Google Fked Up Royal

Google f*&ked up royally this last week. I had students with papers due and they send them to my Gmail account, since my aces-hungary.org account has been accused of bouncing all of the time. I have 39 students in the class and when I only received 14 papers, I knew something was wrong. I was up at 4:45 am yesterday morning, trying to figure out what was going on. I have Google set up to dump into my regular e-mail client and then move the sends into the trash. I logged into my Google account and found a couple of dozen e-mails that had never downloaded into my regular e-mail account, but had gone into Google's trash bin. I moved all of these into the Inbox and then reconfigured the settings to try to get them to download. What happened was what downloaded was EVERY email I had sent out from May, 2005. Over 4,000 e-mails downloaded into my e-mail account. The strange thing was, I could not find these old sends in any of the folders in Google to delete them before they started downloading. Even with cable it took well over 1 1/2 hours to download all of them and I was deleting as fast as I could. Also, after much hassle, we finally were able to be fingerprinted for our security clearance for the Residency Permits. We had to go through the FBI, which does not take personal checks. Ron went to both of our banks here and they would do a Cashier's check for a fee of $100.00 and it would take a week. Instead, we Fed Ex'ed the cards and requests to our friend in NJ. We asked that she get a MO and include it with the info and then Fed Ex it to the FBI. I sent her a check to cover the cost of Fed Ex to the FBI and then Fed Ex back to us, plus the cost of the MO. Fed Ex picked up the documents at our apt. on Wed. night at 6:00 pm. Thursday, I received an e-mail from our friend that Fed Ex delivered that morning. At the same time, in the trash of Google, I found a response to the e-mail that I had sent to the FBI and they stated that they now take credit cards and attached the form. I could have done all of this direct and saved $$$ and time. GGGRRRRRRRRR!!!!

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Our New Bed Set

Beds and other things October 2, 2005 About two blocks from us, there was a new rattan store. They imported everything from Indonesia. They had a nice selection of things, but Hungarians being Hungarians, the store never had customers. Perhaps since it was called "The Rattan Shop", no one could understand what it was and just ignored it. Who knows? I found it by accident one day and we bought a couple of small pieces there for the hallway. I had noticed they had this bedroom set with 9 different pieces: Bed, end tables, large dresser, upright dresser with mirror, upright dresser without mirror, etc. I have never had a nice bedroom set before and loved this set at first sight. The bed and the two end tables were included in one set. Being imported, it was pricey, but really sturdy and well crafted, obviously from hand. Each week, I would go and visit it to make sure it was still there. I took a student with me to translate since they did not speak a lick of English, though the store was owned by three young guys. The set was also available in colors like green or gold, but it would take 4-6 months to get from Indonesia. I thought a color would just cheapen it and loved what they had in the store. My fear was that they would sell the set in the store close to when I saved the money for it and then would have to wait 4-6 months for another set. At the end of August, I took a student there with me and told the salesman that I wanted the set, but could not buy it until the first of October. I had retro pay coming from the university. He said it may be sold by then and they could not order another. I had to risk it, though each and every time I had been to the store, it was empty. By September, they were there with the doors open, but the lights off. I had this feeling they were saving on electricity. I feared the store's contents were going to disappear one night never to be seen again. By September 23rd, I had the money and took a student to go buy the set. I had gone to the store the night before and peaked in the window to make sure it was still there. As the student and I approached the store, he pointed to signs in the window and said "This is your lucky day. Everything in the store is 10% off. We verified that this offer was for the bed set too and I bought it. They offered delivery and asked if that weekend would be good for me. I said yes and was thrilled. Since there was the savings, I decided to buy the dresser too. I plunked over a whole bunch of money and they gave me receipts for all of it. It always makes me nervous to give a big chunk of money and only get a flimsy printed paper in return. They were to call my student in two hours and arrange delivery. Two hours went by and I did not hear from my student. Three hours, four hours, and then five went dragging by and not it was close to five o'clock. I called my student and asked him to call them and see what the story was. When he called back, he said they could not tell him when they would deliver yet. They would call him on Monday. MONDAY? They have a lot of my money and all I have is a sheet of paper that I signed. Then I worried that by signing it I had signed that I had taken delivery of it. The student had received a phone call on his mobile just as I signed the paper, so I did not ask him what I was signing. Holy cow!!! By Monday morning, I haunted my student to haunt them with phone calls. By Tuesday, they finally told him that they were "moving the store" on Thursday and it would be easiest for them if they delivered on the same day. He shared his thoughts with me that "moving the store" meant going out of business for good. I had visions of my bedroom set being put in storage somewhere, never to be seen again, our money along with it. I had to keep reminding myself that we had paid for our apartment in cash and did not have any paperwork stating we were the owners for over a year. I told my student to make sure he safe-guarded their phone numbers so I could turn them over to our lawyer here just in case. Thursday morning at 10:30, they did indeed deliver. After the pictures on the wall behind the bed are rematted, it will look perfect.

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Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia - This was a continuation of our Helsinki trip As difficult as this is to admit, in my US American mind, the names Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were still shrouded in the dark cloud of USSR days. Thoughts of there being anything worth seeing and doing in any of these places seemed out of the question. However, reports from more adventurous people piqued our curiosity and we went to Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia entered the European Union in May, 2005, at the same time Hungary did. As noted in a different log, we took the Viking ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. The comfortable ride was three hours long. We sat in the Lounge and were entertained by a Finnish duo who played and sang ‘Golden Oldies’ (think “Lady in Red”, “Bye Bye American Pie” or any Elton John pieces) while a few couples danced over the sea. A lively MC in white tuxedo was very upbeat as he awarded prizes to ticket holders… we hadn’t a clue what was going on, but the Finns and Estonians were having a ball. We were pleased that Border Control was faster entering Estonia with our US passports than it was in Finland. Estonia is a tiny country, but size should not be equated with might and a very long and interesting history. There were some major surprises that awaited us. This country did not become a country until 1918 when they declared independence from Russia. However, politics being what it is, they lost and gained their independence until August 20, 1991. The population of the entire country is only 1,351,000 people. About 1/3 of the country’s population live in Tallinn with a city population to 396,375 people. The ethnic mix are 49.5% Estonian and 40.5% Russian as well as other smaller groups. The language spoken is Estonian, which is part of the Finno-Ugric language family along with Finnish and Hungarian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages . Estonians are quick to point out that they cannot understand Hungarian regardless of the language tree associations and there are many words in Finnish, which are the same, but have very definite different meanings. Although, Estonia is now part of the EU, along with all of the other new members, they are not allowed to use the Euro yet. They are projecting this will change in 2007 at the earliest. Their currency is called the kroon (rhymes with tune) or EEK (!) for short. Euros are not legal currency there, but we found many places would accept them. The kroon is pegged to the Euro at 15.65 kroon to 1 Euro, so you will notice many shops and restaurants with a printed Euro amount next to the kroon amount. The currency exchange you get will be based on current exchanges rates, though, so you need to take this into consideration. We had booked an apartment (45 Euros a night) with the Romeo family thanks to Chris, a member of one of my travel groups. The Romeo family hotel only has three rooms, but they also have three apartments in the same building. The apartment we rented was in a different part of town and was newly remodeled. Their website is www.romeofamily.ee . I had tried booking through their website, but had difficult, so I e-mailed them directly at booking@romeofamily.ee or info@romeofamily.ee . You may also call them at +372-6-444-255 (the extra numbers is not a mistake.)After a couple of SMS messages with our arrival time, Mr. Romeo was waiting for us as we exited the ferry station. The pick-up and delivery to the apartment is complementary. Our apartment was located in the Old Town area, the most popular part of Tallinn, just opposite famous St. Olaf Church. The flat, however, is not in the downtown area, which made it perfect (Address is Lai 45). Within a two minute walk in one direction, we reached the tram stop where three different lines stopped. In the other direction, we could walk to many restaurants, museums, and the downtown center within 10 minutes. The location was quiet; the apartment was perfect for two people. The Romeo family thought of everything. As you entered the apartment, there is a large hallway with a modern bathroom to the right. To the left of the hallway, there is one large room that has a kitchenette, a breakfast bar, chairs, and the bed with a lamp. A stone fireplace on one wall looks like it has been used, but it was cleaned out. There was no need for heat since we were there in the summer. The tiny kitchen area has a two burner stove, but no oven. The apartment was not only furnished with the usual linens and towels, they had pots, pans, dishes, silverware, coffee maker, hot water heater, toaster, and any cleaning supply you could need. Surprisingly, there was also a clothes washing machine and a drying rack. Be forewarned if you are not European, that a load of clothes can take up to 1 ½ hours to go through all cycles. This was the case with the one load we washed. The only things we had to buy were ground coffee and the food we wanted to prepare for any meal. The only suggestion we had upon leaving was for dark shades for the one window that is directly behind the bed. It never gets dark at night in the summer. I was able to take pictures at 11:30 pm without a flash. The sun starts really shining at 3:00 am. The light in the window will disturb light sleepers and I had to use an eye mask. To the left and about 30 feet from of our front door was a small Meriton hotel. The hotel was a converted historical building and the old carriage house is now a small coffee and snack shop. We found this perfect since they had outdoor seating, but closed at 10:00 pm. They do not take in their tables and chairs, so we were able to relax outside in the evening sunlight. There was a small cobblestone road that ran behind the apartment but vestiges of the old wall and towers also ran the length of it. After settling in, we immediately went to the town square to visit the tourism office. We were fortunate that this particular weekend was the Estonian Handicrafters Association festival. The entire square was covered with booths of homemade crafts and foods for sale. All crafters must have the mandate to wear old traditional costumes, because everyone was dressed in this manner. It was like walking into the familiar Renaissance fairs in California. The tour office is one block off of the main square. We chose to purchase the 72 hour Tallinn card (www.tallinn.ee/tallinncard ). It is available for 6, 24, 48, or 72 hours. With this purchase, we were given a complimentary copy of In Your Pocket – Tallinn (normally 35kr), a very nice set of postcards, and a booklet of all the card would do for us. The card is good for free transport on all buses and trams throughout the city, free admission to almost all of the museums, a one hour bus tour of the city followed by a one and a half hour walking tour of the upper and lower old town area. The bonus with the 72 hour card is a free four hour rental of a self guided audio tour with a headset. Old town dates back to the 13th century and is divided into two parts: Toompea Hill and Lower Town. Most of the sights any tourist will want to see are in the lower portion, but there are some great vista points (Kohtuotsa and Patkuli) and churches on the hill. One word of warning: the majority of the streets are cobblestone, which can be murder on your feet without the appropriate shoes. After an hour of wearing my Birkenstocks, I had to change to sneakers for comfort. Points of interest on the hill: the Estonian Parliament building – it has a 20th century Art Nouveau façade built on the structure of a medieval convent. We did not tour inside. The Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral completed in 1900, is well worth a visit. The Dome Church or also called St. Mary’s church is the oldest church in Estonia dating back to 1219 by the Danes. The Kiek in de Kök (Peep into the kitchen) is a cannon tower built in 1475. The old joke of the soldiers who used it was they from their vantage point, they could peek into the residents’ kitchens, hence the name. It is now a tiny city museum and free with the Tallinn card, but only of minor interest to us. The lower town is where most of the museums, restaurants, shops, and other things are to keep the tourist happy and satiated. Town Hall Square is the main court of the downtown area. It dates back to medieval times and has been the heart of the city for over eight centuries. There are a number of restaurants along this area, but if you are budget traveler, it is best to find restaurants away from here. We went to a garlic restaurant and for a simple meal without a starter or salad, but one small beer each, the cost was 30 Euro. Elsewhere, we were able to eat better for half that price. The museums in Tallinn are small. Some are as small as two rooms. It was possible to spend all of the time we wanted to in a museum and still go to five to six museums in a day. The one perk we always find with city cards is that we usually see museums and sights we normally would not pay for, but if it is free entrance with the card, we do just for the heck of it. One example of this is the Health Museum. As quirky as it was, there were some interesting displays that caught our attention. Some displays had English, but not all. The Estonian History Museum – The Great Guild Hall (there are two history museums) is located in as the name indicates in the guild hall dating back to 1407. The explanations were in English, Estonian, and Russian. Near the Town Hall Pharmacy is a Marzipan Museum. The pharmacy is where marzipan (pan martii- the bread of Martin) was invented by the local pharmacist who used it as a treatment for different illnesses. The card gives free admission to all of the museums and none of them are a far walk from each other. It is possible to visit three or sometimes four museums in one block. The architecture all around the city is diverse and amazingly beautiful. For a bit of relaxation, the parks are wonderful respite spots. Most of them are well maintained and lovely. There are coffee shops everywhere and it is possible to get a beverage to sip on while resting on a park bench or the grass. We are always interested in churches. Tallinn has a large selection of historic churches to venture through. Many of the churches were once Catholic and then changed over to Lutheran during the reformation. The Holy Spirit Church, 13th C., is a fascinatingly different Baroque style, with intricately wood carved interior, the choir stalls and pews in a horseshoe shape, with wonderful preserved oil paintings above each stall… they depict major Biblical scenes, from Creation to Pentecost. The altar sits before a monumental gilded triptych with scenes of the life of Christ. We also visited the old Dominican Convent and Monastery, 13th C., and the still functioning Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church. The docent was an older man who spoke no English, but was charming in directing us by pointing to the chapel and chanting “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritu Sancto” or pantomiming reading a book and pointing to the library. Our apartment was across the street and about 30 feet from St. Olaf’s Church. The church dates back to 1267 and at one time, it was the tallest building in Europe. If you like to climb, the Tallinn card allows you free admission to the tower. We also were impressed with St. Peter’s (Niguliste) Church, also 13th C., now an art museum and concert hall. The jewel is Bernt Notke’s 15th C. masterpiece Dance Macabre, a heroic size painting (about 3 X 15 meters) that depicts Death warning the King and Queen, Burgemeister, Cardinal and Pope to mend their ways before it’s too late. We kept seeing signs for a concert by The New Amsterdam Choir. It was being held at St. Michael’s Swedish Lutheran Church. The church was difficult to find and we had gone early in the day to see if we needed to buy tickets, but it was closed. We ran into some others from the US at the church and they as it turned out were part of the choir. The said their concerts are usually free. We thought it was the “NEW” Amsterdam Dutch chorus, but the choir was from New (Amsterdam)York City… Manhattan actually. When we returned later that evening, the concert was indeed free and there was a good size crowd. The minister of the church started out with a prayer first in Swedish and then in English. He explained it was the only church for the Swedish minority in Tallinn. The concert first started with the choir of the church singing in Estonian and Swedish, and then The New Amsterdam Choir sang in English and Estonian. Finally, both choirs sang together in Estonian. The finale included an anti-war song “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye” and several Black Spirituals. It was a marvelous experience. Outside of the city center, we took the tram to the park outside of Kadriorg Palace. This is the palace of Peter the Great who had it built as a gift for his wife, Catherine I in 1718. This is also the Foreign Art Museum on the same grounds. The card gets you free admission to both. Also on the outskirts of the city is the Estonian Open Air Museum, which has about 100 farm building replicas from all over Estonia, depicting rural life during the last two centuries.. Although I was not appreciative of the buildings, the park itself is beautiful, on the seaside, and there are many trails to follow. The ‘farm boy’ enjoyed the history, and was able to manage the climb down the cliff to collect a few shore mementos… he also took the opportunity to go barefoot, lie on the sun-warmed bank, twiddling his toes in the cool grass. There are a number of picnic tables for a lunch out in the fresh sea breeze. In the distance you can enjoy the sight of the towers of Old Town across the Bay. For food, our favorite Happy HAPPY (the beer is strong) Hours and restaurant turned out to be (no groans, please) St. Patrick’s. We stumbled on one of their three locations when we were hot, tired and thirsty. The snacks we had were delicious and very inexpensive. We decided to return for dinner one night and were so satisfied with the portions, the quality of the food and the cost, we went two different nights. Locations are Vana-Posti 7, Suur Karja 8, and Párnu mnt 20. Each location has a unique decorated style, but all are pleasant. In one, there is a modernistic mural of the Saint in full regalia, tipping a beer, with a brightly hued angel holding a scroll reading “Welcome to Estonia”. They have Happy Hour from 5:00 to 6:00 pm with two for one price Saku beer, an Estonian brand that is very flavorful. The second favorite restaurant was the African Kitchen. The food was excellent and their roof top terrace is lovely in the warm weather. Don’t order the fish though. The people at the next table ordered before us and were still waiting as we were leaving. We overheard the waiter say it took special preparation and he had warned them when they ordered. Since we had a kitchenette, we did some grocery shopping. In the basement of their modern and large mall, there is a wonderful supermarket. There we were able to find many cooked items in their delicatessen section to buy and heat up for dinner later. The mashed potatoes and carrots were particularly tasty with the stuffed cabbage rolls. The bakery section has many types of breads, rolls, and sweets both pre-packaged and baked fresh. Surprisingly, they stocked many American brands of food we are not able to get in Hungary. We also brought back about 10 pounds of cheeses that are difficult to come by in Hungary without paying an outrageous premium. There they were inexpensive. If you leave the supermarket and go out the door on that level, there is a bus terminal on the other side. On that side, there are a few shops also, but most importantly, there is the least expensive Internet café in the city. For approximately 2 Euro, you can surf the net or check e-mails for one hour. The connections are super fast and there are a plentiful number of computers. Most other places are much more expensive. One of the shopping surprises was that there have been a number of Estonian authors translated into English. This is true for adult literature as well as for children’s books. Other shopping bargains are the hand painted silk scarves and decorative hankies, beautiful handcrafted ceramics, linen shops everywhere, and hand knit sweaters and socks. I found bleached linen embroidered gift bags with ties of linen for 1.50 Euro and unbleached linen wine bottle bags for 1 Euro each. We did a great deal of shopping and were thankful we had brought our nylon collapsible bag to bring the entire haul home. Amber is also prevalent, but we heard most of it is imported from Poland. If you do not care and do not plan on getting to Poland, it is a bargain here. We were in Tallinn for six full days and had thought we would take day trips outside the city. However, the tours offered from the tourist office looked uninspiring and were 56 Euro a person and up. Nothing looked that appealing to spend that much money. We were never bored and filled each day from 9:00 am until 11:00 pm or later without much rest time other than a lunch or coffee break. Having so much light and never any real darkness helps one forget the time. It is almost impossible to walk more than 30 feet in any direction without finding something to catch your attention be it a museum, a shop, or just fantastic architecture. This last picture was taken at midnight without a flash.

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Helsinki

July 5, 2005 We only stayed in Helsinki for a few days. We flew in early from Budapest, spent two nights in Helsinki and then took an afternoon ferry to Tallinn. On our return, we took a morning ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki and then flew home early the next morning. This was a sufficient amount of time to see Helsinki. After arriving at the airport, we immediately went to the Tourist Information booth and bought a Helsinki Card http://www.helsinkiexpert.fi/helsinkicard/ . They go on the honor system where you fill in the date and time you start it when you start it. However, just by having it and before filling it in, you get a 30% discount on the FinnAir bus that goes to the city’s central train station. Normal fare is $5.20 per person without the card. The ride is 30 minutes. There are public buses that go the same route, but the ride is 55 minutes and they do not have room for suitcases. At the train station, we only had to walk two blocks to get the number 4 tram to our hostel. We stayed at the EuroHostel www.eurohostel.fi which we reserved via their website. It was fast and efficient. The number 4 tram stops about 40 feet from the front door of the hostel. We had used hostels before in Ireland and I had concerns about hostel stays again, but this place is amazing. They have thought of everything you could need and most of it is available for a small refundable deposit. Our room was ready on arrival and we had a choice of smoking or non-smoking. The fifth and sixth floors are the smoking floors. Our room had two single beds, a huge bookcase and two closets with locks on them. All sheets, comforter covers, and towels were provided and in the room already. There is a sauna that is free for using for the first hour and a half in the morning. It is an invigorating and relaxing way to wake up; there are separate saunas and dressing/shower rooms for men and women. After 9 AM, there is a charge. The cost of the room was 40.80 Euros a night for both of us. There is a restaurant on the ground floor and you are able to purchase breakfast tickets for 5 Euros each person per day from the hostel reception. Buying them at the restaurant was 6.50 Euros a day. The restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating. The breakfast buffet selection was not extensive, but adequate and worth the cost considering the prices in the city. Eating outside, we were visited by a few seagulls looking for a change of menu from fish. I succumbed by sharing my bread with them. Before we ventured out to see the city, we had asked the reception at the hostel for some suggestions for ‘cheap eats’ restaurants. We received a chuckle bordering on a laugh and the response ‘there are none, everywhere is expensive’. He did suggest a Nepalese restaurant so we stored this information for later in the day. Most of our arrival day, we walked around the city. The city is surprisingly small and very convenient for walking, though the trams are great for when your feet start aching. The President’s house is a small building with a fence around it. Finland currently has a female president. The Parliament is a rather plain building on the main square where the most impressive building is the Lutheran Cathedral. Across the square is the major university. There are parks and old markets along the quayside where the open air markets are also located. From there, it is a pleasant walk into the commercial center via the Esplanade, a narrow green park with fountains, floral spaces and the oldest coffee house. We were impressed by how dead the city was. If we saw five cars in an hour on the major streets, it became what we referred to as “Rush Hour”. It was people deserted also There were not many tourists or shoppers about, which we thought was strange considering this is tourist season. Down by the waterfront and about six blocks from the hostel, they hold a daily ‘market’ with tourist items as well as fresh produce. The prices are high!! 4 Euros for a ½ kg. of peaches. We opted to get a bag of chips and two Sandel beers at a nearby Kioski chain store, then headed for a hillside bench in a nearby park overlooking the harbor. As we relaxed, we were entertained by gulls and pigeons dueling for the scraps of chips we dropped. Later in the day, to utilize our Helsinki Card, we took the ferry to the Old Fortress out on an island. The trip was about 20 minutes and a nice relaxing time. The Old Fortress is a preserved park that was once used as a fort built by the Swedes. There were various buildings and parks. We went into the church and into the little museum to see the historical movie. Headsets are provided to listen to the narration in 10 different languages. Neither of us is enthralled with the maritime history, so we did not visit many other buildings and it was too hot (high 80’s) to bother climbing the wall. When we returned that evening, we found the Nepalese restaurant. We were two of the six customers there. We were informed as we entered at 8:00 o’clock that they would be closing at 9:00 that evening. The food was excellent and abundant. At a total cost of 35 Euros for the two of us, we felt we had found a bargain. Other restaurants we had checked on were pricier by far. It was not uncommon to see items listed at 15-25 Euros for an a la carte menu with a beer priced at 6 Euros. We had heard that the Finns take the ferry to Estonia to shop and it was becoming evident why they do. After dinner we took a long walk around the water on the opposite side of our hostel, through some parks. It was quiet, relaxing and refreshing. When we returned to the hostel at 11:00 pm, it was still ‘daylight’ out so it took some getting used to the light. By midnight, it was twilight, but not even close to dark out. The sun was peeking through the sheer curtain again at 3:00 am. We took the 1 ½ hour Helsinki bus tour also included in our card. There were only 15 people on the tour. Elisabeth, our guide, was quite knowledgeable and was open to questions. The tour made two stops: one at a seaside park which featured a large modern chrome/bronze pipe organ sculpture commemorating Jean Sibelius, Finland’s foremost composer… he composed Finlandia, which many wish was the national anthem. The second stop was at a modern Lutheran Church called the Rock Church; it is ‘carved’ into a rocky hill, with a copper and glass dome peeking out of the hill… a young pianist was performing during the quiet time there. The most interesting thing about the tour was learning that Finland was once Swedish territory, then Russian and they only gained their independence in 1907 to become an autonomous country. There are only 5 million in the country and over ½ million live in Helsinki alone. The largest minority is Swedish who make up 5% of the population. All signs are in Finnish on the top and Swedish on the bottom. The only two language options for the tour were English or Swedish. Both languages were mandatory in schools, but now only the Swedish minority schools teach both Swedish and Finnish. Their current president is only the 11th one they have had. There is a rather unflattering modern statue of her head sitting outside the Modern Art Museum. The country has 190,000 lakes and their only natural resource is ‘green gold’, namely trees, mostly birch. Their flag with the white background represents snow, while the blue cross is representative of the sky. We were also told that all Scandinavian countries have a cross on their flags to show their affiliation to the Lutheran religion. Elisabeth also noted that 93 of the 200 Parliament members are women, and that 9 of the 22 Cabinet Ministers are women. As noted, the President is also of the female persuasion. She said they have a long history of “persuasive” women and egalitarian society. Women gained their equal footing in the society early on in its history. After the tour, we took the ferry out to the zoo. The ferry ride and admission to the zoo are included in the Helsinki card. The zoo sits out on an island unto itself. If you are an animal lover, this is not the zoo for you. In many exhibits, we had a difficult time spotting an animal at all. Most of the areas where animals were supposedly kept were overgrown fenced in weed farms looking totally unkempt and not suitable for animals. It was a major disappointment, with the only highlight being the peacock that wandered into the zoo restaurant looking for a hand-out. I felt sorry for the little Finnish children that seemed to have high hopes of seeing wildlife, but instead saw a variety of vegetation instead. We walked back to the train station to take pictures. During our tour, we found that the four guardians outside the station are characters in the Finnish national legendary epic story Kalevala. Beside it to the right and sitting back off of the street, is the National Theater. Submitting to our fondness for Mexican food without a decent opportunity for it in Budapest, we chose to go to the Iguana Mexican restaurant for dinner. The first clue should have been that the restaurant was crowded with YOUNG people, but we forged forward. Looking like a normal sit-down place to eat, after we seated ourselves, we saw the sign that we had to place our orders at the bar. A youthful waitress brought our burritos or the Finnish version of a burrito. As she placed them down, she said “Oh, I forgot the salsa.” We never saw her again. Well actually, we did, but could never get her attention without making it a contact sport. I tried booking our ferry trip to Tallinn online, but could not find a decent price that did not include a car. The day before we were to leave, we went down to the dock, only a two block walk from the hostel. Viking seemed to have the monopoly, but from the brochures in the hostel lobby, this was the best deal anyway. Because we had booked it the day before, we received a 10 Euro discount per person, for booking 24 hours ahead of time. Each round trip was 20 Euro. Our ferry for Tallinn was at 12:30 the third day in Helsinki. That morning, we got up and to breakfast early. To make the most of our Helsinki Card, we went to the Ateneum Art Museum http://www.ateneum.fi/acms/core/default.asp?docId=11876. This was a great way to spend our last hours. The collection was interesting and the building was really unusual. It had many half floors, creating a series of mezzanines on different levels. There was a large exhibit of wood cut prints that were totally fascinating. They ranged from the simplistic, but lovely to the most intricate designs imaginable. The ferry to Tallinn was reminiscent of a mini cruise liner. The lounge bar had entertainment for most of the 3 hour cruise, there were electronic gambling machines in all of the hallways, and there was a Duty Free shop that carried everything from soup to nuts, including frozen foods. Of course there were the mandatory restaurants and bars. The scenery did not warrant any attention, so even if we could not understand the entertainment, the amusing part was watching our fellow passengers get involved. On our pass through back from Tallinn, we again stayed at the hostel. We bought about 20 lbs. of cheeses in Tallinn that we cannot get here in Budapest or at outrageous prices (Budapest when available, cheddar runs $9.00 for about ½ lb.). The hostel has a huge refrigerator on each floor. When you open the door, it is like a safe depository. There are many little doors and each requires a key. For a 10 Euro deposit, you can get a key to lock your goodies away. As small as the cubbies look, there was more than enough room to store our cheese supply. One thing we found out our last evening in Helsinki is that Stockman’s Department Store, the largest in Finland is a treasure trove for cheap eats. In the basement, there is a full deli with many prepared foods to choose from. You can order by size of container and the container is microwaveable. They also seal the top of the container with the same plastic wrap commonly used in store bought frozen dinners. There is no danger of leakage is they are not kept flat. If you wish, they will microwave it for you on the spot and provide plastic spoons only at no additional charge. We ordered a nice Thai chicken and rice for the two of use and it only cost 4.20 Euro. Had we wanted, we could have bought other dishes and stored them in our cubby in the refrigerator. They could be stacked sideways for easier storage and the wrapping would hold tight. 95% of the Finns speak English, so it is not necessary to start out with “Do you speak English?” Tallinn next.

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Ryan's Trip to Bulgaria

May 4th to May 10th 2005 Two weeks ago, I went to Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I was invited to give lectures at the University of Plovdiv. When I arrived at the Sofia airport, I was not too surprised as to how small and run down it was, but it really looked like a throwback to the Communist times. I took a taxi from there to the bus station (8 Leva or about $3.75) and then the bus to Plovdiv (2 hour ride). I am used to the travels between airports and city centers being less than attractive. Coming from the Budapest airport to the city is not a good impression either. However, I thought that as the bus made its way through the city to leave, I would see some sights of note. All that I saw were old run down buildings in block style without any decoration to distinguish them from one another. Everything looked drab to me. The few statues I noticed looked like the Communist statues that Budapest has since relegated to Statue Park. Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria was not much different. There were little oasis patches of interest, though. There is one area that they uncovered an ancient Roman amphitheater in tact. One of the Bulgarian professors told me when she was a girl, it was just a hill. Now this entire section of the city is restricted digging. No matter where they dig, they find Roman treasures or ruins. There were some interesting restored buildings in this area, but few. All of the restaurants I was brought to were amazingly attractive once off of the street, but you would never know from the outside or the neighborhoods. I was also taken to the second largest monastery in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, I did not write down the name. It was lovely and very interesting, but very small compared to others I have seen. Lining the road up to the monastery entrance were stalls selling pottery, jams, jellies, and honey. I bought a beautiful 4 gallon sized dutch oven type pot, a large platter, and four bowls all hand painted with a gorgeous design for $16.00. A cooking lesson was included. The dutch oven has been used at least 6 times since returning and it was a great investment. I had to return to Sofia for two days for a conference and although I was cloistered at a university, the bit of city that I saw around my hotel in the center, was nothing to cheer about. The university was fantastic and well equipped, which was an anomaly. It also has a wonderful restaurant on the campus, since there was nothing else within walking distance. I had to take taxis everywhere when I was not traveling from city to city with the exception of the monastery, where I was toured by a professor. Taxis are cheap. Trips ranged from 75 cents to $2.00. My hotel in Plovdiv (Saint Petersburg, formerly the Lenin) was newly remodeled and was far above the 3 star rating it held. My room was huge with a sofa, tables and chairs. They have a huge water 'playground' outside, though the pools were not filled yet. Breakfast was a tremendous buffet each morning. The staff was fantastic and accommodating. My hotel in Sofia was less pleasant, but clean. I have since talked to others who have been in Bulgaria. I heard of one person who was a Fulbrighter who spent a year in Sofia and loved it. Many others thought it was drab and depressing. I understand there are other parts of Bulgaria that are magnificent. At this point, I am only interested in returning for professional reasons or to buy more pottery. : )

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Bulgaria Professional Report

Ryan James, Ed.D. Trip Report for Bulgaria May 4- 10, 2005 At the request of Ronda Critchlow, Junior English Language Fellow at the University of Plovdiv, I was invited to give educational presentations to the faculty and students. The dates were set based on faculty advice and convenience. The Bulgarian EFL conference was also scheduled during this time frame; therefore it was agreed that I would also attend and present at this conference. A presentation for Oxford Publishing was also included. The list of presentations follows. They were decided after Ms. Critchlow surveyed the faculty for topic suggestions. I arrived in Sofia on May 4, 2005 and took a taxi to the bus station, where I took the bus to Plovdiv. I was met at the bus station by Ms. Critchlow and her Bulgarian counterpart. After settling into the hotel, the three of us went to dinner to discuss the presentations that would follow. Both were most hospitable and made me feel welcomed and relaxed immediately. May 5, 2005 I delivered three presentations. The full schedule is below. All presentations were well advertised. The university had flyers posted on bulletin boards, professors had announced them to their students, and invitations were sent out to the public school teachers. The attendance at the presentations was as follows: At the first presentation there were 28 participants. There were 27 participants at the second presentation. The third presentation at Oxford Publishing had 12 participants. The Oxford Publishing rep was disappointed at the turnout since she had 25 confirmations; however, she was overwhelmed that the participants became so involved in the activities. May 6, 2005 was a national holiday and everything was closed. We originally had plans to leave for Sofia on this day, but it was decided to wait until Saturday morning, due to the holiday. This necessitated booking the hotel in Plovdiv for one extra night not planned, and then canceling one night at the hotel in Sofia. May 7, 2005, Ms. Critchlow and I took an early bus to Sofia. We arrived at the conference during the registration period and spent the entire day and evening at the conference. May 8, 2005 we both had presentations at the conference. I was extremely pleased that the conference organizers assigned me to an extra large room. Every seat was filled and late comers left due to lack of seating. The room held 50 seats. Later in the afternoon, I attended Ms. Critchlow’s presentation, which was excellent, well received and well attended. We left Sofia to return to Plovdiv late in the afternoon. Monday, May 9, 2005 I again gave three presentations at the university. Presentation one had 8 participants. Presentation two had 30 participants. Presentation three had 14 participants. I had an opportunity to meet many of the staff and students. Many faculty members apologized for not attending various presentations as they had time conflicts. They admitted that when this was first arranged, they thought they would be able to attend more sessions, but other things occurred in the meantime. Due to issues with infrastructure, there was no possibility to make copies of the hand-outs for attendees either at the university or for the conference. The university only has one photocopier that is not coin operated and it was not working by the time I had arrived. Each hand-out was lengthy and it would have taken an unusual amount of time and coins to prepare copies for the participants. However, all lecture notes and hand-outs were given to Ms. Critchlow on a DVD for reference and to be distributed as needed. I would be remiss if I did not add that Ms. Critchlow was an exemplary hostess. She guided me along the entire stay, to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible. She went above and beyond to entertain me in the free time I had and make my stay extremely enjoyable. Even in our free time, we met with and had dinner with students and other professors, so this was productive time also. It is evident that Ms. Critchlow’s presence at this university is welcomed, appreciated, and honored. The faculty and students have a great deal of respect for her as a person and as a professional. Being able to work with her, the staff, and the students was a significant highlight in my professional career. I sincerely hope I have the opportunity to be of professional assistance to Ms. Critchlow again. Ryan James, Ed.D. May 16, 2005 The Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv Presents: Teacher-Training Workshops and Student Enrichment Seminars Guest Lecturer: Dr. Ryan James, American Council for English Studies; Budapest, Hungary Location: Plovdiv University (New Building); American Corner, 5th floor, rm 502 Thursday, May 5, 2005: Event 1 Time: 10:30-12pm Topic: “The American Educational System: Background and Current Issues” Event 2 Time: 1:30pm-3pm Topic: "Uses of American Slang and Other Expressions: What's Up With That?" Event 3 Time: 4pm-6pm Topic: "One Picture Is Worth 100 English Lessons" Monday, May 9, 2005 Event 4 Time: 10-12pm Topic: “Developing Your Curriculum: How to Enhance Learning with Authentic Materials That Will Motivate Student Learning” Event 5 Time: 1:30pm-3pm Topic: “Academic vs. Social English: How to Use and Teach the Differences” Event 6 Time: 4pm-6pm Topic: “The Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom: Are Your Students Learning What You Think You Are Teaching?”

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Stress

Greetings, Well life here has been stressful to say the least. I was having major problems with the computer. It would shut off on its own and do other bizarre things. Our friend Fernando, who works for IBM, convinced me I needed to get a new one. He offered to go shopping with me and get all of the components and then put it together for me. I had just bought a new hard drive for the old one, a CD R/W, and a DVD R/W within 4 months of his proclaiming my computer on the death watch list. We decided to make the leap of that expense, but when I asked him when we could shop, he said he was sorry he ever mentioned since I want everything yesterday. I told him to forget it and I would handle it on my own. With this, I asked around among my students and one of my T.A.'s has a brother who works in Information Systems for a company. His brother bought the parts for me and then assembled the computer. This took about three weeks longer than estimated and I was fighting with the old computer the entire time. When he finally finished it and I received it, I needed someone to put in the Operating System, as well as move my second hard drive, and the two burners. The guy who put the computer together did not have time to do that. In the meanwhile, I had ADSL, but decided to switch to cable since everyone was raving about it. They offered a super fast speed, faster than ADSL along with a 10 MB website and 5 e-mail addresses. They also have a package where they can be your phone provider as well as the television cable company. This inclusive package with a two year contract would be less than my ADSL alone. It took six weeks for them to show up after the application, but they did right before the new computer came. When the guys came out to install the cable for the Internet, they said the wiring in the building was too old for the computer line, so they would have to hook it up differently. They saw I had a router and took it. This was fine, we now have wireless Internet throughout the apt. The problem was that the new computer did not have a WiFi card. I then had to ask my student to get his brother to get me a WiFi card for the computer, an additional expense. My co-teacher has a private student who also works for an Info Sys company and he came over to move all of the components to the new computer. It took five hours with all of the problems getting hooked up to the Internet again to download updates, patches, etc. When he finally finished, the computer went BLUE screen with an error message. He corrected some program and then an hour later, it did it again. He worked on something different; the message was different. All seemed to work well until the next day when the Blue screen returned with yet another message. The guy came back and spent three hours changing parameters and making sure it would work. It has since. But after he left, I realized the two USB ports in the front and the sound card were not working. I had to get my student's brother over to fix it or replace it. He did, they just needed to be turned on with the motherboard. Then the guy came to change the wiring for the phone to the cable system. He looked at the Internet wiring and said they did a lousy job. He called the company and told them they needed to send someone else to redo the whole thing. The next day, I was at school and another guy from the cable company came. Ron said he looked at the wiring, said "Jo" (good) and left. He did not do a thing. When Ron went down to the cable company, they said that their monitors show our connections are fine and there is nothing wrong. While all of this is going on, I am trying to correct student papers. They turn them in over e-mail as attachments. I figured out last semester that I read and correct 3,940 pages of student writing a semester. This is not including the four thesis students I have or the other thesis committees I am on. Amongst all of this, I have six presentations to prepare for Bulgaria for the first week in May. In the meanwhile, I have to go to the university's financial office to tell them that we now own the flat and they should not be paying the 56,000 Huf to our former landlady any longer, but it should be coming to us. They said that this is not part of my salary, so now that I own the flat, they will no longer pay it. I had to go through a song and a dance through the student I dragged down there with me to say the business bought it and not me personally. They still did not want to pay it, but eventually they relented. However, we now need a special code on our business documents that shows the business has the right to rent the apt. They also gave me a pile of papers to fill out and return and I had to bring in the official paper from the Land Management office showing the business is now the owner. I called our attorney and asked about this code. It is not on our business papers, but it can be added for 40,000 Huf. My TA came over and helped me fill in the papers, I got the paper from the Land Man. office and went back. They then decided they did not need the paperwork anymore, but now I have to get a letter of support from the Director of the university stating that she supports their continuing to pay a portion of my rent even if my business owns the flat. My department head is in San Diego on a Fulbright, so I have to find this woman and plead my case myself. As all of this is going on, Thursday night, a friend calls on my mobile, but we were watching a movie and I did not answer it. Finally, I called her back and she was hysterical worried about us. She had tried calling us on the land phone, but got a message that the phone was disconnected. She was going to take a taxi here to check on us. The phone was dead and so was the Internet. Ron called the cable company and again they said there was nothing showing wrong at their end. When he insisted, they said they would come on Monday to look at it. When he mentioned the router, the guy at the cable company got furious and said they would never use a router for installing the Internet. Fortunately, my TA was here when they did use the router and he was here again when Ron called on Friday. The TA called the cable company, went up to the router box, unplugged it and plugged in again and everythng worked again He showed us the wiring they did. Two exposed wires wrapped around each other. While all of this is going on these last weeks, Ron had to renew his Visa. Due to a screw up with mine last year, I do not have to renew until June. He has had to make mulitiple trips to various agencies collecting papers for the agency that is charging us 250 Euro each for our Work Permits and 320 Euro each for our Visa. At the same time, we have had B and B guests for the entire month of April with the exception of five days. I leave for Bulgaria on May 4th and will be there for six days. I was supposed to do 5 presentations in Plodviv and one in Sofia at the Bulgarian IATEFL conference. The woman in Plodviv sent the announcement last night. She has me booked for 6 in Plodviv. I am doing this whole thing gratis with only expenses covered by the RELO's office since he could not afford to pay me. With all of this, I am trying to keep up with my Spanish class at the Spanish Institute, but I may not be able to continue. The teacher is great, but she is treating us like we have nothing better to do than study. She has been assigning 6-7 pages of homework on Tuesdays for Thursday class. This is not simple fill in the blanks, but many times writing a short essay. It is too much to keep up with when I have to teach and grade papers. She then lectures me about my motivation. I went from loving it to dreading it. I will most likely take this course again next semester and hope for the best. This is my second class there and the last one was much more relaxed.

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Salaam Alaikum Morocco

Salaam Alaikum Peace be unto you April 12, 2005 With a smile and a slight bow, right hand on heart, Moslims frequently extend this greeting to each other and to strangers. A very disarming and sincere wish the world needs each day. Ron’s reflections: Easter/Spring Break 2004 found us winging from Budapest to Marrakech, Morocco. It’s always difficult to encapsulate a new experience, but I will share a few highlights. We taxied early Monday to the airport and Malev Air was very efficient in getting us to the northwest corner of Africa… Marrakech to be exact, the second largest city and one of the most ancient fortress establishments of the Berber people, whose leaders became the Moslem Caliphs who set up a high culture there. Most of the citizens are descendents of the Berbers, one of the few ‘nations’/peoples of the world who were never conquered. Eventually they became a protectorate of France, but that was mainly economic and political, I think. We flew into M about noon, deplaning into a warm, but dry climate (in the 80’s F/ high 20’s C). It was striking to be surrounded immediately by palm trees and roses (they LOVE roses), with a backdrop of the snowcapped Atlas Mountains. M is about 60 miles from the Atlantic, and semi-arid, but fertile with the miracle of water. A short trip later, courtesy of Budavar Tours (who set up the flight and hotel), we settled into a clean, colorful 3* hotel, the Le Grand Sud. We were surprised to have a full suite with kitchen… simple décor, but a frieze of Islamic border art in every room. In addition, there was a small balcony overlooking Café Amondine, a patisserie (bakery) and coffee shop, and the center city neighborhood. The staff were so accommodating, especially our daily waiter for breakfast and dinner all seven days (we arranged a half board plan). The Moroccans or Berbers are handsome and very friendly… they are olive skinned, but their faces seem softer and less angular than other Arab people. Although they also speak Arabic, it was very interesting to hear people of color speaking the soft sounds of French most of the time. Once, as the woman at the desk was arranging a day tour, she broke into Arabic and we thought she was giving hell to the tour agency… her voice was sharp, piercing and louder than the adequate English she had been using to speak to us. Then she switched to French and sounded much warmer. We later noticed that it’s the sound and style of the language to be clipped and loud and “in your face”. The personal space is so different… they speak almost nose to nose and use many hand gestures. The entire city, including the one and only McDonald’s on Mohammed V (previous King) Avenue, is painted in different shades of desert tones. I found that appealing, but Ryan would have liked a bit more variety. The buildings are usually quite plain on the exterior because they concentrated on comfortable and beautiful interiors. Once you enter, often through a horseshoe shaped gate or arch decorated in complex carved ornamentation, you often come into a garden space with succulents and roses, sometimes a fountain. In one hotel, the lounge had rattan chairs spaced under a skylight, with cut roses in a fountain in center stage. (That was our other favorite hotel, half the distance to the central Medina/Old City, that served well as our ‘refreshment stop’ for rest and necessities). On the walk from our New Town area to the Medina, where the central Mosque and the Royal Palace are located, we passed through one of the many old gates/arches in the 20 foot high mud/clay wall, which surrounded and protected the ancient city. Immediately, the setting becomes more peaceful (except for multi-present Petit Taxis/Little Taxis and motor bikes)… parks filled with palm trees, roses, winding paths… people in caftans, some women in burkas (some with faces partially covered)… children playing or trying to sell small souvenirs…the broad new rues/avenues change into winding, shadowy, ‘hallway’ alleys … lots of activity but still a serene feel and slower pace. Entering the old, revered setting of the Medina’s ancient and high culture brought feelings of awe and excitement. A time warp, with a sense of visiting an unknown (and in many ways, unknowable) way of life. Many of us have been sold short in our knowledge and appreciation of other, both simpler and more elegant, traditions and relationships. It’s in places like the old Medina that I’m learning how wonderful the differences in the human family can be. That’s so compelling now, given the sad and tragic separations we’re experiencing in our world these days. It seems to me that we need more “Respect and Awe” rather than ‘shock and awe’. Our first days were spent in getting oriented (translation: getting lost) to the layout of the Medina. The Koutoubia and Ben Youssef Mosques and the Royal Palace are the centerpieces which are “fairly easy” to locate; as is the Jmaa el Fna, the central open market triangle, which covers about ten of our blocks. Note how concise and economical Arabic language can be… one has to provide the vowel sounds in many words… saves ink, right : )> The Jmaa is the meeting place for everyone, locals and tourist (mostly French it seems). Things start slowly. The empty square gradually comes to life in the morning, with portable stands for vegetables and flowers, then a row of about 20 fresh orange juice stands (great treat!), followed by a scattering of varied vendors wandering about. We were taken with the old women sitting on the pavement under their sunsheltering umbrellas, painting henna motifs on the hands of tourists… and enjoyed the circles of people gathering around musicians and ‘break dancers’… and the storytellers (didn’t get the gist, but appreciated the pantomime)… but we kept our distance from the snake charmer-they were real Cobras and the pipers were very close to them! Our favorite was probably the local Dentists who set up card tables brimming with teeth, singles and dental chops, and were wielding huge pliers!!! No sale here. After the second day, our feet had trod on lots of new ground… and over much old ground as we wound our way through the labyrinth of the Souks that swirl in and about the Medina. Each Souk (market) specializes in certain goods… spices (food, cosmetics, medicines) or cloth goods (caftans, hats, elaborate leather or cloth slippers) or carpets/kilims or jewelry or home décor (for example, metal or colorful camel skin lamps) or skilled metal crafts from gates to window grills to tea pots and many little cafes. Most goods are handcrafted, but some imports sneak in (China products, e.g.). We ended up with a painted camel skin wall light cover, a mirror with engraved copper and camel bone inserts, and a bellows with more camel bond and stone insets. Poor camels… Ryan is convinced they all had long lives and expired of natural causes! The vendors are friendly and not aggressive. Negotiation is the name of the game… and it’s a pleasant bantering, with a smiling close of the deal. The custom is to stop and rest from the heat of the day at about noon, then things begin to liven up again around 3:00. We would head for a fresh mint tea refresher or back to the hotel to rest. Fresh mint bundles line the alleys in the morning. If you brush your hands on them, the pleasant scent stays with you for quite some time. One favorite rest stop was the coffee/tea café inside a new central art museum… it also had the advantage of a free and elegant toilette. These are rare in the Medina. In the evening the Jmaa (central triangle) changes a bit. Long tables are set up in the center… braziers are lit and the succulent spiced meats and side dishes are arrayed on banked shelves for custom cooking. They’re able to seat hundreds. At one end of the banquet, we spotted six booths, with chefs on high platforms; as we approached, we smelled garlic and clouds of steam coming from great cauldrons. It seems these are the Caliphs of Chefdom, the Escargot Sheiks. After seeing hordes of snails trying to escape huge baskets in the souks earlier, we declined their cheerful offers. After a stroll among the entertainers, we plopped down on a café balcony, enjoyed the sights of the Jmaa over excellent café au lait and super gelato or pastry. One evening we bargained with the horse taxi fellow. I’m glad we did, since our feet had played out, and the balmy evening was perfect for the open carriage ride from the old city via the newer hotels in the new town (only a few centuries old). Day Trip One found us huddled in a mini bus with mostly French friendly folk. We wound our way up green valleys into the Atlas Mountains. The scenery was inspiring, but the chance to observe the simple but difficult life of the Berber people was most interesting. Farmers and shepherds still. We were halted by a large goatherd crossing the highway. From a distance, one could spot unusual geometric patterns on the hillsides. Then we could make out the stacked shoebox mud houses of villages that blend into the red and caramel colored mountains. We eventually made the top, about 7500 feet altitude, where we visited a sultan’s Kasbah (Harem), which is currently unoccupied, so we saw no ‘birds in the gilded cage’. What a lifestyle that must have been. I think the mountain people are a bit more liberated now… women seem to bear the burden of the hard work as much as the men. At lunch, we shared a table with a young Hong Kong couple who were on a whirlwind trip through Spain and Morocco… they spoke English and were very pleasant company. As were the friendly ‘house’ cats who wanted some of our Couscous and Tagine tasties. The trip back down was quiet except for quite a bit of sleep sounds. On Day Trip Two, we packed into another mini bus, cozier than the other, and enjoyed a day in the historic Atlantic port town of Essaouira. It reportedly was a major entry for Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Portuguese and French sailors over the centuries. Unlike Marrakech, the dominant color here is a vivid blue as accent. It’s very accessible… the souks are central, with lots of veggie and fishie stands… a walk along the 18th C. Portuguese fortress walls was a highlight… and it was good to be by the sea again. On the way back, we saw our first live camel… one dressed to the hilt for tourist pictures. We also got a kick out of the acrobatic goats who actually climbed into the trees for their lunch. Finally, for me, the topper… Easter Sunday Mass back in Marrakech. We’d tried for the Saturday Vigil, but had the wrong time. Meant to be, cuz Sunday Mass was one of the most lively and joyful ever. French Franciscans serve there, so that was the lingua franca! But they had the readings printed into about 8 languages. The simple church, with subtle Moorish designs and horseshoe arches here and there, and simple plain green, red and yellow high windows, was packed. The clergy and choir procession was uplifting, with the very dark skinned choir shouting their Alleluias as they danced down the center. The musicians vigorously played their long necked guitars, drums and rattles. The choir men and women were gloriously full voiced as they led our celebration. At the Offertory, they sang a hymn in French and Arabic, including piercing ululating high notes… at the same time, the ushers brought forward the gifts in a choreographed sauntering dance. So hard to capture the emotions of the experience, but their music and movements made me feel that I was truly experiencing Good News, the Gospel message of life and hope. A wonderful finale to a great adventure. Salaam alaikum … Peace to you … Happy Days ! P.S. If you didn’t get the e-mail invitation to see Ryan’s pictures on Ofoto.com, just let us know.

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Apartment Sale Progress Timeline

Apartment Sale Progress Timeline August 21, 2003 – Negotiated for the sale of the apartment October 20, 2003 – Contractor started with the electric and plumbing November 4, 2003 – Re-painting of the apartment started April 30, 2004 – Signed the contract to purchase the furniture in the apartment and a pre-agreement to purchase the flat. We paid for the furniture and made a deposit on the apartment. June 10, 2004 – Made the final payment for the apartment. Totally paid off. January 26, 2005 – WE signed the final papers for the sale of the apartment, but the previous owner has not yet. February 18, 2005 – We received the final sale papers signed by everyone. Papers to be submitted to the Housing Authority by the attorney on Monday.

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Luxembourg

First let me start with the positive. It was great seeing two of our friends in Cologne were we flew into. We had some good sharing time. We are thankful that they picked us up at the airport and arranging the train tickets to Luxembourg. That was quite a savings over buying them online. Randolf found a special and saved us over 236 Euros. We did not want to spend the night with them, since they had other plans. We booked a gay B and B through the same agency that books for us. It was convenient and not expensive. We left there the next morning and took the tram, which was conveniently around the corner, to the train station. We picked up a delicious chicken dinner at the station for very little money and took it on the train. The train ride was nice, but only scenic in short spurts. We remembered Koblenz and our time there with with Randolf on a different trip to Cologne. We have heard that Treier is fabulous and we have that on our list of places to see now. We passed through it on our way. Now the negative: Again, we booked a B and B through out booking agency. In Luxembourg, we found our bus to the B and B. We had bought our tickets. The bus which we were told would take 20 minutes, took 50 minutes to our stop. After we got off of the bus in the middle of NOwhere, we had to walk another 15 minutes to the house. It is way out in the country with nothing around, but a small church, a little restaurant, a few houses, and two ponies in the field grazing. This was not a good sign. As you enter the building, there was a small hallway. You walk into the living room, then the kitchen is on the next floor. The third floor is the owners bedroom and bath. Then the guest room was what was probably once and attic. In Philadelphia, this is called a Trinity house, one room above another, but only three. The stairs to the guest room were like your stairs to your loft bed, left, right, left, etc. However, these were curved in a semi-circle and there was a banister on one side only. The room was nice, but the bed was small. There was a skylight with no shade for morning light. There was no door for privacy on the room and nothing to cut the sound from downstairs. First we were really upset that they told us 20 minutes to Luxembourg City, but it was 50. Then they told us they do not allow smoking in the house. They then asked that we take our shoes off at the door and put them in the closet. We dumped our luggage and then we wanted to head back to the bus to see the city. We were informed that they bus only runs once an hour and stops coming back at 7:15 pm. By now, it was 6:00 pm and if we took the bus to the city, we would have to come right back on the next bus or be stranded in the city. The other option was the Night Bus,which only runs on Friday and Saturday nights. This bus, though, does not start until 12:10 in the morning and only runs once an hour. We opted to take the last bus to the city and hang out there until 12:10 in the morning to see something or the whole rest of the day would be shot. We took the bus to the city, but they did not tell us that everything closes at 6:00 pm. All restaurants, stores, museums, EVERYTHING downtown closes. So now what the hell do we do until midnight and it is freezing cold out? We asked some young women and they suggested a movie. We took a bus to the edge of town. We had dinner at the Coyote Cafe, since there were limited choices in restaurants and we had hours to kill before the movie. We went to see "The Closer" a good, but bizarre movie with Jude Law and Julia Roberts. 15 EUROS for the two of us. Holy cow!!! We still had an hour to kill before the bus, so we just hung out in the lobby. We did not get back to the B and B until after 1:00 am. When we walked in, the owners had a movie going. They rigged their TV to a projector and had a full wall sized screen that pulls down from the ceiling. The movie is projected onto it. The sound system must be awesome since the sofa was vibrating. They were watching some action movie with lots of LOUD action of guns, waterfalls, etc. When we went up to the bedroom, they still had not turned down the volume. Because of the layout of the house, there was nothing to block the noise. The movie went on until after 2 am. The next morning, Saturday, we took the bus to the city and planned for a long day. We knew we would not return until the night bus at 12:10 the earliest. We went back to the movie theater and bought tickets for the 9:30 showing of "The Aviator". We then went back downtown. We walked all around the city and looked at the sites. To try to stay warm and waste time, we went into the only two department stores there were. At 5:30 pm, we went to a restaurant and planned on an early dinner. The restaurant stopped serving food at 5:00, so we could just get a beer. When we left there, nothing was open anywhere. We walked around some more and then took the bus to the theater. The plan was to go to the Au Chan next to the theaters, thinking that in Hungary, they are open 24 hours. Being a hyper-market, we could look around and kill some time. When we got there, it was closed. All of the stores in the little mall were closed. We went back to the theater and had a 'relaxed' dinner at another chain restaurant to kill time until the 9:30 movie. We left there at 8:30 and sat in the movie lobby for an hour, before we could get into the theater itself. The movie was over 2 1/2 hours, so we missed the 12:10 bus and had to wait for the 1:10 bus. We got back after 2:00 am. Again, they were playing movies and the sound was rocking the house. Sunday morning, we were planning our get away early, since there was no night bus on Sunday. We would have to return by 7:00 pm or so we thought. As we were walking out the door, one of the guys said to us, "You know there are no buses at all on Sunday?" A duh, how would we know this? So we were stuck there all day. They offered to drive us to the city, but told us there is nothing at all open on Sunday, except the churches. The museums are closed. We would have had to take a train to another town from the city and they would pick us up after they did what they were off to do. We said, thanks, but no thanks. The dilemma was that there were no options for food. They had not prepared us or we would have bought some things for Sunday dinner/snacks. We went for a walk and across from the bus stop is a little restaurant and cafe. It was open, so we went there to get angry and vent. This is when I sent you the SMS. We thought, great, we will eat here. Nope! They close at 2:00 and did not serve food on Sunday. We went back to the room and read. Ron had brought a jar of peanut butter, so we ate that. Before the couple left for their outing, they had this delicious smelling chicken dinner. Just make us feel worse, why don't you? When they returned, we asked them if there were any options for food. They said there were not, but did invite us for a salad with them. It was nice and we had a good talk, but I had to keep from telling them how much I hated where they were located, the number of things we should have been told in advance, and their lack of respest with the noise from the movies at night. We spent a long evening reading and Ron trying to get the CNN sound and picture at the same time. We were more than happy to take the early bus at 7:12 am to the train station for our 8:32 train to Cologne. We had breakfast at the station and bought sandwiches for the train ride. When we got to the station, I was looking for the airport bus that I had taken in June last year, but was told there is a train. For 2 Euros, we took the train directly to the airport. That was very convenient. We had two hours to wait there and hopped our flight home. When we returned there was a snow blizzard going on. Quite surprising. Our first real snow this winter. Today is it almost all gone though. After we got home, I ran off to my last Spanish class of this semester. I register today for the next one. So Luxembourg is now off of our list of places to go to. It really is a pretty little city and country, but not worth more than a day and a half. Ryan

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Lisbon December 04 to January 05

Lisbon Notes – December 18, 2004 to January 8, 2005 Getting from the airport…there is an airport bus that goes from the airport to the downtown hotels. However, when we finally approached someone at the tourist info desk in the airport, they neglected to tell us of this option. They did not recommend the Tourist Taxi, to their credit, they said it was overpriced at 16.00 Euros and a regular taxi would be cheaper. They were right, the taxi ride cost us 8 Euros. We never did find out the cost of the airport bus since our return flight was at 6:00 am and they do not start running it until then. We took a taxi back to the airport. Our luggage was lost on arrival. There is a central zone for lost luggage for all airlines. Take a number and wait your turn. We were number 85 and they were serving 54. It took us three hours to get served. They found that our luggage was lost in Amsterdam and would arrive at 10:30 that night, but not be delivered until the next day. They could not tell us what time and we were held to our flat until it arrived. We had made multiple calls to the luggage place, but they did not have a phone or radio contact with the driver that delivers. They finally delivered it to the fruit stand across the way, but we did not know until we called the landlady’s friend. We finally found it at 1:00. This seems to be a common occurrence since this office was the busiest place at the airport. People smoke EVERYWHERE. Although I am a smoker, it felt strange to see them smoking in the airport, stores, in the mall, and in the subway. You are not supposed to smoke in the subway, but they do, though not on the subway itself. Non-smoking areas are small and not ventilated, usually right next to the smoker’s section. If you are a staunch non-smoker, I would think twice about a vacation here. Most apartments do not have central heating. They get cold in the winter, sometimes colder than outside. The advantage of having an apartment for us was that it was cheaper than three weeks in a hotel. We were able to cook when we wanted to and we had ready access to making coffee or tea at our leisure. This alone cut down our expenses since the apt. was $40.00 a night. It was about 50 square meters with a bedroom, small living room, and a tiny kitchen. It did give us a place to separate from each other when we wanted some privacy. We found food in the grocery stores to be cheaper than in Budapest, where we live. We were also able to cook some foods that we cannot get in Budapest, like Italian sausage and sweet potatoes; things that you miss from living abroad for years. This was a plus in itself. It was also located two blocks from Figeroa Square, where many of the bus lines and trams stop. Across from our front door was a produce stand and there were two others within 5 feet. We enjoyed many of the fruits and vegetables that are not available in Budapest. I would highly recommend this flat for one or two people. For more than two, it is unsuitable. The landlady is a charming young woman who is working on her doctoral dissertation in sociology. The streets were beautifully decorated for Christmas. The streets had loud speakers playing Christmas carols in English. Each street had different songs and decorations with the major squares having huge central displays of ornamentation. Most of the stores were closed on the Monday after Christmas and New Years. I believe from the signs on the doors that this is usual to be closed on Mondays. The transportation card is cheaper 8.30 Euros for five days, rather than 1 or 3 days. The card itself is .50 cents for the first time only. As you enter the tram or bus, there is a scanner. You just need to scan your card. Always get on at the front unless you see a sign on the larger buses to do otherwise. The metro is faster than the above ground transport if you have a choice and don’t care. Trams and buses are scheduled for every 6-15 minutes, but we waited over 30 on several occasions for a bus or a tram. This card is good on all elevadors too. They are fun to ride and the views are wonderful. St. Justa elevadore is a work of art in itself and the view is great, but it can get quite windy (and cold in the winter). Bus 37 goes to the castle entrance if you don’t want to walk the hill after tram 28. It is recommended that you ride up and walk down. As you walk down, you will go through the Alfama section of the city. This district survived the earthquake of 1755 on All Saints Day when 40,000 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed. In this area is a store called Tradicoes at Rua de Saint Pedro 41 www.portugal2u.com We found some modern pottery here that we did not see anywhere else. Although many of their items are priced high, they are reasonable with the pottery prices. The cork products are available many places, so if this interests you, shop around. Tram 15 goes to Belem. This is where the Monument of Discovery, the monastery and the famous pasteleria is. Pasteleria do Belem. The Lisboa Tourist office at Commercio Square is very expensive for souvenirs. The tourist office can be useless depending on the clerk of the hour, regardless of the location. We received different information regarding the same questions on three different trips in. The directions printed for some museums are outdated or misprints. They did admit that their maps are not very good either, especially the transportation one. It is always best to double check the maps at the bus or trams stops. Our landlady later told us they have a reputation for being rude to the tourists. Many places you have to pay for your coffee and pastry at the cashier and then take your ticket to the counter to order it. Other places have table service with a bit added for the service. Watch what others do and follow their example. The best café latte I had was at the post office at Restarandures Metro stop. It was only 95 Euro cents. The Casa do Alentejo is on the street behind this post office. This has a magnificent tile collection. It was once a private club, but anyone can wander in and have dinner if you choose. We wandered all over the second floor to look at the tiles. Rua dos Portes de Santo Antao (no number given in our book). There is a flea market behind St. Vincent’s Church on Tuesdays. On the hill going down on the left, there are two stands worth visiting. One sells ceramic tiles and the other pottery. Both sell new and they are cheaper than the tourist shops, but the quality is the same. They refused to bargain with the people next to me, so I did not try it. El Corte Ingeles is worth going to for the food store in the basement. There are many foods there you do not usually see elsewhere. It is like Harrods food court only less expensive. If you live in Europe and can use PAL system DVDs, you will find some good buys here. There are ATM bank machines everywhere, they all seem to be tied into MultiBanco. This means that regardless of the machine we used, we could only get a maximum of 200 Euros a day. Since our bank charges $5.00 per withdrawal, it hurt to have to take money out more than twice in a week. In Budapest, trying to cash a traveler’s check is a major hassle. I have not used them for years. The only exchange offices I noticed were the Western Union offices (2 in the city). The rates are not good, so I will eat the $5.00 charge that my bank charges me. Although I found over 2 dozen Wi-Fi Internet cafes listed on the Internet before I left, the tourist office said there were none. Hard Rock Café has one that is supposedly free. However, when I went to use it, I found I needed to buy an access card from PTT, the phone company. They charge 5 Euro for an hour or 20 Euro for an all day card. This was the same wherever there were “free” wireless connection cards. I never did find any hotspots for really free access. Western Union has Internet access, but it is about 2 Euros for a full hour, but costs more if you get it in 15 or 30 minute increments. This is about the cheapest I could find. I only went to clean out mailboxes so nothing would bounce while I was gone. If I could have found a Wi-Fi café, I could have written my notes on my laptop and then just uploaded them. I also wanted to upload my photos, but needed the Wi-Fi place to do it from my laptop. Discounts in Lisbon: Some museums like the Puppet Museum are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so double check before you head there. The Azulajoz Tile Museum is closed on Mondays, but only opens again at 2:00 pm on Tuesday. My partner received a senior discount of 50% of admission (cost was 1.50 Euro rather than 3.00). I just by chance asked about a teacher discount and received the same 50% for teachers. On Christmas night when nothing was open including the restaurants, we found lots of activity at the malls. The stores were closed, but the movies and some restaurants were open. My partner was given a 50% discount on his movie ticket for being a senior. If you are over 65 y.o. ask for a senior discount. Most places will give it to you and only ask to see a driver’s license or passport. Free Admission: Gulbenkian Museum and the Modern Art Museum on the same grounds are free admission on Sundays. They will give you a ticket, collect the stub, but the admission is still free and the backs of the tickets are quite pretty. The Cemetery of Pleasure at the end of the 28 tram line is a cultural experience. If you have ever been to Buenos Aires to find Eva Peron, you will appreciate this one as well. It would be worth taking the 28 tram from one end to the other. With your transportation card, you can hop off at any point if something catches your eye. There are many lovely places to stop and look at views or interesting sites along the way. The 12 tram is a circular route that will return to where you started. It is worth a ride around at least once. One book we have found very helpful is Lisbon: A Cultural and Literary Companion by Paul Buck and published by Interlink Books NY/North Hampton © 2002. Part of the Cities of Imagination Series. Sintra- You can easily get to Sintra as a day trip, but two would be recommended. From Lisbon at the Jardim Zoologica Metro stop there is a connection for Comboios. These small commuter trains run about every 15 minutes to Sintra. Tickets are 65 Euro cents for seniors with a passport or drivers license each way. Regular adults are 1.30 Euros each way. Get off at the last stop. There are two Sintra stops. When you come out of the train station, turn left, follow the signs for the historical center of town. This is what we did our first day. We walked a lot!!! On the second day, we turned right outside the train station and next to Pizza Hut (ugh!) there is a bus that does the whole circuit of castles. It is number 434. A day ticket is 3.60. This provides unlimited hop on hop off possibilities. It goes to all of the castles, so you can take your time and then hop on the bus again for the next castle. Beware that the crowds get large. There was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on. The bus driver finally admitted people to a limit and then stopped letting others on. They do not come as frequently as you would expect considering the crowds. We had to wait for two buses to pass us by before we could get on. Due to the crowds, the driver refused to stop at some of the stops in between castles, though they are listed on the schedule and there were bus stops with people hailing him down. At the end of the day, if you are tired, you just take it back to the train station. There is less of a crowd at the end of the day. The Regaleria Palace is 500 meters uphill, while the Palacio Palace is 1400 feet up very steep hills. I overheard someone say it took them 1 ½ hours to climb up the winding roads. The roads are also very narrow and you have to be on the look out for traffic at all times. We went to the Palacio Palace and would highly recommend it. It is still quite a hike after the bus lets you off. Do not be turned off by the long line waiting to buy tickets. It went really fast. Seniors combined admission for the Palace and the gardens was 4.00 Euro and the regular adult was 6.00 Euro. There is a little shuttle which will take you closer to the top, but it is 1.50 Euro per person. There is a lot of stair climbing. We also went to the National Palace. It is interesting, but not furnished as well as the other. It is more old world castle feeling since it was used in the 16th century. Portugal’s last King left the throne in 1910. The Toy Museum was fun, but they claim over 20,000 toys. I believe this, but they should have stopped at 10,000. The exhibits are stuffed and it is difficult to appreciate many of the things since they are crowded in a small space. There are three floors and they really need more to do these gems justice. There are toys from all over the world. 3 Euros regular, 1.50 Seniors, no teacher discounts. Restaurants are a bit pricier in Sintra, but many have fixed meals starting at 8 Euros. There are dozens of tourist shops. Our third week, we rented an apt. in Bélem. This was only due to our first rental lady having to move back into where we were staying since the roof was being fixed at her other flat. We rented the Bélem flat from a friend of hers. She charges 50 Euro a night, 10 Euro per person a week for utilities and 40 Euro total for cleaning when you leave. Bélem is only 4 miles from downtown Lisbon, but can take over 20 minutes to get there due to traffic. The flat could accommodate about five people comfortably. Although it was a first floor flat, it did have a downstairs. On the first floor was a kitchen and living room combination. The room was very large with a sofa bed and a single futon. The kitchen had a stove with oven/broiler combination. The stovetop was gas, but the oven was electric. We used the broiler a few times for steaks since we do not have one in Budapest. The downstairs has a long hallway, with a huge bathroom. There are two sinks as well as the tub with shower. Two people could easily get ready at one time in this bathroom. There was also a very spacious bedroom with a very comfortable double bed. Off of the bedroom is a closed in sun room with a hammock. It was too chilly during our stay to try it out. The flat is located near the Hospital Militar, by two blocks. A bus that stops there going down the hill to the center and then trams and buses there into Lisbon downtown. We walked the hills back to the flat for the first three days, but then succumbed to the bus. It is quite a hike up at the end of a long day. The public library in Bélem is worth visiting if you are a lover of children’s books. The whole first floor is a children’s library. The second floor is the adult section. You will not find anything in English, not even newspapers, but they do have one computer with Internet that you can sign up to use for a half hour at a time. The children’s librarian speaks adequate English to assist. From Bélem, we took the commuter train to Cascais, a beautiful little beach town. The ticket was from a machine: 1.30 Euro regular one way and 65 Euro cents Senior ½ price ticket. It took about 40 minutes to get there and it is at the end of the line. Trains run about every 10 minutes all day long. The town is wonderful with many little shops and restaurants, but my favorite part was strolling the small beach area and collecting an amazing variety of seashells. If I had known, I would have brought a baggie with me, but I utilized my jacket pockets instead. The cultural center is small, but they did have an interesting art exhibit which was free. They also have restrooms. To the right and around the corner is the entrance to a park. The park is huge and magnificent. There is a large pond with swans, ducks, and dozens of turtles. As you wander through the trails, there are peacocks and peahens roaming freely and being very used to people, do not move from your path when you walk by them. There is a children’s playground in one section, an open field in an another, and many little walking trails through what feels like little sections of a jungle. There are spectacular statues in various areas and water fountains with surprising statues as well. There is a children’s zoo of various kinds of birds, which needs some attention. There is also a children’s library at the other end, but we did not venture there. In little openings on the trails are picnic benches and tables for warmer weather. There are a few restaurants to have a meal or coffee overlooking the beach and the boats moored in the water. You can watch the men baiting their hundreds of crab traps getting them ready for the days work. On our return trip to Bélem, we did not pay close attention to the schedule and our train by-passed our station and did not stop until the next one. We had to take a bus back to Bélem from there. From Bélem, we decided to go to the Oceanarium at the Expo 98 site. We had to take a bus to one metro, take this metro to the end, then switch to a second metro to the de Gama Center. The ride took us an hour total to get there. I was not enthused about the Oceanarium having been to the one in Monterey, CA a number of times and to the New Jersey State Aquarium shortly after its opening. My partner received a 4.50 Euro discount on his 10 Euro ticket and I received a 1.50 Euro teacher discount. As soon as we entered, I was enthralled. The set up is wonderfully designed. In the center and from all areas, you see the huge aquarium of the global ocean. The aquarium is done is such a way that you can see the different varieties that like to swim higher and lower in the water’s depths by having viewing areas on two levels. In each of the four corners, there is the Atlantic Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Each has its own species of fish, plus birds, and in one case a pair of sea otters. There are many break-out areas with scientific information that is quite interesting and written in English and Portuguese. One such area has an on-going movie about the care and feeding of the animals. It is well worth the time to watch. This scientific center works in cooperation with Monterey Aquarium in CA as well as some others. From here, we returned to the de Gama mall to see a movie in English with Portuguese sub-titles before wandering home again. We retraced our route taking one metro to the end, then switching lines to the second metro. We waited for our tram back to Bélem for over 20 minutes before we realized that it stops running at 7:30 pm. We had to take a different tram and was on this for 3 stops before it stopped dead and we waited 15 minutes for it to move again. It turns out there was an accident on the tracks. There were seven other trams log jammed ahead of us waiting to get through. It was difficult to find alternative routes to get back, but finally made it back to Bélem. We then looked for the bus that would take us back up our hill. It was now close to 10:00 pm and we were too tired to hike it. No bus came and we finally opted for a taxi to the hospital and then walked from there. One thing to be wary of is the time that different lines stop running. Some stop as early as 5:30 pm while others stop at 7:30 or even as late as 11:00. They all stop fairly early for a large city, but this is the same in many cities. The Monastery in Belem is well worth visiting. The art museum is not unless you are really into Portuguese art. Discounts at both for seniors. Ryan James, Ed.D. drjames@aces-hungary.org

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