Travelogue: June 9th - 17th, 2006
Prologue - How did this all come about you
ask, and why Hungary? My girlfriend Erika, whom I used to work with at
Deloitte in San Francisco, is Hungarian. She usually goes home to
visit her family every year for several weeks and she invited me to come out
for a week to stay with her and her family. Didn't have to ask me
twice, I was all over that! I love to travel as most of
you all know and what an awesome opportunity to stay with Erika and her
family for a week and have complete immersion into Hungarian culture.
What an amazing ride it was!!
Day 1 - Friday,
June 9th: Oakland, CA to Budapest, Hungary - As the usual
story goes with me and my adventure travel, I somehow pissed off the travel
Gods again and ended up in airport purgatory. I swear, I can't catch a
break with international travel. But this time I get to have my little
tirade on the French, oh yes, stuck in Charles de Gaulle airport for 5 hours
after I missed my connection to Budapest due to late departure from the US.
Lovely. Yes, you would think it lovely, being that it is Paris and all.
Think again. It is the most screwed up ugly airport with hardly any
long term seating, unfriendly agents, rude police (we won't go
there), and crummy food. Imagine that. Me, in a snit, never.
Ok, ok, I had a "moment" and then moved on. I really enjoyed the
baggage carousel area where I parked myself for a good portion of the lay
over. When I did get up to meander I was hoping someone would vacate
an even more comfortable seating arrangement in the form of a wire bench -
but at least it had a backrest. Score, eventually, nirvana was a wire
bench, how utterly pathetic.
It did give me time to reflect though on
really important things. I pondered on deep subjects such as realizing
I parked my car at the Oakland airport and was flying back in to the San
Francisco airport. Duh. Long story and long work week! I
didn't start laundry and packing for the trip until 10:00pm on Thursday
night and my flight out was at 7:00am the next morning. I had a
little chat with my inner monologue and cut myself some slack. God
this wire bench is killing my butt and legs...good thing I wore shorts so
the back of my legs could have attractive square marks imprinted on them.
If it hadn't been 9:00am, I would have started drinking, damn time zones.
Oh, and here's another funny little visual
as a precursor to my trip. Erika mentioned that her 3 nieces loved
anything girlie and American so I headed over to Toys R' Us to pick out some
girlie 5 year old stuff. After 30 minutes of wandering around and
picking out really cool stuff for myself (Magic 8 Ball, Silly Putty, Play-Doh,
and Hot Wheels), I realized I had nothing for the girls. Oh, guess
this isn't suppose to be about me. Focus Grasshopper. I
remembered that Erika mentioned something about beads and body glitter.
No joy on the body glitter but I had every associate in the store trying to
find some for me. Seems it could have been in the Cinderella section,
the Barbie section, or some other fantasy world. Oh well, bead kits it
is, ooooh and I couldn't resist the Gumby and Pokey set for myself.
Terrible, I know. Alright, bead kits, and magic bubbles and I was in
business.
Day 2 - Saturday,
June 10th: Budapest Arrival -
Click on the small pictures for a larger view to appear.
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Stew a brewin' at Tibor's house - Erika's brother. Best damn stew I ever had! |
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Erika's dad (Martin) and other brother Peter at Tibor's house. Didn't speak a word of English and me no Hungarian but we sure laughed a lot! |
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Livingroom at Erika's parents |
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Livingroom at Erika's parents |
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My sleeping accomodations for the week - simple, but oh so comfortable! |
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Hallway looking at door to kitchen and front door beyond that |
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Shower room...never did figure that one out - sit or stand, beats me! Was an interesting week ;-) |
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Kitchen - couldn't tell they were a close family and loved the grandkids/kids |
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Hallway looking back towards the livingroom door |
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Outside of apartment looking down the walkway |
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Front walkway entrance up to second story apartment |
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Day 3 - Sunday,
June 11th: Pest Sightseeing (Buda and Pest separated by Danube river) -
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Erika and niece Sara just around the corner from Erika's parents place in Pest |
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McDonald's next to train station in Pest. Beautiful. I guess the Western influence is alive and well in Pest |
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Train station - shot taken across the street |
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Wandering around the streets of Pest - couldn't resist the "California Coffe Company" logo on the umbrella |
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Opera house in Pest - no tours unforunately |
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Erika and Sara on the other side of the street from the opera house |
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Kind of difficult to see, but this was in the subway just underneath the opera house |
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St. Peter's Cathedral - gorgeous church inside. Stunning stained glass, paintings, and architecture |
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Chain bridge that goes from the Pest side to the Buda side. The Danube river seperates Buda and Pest which are actually 2 different cities |
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Waterfront at Pest, looking up at the Royal Palace |
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Festival in Tibor's (Erika's brother) village. The kids and grown-ups did various dance routines. Fun to watch |
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Festival - amazing colors and array of goodies! |
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Mmmm, couldn't resist the pretzels ;-) |
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Day 4 - Monday,
June 12th: Buda Sightseeing -
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The Castle District in Buda. Famous gated area with cool buildings and more beautiful architecture |
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The Castle District in Buda |
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The Castle District in Buda |
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The Castle District in Buda |
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The Castle District in Buda |
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Me with falcon (I think that's what it was) - that guy was heavy! |
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The Castle District in Buda |
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Still in Castle District with Pest in the background across the Danube |
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Guards at the Royal Palace |
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Sculpture at the Royal Palace |
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Chain bridge looking into Pest |
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Parliment building in Pest - taken from the Royal Palace in Buda |
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Royal Palace grounds - still in Castle District |
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Cafe in Pest near the chain bridge |
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Train station ticket window - bought tickets for my trip to Vienna for the next day |
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More wandering around downtown Pest |
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One of the main drags in Pest |
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Main square in downtown Pest |
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Entrance to neat park in downtown Pest |
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Same neat park in downtown Pest |
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Jewish synagogue in downtown Pest |
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Competition is alive and well in Hungary - notice the PriceWaterhouseCoopers sign |
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Day 5 - Tuesday,
June 13th: St. Andre Sightseeing -
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Little town of St. Andre - Erika's other brother (Peter) lived outside of this town. We took the bus over with Erika's mom |
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Town of St. Andre - bunch of cool shops and cafe's |
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Yes, that's me. Erika and I both got facials (a first for me) by Erika's good friend Hilda...too funny! Felt great though |
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Enjoying Hungarian cafe spiked with schnapps on Hilda's porch after our facials...ahhhhh! Love those Hungarians! |
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Church in town of St. Andre |
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Downtown main drag in St. Andre |
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Waterfront area in St. Andre |
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Day 6 - Wednesday,
June 14th: Off to Vienna, Austria -
Double-click to add photos
Day 7 - Thursday,
June 15th: Vienna, Austria Sightseeing -
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Sculpture in Stadtpark, which was across the street from my hotel in Vienna |
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Cafe in Stadtpark - had to stop and have some Austrian beer of course ;-) |
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Standing on bridge in Stadtpark |
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View from my hotel window in Vienna - scored on Marriott's rewards points |
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Front entrance of apartment where my grandparents were living when my Mom was born. Amazing feeling to be standing there |
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Another shot of front entrance |
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Looking down the street of where my grandparents lived |
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Building on the right hand side of the picture is where my grandparents lived |
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Amazing market 1/2 block from my grandparents - it went on for blocks and blocks with pretty much any type of food and wine you could want |
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Stephan's Cathedral in Stephan's Pltz. |
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Stephan's Pltz. with Stephan's Cathedral on the right |
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Main entrance to Hapsburg Palace |
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Sculpture on Hapsburg Palace grounds |
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Hapsburg Palace - entrace to the Treasury tour. That was a quick tour as everything was in German |
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Took the subway out of the city to Donaupark |
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Kids in Donaupark having fun on some crazy mechnical animals. Too cute |
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Beautiful rose garden and grounds in the Donaupark |
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Treked all the way out to the Harley Davidson shop via 2 subways and bus to get t-shirts for friends and it was closed! Wah-huh :( |
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Day 8 - Friday,
June 16th: Day at the Hungarian Spa and other tales of interest -
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Ahhh, plan B - find Harley shop in Budapest ;-) |
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Erika and her niece at the Harley shop. Yeah, she's hooked |
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Erika and her niece at the Harley shop. Couldn't keep her off of them |
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Erika and her niece at the Harley shop |
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Day 9 - Saturday, June 17th: Homeward Bound -
Epilogue -This was truly an
amazing adventure and I can't thank Erika and her family enough. Their
hospitality, generosity and opening of their hearts and home was
unforgettable!
Hope you all enjoyed the
travelogue and photos.
