Budget Nomad

Friday, September 14, 2012

U Crane Go To Kiev

wizz, vst (Photo credit: OsdPhoto.com)

In the travel news via Budapest of course, there are two new destinations for Wizz Air. Starting December 2012, Wizz is adding two new routes. Budapest to Kiev, Ukraine and Tel Aviv, Israel. Tickets are on sale now, so remember to fill that special someone's Christmas stocking with airline tickets. If you really like them, I doubt you'll want to send them off to Kiev in December or January, unless Santa has brought them a really heavy duty winter coat as well.

Visas are no longer needed for Americans to enter the Ukraine, so come warmer weather, this will go on our travel list.

While I am on the subject of Visas, there are two items to mention.

1.) A new agreement has concluded between Russia and the USA regarding Visas as of September 9, 2012.

This agreement will now make the normal type of visa for citizens of both the USA and the Russian Federation a multiple visit visa that is valid for three years.

In the past a formal invitation was required to obtain either the business or tourist visa, but this will no longer be required. However, American citizens are still required to have advance arrangements made for lodging while submitting proof of such a registered tour operator. Both countries have pledged and committed to approve all visas within fifteen calendar days, or less.

2.) This item is the ever controversial length of stay for US citizens in Europe. The Schengen Agreement has flummoxed many for years. Many are still under the misconception that a US American passport allows them unlimited stays in Europe, while only having to cross a border to turn the clock back to start again. Untrue!

To save time and energy, I have put all the resources needed nested in my other blog. You can find them here.

Schengen Fact Sheet

U.S. Passport Limitations in Europe

The Schengen Area and Cooperation

General Information for Entering Hungary

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Open Wound

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There has been a topic that is about a month old now. I have written about it before, but it is still an open wound. The fact is that Google has bought out Frommer's or more precisely John Wiley & Sons portion of anything travel related, but nothing has been shared with any of the authors.

Yesterday, I had the thought to try to find other Frommer's authors. It is not like they have ever provided us with a list, though to be honest, I had never asked directly either. I had mentioned to an editor or two how great it would be to be able to be in touch with the other authors of say the Europe by Rail book, the Eastern Europe, or the Europe book. Although there were three different editors involved, none of them responded with any encouragement; the matter fell flat. I could have take the normal route of writing to Frommer's in NJ knowing they would have forwarded the letter to a particular author at some point in time, generally too far into the future for me to have remembered writing at all. Those that sent letters in regarding the Hungary book, generally arrived in my mail months and months after being sent to the publisher.

Just by chance, I thought I would Google "Frommer's Authors" and see what came up. What I had hoped for was to find other Frommer's authors who may have heard more information than I have or we could just share notes.

What I discovered was a rather well thought out blog that addressed the issue in a post called "Why Google will most likely kill Frommer’s, and why that’s probably a mistake". You can find it here. I did send him a comment stating that his fourth possibility was ethnocentric. Google cannot keep up with the changes in the Hungarian website world, since many of the shops and small restaurants have no web presence.

Another blog I found has the post "Google buys Frommer's - What's next?". The writer of this blog is another Frommer's author for Seville and Andalusia, Spain. You can read his thoughts here.

One would like to think that out of professional courtesy at least, there would be something from the corporate office of Wiley or Google sharing some morsel of information. I am going to post in the travel writers group on LinkedIn and see if that garners any info. I will keep you posted.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The First Day and They are After Me

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Today was the first day of school. Yipee! Summer is officially over as holidays go. There are only 45 days until fall break, but who is counting? I am. I am feeling overwhelmed and each time some American university instructor tells me "Full-time in the US would be three classes" I feel even worse. No, not worse enough to return to the US, but then again, I would never get a position here.

Today, I had five classes in a row. This is mostly my fault since I create my own schedule, but I do it this way to have long weekends; weekends are 5 days long. I only teach 2 very brutal days a week. Tuesday is five classes and Wednesday is four. This doesn't mean I sit around eating Bon-Bons the rest of the time. There are tons of papers to read, students to advise for their thesis, student problems to solve and so on.

This semester it is not nearly as bad as it could be. I decided to teach 2 classes online. Today was the orientation for one and the other will be tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, when I would generally be teaching Academic Writing, I have a Fulbright student to do that for me this semester. After I do the initial class tomorrow, she will take over for the rest of the semester.

Here is where they are after me though. I have been e-mail chased after by another college. They want me to come teach there too. After exchanging a couple of e-mails. I said I would meet with them at least. They are going to have to make a really appealing offer, but they have aroused my curiosity.

What I really want to do is start up my private practice once again. I maintain my CA clinical license and have done some life coaching. This is where it is at. I need a professional change of pace to balance my life out. I have the office ready to go. Now I just need to start the marketing.

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Saturday, September 08, 2012

In Memoriam

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Today, I awoke to some sad news via e-mail. Another friend has passed away. I received the note below from her husband Oscar.

Jennifer and I worked together at Memorial Hospitals Association in Modesto, CA. We did not always see eye to eye on some matters, but I do have to say she was quite the advocate. Jennifer and Oscar were very involved with the Sister City Program. They repeatedly persuaded medical facilities and doctors to provide donations which they escorted to the Ukraine. Jennifer was originally from Bristol, England.

I am grateful Jennifer and Oscar were able to visit us years ago. Jennifer was a ball of contagious energy. She is going to be missed.

Dear friends:

This morning at 4:00 a.m. the world lost a wonderful nurse and patient advocate in Jennifer Ardans. She lost a brave battle against colon cancer after surgery and several months of chemotherapy. Many of the last moments of her life were spent with her husband, children and grandchildren. Her ashes will be scattered in San Francisco Bay; a place she held dear.

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Friday, September 07, 2012

Going Viral

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Okay, generally I try not to cross post, but this is something that has really irritated me. Here it goes.

Generally, I am an avid Kathy Reichs fan and am almost completely up-to-date on her novels, except the last one out. I bought this book Virals at a used English book store in Budapest. I had not heard of this title, so was excited to come across it for about $6. Now I want to sell it back and am willing to do so for less than $1 or just toss it and take the loss.

I have been an educator with over 25 years of teaching, six of which were in elementary school.. If this is a young adult book, something has gone far amiss in the field, though I have read much YA literature over the years. The language in this novel goes from insipid to vulgar. This is the first time I have read a book through only to be able to fully warn others against wasting their time and money.

The idea that four young teen boys would include a single young female into their group with just friendship is lame. Yet the five of them share a secret bunker. Oh my! Supposedly highly educated, elite teens are hiding away in a bunker? What is that all about?

They then discover bones on the island where they live off the coast of South Carolina, break into a Fort Knox type research lab because no one changed the alarm code from the default, a crooked scientist confesses to them, and Tory, the grand niece of the famous Tempe Brennan, finds the key to gain entry to a historic mansion owned by a State Senator that is hidden under a loose stone in the yard. This group is supposedly the upper crust in intelligence, but it doesn't come through anywhere in this story.

The clincher is when the senator gave the power to command the clean up of the messes made to his 16 year old's girlfriend since she was more of a man than his son was.

If you look at the back cover of the paperback, there are the standard recommendations that are on all of Reichs' books. General and generic fluff. There is nothing from any children's literature association or a librarian group recommending it. It is trying to fly high on Reichs' name, but this fantasy misses the mark by a long shot. You can feel that this is meant to be a series. If there is a higher power in publishing with a brain, this will be nipped in the dust cover with this title.

Kathy, please return to what you are good at and leave the YA writing to the experts. Sad to say, there have been two books in the series after this one with Reichs's son's name added. This explains a great deal. Kathy, don't you just know when to quit or learn to just say "NO!" to your children?

A similar review was posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.

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Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Interesting Tidbits

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Each weekday, I get a digest of Hungarian news translated to English by All Hungary Media Group. Sometimes the contradictions of what is in the new is laughable. Yes, I do read some US news online too, but they just have not gotten the knack of compiling it as humorously.

This first one is not so funny...
Californian Hungarian winemaker revealed as owner of far-right website kuruc.info
By MTI
A Hungarian winemaker living in California has been identified by a Hungarian whistleblower website as the owner of the far-right news site kuruc.info, according to an article posted on atlatszo.hu on Tuesday.

These two however, make me scratch my head in wonderment.

Hungary slips to 60th place in WEF global competitiveness survey
Hungary slipped to 60th place in a ranking of 144 countries based on competitiveness compiled by the World Economic Forum and published Wednesday. Hungary ranked 48th of 142 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Index...
At the top of a list of the most problematic factors for doing business in Hungary was “policy instability”, followed by “access to financing”, “tax rates”, “tax regulations” and “inefficient government bureaucracy”, the World Economic Forum said.

Civil effort underway to launch new Hungarian national air carrier
Hungary’s Civil Society for the Establishment of a New Hungarian Airline hopes to wind up talks with Asian, Arab and European investors and lenders by December, Peter Leavai, who heads the initiative that seeks to replace failed national carrier Malev, told hvg.hu...

The airline, dubbed Hungarian World Airways, is expected to carry 10m passengers in its first year, generating USD 9bn, hvg.hu said. It targets profit of USD 260m by its third year, the website of business weekly HVG added.

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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

National Theatre Live

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Benedict Cumberbatch at Frankenstein Q&A at the National Theatre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This evening we had tickets to see Frankenstein, a production by the London National Theatre Live. This is the fourth season for NTL, but the first we were aware of, that being only by chance. Some guests had mentioned it or we would never have known. We were joined by our neighbors Chuck and Jimmy.

The London theatre films live productions in high definition and then broadcasts them to over 500 venues worldwide. They have about 4 performances a year.

The only times you did not feel close to a live performance were the birds-eye view shots of the stage. Otherwise the cinematography was exceptional, as was the acting. The roles of Frankenstein and the monster were alternately played by two different actors. For our performance, Benedict Cumberbatch was the monster with Jonny Lee Miller as Frankenstein. Cumberbatch stars in a BBC show called Sherlock and is as brilliant in that role as he was in this one as a monster.

This was an original version of the classic story. There was a major twist in the plot adding to its appeal.

I signed up for the e-mail alerts for future shows. Strangely, Hungary was not even on the list of venues hosting the show. This is something I would definitely be interested in for future shows.

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Monday, September 03, 2012

Nineteen Years Ago

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Nineteen years ago today:

September 3, 1993 we decided to become a couple. We were in San Francisco, so we stopped at the San Francisco Brewing Company for a home-crafted beer. Then we progressed to the place where we made this momentous decision was a restaurant in San Francisco called The Stinking Rose. Their motto was "We add some food to our garlic.

We lived in the US for the first 8 years of our lives and in Budapest for the next 11 years. Who would have guessed?

This is us in 1993 at Ron's best friend's place. He had predicted it would only last 6 months.

To celebrate, we went to the Sufni Kert for a beer and then to Menza for dinner. Although it may not seem terribly exciting, we will be going to Ecuador in December for a month with an 8 day cruise of the Galapagos interspersed. That more than makes up for it. Since 1993, we have traveled to over 50 countries and many of the US States.

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Saturday, September 01, 2012

Watch Out Herend

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OTL Express will be starting 3 weekly flights to Dresden, Germany, the home of Dresden Porcelain. Watch out Herend, the competition is on your ceramic tail.

Return tickets are scheduled right now at 90 Euros. Let's hope it stays that this rate for some years to come.

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A Bank of America Story I Love

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It is no secret that I really have a dislike/hate relationship with Bank of America. When this story appeared it warmed the cockles of my heart. Somehow it happened months ago, but it is only getting real coverage now.

Bank of American foreclose on a Florida couple's home. No surprise there, right? Well, the couple did not have a mortgage. They paid for their house cash. They could not get anyone at the bank to listen to them, so they sued and won.

In all of its arrogance, the bank refused to pay the settlement. The couple's lawyer had the sheriff foreclose on the bank.

Read the article here. See the news below.