wait until after 10:00 pm for the last train. We bought our tickets, but the woman clerk told us we needed seat reservations for one portion of the trip. She did not however, sell them to us, escaping my attention. When the female conductor came for our tickets, she asked for our reservations that we were not in possession of and then started screaming at the top of her lungs. She asked our cabin mates if they spoke English and the poor man said he spoke a little while trying to explain why she was upset. We tried telling him that the clerk did not charge us for or give us reservation tickets. He and the woman in our cabin started calmly speaking to the conductor, but she went berserk. We really thought she had lost it. She then disappeared and returned with a young man whose English was quite good, who explained she wanted us to pay 890 Huf for a seat reservation on the spot. Fine, we did. Then I said she had not given me my ticket back. Her hysteria escalated to the point I thought she was going to stroke out in front of us. As it turned out, I had stuck it in my wallet in the confusion. When I discovered it, she burst into tears, crying without abandon and continued her tirade the whole time. When she finally abandoned us, the gentleman told us that he and the woman sitting with us were trying to get her to by-pass the reservation fees, since we were misinformed, hence her theatrics. We finally arrived in Budapest at 9:40 pm.

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Eger or Bust

I finally pinned down Michael to join me on a sojourn to Eger, a town I need to research for my book. It was up in the air between Eger and Szeged, since I have to do both anyway. He thought if we went to Szeged, he would be able to take a jaunt over the border to Romania to have his passport stamped. His student Visa runs out on June 22nd, so he has to leave the country and reenter on a tourist Visa. Szeged and Romania look like a short distance on the map, but getting from Point A to Point B is as convenient as preparing Baked Alaska on a campfire. First you have to go to northeastern Hungary, a two hour train ride, and then go to the Romanian border, another four hours. Now he is left searching other options, but he committed to the day's trip. Eger is only two hours away, but we will have to fly around once we get there. The TourInform office closes at 1:00 pm on Saturdays; please, please do not let the train be late. With the Google Latitudes map in the right panel of this blog, you can check my whereabouts as I move around. If it ever seems like it never leaves Akacfa utca, you know I am home plugging away at some work task.

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B and B Owner Holds Singapore Nationals Hostage

About noon yesterday, I was delighted to welcome three young people from Singapore into the B and B. For some reason, I had it in my mind that it was a husband, wife, and child, but instead they turned out to be three backpacking students. They are incredibly sweet, independent, and quiet. The usual modus operandi when a guest arrives is to offer them tea or coffee, give them the lay of the land, and then set them loose to explore the city. These three were ready to explore the minute they dropped their loads on the bedroom floor and I gave them key orientation. Later in the afternoon, two gorgeous young ladies from the US arrived for the other bedroom. They too were ready to rock and roll shortly after arriving. By 7:00pm, I had the place to myself, a sinking spell coming on, I decided a short nap was in order. I had been up since 5:00am getting the last guests off to hovercrafts and the airport. My friend Michael called after his meeting, asking me to join he and one other for dinner. In my dreamlike state, I thought I heard Chinese coming from the other room, guessing the three adventurers returned while I was sequestered in my room. When I left to join Michael there was silence throughout the apartment; I locked both locks on the door. When I met up with Michael and his friend, I jokingly shared that I hoped my Singapore guests were indeed out on the town, but if not that they remembered how to unlock the door from the inside. Being Italian, formerly Catholic with DNA induced guilt, the worry started in. Did they realize they had keys to escape their confines? They are young, perhaps they thought it was curfew time and they were not allowed to leave after a certain hour. Guilt, shame, horror set in, but still at such mild doses that I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner at a new restaurant Cactus Juice. It was such a pleasant experience, I will include it in my new book. The occupational hazard of a travel writer, every incident becomes a review either mentally or eventually in written form. After dinner as I walked Michael to the bus stop, the thoughts were running through my mind about my 'guests' feeling like prisoners on their Budapest stopover, while he expressed seeing the headline news "B and B Owner Hold Three Singapore Nationals Hostage". As I was chuckling at this, I had feelings of being a NYC sweatshop owner. We joked about them using a battering ram to open the door, SWAT teams surrounding the building. Walking into the apartment at 11:00pm, lights were out, even those left on as nightlights, the place was quiet as a Quaker Meeting and from the looks of things, they inflicted their own lights out curfew. At breakfast everyone was happy and content, not a sign of surliness. Hey youthful people you are supposed to be having a nightlife while you are still young enough to enjoy it. They, however, were up at 6:00am; my clock was set for 7:45.

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The Hood

Anna, our interpreter whose brother is our cabinet man, sent an e-mail needing the exact measurements of the hood for the stove. This is a bit tricky since our hood is on order, will be three more weeks before its arrival, and the store had no measurements to provide us. We took matters into our own hands and decided to shop elsewhere. Ron went exploring while I was in school, found one locally and had me meet him after I finished for the day. Nice, but no cigar. First of all, they did not have any in stock. Their other store on the Buda side might, but we could not convey that they should call for us store to store. Actually, it was not necessary anyway, this hood was stainless steel and black. The stove is stainless steel and the cabinets are cappuccino. I was not crazy about the black. Some former students had invited me for a beer, so I was going to be tied up in the afternoon, so Ron went exploring on his own. His mission was to find a 60cm wide hood in stainless steel. Simple! He found one and bought it, brought it home, unboxed it and held it in place. It was 2cm too wide. After a little ranting, which I should have videoed since it is a rarity, he decided to return it and buy the 50cm hood instead. When we both returned home, he empty handed, he explained that he thought he smaller hood would look silly. Call Anna and tell her the dilemma. No problem, the cabinets can be adjusted for the 60cm hood, which has been restocked at the store. No, he did not take off to buy it again, we had Michael coming over to watch a movie. Tomorrow is another day for fun and aggravation. In the meanwhile, I was socializing with two former students who had met in one of my classes early on in their academic careers. Both having at least four courses with me and with each other started dating. Their reason for the drink invitation was to announce their engagement now that they have both graduated with a May wedding. They want both Ron and I to attend. They had been at our place for a student Christmas party I used to give each year, so they both know Ron. I was elated at their announcement and am looking forward to their nuptials come May.

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The Cost of Remodeling

When one decides to remodel a kitchen, one cost that needs to be taken into consideration is the amount of money it will cost for eating out each night during the process. This is one expense I had not calculated. I guess after five weeks of eating out in Australia, the thought of eating out was blocked from my cognition. Obviously, we could not cook here, so we called Michael, the guy studying at CEU and went to the Galleria for dinner. It is cheap and close-by, fitting the needs for a damp cold evening. So when the men left last night at 6:00 pm, this is the way the kitchen looked.

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Banners and Ads

Once a year, there is a display of banners and billboards on display in the parking lot adjoining City Park. Sometimes we go and some years we just skip it. Ron had gone during a break between his tours at the
museum, so I asked
Michael if he wanted to join me. I met him at his place since he is closer to the park.


Some were funny, some were totally incomprehensible to us with too much Hungarian to be understandable, but it was fun nevertheless. The weather was perfect.addition this year. I am not certain who the sculpture artist was, but this was a new addition.

The theme of the ads was "What Makes You Happy?"

The "Free Tibet" was just too ironic to pass up.
The reptile was a CROCS ad.

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Flashback to Saturday

Last Sunday, we went to welcome another American who has come here to live for a year. Michael has come to study at Central European University for a Masters in History. About six months prior to his arrival, he was given my e-mail address through a friend of a friend of a friend, that sort of thing that brings people into connecting. We had many e-mail exchanges about living here, the quality of life, and then much ado about his decision to earn another Masters degree here versus in the States. Many quandaries later I suggested he was earning me a Life Coach designation due to my mentoring and haranguing for his making a change in a life he claimed was not satisfactory. The kicker was that he too is an MSW; both Ron and I are social workers besides. During these e-mail exchanges, we discussed politics once. He was a strong Hillary supporter as was I and both of us were disappointed she did not make it to the top. It was not until he arrived that I found out much to my chagrin that he is now supporting McCain due to Palin. My initial reaction was to rip his skin off to see if it was masking a hostage Democrat under wraps, but I controlled myself. We have limited friends here, so we have to turn the other cheek at times as much as I would like to sock his when he makes a comment about how qualified Palin is in comparison to Obama-Biden. I have suggested we disassociate ourselves from political discussions or the seed of friendship is never going to sprout past to reach the top of the soil. We have done well thus far. Being new to the city, everything is exciting to Michael. We have been here seven years and though we still find it a beautiful urban area, we don't have the need or desire to go running about to museums and such unless there is a new and grabbing exhibit that demands to seen. Michael has time on his hands until school officially begins. His first week was orientation only. We decided to replace one sofa bed in the small bedroom while replacing the sofa in the large bedroom with a sofa bed. After more than one guest has broken the frame on the bed in the large room, we have also caved in and put a new bed frame on the shopping list. This meant a trip to Ikea; we invited Michael to join us. There is nothing that makes my blood circulate at premium efficiency than shopping. I love to shop, but when I know I am actually going to make purchases, I am like a greyhound chasing rabbits. It did not take long to find two different sofa beds that were on wheels, not sitting on the floor like our current model. Both had extremely comfortable mattresses; unlike many Ikea We stopped at the food court to lunch and refresh our spirits. Their meals are usually excellent and bargain prices. Their Swedish meatballs are my favorite. Along the way, going around Ikea is like following the yellow brick road. They were ingenious in setting the store up so you follow the path they want you to walk, most of the time, you ignore the detours through departments. That is how I found the most wonderful blankets. They are ivory color, look like bubble wrap, but are soft and squishy. Mental pictures of curling up with one on a cold winter's night while watching TV prompted me to buy one for us and one each for the bedrooms. How could I not share this cozy pleasure with guests? We also spotted some bolster type pillows for the small room's sofa bed to add some color completing our shopping tour. With bin numbers in hand, we grabbed a trolley and scavenged for the parts we would have to assemble to make our ideals a reality. Our trolley runneth over as we headed to the cashier and then to the delivery services. Feeling satiated, we left, I was in seventh heaven. I had not been able to shop until I was ready to drop in so long, I had fears that my stamina had run dry. The day was a success with no political talk, but good conversation and an exchange of ideas on other topics. There is hope. products the choice of colors was not obnoxious either. We also found a bed frame suitable for the over sized guest, which would not make our hearts palpitate with fear of finding them sleeping on the floor some morning. Just for good measure, we assured ourselves by finding out which parts were replaceable 'just in case'.

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