With Pictures!
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2007
1
7
12
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Szeged,
Hungary
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I think our last entry was from Florence. From Florence we went to Venice, and spent a day crossing bridges. Then we took a 13.5 hour overnight train to Budapest. This was my first experience with a sleeper car, and the accomadations were snug to say the least. Three Malaysian girls and an angry Frenchman were to make up the rest of the room. The Frenchman let out a bonafide, slow "Zut alors" upon seeing the arrangement. He was then bitched at by the Malaysian girls for putting his luggage in a tenuous position. Rachel tried to speak to him in French to explain the situation, and he retorted "desolee!" I guess it was too much for him, because he paid extra to get a private room soon after.
Budapest was fantastic
Budapest
. On our third day we met up with my sister's friend, Valerie, and her Hungarian boyfriend, Gergor. When he shook my hand he said, "my name is Gergor," and I thought, "oh good, he speaks english." But his english pretty much ended there, and Valerie was called upon to translate for the next two days, which I'm sure was exhausting for her, because Gergor clearly like to talk. Occasionally he would break out some english, and say something like "Shakespeare: To beer, or not to beer. That is the question." Another thing Gergor liked to do was cook, so we ate well. We also bathed well, as Budapest has many hot springs, and we enjoyed a day at the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, which is a lavish indoor/outdoor set up with pools of varying temperatures, saunas and the like. I tried every pool out at least once, and went from broiling sauna to ice cold water a couple of times. It's quite possible my sperm count is now in single digits.From Budapest we went on to Pécs, which is a smaller city south of Budapest. When we told Gergor our plans to visit Pécs, he approved. This wasn't always the case. When I would mention places outside of Hungary, particularly in Slovakia and Romania that I wanted to visit, Gergor would speak in Hungarian for about a minute, and then Valerie would translate "Gergor has opinions about this region." But, on his recommendation we are in Szeged, and I have to say there's little to hate about this city. It's bright and there's lots of green space to let the baby walk around in. The playground equipment in Hungary is designed for fun and not safety, and I nearly broke my leg testing some sort of spinning mechanism out. Anyway, we're here for another day, and then we're going into Romania for a week or so, and then either North or South.
If you would like to see most of the pictures, this link should work. I am having trouble understanding Hungarian.
http://www.flickr.com/welcome/6090399/491658/
Tim
Comments
Great Pictures!!
Good to hear your update and see all the pictures. They are super, especially the ones of little cutie pie, Mirabel. I just browsed through all 94 pics. That was so cool. Love mommy