Go SkyEurope

I was so paranoid about not making the flight in time, we opted for the earlier airport bus. We were up at 4:15 am and at the station at 5:00, only to find the next bus was not until 5:35. We were at the airport by 6:30 am, but SkyEurope did not open for check in until 7:00 am. We were checked in and through security within minutes. I sat at the gate and wrote yesterday's blog entry. Boarding time was 8:10, but by 8:20, there still was no plane. It was late arriving from Prague and eventually did by 8:40. Amazingly, we still landed in Budapest on time at 10:00 am. Go SkyEurope!

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Tram Ride to Opicina

The breakfast room was hopping this morning, by eight o’clock, it was full to capacity. Nine tables filled with guests, trying to get back and forth to the nourishment table, while scooting around those still seated.

We decided to take the only tram in the city, for a ride, needing only one ticket each way, for a euro each, it was a bargain. Walking the streets to get to the starting point, we noticed more stores were open today, but still plenty of them are closed yet. The tram runs every twenty minutes. Climb aboard and validate your ticket, take a seat on one of the wooden seats and don’t try to open the window. It is supposedly air conditioned, but it isn’t really, so some did try pulling down the stubborn top portion of the window to let some air in. Our goal was to take the tram to then end of the line, which is another town, Opicina.

Ascending in altitude, the panorama view became increasingly interesting with glimpses of the water. There was supposed to be the best view from the obelisk stop, one stop before the end. We thought we would stop off there on the way back. Opicina is a small village with basically one street of businesses, not much on the side streets. It is close to the Slovenia border, so many signs are in both languages. Wandering down the main street, we eventually found a restaurant and stopped for a plate of pasta. The elder owner must have a case of OCD. He put all unused chairs at 45 degree angles to the tables they were at. We were waiting for him to come rearrange our seats too. I had made a decision, not to pass up any opportunity for Italian treats. The pasta with Bolognese sauce was different from what I am used to with a minced meat clump plopped on top of the spaghetti, but tasty nevertheless.

After lunch, we started back to the tram and arrived just as it did. Riding down one stop, we disembarked at the obelisk to check out the view for ourselves. The land was artificially reforested by the Austrians in the late 1800s; there are walking trails, but not much else. Our tram tickets are only good for 60 minutes, so if we waited longer, we would have to buy new ones, but there was no machine to get them at. When the next tram arrived, we jumped on to get back to Trieste city center.

As we returned, we noticed that all of the stores that were open when we left earlier, were now closed. It seems that those that are open in August, close from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm and then reopen until 8:00 pm. The town was empty. There were not even many cars driving through, so we took this opportunity to return for a nap, but stopped for an ice cream on the way. I am working on my ice cream and pasta quotas.

After our rest stop, we went window stopping, but there really is nothing new and different. Thanks to globalization, you can find the same or very similar things all over the world. We went to a bar called The Tea Room for a popular local drink of white wine, sparkling water, and a shot of Campari. It is wonderfully refreshing on a hot day, but this evening the Boer winds were coming in fast and furious, necessitating a jacket for we tourists, while the locals were still in their shorts and short sleeved shirts.

We did our evening stroll on the waterfront to watch the sun, and then went to a pizzeria called the Copacabana. The place is huge and can easily seat 200 outside and just as many inside. We sat on the terrace, where every table was soon filled. The menu was only in Italian, but I discovered a pizza with roast beef called Stregata. I known strega is witch, so I went for it. It had a white crème sauce, mozzarella cheese, cooked kale, and was smothered in slices of roast beef. I am not certain how to say heavenly in Italian, but it was a gastronomic orgasm. Ron had cheese and pepperoni.

Plans for tomorrow are to visit another castle and then in the opposite direction, go to the only place in Italy where they had a Holocaust prison camp, complete with a crematorium. We will see if we are emotionally up for it when the time comes. Funny, when we arrived, we were not sure we would be able to fill our time here. Having so many things closed has made it interesting, but we are finding things to do without needing to rush here and there, making it utterly relaxing.

One thing I have noticed is that there are no WiFi cafés or marked hotspots and there are no Internet cafés. We have covered a great deal of the city by foot, since there has not been much else to do, so if they existed, we should have spotted them.

Another observation is that the Italians, I am guessing these are locals or Italian tourists, always dress nicely. You do not see many, not even the teens dressed in raggy clothes or even mismatched outfits. They all look like they are going to be someone’s guest and have dressed accordingly. It has fascinated me how many men wear sandals of all types, while women wear sandals, and a good number of them wear heels.

Also, the city is CLEAN. There is no litter and relatively little graffiti anywhere.

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Where is Everyone?

Breakfast is included in the hotel rate. It is minimal, but enough. The coffee machine, a product of Nescafe is self-service. I placed my cup on the tray and hit the latte button, but the result was a pure white without a trace of coffee. Although the hot milk was delicious, I really wanted caffeine. After I had some of it downed, I put the cup back and hit the espresso button, making a perfect latte.

We bought bus tickets at the reception desk walked to the 36 bus stop to go to Miramare Castle. We were not quite sure which stop to get off, but went by instinct, Ron’s instincts, not mine. After getting off of the bus, we had to walk back in the direction we came, but the castle was on the other side of the highway. There was no way to cross. After walking through the two tunnels we had traveled through on the bus, we found an institute with steps leading to a park. We asked someone who said we could go that way, but there were many paths, so to be careful.

It was a hefty climb of numerous short flights of stairs with small resting platforms at the top of each flight. After innumerable flights, we reached the apex to find a lovely wooded park with generously wide walking paths and well placed benches. About every 500 feet, there was a map showing the current location and all of the important landmarks of the area. We found out way to the castle after descending some insubstantial flights of stairs. The castle was built by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, brother to Franz Josef the Emperor of Austria and the Hapsburg Empire. The castle is surrounded by 22 hectares of trees imported from around the world.

We toured the castle for 4 Euros entrance for me, but Ron was able to get in for free with his senior ID from Hungary. Either way, it was worth the charge. The castle was not overly extravagant, tasteful enough to be charming, but it was hot and I could barely stand it. After we finished the tour, we walked through the park to the end and descended at the restaurant where the bus sits to return the route back again.

Back to the starting point at the end of the bus line, we looked for the Jewish synagogue that was on the sights to see list and found it handily. However, it is only open on Sundays and Thursdays for touring and closed completely other days of the week. We missed it yesterday and will be leaving early on Thursday, so that is off our list. We also checked out the Renaissance Museum, but it was closed for the month of August. Not doing well, we wandered instead. Again today, although being Monday, most stores are closed. It was well into the afternoon, yet there is no sign of life, nor are there signs stating they are closed. Door signs claim they should be open welcoming shoppers, but the lock on the entrance displays something different altogether. Again, many of the cafés and restaurants are still shuttered also giving the city a ghost like feeling. The streets are not busy with pedestrians, there are not many tourists, and the cars that are zipping through the streets are racing with a passion to get through here to someplace with more action, as fast as possible.

Remember the children’s game of clasping your hands together and chanting “Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and where are all of the people?” I kept asking that question all day today. The only people that were out in any number were the seniors who were hoarding the seats on the bus like they were being evacuated and needed comfort for the long haul.

We stopped at a café for a snack since there was not much else worth attempting by 3:00 pm. I ordered a latte and received a cup of hot milk. There seems to be a trend here, so being quick to learn, I realized a latte here is not a coffee latte, but just the milk. Lesson to be learned, a latte here is milk only. Even when I have asked for a coffee latte, they had no idea what I wanted. When this time filler had run its course, we went back to the hotel to catch some of the Democratic National Convention news coverage.

After some writing and a nap, we went seeking one of the old cafés with a reputation. Like Vienna and Budapest and most likely dozens of other cities around the world, there are some famous hangouts which developed a reputation for hosting the famous and infamous of the world of literature, the arts, followed by politicians, and insidious others who chose that place as their nesting area. Three of these are still in tact with business as usual. We went to discover the first one. The inside was embellished with dark wood ceilings, but ivory walls with white trim like oversized cameos. Broken into cozy rooms, it maintained the intimacy that small groups of like minded people would gravitate toward and reward them with privacy for their discussions. We chose to sit outside since all of Trieste and probably all of Italy now is non-smoking indoors.

We walked the waterfront again this evening, but we had much more of it to ourselves than

yesterday. There were so few people out, it was almost eerie. Watching the last vestiges of the sun disappear over the water as it was rising on some other’s morning, the clouds transformed from oranges to pinks and later to grays as their appearance morphed from one shape to another, shifting so slowly, it was barely a cognitive experience.

For dinner, we decided to try a place on the canal recommended by the hotel, called ‘A Kiss by the Canal’. We were told they gave a 10% discount to hotel guests, so we decided to try it. By the canal, they have sofas with tables between them. I thought it would be too difficult to eat dinner from a sofa on such a low table. The other outside tables were along side the restaurant, so we chose a table there. When our waiter came over, we asked for a menu. He looked a bit stunned and then went for another server, but returned to say our waiter would be with us shortly. The menu is written on a blackboard, so our new host brought it over and translated the entire list of options. Ron ordered the pasta with crab and I ordered the pasta with ham and pepperoni.

When the food was served, Ron’s pasta was missing the crab and the broccoli that was supposed to be part of it. What he received was the pasta with the shrimp instead. Mine was the correct dish, but the ham and pepperoni were so finely diced, they both could have been shaken from a salt shaker. The sauce was the redeeming factor, since the pasta was penne, not the spaghetti I had thought.

With two disappointing meals, we decided we needed gelato. That place was hopping and anyone who was left in the city was there. This is where all of the action was happening. People do not seem to appear on the streets until after 9 pm, but they disappear again shortly after 10:00.

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Off to Trieste

The super efficient airport shuttle not only deposited us at the airport on time, but with plenty of time to spare. Our flight was due to leave at 10:30 and we were there by 8:00. Going through security was speedy and efficient, but we found ourselves immediately in the shopping area for duty free. There was no Passport Control to go through now that Hungary is part of the Schengren Agreement.

SkyEurope had us boarded and ready to go within minutes, though they had a flight come in from Trieste at 10:00. We arrived at our destination after 1 hour and 10 minutes. The airport is tiny, so there is no fear of getting lost. We bought bus tickets into town at the tourism office for 3.10 each and walked over to bus 51 to stow our suitcase.

More than once, I had a thought of “that is interesting, we should come back there to see that mosaic” or “an open café , we should check it out”, but the bus kept going and going. The other thought I had was, "Are we on the correct bus?" We have been known to get on the wrong trains and buses at times. While taking one hour to get into town, all of those places are closer to the airport than they are to Trieste. Let’s review - It took one hour-10 minutes to fly here; it took one hour to get from the airport.

Our hotel, is one whole floor of a building, there are three such hotels within one building. It was an easy 10 minute walk from the bus station. The room is extra large, but with a shared bathroom. This is not a problem as there are three of them, two equipped with showers. They were reviewed by Frommer’s in 2003, but has not been seen since with gives me pause.

After dumping our things, we walked around the city, noticing not much was open, but being Sunday, we did not think about it. The reception at the hotel suggested going closer to the waterfront to find a restaurant, or perhaps around the major square. There were a few open there, but not too crowded. Is this what Sundays are like? As often as we have been in Italy, I am not sure we have been here too many Sundays before.

Just a short walk from the hotel, we ran into the stature of James Joyce. Joyce had lived here twice during his life. First he lived here from 1904 to 1915, and then again from 1919 to 1920 when he finished The Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

The major square the Piazza Unita d’Italia is an umph experience with stunning architecture on three sides. Built in 1870, to the left is the Palazzo de Governo, Palazzo Stratti, Palazzo Modelo, the Town Hall, Palazzo Pitteri, and the Lloyd Triestion Palazzo. All of this overlooks the sea.

At the waterfront, people were milling up and down the cement walkway again certifying Europeans as strollers. As families, as couples, as groups of friends, people were walking up and down the walkway, taking in the soothing view of the Gulf of Trieste. Still, it was not crowded as one would expect for the end of summer. When we rode in on the bus, we noticed a number of people sunbathing on a concrete platform along the sea. Only one or two people were actually in the water at any given beach. There is not a beach to speak of, mostly rocks you climb down into the water. It certainly is not inducing to sunbathe if you cannot easily go for a dip to cool off, but the Italians are sunworshippers. I know from family history.

We by chance decided on a restaurant where the waitress working was from California up until nine years ago, she lives here now. She suggested we go to a bar “where there are other people like you”. We were not quite sure what that meant. What kind of people? We had just told her we lived in Hungary, where there other ex-pats living in Hungary there? Where there other Americans as bar guest? She once again reiterated that there would be people we would like at this particular bar and than added there are lots of "those" types of bars around the city. Interesting. She discovered all this from two orders of eggplant Parmesan and a few questions about where the best pastry shop in town happened to be. By the way, the eggplant was good, but the sauce needed to cook more. Even Ron, a non-Italian could tell it was not ready yet. As it turned out the pastry shop was the most highly rated by the tourism board as being historic, but it is closed for the month of August.

We gave in to our early hour start of the day, and went back for a nap. We had to get rid of that jet lag from that hour long flight. Within minutes, I was out and stayed out for three hours. After I revived from that drugged feeling I get when I oversleep, we took off to explore the city on a Sunday night.

After wandering for an hour, looking at menus, we decided on one for pizzas. I had the thrill of years when I found a pizza with sausage, sweet peppers, cheese, and tomatoes. The highlight was the sausage, though not enough, it was real Italian sausage, something I had been hunting for the last four trips to different Italian cities and have not found. The peppers were sweet peppers like I have grown accustomed to in the US, but never find in Hungary.

Ice cream, an Italian tradition, is not to be by-passed. As we were wandering back to the hotel, we by chance passed a large parlor of frozen delights. The pistachio screamed out to me and then there was this other flavor bufala, which was intriguing. I had both in a cup. Pistachios were more abundant than the ice cream itself, but I did not complain.

My mission this trip is not to leave with any regrets. It will be tough, but I will have to have ice cream, pasta, and pizza as often as possible.

We could not find any WiFi cafes or Internet cafes in the city. At the hotel, the young crew did not know of any either. What gives Italy?

Some pictures will be added by the weekend.

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SkyEurope Is No Longer a Budget Airline

Many blogs out there are still reporting the fabulous fares on budget airlines. Taking a closer look, these blogs are really retail sites that suck you in to exploring their site further and receiving money for clicks on their links like an AdSense account. Budget airlines are not the budget savings they once were. Just as the major airlines are experiencing crisis proportions, so are the budget airlines.

Case in point: I decided I needed a summer break before starting to teach again in September. I will be in charge of a new program, which is creating a minor in Journalism. Most of my summer was spent researching reading books to use for classes and developing a curriculum. This summer was hot and drawn out. Many days, I spent working with my fall semester thesis students to get a jump on the semester, since I have seven of them. My last get-away was our short rain-filled days in Istanbul in March, so I was itching to get out of the city, even if only for a breather of a different culture. Searching the SkyEurope site after getting the e-mail newsletter stating they were having a sale, I booked us two tickets to Trieste, Italy. We leave this Sunday. The fare price for the two of us round-trip was 6,000 Huf. At today's exchange rate, it would seem that it is an incredible bargain at $39.73. Two tickets, round-trip from Budapest to Italy for $40.00? Wow! Here is where the hook comes in. You immediately start fantasizing about being away, even if you have no clue about the destination, romantic scenes flit through your mind. Honestly, I had no idea what the attraction to Trieste is still. I will blog it later. So as you go from the fantasy price screen and click "Continue", here is where the idyllic daydreams start to show the cracks and crumble into reality. There is a payment charge for using your credit card to book online. This happens to be 4,000 Huf ($26.50). The fee is much higher if you have the audacity to call their phone center or use a travel agent. Silly of me, but I chose to have a confirmation sent to my mobile phone: cost 250 Huf ($1.65). Because we travel with saline solution for my contacts, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, toothpaste, and so on, we chose to check one bag to store all of these "liquids" rather than hassle with trying to find the 3 oz. bottles needed. Budapest does not have a readily accessible travel store or any other to run out a purchase these little nnecessities. The fee to check one bag is 3,600 Huf ($23.85). Had we done the calculations ahead of time, we could have bought the things we needed once in Trieste probably at a lower cost. Now the hefty hidden charge, the "Fees and Taxes": 22,026 Huf ($145.86). So all in all, our BUDGET airline fare of 6,000 Huf or $39.73 transforms magically into a grand total of 38,874 Huf ($257.44) or $128.72 for each of us. For the unseasoned, this may still seem like a bargain and yes, it is cheaper and more convenient than the train. Points taken. However, just a couple of years ago, when budget airlines were budget airlines and there were 20 of them flying in and out of Budapest, we really had bargains. We flew to Zurich for 35 Euros each, total with fare and taxes, one way. We trained to Milan and flew home from Milan for 30 Euros each total with fare and taxes. "Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end..." Actually, we thought it would only get better with the competition. If we could have forseen the future, we would have traveled more while the getting was ripe for the picking. SkyEurope tried snaring me once again yesterday. Their newsletter announced a 2 for 1 sale good until January 2009. Buy one ticket and the second one is completely free of fares and taxes. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Being a risk taker, I went forward for the potential shame moniker with thoughts of an autumn break get-away in mind. The problem is that SkyEurope only flies from Budapest to Trieste. Flying from Vienna or Bratislava had numerous choices. Each is only three hours away, but if it is an early morning flight, it would mean an overnighter in either city the night before. But, hey, 2 for 1? With that savings, why not? Here is the catch. We tried Vienna to city after city that interested us, but "No flights are avaiable for this time period". When you look at their calendar for October and November, you would think the airline had gone under. City after city only showed blank calendars. Trying from Bratislava, the same was true. Nice trick. We are offering you a sale, but we are not offering any flights. Ha, ha, jokes on you! Well, SkyEurope, you are now on my blacklist. We will take the train to Heidelberg visit one of my students there instead.

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Bye, Bye the Budget Airlines in the Sky

With Ron going back to the States for three weeks this summer, I was looking for some get-away for the two of us when he returned. I will be working on another Frommer's book due in by July 15th and will need a summer escape. Not too long ago, the budget airlines discovered Budapest and we were on everyone's flight path going to the usual (Paris or London) or the more obscure (Malmo, Sweden). We did take great advantage of these services and just about throw a party when a new one landed in Budapest or added new routes. At one time, I needed both hands and extra fingers to count our airborne blessings with fourteen budget buddies to share adventures with. Then fuel prices went and ruined it all. One by one they dropped out of the Budapest sky, some not even as much as giving a good-bye kiss before running off. Wizz Air targeted SkyEurope and advertised their plans to strip them of the Magyar majesty and they accomplished their goal for over a year. SkyEurope will give us another go come this June 8th with the paltry offering of flying from here to Trieste, a place we had not been. Thinking this through, a flight to Trieste would give us a couple of days there and then a short train ride to Ljubljana, where we really wanted to go. We could take the train directly to Ljubljana, but eight hours on a train is a waste of four hours of vacation time. Loaded with dates and alternative dates, I logged on to the SkyEurope website once I retrieved my old log in information. Score! I found a fare of 790 forints going and 2,900 returning. For $23.06 each, we could have that budget vacation this summer. For that price I did not even check with Ron. Onward budget soldiers, get that fare. Click next to continue. Next screen, add 2,550 forints to check in one piece of baggage. Well we travel light, our carry-ons are below regulation, but we have been refused bringing on board. To be safe, pay the fee. Click next to continue. Next screen, choose your seats. Wow, we can make a choice so emergency row, here we come with four long legs to stretch out. Click next to continue. Next screen, confirm your names, addresses, phone numbers. Everything okay? Click next to continue. Next screen, pay the piper. Total cost 65,989 forints ($437). Wait, there must be a mistake. What happened to the $23.06 round trip fare for each of us? After adding the luggage fees, I went back to find there was a charge to choose our seating each way, and the rest or the lion's share was taxes. Eight hours on a train can be so relaxing. You can get up and work around, they now have plugs for laptops, and think of all of the reading I can catch up on.

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